Pedro's Arroz A La Cubana Recipe

My Spanish housemate made this for me the other day and I took notes. (They were also serving it at the restaurant next to work.)

There are three parts to this dish: (rice, tomato sauce and egg) and they magically come together at the end.

Rice:

1. Heat olive oil in pot.
2. Throw in chunks of garlic, cook till brown.
3. Add in water (twice as much as the amount of rice, and then a bit more).
4. Add some salt.
5. When the water begins to boil, throw in the rice and add a couple of laurel leaves.
6. As the rice sits, cook the other stuff.
   

Mom's tomato sauce:

1. Take your mom-picked tomatoes and cut them into two.
2. Grate the tomatoes and take out the skin in the process.
3. Take a pot, heat olive oil in pot.
4. Optional step 1: Add meat in pot, cook until almost done.
5. Optional step 2: Add chopped onions, cook until almost done. (If you do both optional steps, do 1 first, then 2.)
6. Add grated tomatoes into pot as well as much salt and sugar as you like (mom likes lots of sugar!). Also add other spices here as desired.
7. Cook on low heat for about 45 minutes, remembering to stir regularly.

Egg:

1. Take another pan and heat some olive oil in it.
2. Break an egg or two in the new pan and lap up the olive oil (using the spatula) on top of the eggs (instead of flipping the eggs) to cook it. (There is, as you can guess, quite a bit of olive oil to do this.)

1, 2, 3, combine!

1. On a plate, add in rice, slop on tomato sauce and toss the egg on top.

Enjoy!

Almond Cookies

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup ground almonds
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F°.
2. Spread and bake ground almonds on cookie sheet for 5 minutes till lightly browned.
3. In large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
4. Beat in the egg, extracts, and toasted ground almonds.
5. Gradually mix in the flour until well blended.
6. Scoop ping-pong ball sized amounts on ungreased cookie sheets and flatten with spoon to desired shape. (the cookies will not flatten while baking, they hold the same shape)
7. Bake 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cookies are lightly colored.
8. Enjoy with a cold glass of milk =)