Paella Grande

Some of you know that Nathan and I have been dreaming of a paella pan ever since we honeymooned in Spain. There, on the warm, sunny streets, you'd see open air restaurants with huge pans of yellow-colored rice mixed with seafood, chicken and other local delicacies. The smell of the saffron wafting through the air causes your mouth to water in anticipation of this savory dish.

As you read in our Christmas entries, my father purchased an All-Clad paella pan for my mother for Christmas. She opened it at our house and we created a wonderful paella before they left for home.

For Valentine's Day, Nathan and I decided to purchase a paella pan as our gift to one another. We looked at many types and came across a variety made from La Tienda. We discussed the size of the pan and decided that my mother's 14" or so pan just wasn't big enough. After looking at the various sizes available, we selected the 22" figuring 8 more inches would be just right.

I should've known something was up when the UPS man lugged this huge box up our walk. I opened it and, wow, this isn't my mom's paella pan! Now, to give you a comparison of size, we can fit this pan over all four burners on our Dacor cook top. To keep the heat down, we finally put it over two burners and had the edges hang over.

This photo is the beginning of the paella - browing the onions and garlic in olive oil (always a good start to any recipe).

Notice the how small the spoon looks against the gi-normous pan.

This is the paella at the end. Notice the fancy paella spoon that Nathan loves (Nathan is a gadget guy from way back and this thing really makes flipping the paella easier).

And it makes a pretty handy tasting spoon!

I'm sure you're wondering if Sasha enjoys fine dining and the answer is a resounding... yes. (Sasha likes dining in general but has enjoyed our last couple of meals - tortellini and now, paella).

For those of you who've been wondering if they should come and visit, just seeing this pan in person might be enough encouragement but I'll even throw in a fabulous paella as a special treat!