Authentic Spanish chorizos are on the way, thanks to a kind email from Paul Hinrichs (who plays with his food) in which he referred me to tienda.com, a source for all sorts of Spanish goods and foodstuffs.
He also sent me an excerpt from a Cooks Illustrated article on lentils. It seems that anything acidic added to the cooking water interferes with the lentils' ability to bind with water, thus preventing them from expanding and softening. It isn't mush that I'm after, but large, soft, clearly defined lentils. So I'll have to try lentejas con chorizo again, but I'll wait for the chorizos to arrive.
I resisted buying an entire jamon serrano, for $219, mostly because I'm not crazy about the stuff. A few tidbits are fine, now and then, but I didn't need an entire cured ham sitting around in my kitchen. (This reminds me: I never did see the Spanish movie called Jamon, Jamon and I always meant to. Maybe I'll look it up on ebay, my source for all foreign movies.)
It's 4:45 am and my little boy, once again, is wide awake. Oh, well, early to bed early to rise and all that. I shouldn't complain. I like getting up early, after the fact.
No grand cooking on the horizon today. It's Sunday, we're trying to get into the swing of Christmas and today we'll be going to the tree farm to pick out our tree.
I do intend to try a simple little sauce today I learned about in Spain. My friend Elena bought a package of chicken meatballs at her Supermercado and she cooked them in a vegetable curry sauce which was wonderful. She chopped a little green pepper, a little zucchini and a little onion, threw it all in a blender, added oil and curry powder. Not a typical Spanish tradition, that I know of--perhaps she learned it in London 20 years ago when she was a nanny for a year. Never in my life would it have occurred to me to make a sauce like this. I've only got ground turkey in the fridge, but if I can concoct some sort of meatballs and duplicate the sauce, close enough.
5:09:13 AM 
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