A Rainy Day

It's raining. Not too hard, but still coming down pretty solidly. Rain in BA means a few things...the streets in some parts of town will inevitably flood, specifically in Palermo (BA drainage is pretty much nonexistent); I will enjoy my morning cup of tea in bed instead of on the balcony; and I will invariably bake something fattening and/or artery-clogging.

For me, rainy days are baking days. When you can't go out and window-shop, or sit in the park and enjoy the sun, or even do your work in the fresh air on the balcony, there's no choice but to get out the butter and sugar and make something delicious. That being said, cooking and baking here in BA has been an interesting experience. It's hard to find some ingredients, impossible to find others, and I've learned to make lots of things from scratch that you can find packaged in the States.

For example, here it is very uncommon to find jars of pasta sauce. In the States there is a whole shelf of them to choose from (Vodka sauce, Four Cheese, Onion and Mushroom), but here a lot people make their own. And it's surprisingly easy! Canned crushed tomatoes, onions, garlic, herbs, spices, salt and pepper, a dash of sugar, a splash of cream and that's it. Who knew?

Anyway, baking is something I've always enjoyed, and today it's oatmeal chocolate chip cookies! Measuring things is still annoying sometimes, thanks to the stupid metric system the world insists on using for some reason. Every time I have to look up how many grams 2 cups of flour equals, I curse the metric system. But oh well. If the end result involves chocolate and sugar, I ain't complaining!

Of course, I didn't have any ingredients in my house (or any other food for that matter) so I had to go to the local supermarket, the Coto. I complain about going there just because it's a hassle, but the truth is that I am so lucky to live where I do...I have everything I could possibly need within 4 square blocks: supermarket, fruit and veggie stand (literally three doors up), hardware store, lingerie store, sporting goods store, movie rental, ice cream, Indian food, great pizza place, great shoe stores, printing place, liquor store, gym, tanning salon, hairdresser, kitchen supply store (across the street...I covet everything in the window), laundromat, key maker, and tons of other random places to spend money that I don't have. I love it!

Here's today's song...I've been listening to it nonstop: "Mariposa Traicionera." The band is called Maná and they're from Mexico. Their music is amazing and this song is absolutely beautiful. I was told today that the video for this song was actually shot here in Buenos Aires, so it's quite appropriate! Enjoy :)

The embedding link was disabled by request (why do people do this to me?!?!) so here's the youtube link.