My main adventures lately have been in the kitchen. As I said before, this is a time for growth… in many different areas. Having lived at home and had my awesome cook of a mother make everything for me, I am now a damsel in distress when it comes to just plain boiling water. [How big do the bubbles have to be? Should I wait? What about the salt debate?] First let me describe the Spanish shopping experience to you.

Hardly anyone here drives. I don’t know anyone who even has a car. I mean, you see some cars but mostly people walk. This kind of puts a damper on loading your car up with groceries. Also, living on the 6^th [or even the 10^th] floor can kind of suck. For this reason the Costco once-a-month shopping doesn’t fly here. People go shopping all the time. I made it my personal goal to never come home empty-handed, that way I’m always carrying something small and don’t have to worry about a huge shopping trip.

Because of the frequent shopping and having to carry whatever you buy, everything is small. For instance, my friend and I made nachos one night and had to buy 4 packages of cheese! [We like to eat a lot of nachos, very cheesey..]. I do enjoy grocery shopping, though. It’s nice to stroll around and try to think up meals… that you might actually be able to make.

So when I left to Spain my mom probably thought I was going to starve to death and packed half of my luggage with food [just a slight exaggeration]. I had.. an entire box of chicken top ramen [are you sure you don’t want another box, hun?], 6 cans of ravioli, 3 boxes of granola bars, homemade cookies and brownies, 2 boxes of pop-tarts, a box or two of hot coco, goldfish, and 3+ boxes of mac and cheese, to name a few things. J True story. While many people in the hostel scoffed at me, it really was nice to have food with me [yes, American food] so I didn’t have to go shopping the first week and make something ridiculously hard. I really didn’t eat that much of the food, though, between going out with friends and eating somewhere else and getting together and all pitching in and making meals together. This was fun but I really didn’t get the good cooking experience out of it as I ended up slicing the bread or setting the table, something small so that I didn’t have to cook.

I did attempt Mac n Cheese by myself one night… it somehow manifested itself into a mush that resembled jello and tasted worse than it looked. [How can you mess MAC N CHEESE up??.. ya, it’s possible.] I stuck to canned ravioli for some time after that…

I was in the hostel for a week and then found a place to live [see PISO] and was then really on my own. I was officially a roommate, or flatmate, and not a friend. No one was going to hold my hand and cook me anything and I didn’t expect them to.

So I mentioned that people here shop all the time. Because of this, there are little markets everywhere… literally… everywhere. One company has a huge monopoly on these little markets and they are all called LA MERCADONA. The other night I joked around about giving directions to my flat… you are going to pass 5 Mercadonas and after that take a left and then a right at the second Mercadona. Sounds funny but it’s true. One of my friends justly compared Mercadonas to cockroaches… they will never disappear! Don’t get me wrong, though, they are amazing. They really have so much [but not everything].

One other type of store I must mention before continuing is known as the “C-store” among my group of friends, or “Tienda de Chino” or just “Chino.” Some specialize in certain things and some [like the ones by my house] just specialize in STUFF. My c-store has SO much. Not food type things but everything else [toiletries, house furnishings, some clothing, school stuff, tools, party stuff, bed stuff, etc etc etc]. And if you can get it at the Chino, you definitely should because their prices beat everyone else’s by far. To clarify, Chino means Chinese or Chinese man. They are the owners of these stores and it’s not considered racist to call them Chino.

My first night in my flat I kept it easy and made ravioli again. The next night [with a dire need to switch it up] I decided to attempt Mac n Cheese again. I didn’t mess up the noodles but did read the recipe wrong and added waaaay too much milk and butter. It was like a milk butter soupy version of Mac n Cheese, but good nonetheless. At the Mercadona I was buying fresh fruit and bread and other things to snack on. We get together to eat dinner a lot whether at someone’s house or at a restaurant so the first time I actually tried something new [since I’ve been in this place... 2 wks-ish] was yesterday when I attempted grilled cheese. I knew they were simple [how can you mess a grilled cheese up?] but then again, we talking about the I-ruin-Mac-n-Cheese-girl. The ovens here are gas [and scary] and I’m “used” to electric so when I discovered the Panini maker in my kitchen, I was excited. I talked to a few different people about the grilled cheese technique and asked questions [how much butter? Like a lot a lot or just a lil? Answer: medium]. Then, I tried it. At first I thought I was doing it correctly but sadly but surely saw my sandwich getting soggy… I put waay too much butter on it. I decided to make another one right away and put less on it. This time it got stuck to the inside of the Panini maker and I had to scrape it off. I sucked it up and ate both sandwiches [and chocolate ice cream].

Oh I did forget to mention that another thing I have been living off of are hotdogs. Pop em in the microwave for a few seconds and stick em in a bun and voila, you got a meal right there.

OH and I DID make a croissanwich to rival Jack in the Box. Here are the directions: go to store and buy [NOT MAKE ;)] 1 croissant, two pieces of ham, one slice of cheese, 2 eggs. Scramble those lil huevos til they look good enough. If pan lights on fire, it’s ok. Avoid watering fire as it is most likely a grease fire due to nastyass buildup on bottom of pan and will only make it worse. Thanks roomies! Slice croissant down middle [best to do beforehand as eggs get cold..] and put eggs inside, followed right away by cheese so as to melt it. Next put your ham on and if croissant isn’t utterly destroyed, try to get the top part on. Eat with fork and knife if falling apart. YUM! I believe that was my first masterpiece.

Well, today I decided to reattempt the grilled cheese. It can not conquer me! I figured that my main problem was the Panini maker itself. It smooshed the bread so much anyways. So I decided to go the stove route… and my grilled cheese came out beautifully! I ate it with a hot dog. Haha.

Now all this must sound utterly pathetic, but if you know me, you’ll cut me some slack as I play a mean harmonica. Well, I guess that’s not true either. But I do plan on learning to cook, to REALLY cook during these 6 months so we will see.

[I am going to get a flickr account soon and then work on posting all my photos so you can see ]

Next on the list are quesadillas and pasta with red sauce [maybe meat sauce if I’m lucky]… talk to you soon! Oh and another blog soon to come about the awesome excursion I had this past weekend!!!