As I open my eyes, the house was filled with the sweet scent of onions. That little spark of excitement makes me bounce out of bed. I trail the scent to my kitchen. The sun shines through the windows and I see my mom standing over the stove.

She stirs a pot of onions and another pan of ground beef.

I thought, Is my mom really cooking ground beef at 9 am?

Then I thought about it. My mom was making empanadas. The only reason she would be cooking so early is because empanadas take all day to make.

I jumped into action after I washed my hands. We talked about plans for the day as she showered the pan with spice. My mom gave me a taste and when we thought it was good, we put the mixed onion and meat in the fridge. And then we made the dough.

We kneaded it and cut sections for each empanada. When the meat was chilled, we rolled pieces of dough and filled it with the meat, olives, raisins, and boiled egg. As we wrapped them, we used the water to seal the dough together. We poked holes to prevent them from opening and put them in the oven. The excitement finally sparked once more when the empanadas came out of the oven.