"TapasMenus" news and stories

I've had a love affair with tapas from long before I ever set foot in Spain (for the record: April 29, 2003. Madrid. Honeymoon. Met or exceeded expectations). I first started noshing on shrimp and romesco sauce, blue cheese-stuffed olives, and little toasts with jamon serrano when I was still just a budding gourmet in my early 20s. Tapas first entered my life in a party, and I feel that nothing says cocktail food so much as a good tapas spread.

I can't recommend these salty Spanish bites enough as the menu for your New Year's party (whether it's for a formally-dressed crowd or just one or two in your jammies with a good bottle of bubbly). They are easy to make at the last minute ('cause if you're like me you haven't planned, much), they don't require much in the way of recipes or thought, they're highly-flavored, they're often packed with protein to counteract the effects of your tipplin' ways. They're pretty, too.