into - the fire roasted poblano peppers with a bit of smoky tomato, rice, mussels and a big bite of spicy chorizo - all perfectly seasoned by the outdoor fire and glowing with that saffron hue.

Ohhh! well ... let me tell you that my birthday wish came true this year!

My favorite way to celebrate with friends is to cook a really big meal that we can make together. Each guest brought a portion of the ingredients to add to the meal. We arrived at my friend Ana's summer house on Bainbridge Island around 3 pm. Luckily I made a few extra treats to kick start the festivities. More about those later ... but I highly recommend that you feed your guests while making this meal because it will take up to 2 hours. After all this is meal was originally created in Valencia, Spain as a laborer's or poor man's meal cooked over a fire in the middle of the field where they worked.

The name Paella refers to the metal pan that the dish is made in. It has 2 small handles and is somewhat shallow. This type of pan is usually very wide and flat on the bottom which allows for even heating over the fire. I have always wanted a traditional paella pan but do not have one. Luckily for me, my friend Gail let me borrow her two Paella pans. If you don't have one, I would suggest going to The Spanish Table in the Pike Place Market in Seattle. They have everything, I mean absolutely everything that you could ever want or need that has to do with Spanish cooking and Paella. They have Paella pans that range from 22 cm to 115 cm! I can't even imagine making Paella in a 115 cm pan ... but oh how fun would that be?

So we heated up the grill and started to roast the poblano peppers. Once the peppers started to blister on all sides we put them into a paper bag to let them sweat. Then we put the Roma tomatoes on for just a few minutes on all sides. At this point we began to work in shifts, the tomatoes went inside the house with Ana and Cynthia so they could puree them into a smoky sauce. Dave, Marla's husband, helped me with grilling the chicken, just enough to get the flavor started and toget all sides with grill marks. While the chicken was cooking, Sandy was a trooper and cut up 4 big onions - 2 red and 2 white, no tears! When the chicken was done we took it off the grill, put it on a plate, covered it with foil and put it to the side. We added a tad bit more of olive oil, the onions and the chorizo to the pan. I used Isernio's chorizo because it is Gluten Free. I removed the casings and added small pieces, about 1.5 - 2 inch pieces into the pan with the onions. In the meantime, Marla and Gwen took the poblanos from the bag, removed the blistered skin and cut them up. Once the onions were translucent and the chorizo was cooked, we added the poblano peppers. Then the tomato sauce went in and the rice. We used a brown rice but there are various types that you can use. I also added some Pacific Foods Gluten Free Chicken broth to both pans to allow the rice to cook. A traditional Spanish rice for paella is Matiz short grain rice, which you can also purchase at the Spanish Table.