Food.
With Fall finally here, my what seems endless free time isn't spent at the beach or in the sun very much anymore. But COOKING! :D With produce being quite affordable here in Barça and my need to be cozy, being by the stove cooking something is just perfect (since the rest of my flat is an icebox! Spaniards up here don't care much for insulation I guess!). I've mastered the carrot ginger soup (the key is lime and coconut milk), made some nice sweet potatoe mash (although my Argentinian flatmate suggested putting chili in it for his South American taste buds...Ermmm, not for me) this evening. Tomorrow I'll try something from the vegetarian cook book Jade let me borrow. All I need now is my warm cuddly kitty cats to snuggle with on the couch. I don't care how much cat hair I get on my clothes, I'm going to hug the crap out of them when I get back!
I think the secret to good cooking is confidence, practice and a lot of free time to fuck things up first until you get it right. And for me, I'm a bit of a loner when it comes to making my food in the kitchen. I need space and no one budding in on that space! I guess when I leave this tiny apartment and get to use my family's fabulous roomy kitchen and awesome appliances again (lol I don't even have a freaking toaster here) I'll be happy to have people around, especially if it's just Kaja and Dad. Although I'll miss Barcelona a lot, being with my family in my favorite place again will be one of the best parts of the trip. Yeah, thinking about all the wonderful things I've learned and experienced while away, I feel that one of the most important things I've discovered is how much I appreciate home. More people should be able to go away and experience the world and all the beautiful things that are out there, like I did, but also be able to really truely know how lucky they are to be living in and being a part of such an amazing place.
... Didn't realise mashed sweet potatoes would make me so sentimental! sniff, sniff. single tear*
(These are pics from Isaac Grey Cosgrove's Flickr page. Thanks Isaac!)
