Feed your Curiosity

Mr. A and I are back from a beautiful week in the Caribbean! Oh how I had missed tropical vacations! Palm trees, exotic fruit, the smell of the ocean, bright sunny days and nights with star-filled skies, endless buffet options... Paradise!

I ate almost everything at the buffet (when I wasn't feeling sick). I know it's not a healthy way of thinking but I do not see buffets as restaurants, I see them as challenges that I am (usually) ready to tackle. Challenge: taste everything! Even if someone tells me that x or y food does not taste good, whether it looks tasty or not, I must try it. I have to feed my curiosity just as much as I have to feed myself. By the end of the week, my curiosity and I were well fed and the buffet went back to being what it should be: a restaurant (not a challenge).

On another note, I had many opportunities to practice my Spanish this past week. To my surprise, I was actually able to carry a conversation! And guess what! After a few drinks, I was practically fluent in Spanish!! Just add "o" or "a" at the end of all the words and there you have it... ¡Español! (I hope you all know I'm kidding).

I hate to say it but, to be honest, I missed home. I'm not exactly happy that my vacation is over but I am happy to be back. Don't get me wrong; I loved the past week! However, I felt bad not doing anything productive with my time. I'm usually always running around and finding things to do so laying down on the beach or by the pool for hours at a time felt unnatural to me. This said, I know that if I had spent my week off running around in Montreal, I would be complaining and saying that I want to go to the beach and spend my day doing nothing. When I'm relaxing on the beach, I want to be doing something; when I'm doing something, I want to be relaxing on the beach. Yes, this is how I am sometimes... I think it's a woman thing. *sigh*

Back to reality, back to blogging and back to cooking! (I missed cooking so much!! I really missed blogging too!)

Here is the recipe of little cornmeal fritters that would always make an appearance on our plates.

Arepitas de maiz

Ingredients
 

- 1 cup cornmeal
- 1/4 cup milk
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon anis seed
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- about one cup of oil for frying or less if you choose to panfry them.

Directions

1. Mix cornmeal, milk, eggs, anis seeds, sugar and salt.
2. Heat the oil on medium heat in a frying pan until it is around 350-375F.
3. Add spoonfuls of the mixture to the hot oil. You can flatten them to look like mini pancakes (easier if pan frying).
 *Note: It is best if you work in small batches (about two at a time) to maintain the heat of the oil.
4. Fry until golden brown.
5. Once golden brown, transfer the arepitas on a kitchen cloth to drain a bit of the oil.
6. Serve hot.