Last month, I was at home when I found a small pamphlet slipped under the door announcing a rifa for an air fryer. Rifa means raffle in Spanish—or at least it does where I’m from in Argentina.
My neighbor was selling 100 numbers at 2,000 pesos each (roughly $2 USD) to raise some money, as she's currently dealing with a disability and needed a bit of financial help. I thought it was a good opportunity to support her, so I bought a few numbers. I also asked how the raffle would work—specifically, how the winning number would be chosen.
She explained that the draw would take place two weeks after she first announced the raffle. The winning number would be based on the results of the Argentine national lottery. Here’s how that works: the lottery runs four times a day and generates 4-digit results. Each draw has a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, and the draws happen at 12:00 PM, 2:30 PM, 5:30 PM, and 9:00 PM.
I ended up buying numbers 70 through 79—not just to help out, but also for the chance to win a cool new air fryer. It cost me 20,000 pesos total, which is just under $20 USD.
When the day of the lottery draw came, I saw that I had won and went to pick up my new air fryer. I cooked whatever I had at home to try it out, and it worked spectacularly—frozen onion rings in 10 minutes with no excess oil, nice and crispy. It was awesome. I tried a couple more things after that—like steak, and even some toast—just to see what it could do.
Just yesterday, I was at my dad’s house and he was making a batch of baked/roasted squash seeds in the oven (the usual way), and I told him they would probably come out really good in my air fryer. He thought that sounded cool, so I figured—hmm, maybe I could race home, grab the air fryer, and come back to make a batch at the same time to see which one turns out better. So I did.
When I got back, he had already started the second-to-last tray, so I just dumped the last tray’s worth into the fryer and hit start. Any time I saw him get up to mix his seeds, I’d take out the air fryer basket, give it a shake, and pop it back in too.
In the end, we had my younger brother try them in a blind taste test… but he doesn’t like squash seeds, so now we need to find someone who actually does like them to tell the difference.