09.03.10

I woke up today to some nice sunshine, however with my first venture outside it was freezing cold, colder then I had imagined. I returned inside and got ready for the day. I choose not to go into Madrid again because I wanted to do more investigation on my possible trip to Ireland and my trip to Valencia.

After to long of being inside I had to go out in the sun. I gathered up my beanie, trusty sweatshirt, music, and my book on Madrid and headed out. I found a nice park by the small shopping center in Santa Domingo and read for a while. It was nice to be in the sun relaxing and just breathing for a while.

After an hour or so I headed to the grocery store to pick up ingredients for cookies. Before I left I translated all the ingredients into Spanish so I would be able to find things.

Well I kinda found things, everything is arranged differently and stored in different places. Like milk, eggs, and beer not refrigerated. After about twenty minutes or so I found everything that I needed except vegetable shortening. I looked up and down every isle at least two times before asking someone.

This lady was real nice and was trying her hardest to figure out what I was looking for. She even went around the store looking for people that spoke really good English to see if I was explaining it wrong or had translated incorrectly. After all of this still no luck so I went back to the house.

After talking to Irene, trying to describe to her what I was after and researching on the internet, I came to the finding that Spain doesnt have shortening. I know that you dont need shortening to make cookies but it helps make them not so flat.

I went with Irene to pick the boys up from school because I havnt see their school yet. It's a very nice private school and I knew when we were getting close because everyone had a green sweater with gray pants.

We started class right away because when Sofia arrives around 730 we have to start the cookies so they will be ready to eat for dessert. The kids love helping in the kitchen especially with things that involve getting your hands dirty. I went through that same phase as a kid...that's a completley false statement, Im still proudly in that stage.

We got the first tray's of cookies in the oven just as Irene came into the kitchen to serve up dinner. Watching the cookies closely the kids were letting me know their status. We took them out of the oven and sure enough they were pretty flat but tasted good all the same.

We ate dinner and near the end I brought a plate of cookies over. The kids dug in right away, I think each kid at at least four cookies. They were a little misshaped but still passed the test. After dinner Gonzalo was the only one that wanted to help me with the rest of the cookies so we made a big cookie man.

After that it was time bed for the kids. Like most nights I follow soon follow to my room to prepare things and read/watch things.

Also people have been asking me questions/comments about my trip and blog, feel free to just leave the comments under the blog post. Just check back cause I will be sure an answer them. Also leave your name cause sometimes it leaves the post as anonymous; unless you are in hiding from the government, in that case let me know how i can help-except you are on the internet so they do have that information already