A question for today

Question: what do you get if you combine yesterday's and today's picture?
Yes! It is

Duck a l'Orange

INGREDIENTS

2 Duck Legs or Breasts (with Skin left on)
Feshly ground Salt & Pepper
1 oz (25g) Butter

For the Orange Sauce...
1 Large Orange
4 fluid oz (100ml) French Red Wine
4 fluid oz (100ml) Fresh Orange Juice
2 fluid oz (50ml) Duck or Chicken Stock
1 Tablespoon of Honey or Brown Sugar

METHOD

Zest* the Orange Skin and set aside the thin strips of Peel. Remove as much of the Pith as possible from the Orange. Break into Orange Segments and set aside.

Clean the Duck Legs or Breasts under cold water and pat dry with Kitchen Towels. Score the Duck Legs or Breasts skin with a sharp knife and then season well with Salt & Pepper.

Heat the Butter in a large Frying Pan until frothing, but do not allow to burn.

Place the Duck Legs or Breasts in the pan and brown nicely on both sidess (2 or 3 minutes).

Once browned place aside on a plate and cover with Tin Foil to keep warm.

Spoon out most of the Duck / Butter fat from the Frying Pan. Add the Red Wine, Orange Juice, Honey, Duck or Chicken Stock, the Orange segments & and some of the Orange Peel. Reduce the sauce for a couple of minutes, stiring often.

To serve place a Duck Leg or Breast on each plate, pour over the Orange Sauce and sprinkle with the remaing Orange Peel.

Serves 2 as a Main Meal.

And a happy St Patrick's day to all Irish and assimilated!!!

Un oranger sur le sol espagnol...

Oranges. Picture taken an hour ago in Ciutadella Park, to which I will come back in the next few posts. Oranges in winter...
The post title refers to an old french song, about the impossibility of having orange trees in Ireland. Was sung by Bourvil. Eons ago.

Barrilonia, house of the rebels

Barrilonia, the house of rebelling people, is a very colourful house on the Rambla del Raval, near Botero's Cat.
The name Barrilonia is a contraption of barrio, neighborhood area, and, of course, Babilonia, Babylon.
The house itself is a kind of political art and workshop center (here is their website, for those interested, in Catalan). It seems to be very cosmopolitan.
Several interesting graffitis on the house front, particularly this one.

Rambla del Raval

La Rambla del Raval, yesterday afternoon. The Raval is a part of the old town also know as Ravalistan, due to the high number of Pakistanis living in the area. In the 1920es, it was known as Chinatown...
Anyway, 2 policemen on duty are watching, so that nobody graffities Botero's Cat, further down on the square. Spanish police uniforms are quite fierce, they look more like paratroopers than like your friendly neighborhood cop.

Here is the same picture after playing a bit with it.

Faster, food!

Quite a common sight in Barcelona, tshirts, jackets, bags with a supposedly funny picture or slogan.
I actually rather like this one, on someone's jacket.
Run, pussycat, run!!!
My apologies to Luna (click HERE!) if this picture is traumatising. I've read somewhere that you can now get  shrinks for pets, should you need it.

Skywatch Friday

The Sagrada Familia cathedral seems to harbor a photo shoot for every opportunity, be it Eric Tenin, a normal post, Skywatch Friday... Let's see what I can think of tomorrow.
Anyway, this is what you get when you bend backwards.

This is part of Skywatch Friday, as mentioned before. Please visit the other participants here

Heureux anniversaire, Paris Daily Photo!

5 years ago today, Eric started the whole thing called City Daily Photo Blogs. We, for our part, are happy to have joined much later, 307 days ago. Here is to you, Eric, even the Sagrada Familia Cathedral seems to be celebrating this special day!
Bon anniversaire!

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Sagrada Familia

Some of the incredible and so organic stonework on the flanks of the Sagrada Familia Cathedral. I am almost enclined calling it needlework. Please click on the picture to see the finer details, it's worth it!
Latest updates on Sagrada Familia and Barcelona. Although the cathedral wont be finished this century, the nave is almost finished and will be inaugurated in October this year by the Pope.
More info about it here, as usual.
Weather: it is absolutely freezing, day temperatures barely above freezing. The snow has gone, almost overnight. A lot of fuss for 2/3 inches of snow. But maybe not for the 70.000 people or so still without electricity, heat and hot water.

Valencia

Valencia, the slightly mad  fountain in front of the cathedral

More photos about yesterday's snowstorm here.

A very special day! Nevada historica en Barcelona

 Yes, today is a very special day indeed! Let us dwell in the urban history and myths... According to someone (in her thirties) I talked to today, this is the first day of it's kind in 10 years.
Our neighbor,  the owner of the local garage, a man in his sixties, hasn't seen anything like this since 1963.

Anyway, barceloneses will talk about this day for a long long time...

Que pasa, what is happening??? Let the pictures talk to us, shall we?

I shall post more than one picture today, today being a special day after all.

Here they come...

SNOW IN DOWNTOWN BARCELONA, AT SEA LEVEL! WEHEY!!!!!!!

It started snowing around 11.30 AM. By mid-afternoon, public transports had collapsed. 2 inches, 5 centimeters... 

09/03/2010 It's official, we had yesterday the heaviest snowfall since 1962, according to the papers and MeteoCat.

Wonderland

One of our main treats this month will be to watch the new Tim Burton movie, Alice in Wonderland.
This is what Barcelona had to say about it last summer during the Festa Major de Gracia, the cartoon way.

An award

 

Well, we got an award yesterday, from the Caffeinated Globe. Thank you very much, you have no idea how happy it makes us!

Now, the rules say:
List 10 things that make you happy, try to do at least one of them today and Tag 10 bloggers that brighten your day.

In no particular order, except for number 1:


1/ My wife Mandy.
2/ Cooking. I love cooking, makes me feel good.
2/ Warm weather. Fed up with the wet winter we had here lately.
3/ Making a difference.
4/ Taking pictures!
5/Meeting all of you nice people since I started this blog 301 days ago!!!!!!
6/ This is this blog's first award, and it makes us really happy!
7/ Watching a good movie.
8/ Chocolate!
9/ Living in Barcelona.
10/ A good book.


10 bloggers that brighten my day... How to choose only ten. Well, once again in no particular order:

Leif, from Eagan, in cold Minnesota
Leia, Cezar and their cat Luna, in Luxembourg
Dina, in my good old and dear Yerushalayim
Marie in Montpellier . She's got a very nice new header.
The best photo-poet this side of the galaxy, VP in Livorno
Arabesque, in Manilla
Hilda, also in Manilla
Priyanka, in our old home Delhi
Gunn, in icy Stavanger
And finally, last but absolutely not least, Juan Carlos, in beautiful Barcelona. One fantastic photographer!!!!!

Well, this is done. And I suddenly feel quite empty. What about him, what about her, what about them??? So many more people I could add on this list. Guys, you know who you are, thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Skywatch friday and 300th post: early morning

 

The Med, really early.

 

This is part of Skywatch Friday. Please visit other participants here

 

Plaza de toros

This is one of the 2 bullfighting arenas I know of in Barcelona.
Bullfighting. Whatever you might think of it, the news here are that many people try to stop it. Some want to stop it entirely, some want it to be just a sport, with no actual killing of the toros, the way they do it in Portugal.

Well, this arena is being transformed into a giant shopping center. Due to the crisis, the works stopped for a year, but they started again. The complex should open early next year.

And once again... Sorry for having so little time to browsing your blogs. Will try to come back as soon as possible.