It's been a good day: Chocolate frog, Franziskaner and ham-and-cheese croissants

As most of my friends know, it has been quite a rough couple of months. Today, however, was full of pleasant food adventures, two of which were surprises! We've got ham-and-cheese croissants (one of which I just sampled), a German beer that is VERY hard to find and a chocolate frog. I will explain the last two in greater detail shortly.

While in Texas I had a very nasty ham-and-cheese kolache (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolache). This was an offense to me in two ways: 1) I love food so much that when I have dishes that taste awful due to poor quality, it rubs me quite the wrong way and 2) my grandmother makes some of the most delicious kolaches around so, this being somewhat of a family pastry, I was upset to have such a bad one tarnishing the trusty name of the kolache. I have very strong memories tied to ham-and-cheese kolaches. These were not my grandmother's, however. When my dad ran a print shop in El Campo, TX, there was a wonderful bakery called Riena's located nearby. They had incredible pastries of all kinds, but my absolute favorites were the ham-and-cheese kolaches, which they made with a sweet dough. These kolaches were somewhat of a delicacy as they could only be had on the days I went to work with my parents.

I have been thinking about those kolaches since I got back to Boston, and I decided to make something that doesn't come anywhere near them in taste or importance, but which is tasty nonetheless. I simply bought Pillsbury croissant dough and layered it with black forest ham and colby jack cheese. They turned out very well!

The real story of my good day comes in now: I caught up with Lisa, a friend of mine who happened to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter them park over the winter break. The kind young woman that she is, she got me a chocolate frog! It is mammoth. And, it comes with a collectible card of a famous witch or wizard from the series. For those of you who are at all familiar with this fictional universe, I got Helga Hufflepuff! I was really hoping for Dumbledore. Perhaps when the time comes for me to visit the park, I will get him.

After our lunch at Paris, the best creperie I know of (http://www.paris-creperie.com/), we went into Trader Joe's to do some grocery shopping. What I found was nothing short of amazing. While in Barcelona in 2007, I had a beer that did not make me want to gag. In fact, I actually liked it. It is called Franziskaner. I have asked about this beer for close to four years now and no one I know has ever heard of it, nor do any pubs around here have it. Well! Guess what they had at Trader Joe's! So I took a couple bottles over to the apartment of Leticia and Esteban, who have been incredibly kind and helpful in the past few days. It is just as good as I remember it! Although, I did spill a little on the floor telling a story, which was an indicator that it was all very exciting.

All in all, as my food will tell, I have had a really enjoyable day. I hope it keeps up as school is starting tomorrow. Manos a la obra!