Saturday, November 17, 2007

Mexican-American International Food Night

Every week my flat has an International Food Night, when it was my turn I decided to make Mexican (-American) food since I eat it so regularly. I made my mom's famous Mexican chicken casserole (everyone loves it!) I make it so often I almost have the recipe memorized.
I also made homemade refried beans, queso, and salsa for the first time. The beans took the longest to prepare. I really had no idea how they would turn out, or what they would taste like. Throughout the preparation, dinner time kept being extended. It was first supposed to be ready at 8 o'clock, then somehow we ended up eating around 9:15pm. In turn, I endured some whining : D I also cooked too many beans since it doesn't look like there are that many when the beans are dry. The trash can had a lovely feast.
We ate all of the queso, it was a hit; the recipe I found online was very delicious. It has spinach in it (i love spinach)! Jessa's intention was to eat the huge bowl of cheese due to her immense starvation from the four hour cooking ordeal. I also made cooked vegetables with taco seasoning, and other Mexican herbs for those who don't eat meat. It's so nice that all twelve of us eat together each week. It makes me feel more comfortable and at home to have "family dinners."












Halloween in Malta!

Halloween in Malta! The girl with face paint is my good friend named Jessa; she is from Northern California (she loves to face paint too!). The guy on my right is also from Germany, and his name is Martin (he is dressed like the main character from the movie "A Clockwork Orange." The blonde girls are from Germany, named Tina and Madeleine, and they live in my flat and are helping me improve my German. The girls dressed as cats are Maya and Yu from Japan. All the Japanese girls dressed like cats, and they were very cute.
This year I carved my very first pumpkin (without my dad). It worked out okay, however I could have used a smaller knife...but I worked with what I had. All the foreign people really enjoyed the jack-o-lantern since they don't celebrate Halloween like in the U.S. and some haven't even seen a pumpkin! (Grandma Betty) I made a homemade pumpkin pie, with real pumpkin! I had to guess the measurements since I don't know grams or milliliters. The pie tasted good but needed some sugar. I had to have a pumpkin pie though! I love Halloween : )