Adding personal stories to Manuela's Petals

As I meet more descendants from our family and their personal stories, I have been able (happily) to blend theirs with the stories I've already nipped and tucked into Manuela's Petals. Adding the heart-rending sad times as well as the good times is creating a fleshed-out story more real than I could have ever imagined.

And recipes! Learning how our Spanish relatives cooked, what they specialized in, what they were the 'best' at is coming at me from all directions. And I will amass all of them in the back of Manuela's Petals for everyone to see and just maybe..... cook like the old country through their ancestor's kitchens. Imagine a time when women created meals out of what they found in their gardens, could barter for, had stored in barrels or in cloth on storage shelves. And we, all the ones after, clamor to add to our recipe books and share with our own families.

Torrene, similar to divinity is made of almonds, a nougat candy. And the Garbanzo bean stew! There are so many different ways to make it beyond the traditional recipe. It's basically a soup made with garbanzos, beef shanks, salt pork, fideo pasta, and a "tortilla" made from bread, garlic, eggs, and parsley fried and then reheated in the broth. Thanks for that, Julie!

Still working on the name issue with the Spanish lines of the family. If I can just keep inside my head, the middle name is the father's name and all paternal links from that father must have the same middle name. Without both the father's name and the mother's maiden name, we can't trace our lineage! So, I continue the quest, walking through the years and pages of NAMES!