Hello my dear Hive colleagues! I hope you are well. Today I'm with you again to tell you all about what I did this Christmas weekend, enjoying a warm and quite nice weekend together with my parents at home...

Tropical and Christmas Saturday

I have been quite busy working, however on Saturday it was nice enough that my parents took some time to prepare one of my favourite lunches, to remember beautiful moments that we have lived and we continue to do so... My dad tells me that he went out very early in the morning to buy fish from some people who are from the coast of the state and come down with that fresh and tasty fish to eat right away, so he did that, went out and did his shopping and came back home straight to cook in the outside kitchen.... I was asleep resting from work and suddenly my dad comes to wake me up "Daughter, wake up and let's have lunch together, I prepared a tasty meal for you".

I woke up and they already had some fried fish on the table plus roasted yucca, shredded cabbage, carrot and mayonnaise salad, roasted cambures with sugar and a refreshing juice of papelón (sugar cane) with lemon.

I remember when I was a child we used to travel with our old car to the beaches of the country, especially to a beach called Choroní, my parents met and fell in love there more than thirty years ago, they know many people from that town and it was a great experience to go to eat always coastal food, tropical food since my father worked in his youth as a fisherman so he knew very well what to choose and according to our tastes... I also remember those weekends at home when a very dear uncle came to visit us, fried fish and shrimps were a must. I've never really been a fan of eating fish, but I really like the accompaniments to a good tropical dish, which includes this exquisite shredded cabbage and carrot salad, one of my favourite salads.

All in all I had that nice Saturday lunch with my parents, with a pleasant musical background, in keeping with the Christmas season and sharing with the family.

Exciting Sunday!

We have a gastronomic business and this Christmas season there is a demand for cream punch, so our business partner and my mother's best friend came to visit, both were in the kitchen preparing punch... I left home quite early, at seven in the morning to go to the market with my dad, we returned home at ten in the morning, before that we stopped to eat empanadas and when we arrived we helped my mother and her best friend with the things around the house.

My mother's best friend is a vegetarian, here in my country there is a tradition that is quite special and unites families, is to cook a dish called "Hallaca" that originally contains pork or cattle meat, he doesn't eat any of that and on December 10th he had his birthday so my mum wanted to give him a present together with my dad...

They prepared completely vegetarian hallacas, with different fruits and vegetables to replace animal protein with vegetable protein, making a very nutritious and special dish.

Hallaca can be prepared in different ways, in this case as it is vegetarian, a stew is made that also accompanies certain grains, also in raw pieces paprika and onion are added, the dough that is spread is made of corn flour, the colour is given by a plant called onoto and cashew fruit is added, this fruit contains high levels of nutrients especially for a vegetarian dish. All this is wrapped in a banana leaf and boiled until cooked.

While we were working we also took the opportunity to watch the Argentina-France match in the World Cup.

After the work was finished we had a delicious hallacas for lunch with a nice glass of wine and pleasant conversations.

Enjoying good company with the family and also watching the World Cup final.

Watching the World Cup final was quite intense and very exciting!

This was my very special weekend! Thanks for reading. See you soon!