But that doesn’t really surprise you, does it?
The past 2 weeks have been filled with eating and cooking and all kinds of delicious goodness, among other things. So I will label this post with the names of the food and the stories will follow. Grab yourself a napkin in case you start salivating!
One Pot Veggie, Shrimp, & Chorizo Dinner
I have all kinds of recipes saved on Pinterest these days; of course, they have to be modified due to the differences/lack of ingredients in Spain, but they are still doable and also delicious. So a couple weeks ago, I tried this one and substituted the regular sausage for chorizo because #Spain and #yum. But there was also shrimp in this recipe. Fun fact: I didn’t eat a lot of seafood growing up because dad claims he won’t eat anything that swims in its own toilet. Therefore, my knowledge of cooking seafood is slim to none, leaning towards the “none” side. Cue my fabulous flatmate! We bought fresh shrimp (prawns, according to her), and she taught me how to peel them. It. Was. Disgusting. They were cold and slippery and slimy and random liquids kept squirting out of them. Not to mention the stringy thing we had to pull from them was impossible to remove and I kept getting distracted and making the shrimp “sing and dance” because it was just too fun. But in the end, we had a scrumptious and healthy meal that I would totally make again and highly recommend.
Sticky Chicken Fail
With every success comes a failure, and in my opinion, this recipe was a failure. Lauren and I had been so pumped all day for sticky lemon chicken tenders, but we couldn’t even finish them, because blehhh. The honey and lemon combo was just not doing it for us. Lauren even claimed it reminded her of having a cold since honey and lemon are good remedies for that. Oh well. Fingers crossed we’ll make something better in the near future.
The Tale of the “Spicy” Meatballs
Once upon a time, Lauren and I decided it would be a good idea to invite all the teachers over to our flat for food and drinks on a Friday. Normally we all go out on Fridays anyway, but this time we were like, “You know what would be a good idea? Stressing ourselves out by having to make food for a group of Spaniards and have them over to our house even though half of them don’t speak English and it’s a stretch to say we speak Spanish.”
But we still did it.
Lauren made mozzarella-stuffed meatballs and I made brownies and mozzarella garlic bread and we cooked up some pasta for the teachers. It was so awkward at first because Jose, one of the teachers who doesn’t speak English, was the first one that got to our flat and it was SO WEIRD. We were trying to cook and we didn’t know what to say to him because, a) The language barrier, and b) He’s so cute and we were tongue tied and freaking out over the fact that he was in our house.
But before we knew it, more teachers had arrived and were sitting around and having drinks. Even some of the teachers we never talked to showed up, so it was quite the party. But then came time to serve the food. And the guy teachers went insane. They were talking so fast it was so difficult to understand, but Anahí was dying laughing and we were sitting there confused. Turns out all the guys were wimps and thought the meatballs were too spicy, but us girls loved them. And to this day, we will never live it down because they still bring up those spicy meatballs at school. Sigh.
We also learned some Spanish tongue twisters, such as tres tristes tigres tragaban trigo en un trigal. We also taught them “She sells seashells by the seashore.” And Jose, who doesn’t speak English, said, “Say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!” He was awestruck when I was able to say it perfectly, until Damien, the science/art teacher, told him, “Es en inglés, tonto.” Aka, it’s in English, you fool. We were dying, it was so funny.
THE FEAST
Mercado de San Ildefonso
Turns out the teachers still liked us though, because we went out with them in Madrid for drinks the next day. One of the places we went was the Mercado de San Ildefonso. It was so neat! The market had 3 or 4 floors and it was super hipster, but we had some amazing arepas and cheese sticks while we were there. Muy rico.
Food for the Cats
So we have these cats that live outside our building. Lauren’s mom had left some leftover meat scraps from the roast dinner she made when she was here a couple weeks ago so that I could feed them, so I did! She’s basically enabling me to be a crazy cat lady, and I am perfectly okay with it. Shoutout to you, Cate! But there were cats everywhere, and they loved the meat. One step closer to taking one home with me.
In Other, Non-Food Related News…
Funny story: since my students now have to take the Trinity English exam, I’ve been working with them individually in the hallway on their speaking skills. Now, some students are very good at English, but of course, not all of them are. Case in point:
Me: What are your hobbies?
Him: December.
Me too. I like to December too. 😵
PRAXIS Exam: I’m in the process of obtaining my New Jersey teaching certificate for when I move back to the US (helloooo, east coast!), so today I had to go to Madrid to take the 4 hour PRAXIS test. It was a lot harder than the practice test questions I had used to study, but fingers crossed I passed all the sections!
Why I’m Pumped: I just found out that ELAINE IS COMING TO SPAIN IN MAY TO VISIT FOR A WEEK! It happened so randomly and suddenly (Me: “You should come visit, wink wink.” Her: “How serious are you?” Me: “How serious are you?”), but she bought her ticket and it’s official! I cannot wait!
Google Hangouts with the Girls: I was so happy that I got to video call Katie and Chloe this week! I’ve missed talking to them, and we haven’t all “been together” since the summer! It was so great, and I’m very thankful for my friends.
Where to Next? Excellent question. I’ll be traveling this weekend, so stay tuned for Instagram/Facebook/Snapchat posts to find out where I’ll be. Hint: there may be a beach involved 😄.
PS, check out my latest GoPro videos here. Unfortunately, they are unavailable on mobile/tablet platforms, but you can watch them on a computer!
Some dope Madrid street art
A Normal Girl in Spain 