Pobre Vaca Pequeña (Literalmente)

Pobre Vaca Pequeña (Literalmente)

Haven't written in a while but hola amigos! Quick recap before my main post: I had midterms last week and even though school is A LOT more relaxed here than at home, exams are exams and it still sucked especially because they make up 50% of my grade... soooooo k. This past weekend my group went to Extremadura and visited 3 different cities, which were all so pretty and old-timey looking. I got to see all of Trujillo on top of an old castle, hike 10 miles up a mountain (go hike 10 miles and tell me your butt doesn't hurt and I'll call you a liar) to Guadalupe, and stay in a hotel connected to a monastery. Pretty good way to end midterms week.

I realize 70% of my blog talks about food but if you keep reading it then you must not be sick of that yet! This story is the tale of the baby vaca.

Vaca=cow, baby cow=veal, veal=ternera in Spanish. Which is what I realized we're always eating whenever we have "hamburguesas." But, it's always extremely pink and almost rare-looking/different tasting, which isn't how I'm used to eating burgers but I do here anyway since I don't have a choice.

The other day my host mom asked me to watch the burgers while she ran across the hall to help a neighbor really quickly. Emphasis on the "really quickly"...she said she'd be right back.
 If you know me you know I can't cook at all, like AT ALL.. it's an issue and I'm working on it. Kind of. But, she basically told me to just keep an eye on them, so I figured I could do that. I was standing there staring at them and she told me not to worry about it so much so I didn't think it would be a big thing.

I've never cooked hamburgers in oil, let alone veal so I don't know if it cooks differently at all. But these veal patties were sitting in at least a half inch of straight oil with a splash of cooking wine, which I've never had any experience with. A little while after my host mom left I had my roommate Maya come see if I should flip them, and she agreed and flipped them while she was in there. My host mom was not be-right-backing at all, and I honestly assumed she would be back before they were supposed to be done because she didn't give me any instructions on what to do besides watching them. However, after 15 minutes I took the pan off the stove when I noticed ALL of the oil was gone and I was disgustedly surprised because there had been so much of it. The patties had just started to blacken on the bottom and Maya started to take them out and plate them. At that moment, my host mom walked in and saw the smoke (yes I can't cook I KNOW) and immediately started saying we had to throw them away. Granted, they looked burnt on the bottom but the rest of the patty was completely fine. But, the way she usually cooks them is rare so to her it looked like I ruined everything. But, Maya and I convinced her we'd still eat them, because 1) I felt bad and didn't want to waste them and 2) anything is better than completely pink burgers.

We sat down to eat and when I took a bite, I was expecting a nice charred flavor. But, they tasted WAY better than usual, because they were actually cooked this time! Maya and I were both so confused but pretty happy about how it all turned out. So, me burning something ended up being the best thing that could happen, and even though my host mom thinks we're crazy for liking "burnt" burgers, it ended up being a blessing in disguise. If anyone needs a professional awful chef who might end up cooking something good by accident, hit me up.

This shout out is to my loney homey! No idea what that even means still and don't think I'll ever remember...same with Nailsy & Roz...why........
Anyyyyway I miss hanging out all the time and laughing 24/7, plus no one is here to YEAH MOLL me :( Miss you!

Gracias por leer esta entrada tan larga!
Hasta pronto,
Moll:)
PS: I'm now Mali OR Mely at cafés. Yeah.