What do we, the Spaniards, eat during Easter?

Easter is also very important in Spain. Although fewer Spaniards celebrate this holiday nowadays, there are two desserts that cannot be missed during this holidays: arroz con leche and torrijas.

Then I will explain you how to prepare these recipes:

ARROZ CON LECHE

Arroz con leche is a very traditional dessert from Spain. Furthermore, just a few ingredients are needed to produce it. This dish is very common in Asturias, although it seems to have its origins in a medieval dessert of Valencia and Catalonia called Menjar Blanc.

Ingredients:

• 1 liter milk
• 200 g short grain rice
• 125 g sugar
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• A lemon’s peel
• Powdered cinnamon

Directions:

1. Put the milk with the cinnamon sticks and the lemon’s peel (only the yellow part, since the white can be bitter) in a saucepan and bring it to heat. When it’s beginning to boil, add the rice and reduce heat. Stir constantly to prevent sticking for about 35-45 minutes.

2. After this time, add the sugar and stir for another 3-5 minutes. After this time, turn off the heat and remove the cinnamon sticks and the lemon peel.

3. Once done, put the rice in dishes or individual bowls, sprinkle with cinnamon and… ready to enjoy!

TORRIJAS

This is the quintessential dessert during Easter in Spain. Although there are many variations of this same recipe, the most common are the sweet torrijas, that I will explain you how to prepare them. However, in Catalonia there are also salty torrijas prepared with different ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 1 stale baguette of bread
• 1 liter milk
• 1 cinammon stick
• A lemon’s peel
• 100 g sugar
• 2 eggs
• Sunflower oil
• Powdered cinammon

Directions:

1. Put the milk with the cinnamon sticks and the lemon's peel in a saucepan and wait until boiling. Once it has started boiling, turn off the heat and let stand the milk in a pan or fountain to cool.

2. Beat two eggs, pour the mixture into a bowl and pour the sugar in another bowl. In a pan, put abundant oil to heat.

3. Cut the bread into slices of 2-3 cm and soak them in the milk. It is important that the milk is cold because otherwise the bread could be undone. After soaked in milk, soak each slice in the beaten eggs and put them to fry in the pan with the oil already hot.

4. Once fried, put them on absorbent paper to drain them. Once drained, dip them in sugar. You can also sprinkle some cinnamon over each torrija.

Well guys, I hope you have enjoyed reading these recipes and if you want to taste a bite of Spain here you have two of the most typical of Spain desserts. Furthermore I invite you to travel to Spain to taste them, since there are people who cook these desserts really well. I'm just an amateur.

A Short Introduction

Hello strangers!

I am Hannah. I am originally from Graz but I went to school in Linz for two years. After finishing my education in tourism and leisure management, I worked seasonal jobs in several different places such as Tyrol or even Spain. For a while I was working as a bartender which was a lot of fun. I met a lot of new people and heard many interesting stories. I generally love travelling and getting to know other cultures and I have done so myself by travelling to many different places all over the world. For a few years now I have been living in Graz and I feel like it is really nice to settle down and have my own apartment. Even though working seasonal jobs in many different places was a lot of fun and diverse I never really felt at home. Currently I am studying Russian and English at university. Russian language and culture has always fascinated me and in the past 2 years I even had the chance to visit Russia twice; once for an internship and then at New Years to reconnect with my Russian friends. In my spare time I enjoy reading, meeting my friends for game nights or concerts or doing sports. I love volleyball and snowboarding but unfortunately I don’t have the time anymore to do sports as much as I would like. I also really enjoy playing the guitar and I just recently got a little kitten. She is really small, cute and pitch black and her name is Momo. I hope all of this gave you a small idea of who I am and I am looking forward to reading your profiles and to getting to know you guys better as well. :)

Who am I?

Extremely chatty, ambitious and cheeky. If you ask my close friends or family to describe me you will most probably hear one of those characteristics at some point. Let me introduce you to myself, my lovely friends!

I am Nora, an Egyptian girl who was born and raised in Austria. My grandfather first came to Austria in the 1970s to study chemistry in Vienna. After getting his doctor‘s degree and finding a job here, he decided to stay. As a result my mother and my two aunts were also born and raised here and even went to the same school I later went to. Let me tell you…it was pretty weird to have some teachers ask you about your mom and aunts, because they were once their students! :p

Despite having most of my family close to me, many of my friends and cousins still live in Egypt, which is why I travel back to my home-country at least once every two years to visit my loved ones.

Landing in Cairo, Egypt :)

But enough about my roots! Let me tell you more about my personality. As I already mentioned I am a very ambitious person. Ever since I was a little girl I have always known what I wanted and how to get it, not by convincing others to simply give it to me, no. But by working hard to achieve it. And quite frankly I can be a real pain in the neck when I set my mind on something. I will not only drive myself crazy in order to achieve it, but usually people around me as well…probably a reason why I’m not in everybody’s good books.

When things get a little too crazy, I usually have two ways to escape: watching matches of my favourite football club or listening to music. I absolutely adore music! You will never see me doing something without music in the background, except studying. Other than that I always like to have my favourite tunes - a mix of English and Arabic music and all kinds of genres - playing while I am doing something, be it preparing breakfast, doing my makeup or cleaning my apartment. I even sing along most of the time, which according to several friends doesn’t even sound so bad. However, I prefer not to claim that I can actually sing. :D

Well, and some of you are probably curious now: What is her favourite football team in the world? My Catalan friends, you won’t be too pleased to hear that, but my favourite team is Real Madrid. Ever since I was little I would sit next to my grandfather in front of the TV and watch them play and I guess my passion for them is just a family tradition he has passed down to me. Even though my love for Madrid started with their most famous football team, it has grown way beyond that over the course of time. Today, the Spanish capital is one of my favourite places to visit, although I have already been there twice. I just love the language, the people who are incredibly friendly and, of course, the food! ;)

I have even had the chance to watch my favourite team play at my favourite city! It was an unforgettable experience! And let me tell you…Madrid is definitely worth a trip! If you’re not a football fan, you will be amazed by at least another thousand things this wonderful city, abounding in art, music, architecture and dance can offer. 

Madrid, a place with a thousand things to discover

 Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, the pitch on which the best team in the world plays ;)

The beautiful Plaza de Cibeles in the heart of Spain's capital.

Who am I?

It’s challenging to describe oneself in public like this, isn’t it? But here I am, trying to lead you through my wannabe-interesting life with the following posts. I’m going to start with introducing myself briefly:

My name is Hannah, a quite common name, as you can see on the Austrian ranking of the most popular names. Second place. So this seems to be very special about me. J

I have grown up in Leogang, a relatively small village in the middle of the mountains, about 20 minutes from Zell am See. People here mostly work in tourism, as we have got quite a popular skiing resort around here, which I’m really proud of. 

I'm a sporty person, who loves to go for a run. While jogging, I'm able to rearrange my endless thoughts about.......hmm, I guess I think about EVERYTHING, so I'm a perfect demonstrator of "overthinking" :) Except from running I also enjoy many other types of sports to get my head tidied up or to meet up with my friends. I have tried out many different kinds of sports, as I attended a sports-school when I was younger. I like playing tennis and squash, swimming, rock-climbing, all kinds of team-sports or just going for a walk with my mother.

Most people I know are into skiing and so am I. When I’m not studying or travelling I usually work as a skiing instructor.

 

Some of my skiing-groups

An exhibition of photographs above Madrid

Amazing Madrid

Obviously I mostly instruct children. As I also enjoy improving my language skills and travelling, I united these interests of mine in the last six months. I went to Madrid, Spain to look after kids. I had a rather amazing time working as an Au-Pair in a great metropolis as Madrid, but I openly admit that I also missed my beloved-ones and my sports-team quite much!

Hard to guess which sport I'm into :) I always enjoy the time with my volleyball-team!

I returned from Spain, maybe a little wiser and more mature, but still hungry for new experiences. So now I am in Graz, another animate and interesting place, to study foreign cultures and languages.

Written art is what inspires me a lot these days, so I want to find a conclusion with the following quote:

Art brings you closer to whatever your present is, your own breathing being.

Cat Power, musician