Empanada Night

Some of my most memorable times spent here thus far, have been spent in the kitchen with mi abuela cooking (or should I say learning how to cook) some traditional Argentine food.  Mi abuela is the kind of cook that I aspire to be.  She never uses a recipe, never measures anything (NEVER, not even when baking), never burns anything, and never hesitates to lick the stirring spoon to taste test and then put it right back into the pot to continue stirring.  It's as if she and everything in the kitchen have some secret way of always knowing how to make everything perfectly, 100% fresh, and super super super delicious.  This woman can make homemade bread by dumping things into a bowl without paying attention while watching tv and holding a conversation...and the bread is soooooo good.  I really don't know how she does it.  I often just watch in amazement, but more often recently, on nights like tonight, I take part in the magic and I am continually amazed.

Today when I got home from school, mi abuela slyly mentioned to me that we were going to be eating empanadas tonight.  She always drops little hints as if she wants me to help her cook and she wants to teach me, and she really wants me to work on my empanada skills.  I, of course, immediately told her I wanted to help and her face light up like the sun.  I kid you not.  For this little woman who lives to take care of her daughter, myself, and the other student in my house, her days are full of cooking, cleaning, walking to the store, and doing her little arts and crafts.  The little things have the biggest impact in her life and bring her so much happiness.  She lights up my day every single day and there is no one I would rather sit and talk with for hours on end.

And she might be the best empanada fryer in the whole world.

At around 8, she pulled out the masa and the relleno, two spoons, a little cup of water, and basically told me to get to work.  We sat for about an hour together, getting the empanadas all ready to be baked or fried and she continually congratulated me on my improving empanada -making skills.  I tell you, it really is not easy to get them just perfect, but I'm working on it.  Today, mine looked almost exactly like hers!

Once they were all done, we baked half, and fried the other half.

 We also stopped working to take a quick picture ;)

 And these are the finished products!!!  And they were soooooo good.

All this said, empanadas are wonderful, don't get me wrong, but what makes cooking in this kitchen so special is the woman that I get to do it with.  She laughs, loves, and thoroughly enjoys everything about her simple life.  Not only do I learn recipes from her and the perfect way to fry an empanada, I hear stories about her childhood, about Cordoba way back in the day, and about the things in life that she loves.  Listening to that and eating an empanada....how could life get better?