Spanish views from a small town

The calendar is lying to me. It says we're entering the latter part of October, but the supermarkets are telling me December has just begun. All the Christmas goodies have been set out, begging you to buy them and start eating them. Why wait two more months to get fat on a two- or four-day sweets binge? Start now! That's how Christmas begins here. With the sweets. Right after that we'll start to see some tinsel in other stores. But it always begins with the displays of sweets in the supermarkets. You can take your pick on how to gain a few kilos. There's turrón (nougat) to begin. This sweet is shared with the Italians, who also make it, only theirs is chewy. I remember my mother sometimes buying it in an Italian grocery store in Boston's North End when I was a little girl. The truth is, it's common to most Mediterranean countries. The Italian versions are older than the Roman Empire. Ours originated with the Moors who brought it from other countries in North ...