After (another) unplanned hiatus - this time three weeks! - I decided to come back big. I tackled pasteles, a kind of Puerto Rican tamale, which my friend Rachel requested I make a couple of months ago. I was slow getting to it, but I blame my sister-in-law for inducing me to read the Fire and Ice Chronicles (Game of Thrones series) which occupied my time completely for the first 6 weeks I was in Austin. There were days I didn't even leave the house because I couldn't stand to put the books down for more than 20 minutes. People asked me what I thought of Austin so far and I could tell them what I thought of the Starks and Westeros. Then there's that pesky "job search" thing. I don't know how many hours I've spent searching and applying for jobs, but the result of the effort is still lacking. Austin is a great city for live music, the software industry and the University of Texas - outside of that it's a bit of a struggle! So what I'm trying to say is, I haven't cared much about cooking for the past few weeks - but now I'm back.
