rice cooker — Cuban-American Lifestyle & Food Blog — My Big Fat Cuban Family: A Cuban-American Blog

I am still laughing at some of the rice comments you all submitted for the giveaway.

So, about half of you wash your rice. About a third of you used to wash, but have since given that up.

Some of you use rice cookers because you remember that mami or abuela had a Hitachi going all the time and I love that you have some great memories of rice and rice cookers and the happiness that rice brings to the Cuban table.

A lot of you are still stovetoppers. Impressive.

And, of course, all of you agree that my cousin Yllien is adorable. =D

A few of you have some bad memories of burning the rice. (Did I ever tell you about the time I cooked for 300 and screwed up the rice? No? Umm....never mind.) ;-)

Thank you. I swear it makes me so happy to hear from you and I love that you keep the conversation here lively.

Sadly, I could only choose one winner. (insert sad face here) As usual, I went to Random.org and put in the number of entries (subracting those who accidentally left multiple comments, and you know who you are, but that's not important right now).

Congratulations to the winner of the ¡Sabor! A Passion for Cuban Cuisine Cookbook, autographed by the author, my friend, Ana Quincoces.

Congratulations, Annie! Good job on getting your gringo husband to learn The Ways of The Rice Cooker. I'm so proud. *wipes away a tear*

Send me an email with HEY MARTA! I WON STUFF ON YOUR BLOG! in the subject line. Please include your snail mail address so I can get this beautiful cookbook out to you ASAP.

Thanks again to you all for playing. More fun giveways and stories coming up this week, so stay tuned!

In keeping with our Hispanic Heritage Month, I've decided to tackle a subject that's near and dear to us. It's something that we feel absolutely passionate about.

But we Cubans are passionate about so, so many things. (Well, everything, really....but that's not important right now.)

I know I shouldn't be surprised when the mildest topics bring up so many intense and varied opinions.

Today's seemingly innocuous topic is rice.

Much to my everlasting delight, my beautiful and enormously entertaining cousin, Yllien, takes on the topic of Hispanics and Asians and Rice and Rice Cookers and a poor mook named Osvaldo.

Please enjoy. (And get some popcorn. I'll wait.)

My friend, Ana Quincoces has an entire section in her cookbook ¡Sabor! A Passion for Cuban Cuisine about rice. She even shows you how to make it old-school in a pot on the stove. (Page 82.)

I, personally, use a rice cooker. Often. Next to my pressure cooker, it's the hardest working appliance in my kitchen and is in constant use.

So now, let's talk rice.

Today's giveaway is an autographed copy of Ana's cookbook, ¡Sabor! A Passion for Cuban Cuisine.

Of course, you know that the real reason you should have this book in your kitchen is because my recipe for My Big, Fat, Cuban Family Torrejas (made with guava and creme cheese, thankyouverymuch) can be found on page 204. *takes bow*

But I digress......

Rice.

To be entered in the drawing for the cookbook, please answer one or all of the following questions:

Do you wash your rice?
Do you use a rice cooker or are you an old-school pot-on-the-stove-topper?
Isn't my cousin, Ylli adorable? ;-)

I'm guessing we have a lot of rice to talk about, so let's let this contest run through the weekend. Please share it with your friends. Ask them the questions on Facebook. You'll be surprised at how much emotion rice engenders.

I will pick a winner randomly from your comments on Sunday, September 25th at 5 pm.

So, rice.....your thoughts?