New Year jamon

I found an in-focus picture of that pappardelle with beef cheeks, so I wanted you to see just how delicious it looked.

I had a long list of things that I wanted to do over the holiday, but when I got the flu (or whatever I had and actually kind of still have now...), most of that list was on hold. But never under-estimate the moment of clarity when you can no longer sit on the couch with a kitten on your lap and you get up with a vengeance.

I cleaned out the junk utensil drawer. I took out mugs and kitchen things I never ever use -- or have considered using -- like my old roommate's slow cooker that looks like it was from the 70s. I put them into bags to donate. Sadly, they are actually still in bags in the kitchen.

Then I also tackled the tupperware drawer. I took out everything from this cabinet. I recycled everything that is a size or format that I don't like. I paired all the tops with the bottoms and made sure that they matched. To Ziploc, who changed their designed sometime in the last few years so that there are two nearly identical sizes of square tupperwares, you suck. I recycled all the old ones. It's quite pretty now.

For one of Josh's stocking stuffers, I ordered a selection of Spanish jamon from La Tienda (tienda.com). Last year, Josh bought my paella pan and rice from La Tienda, and I have to say that I'm really impressed with them. I ordered several things (which you'll see) and also some salt-packed cod. Everything was wrapped superbly.

So what we have here is three selections of Spanish jamon. There is Jamon Iberico, Jamon Iberico de Bellota, and Jamon Serrano. La Tienda slices them and vacuum seals them each week. I had these shipped the week of Christmas (they arrived around Wednesday of that week, roughly 12/21) and we ate them on 1/2. Not the best on timing, but they all held up beautifully.

Here is the jamon laid out on one of our serving boards. This is only half of what we received. I split it up between me and Josh and, let me tell you, this is A LOT of meat. It was also incredibly good. It's hard to compare the richness and nuttiness of the Iberico to the Serrano.

We actually ended up not finishing all of it. We repackaged it and the Ibericos held up even over the next few days wrapped in deli paper and then in a freezer bag in the fridge.

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I also ordered cans of these Manzanilla olives stuffed with anchovies. I usually don't like green olives and I debated internally for a while over if I should order them or not. Just eating a massive pile of jamon seemed unhealthy (we did add both the olives and marcona almonds with a nice red wine...) yet I worried about if Josh would like them. Anchovies, after all, can be kind of strong. But the reviews on La Tienda's site were all incredibly complimentary of these olives. So I ordered them. After all, two cans for $5.

These olives are SO amazingly good. So incredibly delicious. They are a little salty, a little briny, but good enough to eat alone or with other food or drink. We didn't finish them all so Put them into a small tupperware with the olive juice in the fridge. A couple weeks later, they were still delicious.