New Year's Eve Sangría

"Y aunque para las uvas hay algunos nuevos, a los que ya no están los hecharemos de menos."

Mecano, Un Año Mas.

As you may have noted, I love folktales, urban legends, and superstitious traditions. One of my favorite ones is the Twelve Grapes of Nochevieja.

In Spain and many Latin American countries its customary to serve green grapes on Nochevieja (Old Night, a term for New Year's Eve). When the clock strikes twelve guests hurriedly consume twelve grapes. The superstition is that, if you manage to get the twelve grapes down before the year ends (when the last clock chime rings) you will have good luck in the new year. Also, if you make a wish while eating the grapes you'll wish will be granted. If you really want to have good luck you should travel to Spain's Puerta del Sol and eat the grapes there. Alas, those of us who can't afford that settle for listening to Mecano's Un Año Mas.

I haven't found a source for this custom. Spanish Wikipedia says that it started in the eighteenth century either as a way to mock rich people or as a clever grape marketing technique.

In any case, it's a very popular custom and one of the few Latin American traditions that I've seen gain popularity as the years go by. American customs like Santa Claus have taken over the holidays, but there is no American equivalent to the New Year's grapes.

So throughout Latin America the grapes have taken over. People now make New Year's Eve menus with a grape theme, serving cheese tray with grapes, grape tarts, grape skewers, and lots of wine (of course).  Martha Stewart has several grape recipes to choose from (I love the grape and couscous salad) and so does Food and Wine magazine (that flatbread looks amazing).

But my favorite grape recipe is (of course!) sangría. I serve this every New Year's Eve (with a bunch of grapes on the side) and it's always a hit.

Sangría de Nochevieja 

1 bottle of gold prosecco or cava wine (I know it's heresy but I actually prefer prosecco)
1/2 cup of Liquor 43 (this is a Spanish liqueur. You can substitute orange liqueur or brandy)
1 can of Sprite
1 cup of apple juice
1 sliced, peeled peach (preferably a golden color)
1 bunch of green grapes
1 sliced starfruit

Stir, add ice and chill.

The sangría has a beautifully festive gold color, perfect for New Year's Eve. Enjoy.

Happy New Year!

Link Fiesta

How Gotham was designed.

Great essay on Why We are Obsessed with Zombies. Spoiler quote from George Romero: "There's nothing scarier that the neighbors."

A blog tribute to the fabulous at the Maryland Rennaissance Faire. The cheesecake-on-a-stick is pure awesomeness people. My three-year old son loved it. True, cleaning him up afterwards was an epic chore, but it was totally worth it.

How to bring traffic to your author blog.

Link Fiesta

Jalapeño Popper Grilled Cheese. I die. (H/T to SmexyBooks)

Jennifer Crusie on Character and Context (or to fix Lauren Lance). I love how Jenny is dissecting Green Arrow. I learn something new every week. And I love her post on how to evaluate the first draft. My favorite piece of advice is "trim the chat so it becomes conflict." It makes a huge difference.

Ilona Andrews on false starts. She also has a fabulous post on the editorial process.

Marjorie Liu on creating a new routine.

Recipe - Red, White and Blue Sangría

This has been a summer staple for me. I've made it several times, because it's delicious, but also because it's easy to make and pretty to look at.

1 bottle of prosecco wine
1 cup of chopped strawberries
1/2 cup of blueberries
1/2 cup of raspberries
1/2 can of lemon/lime soda
1/2 cup of apple juice or white grape juice
1/2 cup of orange liqueur

Photo via Mourguefile.

Link Fiesta

Smart Bitches features a pair of shoes decorated with romance novel covers. This is awesomeness.

A recipe for hard cider sangría. I love cider and I love sangría so I'm really excited about this recipe. I need to buy some calvados so I can try it out. Recipe via Food and Wine Magazine.

A video tour of Harlequin's proofreading department, via Catherine Ryan Howard.

Apt 11D on the bittersweet aftermath of a book purge.

Jennifer Lopez bought a house in the Hamptons. The kitchen is to die for.

Link Fiesta

Ten hot actors that look like kittens from The Latin Times.

Book clubs that focus on cookbooks. The members all make a recipe from the book and bring it to book club night. This is brilliant!

Sexy mouth book covers by El Librero de Tetsu Hana (Spanish blog)

Pioneer Woman reveals the best concealer ever.

Georgia Pellegrini makes Chorizo Scotch Eggs.

Link Fiesta

Jane Austen's Emma as a clutch purse. I love this purse.

Chalet-style house for rent in Breckenridge Colorado. This house reminds me of Kristen Ashley's The Gamble, a great book featuring a great house. The hero built the house all by himself, definitely my kind of romance hero.

Hooked on Houses is featuring Bella and Edward's honeymoon cottage from Breaking Dawn Part 2. Apparently, I'm not the only one who thought that it was the best thing about the movie.

A very feminine piso in Madrid's Salamanca neighborhood. I adore the decor. It's modern and simple but also feminine and romantic. It's an absolutely gorgeous apartment.

Peru's Astrid y Gastón is one of the world's best fifty restaurants. A&G has restaurants in Lima, Bogotá, Santiago, D.F. and Madrid. We need an A&G in Washington, D.C. Need.

Chorizo Garbanzo Soup

Spring is supposed to be here. I say "supposed" because we just got a snowfall, not a big one, but still the biggest we've had all winter. Even though it's technically spring, it feels like a winter's night. We built a fire and I made Chorizo Garbanzo soup.

This is a great soup for a cold  night. It's a traditional Spanish dish, but I've adapted it to my family's taste. It serves two people, but you can double it to serve a family of four.

Chorizo Garbanzo Soup

2 chorizo sausages (Traditional Spanish chorizo, not the Salvadoran or Mexican kind)
4 small potatoes (I use red potatoes because I like the splash of color)
1 medium-sized Spanish onion
1 can of garbanzos
1 can of diced tomatoes
2 cups of chicken broth
Adobo seasoning, pepper and red pepper flakes to taste
Cilantro to taste.

Chop the onion, the chorizo and the potatoes. Brown the onions and the adobo, pepper and red pepper flakes. Add the chorizo and stir until the onions turn a golden-orange color. Add the diced tomatoes and stir for several minutes.

When the tomato mixture starts to boil, add the chicken broth. Let the soup simmer for 45 min.

Add chopped, fresh cilantro before serving.

Serve with a nice sangria or Rioja wine. You can also make some easy Manchego toast to go with the soup.

Manchego Toast:

1/2 loaf of Italian bread
Manchego cheese

Cut the bread into 1/2 slices. Shave slices of Manchego cheese (use a potato peeler to get nice, thin slices). Place the cheese on the toast and bake at 375 degrees until the cheese turns golden brown.

Alfajores!

My husband came back from Argentina and he brought goodies.

These are called alfajores. They are Argentinian Oreo cookies. The filling is made from dulce de leche and the cookies are covered with chocolate.

They are delish. I really don't want to know how many calories are in these things, so please don't tell me.

I have a whole box of them and they won't last very long.

Revisions!

I've managed to revise one third of the book.
Yipee!

That means that Act 1 is done.
Done. Done. Done.

Or at least done until I find something else to fix.

I'm a little worried because I've crammed a lot of stuff into Act 1. Remember my plot graphic? The one where I discovered that a lot of stuff happened in Act 1 and not a lot of stuff happened in Acts 2 and 3?

This is what it looked like:

I was soooo happy because I felt Act 1 was nicely stuffed. Well, now it's even more stuffed. In fact, it's bursting.

Acts 2 and 3 looked thin and skimpy before, but now, they are positively anorexic. I have a lot of words, but I have to turn those words into action. I have a list of fun stuff to put in there. The ideas are flowing, but there's lots of work to be done.

But that's tomorrow's problem. Today, I'm thirty-three percent done with revisions and I'm celebrating with a fro-yo extravaganza.

Yummy!

Trip to Chile - Potato Chips

If you go to Santiago for vacation, you can find... Serrano ham flavored potato chips!

They were interesting. I wonder if Lay's is working on a Manchego cheese potato chip. I think those would be tastier.

The Santiago airport also has the requisite Fifty Shades display. I hear it's number one in the Spanish book lists. I wonder how Ms. James is doing in the Chile book market.