corncakes and jogging.

Waking up on the weekend is never easy. You never get out of bed quite as early as you'd want to. By the time we finished our coffee yesterday it was well after ten. What should we do? It was still cool, the mid-September sun here doesn't blast you so hard, so we decided to go for a run in the park. We quickly changed and put on our bouncy running shoes, grabbed keys and bicing cards and jumped down the stairs. As we left the coolness of our narrow street the sun hit us straight in the face and we squinted our morning eyes making our way to the shiny red bikes at the end of the plaza. Did I really say earlier that it was cooler here in September? By the time we got to the park my back was warm and my sleeves were rolled up.

The park is full of shade and old trees and people strolling, biking and running in whatever manner they see fit. There's old couples slowly making their way across the sunny, dusty, yellow paths and groups of runners running past them in packs and then stopping to stretch and chat. There's an old man contorted, walking with a crutch, with a determined look on his face to enjoy the early fall morning. We make a few laps where there's the shady of the tallest trees. Bruno pushes to go faster and longer...a silly red-haired, spiky dog barks shrilly from the lawn. There's flies in the shadow...it feels good to get sweaty like this, to see some green. But soon our stomachs are growling. We pick up new bikes and head past the elegant facade of Estacion Francia on our way home.

Finally, after a quick shower to get the stick off, it's time for some well-deserved breakfast. We've had this polenta sitting around forever, turns out neither of us really knows how to make anything tasty with it. The few things we've tried have turned out either completely flavorless or just plain mushy. I decide to make a final try, third time's the charm, right? Lets try some corncakes I say! I lived in the south...I'm sure I've tried them somewhere, some diner, or maybe a local PBS cooking show? Jogging I've come to realize, makes me quite ambitious.

Turns out it's quite easy. In a bowl mix a cup of polenta with 2 tbsp of flour, 2 tsp of sugar and .5 tsp of salt. (I added a bit of baking powder just in case). In another bowl beat 2 eggs, a little packet of plain yogurt, a cup of milk and some honey. Mix everything together. On a really hot pan start frying up the pancakes with a bit of margarine.

In the meantime Bruno started a simple salad. Dice an apple and a cucumber, throw in a bowl. For the dressing mix another packet of plain yogurt with some pesto (we just buy it pre-made in the grocery store).

Serve the the salad over the pancakes...it was a really great taste combination, the corncakes warm and dense and the salad fresh and crisp and slightly sweet.