Today was a quiet day–I woke up at noon like I thought I would, and it was pouring, so I settled in for a cozy day with a brie+prosciutto omelette for breakfast. It looked more like brie and prosciutto scrambled eggs though because my omeletting skills are not that sharp yet, so I didn’t take a photo. Oh yeah, btw, today’s mostly a food post.

Then I caught up on yesterday’s blog (whoops) and got groceries for the week–I want to make lentils, baked zucchini, and fried tofu at some point this week (not all at once, though, holy smokes). I was craving sweets this morning so I decided to make peanut butter cookies and I added chocolate chips.

On the search for the peanut butter, though, I stumbled across this delight (which I didn’t buy because there was cheaper peanut butter imported from Holland elsewhere in the store). I’m not entirely sure what to make of these mixed signals, but maybe I should have bought it and seen whether it was actually pecan butter, which would be kinda fun? who knows.

I also pass these door handles every time I walk to the grocery store, and I get such a kick out of them. That door really has a Hand-le on things. It’s such a great mixture of cute, bizarre, and a little creepy.

The cookies turned out well–I might have burned them a tiny bit but that’s okay, and now I have so many cookies to share at the office or which my housemates. One of my housemates watched me make the dough with an incredulous looks on his face as I added one cup of sugar to peanut butter and stirred like a madwoman. Some other housemates tried them though, and said they were very good.

After that, I met up with Laura to go to a Spanish chain restaurant she really likes called 100 Montaditos, which serves 100 different types of miniature sandwiches for 1 euro apiece, as well as some other small appetizers. It’s fast food, technically, but it’s so tasty! Certainly not the healthiest, but it’s not terrible either.  I got three sandwiches: one had barbecued beef, cheese, peppers and onions; another had smoked salmon, cream fraiche, and crispy fried onions; and the last one (my favorite–and Laura’s favorite too, how gauche) had chicken, barbecue sauce, bacon, and cheese. We also had some pretty amazing olives and Tinto De Verano, a new favorite of mine. You order on a piece of paper with the number of the sandwich that you want, and it’s fun to read Portuguese and guess at the meanings (though it’s nice to have Laura around who can translate too)

After that, we enjoyed some gelato from a place called artisani. I must say, though it’s closer by, it’s not as good as Nannarella, which is just custard-level thick and creamy glory, while this was more like normal frothy ice cream. Maybe I’m getting spoiled a tiny bit. 😉

We enjoyed the sunset from the bridge over the railway tracks, and that was it for today. It was a much needed day of rest and relaxation, and I feel ready to start my first five-day work week this week. Between all the holidays and festivals, all of my weeks so far have been 3 or 4 day weeks, so this may prove more taxing! who knows!

Much love!