Paella Pan and recipe

Look what showed up in the mail today!









It is a Christmas present for me from Chris. On a side note, mail delivery is often hit and miss around here, with the average delivery time between 7-14 days from the States. Of course you have the odd delivery that takes over two months, and the unexplainable delivery that arrives in under a week. You would almost have to believe it was loaded on to the truck as soon as we hit the web page's "submit order" button. Yes, we do a lot of our shopping online. And occasionally ask family and friends to ship stuff for us. Prices are truly obscene over here. For example...
- Simple dinner for two - $80
- Average price for a single beer in a bar - $11.
- A gallon of gas - $9
- A hot dog from a convenience store - $6
- A coke from a convenience store - $3.80

Not all is doom and gloom, and we are lucky enough to be able to order reasonably priced American goods from the commissary in Germany... but overall I would say it is hard to find a good deal when it comes to shopping for food, clothes and those daily must have items.

Sorry, side tracked again....back to my gift.

I love to make paella, especially the recipe I am about to share with you.




It is simply delicious and fun to make. However, it is labor and time intensive so make sure you set aside ample time and a Corona beer or two (always seems to help the time flow quickly). Not to mention, just like darts, you put on your "A" game after a few beers to relax. I much prefer this chicken recipe over a seafood paella, but I have to admit we have had some excellent seafood paella over the years. In particular at a small Mom and Pop restaurant in Rota, Spain during one of our holiday adventures. And the Sangria was "muy" good as well! Speaking of Sangria here is my favorite Sangria recipe that I got from a retired navy buddy of mine (Long live Jimbo!). I could pass along some stories about him, but we are keeping this blog at the "PG-13" rating for our younger audience. And funny enough during my tour in Norway I found out the Sangria ingredient "Cuarenta Y Tres" is made in the home town (Cartagena) of one of my Spanish buddies that lives here in town. Enjoy and Viva la Sangria!