My parents told me I can’t come home until I learn to make paella. My visa expires at the end of the year. I had to learn to make paella! After two cooking lessons, I learned one important thing: unless you burn it, paella is hard to screw up. However, that’s not to say there aren’t ways to make a better paella. Here are a few tips I picked up.

Pan: Chances are you imagine using a traditional steel pan, like in movies. This would be a great place to insert a movie reference, but I can’t think of a single paella scene right now. If you have a special burner for your paella pan, then yes, use this. When making paella on a typical stove, it’s better to use a frying pan because the frying pan more equally distributes heat from the burner.

Bomba rice: This is the best paella rice. It’s a medium grain rice that absorbs liquid without becoming soggy. In fact, after about 20 minutes of cooking and 10 minutes of sitting, it’s served al dente. It might be a bit pricier than other types of rice, but it’s easy to find in Spain and with specialty grocers in the United States.

Onions: No matter what, always start your paella with onions. After that, add whatever veggies and meats you have around. All paellas taste different, but every one starts with onions sautéed in olive oil.

Liquids: You’ll need something to cook the rice. The best is to make a wine based sauce and add tomato juice (or squid juice for arroz negro), but you can play around with this.

Saffron: Don’t forget saffron! Just a little bit carries a lot of flavor, and such a good flavor it is.

The rest is up to you. Throw in some chicken, chorizo, prawns, squid, peppers, peas, asparagus, or whatever you prefer. Buen provecho!

Last week and weekend were so darn great I decided to take it easy this weekend. I watched a movie, ran some errands and slept in. Well, not exactly. Instead, after class on Thursday, I went home for lunch, grabbed my suitcase and set off for the airport. At least this time I didn’t leave at 5:30 a.m. At 5:00 p.m., the flight left for Tenerife, Canary Islands.

The study abroad program organized this trip for my fellow sixteen students and I. Since I am an expert at beach vacations (I live in Minnesota. I have to escape somehow.), nothing made me happier than hearing we were headed to a black sand beach.

First of all, Tenerife is famous for bananas, and they boast about fried bananas. Of course I got excited about banana desserts, only to find nowhere near our hotel served them. Low and behold, my roommate Megan cooked bananas on the stove in our apartment style hotel room. Let me tell you, she is a good. Those things were good.

We stayed in Puerto de la Cruz, and Friday morning we travelled to the other side of the island for a dolphin cruise. After lunch and dolphins, our group all jumped into the ocean. It was exactly the quick escape we needed from the hot sun.

After the boat ride we went to the beach for a few hours.

We ate pizza on Friday night in a town called Garachicho, but beforehand, we jumped into the natural spring. I think it was technically closed due to rough water, but that could have been my only opportunity! I jumped in anyway. Then I went to dinner wet.

That brings me to dinner. We ate at pizzeria Rugantino. I tried a few pizzas, but my favorite was the one pictured below, with tomato, mozzarella, arugula and parmesan. We ate on the comfortable terrace with an equal mix of locals and tourists. The restaurant opens at 7:00 p.m., and from then until close, diners cycle through. Rugantino was a place I could go wet after swimming, where the service was excellent and the ingredients fresh.

Pizzeria Rugatino

Calle Esteban de Ponte 44

38450 Garanchico, Canarias, Spain

We woke early again on Saturday for a visit to Teide National Park. Most notably, we climbed the volcano. A gondola took us halfway and we hiked the rest. Any complaints about the long trek were instantly mitigated when we reached the top. We saw breathtaking views in every direction; we were above the clouds!

We returned to the hotel, went to the pool for a few hours, showered, went to dinner and went out for karaoke. Maybe due to the fact that our fellow tourists were all over 65, we had karaoke to ourselves. I sang La Camisa Negra by Juanes and called it a night.

On Sunday we went to the beach near our hotel. Sun would have been better than the clouds that covered us, but I can really enjoy the beach in any weather. After a while it was time to return to Madrid.

Tenerife was a successful weekend. I relaxed, I was active and I only have a little sunburn on my back. Still, I look forward to a relatively quiet weekend (for real this time) in Madrid in a few days!