Yesterday (Friday) I had a cooking class with one of the teachers from the International Center, Christian. Emily, Mari, Kenya, Ryan and Greg all came too! We made pebre, which is a Chilean salsa. It was delicious. It has garlic, tomatoes, onion, parsley, chile, olive oil and salt. It was really delicious! We also bought sopaipillas from a bakery and topped our sopaipillas with the pebre, it was sooo good. In Chile, traditionally when it rains people eat sopaipillas, it is like Chilean comfort food. They are fried thick tortillas made with [...]

On Friday April 13th, we had our last cooking class for our Sustainable Foods class at Sergio’s house. This rainy, gloomy day provided the perfect atmosphere for staying inside and cooking. We began with our usual morning cornetto and caffe, and then really got going. We all separated into our groups and started to work on the 3 different dishes. One of the groups went to the stove-top to start frying the bread for our appetizer. While they busy with that, some of us started to work on the ragu [...]

Two weeks ago on Friday (2/10), I had my first of three cooking classes for my Food and Sustainability class. Each of the cooking classes focus on a different region in Italy so for this specific class we focused on Naples and Neapolitan cooking. Our class is taught by Prof. Sergio Rufini, a hilarious, older Italian man whose thoughts are all over the place, but we enjoy him anyways. We all met in Campo de Fiori (a square nearby my school) at 8:30AM. First, we dropped by a local shop to get [...]

Buonsera da Firenze. It’s been a great first month here in Europe, and things are only going to get better. I think it’s time I showed you around the apartment a little. Here my roommates and I (and Laura who is taking the photo) are sitting down about to eat in our dining room. It was good and very easy to make. I have never really cooked anything before coming here, but it beats the hell out of getting fed in the cafeteria in the dorms. And much cheaper too! [...]

It is my first Saturday here in Jordan, and it has been quite a journey. From planes being delayed, to the craziness that is driving in Jordan I’ve been seeing a lot, and yet I am beyond anxious for more. Tomorrow I start my area studies classes at the University of Jordan (Jordanians week goes from Sunday to Thursday).  Clock tower at University of Jordan Library at the University of Jordan Hopefully by the end of the week, I will be replacing one of those with an internship though leaving [...]

A few days ago all four of the host students who live in my family’s joint house decided to make an American feast for our family before we leave for internship placements next week.  Not only were the stakes high for dinner since my host mother, Krishnaji, makes very delicious food, but the four of us were making food for around 20 people.  We decided that I would make salad and bread, Claire and Jezelle would make pasta, and Asha would make dessert. I knew that grocery shopping for salad [...]

Is there anything more American than Apple Pie? It is for this reason that Casey and I decided to reproduce this American icon in Montpellier. Equipped with the Betty Crocker recipe I copied down from home, we went to Monoprix and bought 5 pommes Granny Smith, beurre (butter), and noix de muscade (nutmeg) then went to Casey’s family’s apartment and got to work. One of the things that is evident in both my and Casey’s French family’s kitchen is the scarcity of farine (flour). Their bags are only one kilogram. [...]

Before coming to Morocco, I had this impression that Africa is a really hot place. When I got to Fez, I thought the weather was pretty similar to weather in the Twin Cities in the spring, which was really really nice. Well, Ispoke too soon, as for two days in a row already, the temperature high has been around 37 degrees Celsius (98 degrees Fahrenheit), and staying in the shade doesn’t really help. Today we officially finished all the alphabets in Arabic, and we will be learning the alphabet song tomorrow. [...]