Spanish Fiesta

As I mentioned the other day, Chris and I had plans for a spanish fiesta date night at home! It was meant to be my turn to choose a destination for date night, but due to our change of plans to stay home, it became my responsibility to choose a theme instead! We eat such a variety of cuisines at home anyway, so this proved to be a bit challenging (plus, I just suck at making decisions!). I eventually landed on the idea of Spanish tapas. While these probably aren't in your true spanish style - we aren't really into eating cured meats, cheeses, and we wanted to incorporate in a few more vegetables - this is what we served up!

Our meal was paired with some homemade sangria! It's traditionally made with red wine, but we decided to opt for a lighter, easier drink. This was made up of a mix of white wine (we used a riesling), soda water, chopped fruit (whatever grabs your fancy; we had peach, lemon and blood orange) and a swig of brandy. You can add sugar if you prefer it sweeter, and alter anything else to your taste.

Ta-da! Homemade tapas. Due to a combination of my poor photography skills, and even worse food presentation ability, it doesn't look overly appealing. But hey, as long as it tastes good!

Right at the back we had a simple side salad, and in the middle we had a platter with Spanish Chickpea Balls with Romesco Sauce, and some calamari rings grilled up with a homemade yogurt, tahini and lemon sauce.

On the left here is Chicken and Raisin Empanadas. Upon googling these about two minutes ago, I discovered that are in fact of Portuguese origin. Ooops. They still make them in Spain though haha! I made a few alterations to this recipe (eg. I was too cheap to buy pine nuts), and I made the pastry myself. However, for the pastry I substituted white flour for wholemeal, and butter for olive oil. I found this made the pastry a bit more dry and difficult to work with, so I had to add a bit more water, but it worked out well enough in the end.

On the right, we have a Spanish Omelette/Tortilla, which I read is the ultimate tapas dish. I replaced the regular potato for sweet potato, and brown onion for red onion. It looks like a bit of a mess, but I was just happy the whole thing didn't fall apart! I have never been able to make a successful omelette. Ever. Did I miss out on that life skill somehow?

Here is my plate of deliciousness just prior to being demolished.

I've written about my love of being able to cook a great meal at home and enjoy it with someone before, and I still stand by that. I adore dinner parties with friends, meals with family, and just having dinner at home. I guess I'm lucky in regards to having someone who shares my passion for cooking healthy and fun meals in our own kitchen. 

I'll stop raving about cooking now haha.

Do you have date nights? Cooked any big feasts up at home lately?

Reanna.