The Narrative essay consisted of writing about an experience related to food. In my narrative essay I decided, as a topic, to emphasize about my experience cooking empanadas for the first time

The story about that time that I made empanadas for the first time

Trying to do new things can be a great challenge for some people. For me this was being able to cook something for myself, especially when it is food that is part of my culture, since I’m Dominican. From a very young age, I remember eating foods that are part of my culture, such as: rice, beans, beef, plantains, and empanadas. I always thought that preparing at least one of these shouldn’t be a challenge, as it was part of my culture.To think that I was not able to cook at least one one these made me feel like I was a failure, which really put pressure on me. Because of this I never attempted to cook one of these dishes or embrace my culture in the kitchen. Thankfully, these dishes were always cooked by my mother/step dad, so I didn’t see the necessity of making them myself. It wasn’t until a sunny afternoon in August 2 years ago, that I decided that it was time for me to let my fears go away and prepare empanadas by myself.

​Empanadas are a very known dish in Latin America, they can be cooked in different ways or have different ingredients, and also can be cooked for any type of occasion. In my family empanadas tend to be either filled with beef or mozzarella cheese. They are usually cooked in many occasions including Nochebuena, night before Christmas, or New Years Eve. This was not a typical occasion since I was home alone and I was really hungry, so after giving it some thought I decided to cook cheese empanadas for the first time.

​ I remember, I was really nervous because I had never cooked empanadas before. But I was also somewhat confident as I thought to myself  “This shouldn’t be hard” as I rushed to the kitchen to prepare the empanadas. Once I got to the kitchen, I thought to myself “What do I need.”  I then remembered that my mom would always take a pan, some oil, mozzarella cheese, Goya discos for empanadas,dough for turnover pastries, and a fork. So I rushed to get these items, as I thought to myself “Should I watch a video on youtube on how to cook empanadas?” No, making empanadas should come naturally to me, and I also remembered how my mom cooks empanadas, so it was all set. I started the process by taking two discs and placing them in the microwave for 40 seconds,as my mom would always say,“You need to defrost them.” I then proceeded, after placing the unfrozen discos in the counter, to put cheeses inside the discs. I took a handful of cheese, and placed on top of the discs, so that they could be really stuffed, as I thought “They need to be filled as much as they can be to taste good.’’ As I proceeded to the next steps.

​I took one side of one empanada, fold it, with my fork make stripes on the edge of the empanada to close it and repeat. As I finished preparing the second empanada, I thought “This is easier than I thought, I’m really stupid.” I then put the pan in the stove and place a lot of oil in it, so that I could cook. I proceeded to placed, with high anxiety, the empanadas on the frying pan and started to cook. I thought at first the situation was under control, as I persistently moved the empanadas side to side, like my mom would, to not burn them. But as I continue to fry them, my anxiety increased, as the oil was starting to pop a lot and the empanadas began to look somewhat undercooked. I then decided to let them cook for about 3 more minutes, but when I came back,  I notice my miscue. I rushed to lower to temperature of the stove, and I thought “I messed up.” The 2 empanadas were not only full of oil in the inside, but burned. I felt like I failed miserable, but not ready to accept defeat I tasted one of the empanadas, which did taste bad. I was disappointed, as I thought “Nice bro, you can’t even achieve cooking something that shouldn’t be as hard.’’ I shamefully cleaned the mess I created, and gave myself some encouragement as I thought “well at least you tried to cook something.”

​After everything had happened, I gave it more thought and realized, proudly, that I was able to overcome my fears of cooking some traditional food or even some food by myself. Although I did put my culture and heritage to shame, I still attempted to do something unusual for me. since that afternoon in August 2 years ago I have attempted to make empanadas again, although I still can’t cook them properly I will still try to do so in the future.

Peer Review

The Peer Review activity helped me in many ways to complete my narrative essay. The peer review comments that my peers made pointed out some of the mistakes I made on my draft of my assignment as well as pointing out how to fix those mistakes I made.

As it is shown, The comments made by my peers signal out some of my mistakes and also how I could/should have solve those issues on my narrative essay. This did contribute to the finalization of my narrative essay.