March 31, 2012

About Marta

March 31, 2012/ Marta M. Darby

Marta darby

Hola! My name is Marta Maria Darby, and I am passionate about telling stories.

Designer, blogger, Cuban cook, scrapbooker, photographer and mother of four, I wear many hats which may or may not include seasonal fruit (but that’s not important right now). I have been blogging for almost seven years - sharing my life, my culture, my family, and my recipes in my own Cuban-American style.

I tell the stories of my extraordinarily ordinary Cuban-American life. I believe in celebrating the “everyday.” Often. And well.

Some Background

I was born in Havana, Cuba. My family left the island on February 14th (Valentine's Day), 1961. All my family's memories of Cuba, B.C. (Before Castro) are happy ones. We still maintain many of our Cuban traditions and love all things Cuban, particularly the music and the food. I am the youngest of six. My parents, Luz and Rodolfo Verdés were married for 60 years. My family lived in Miami for the first three years of our exile. We then moved across the country and settled in California. My dad, Papi, passed away in December, 1999. But we have never lost our Cuban-ness. (<--Is that a word? If not, it totally should be.)

My big fat cuban family

I live in Southern California with my husband, Eric in our cottage home with a white picket fence. I am mother to Amy-30, Adam-27, Lucy-20, and Jonathan-18, who were all born here in the U.S. They are extremely proud of their Cuban heritage.

Celebrating Cuban-American Life

This blog, My Big Fat Cuban Family, is a daily destination for hundreds of Cubans worldwide. Each day I get to weave stories and anecdotes about my very passionate and fabulous Cuban family and our delectable Cuban food. I get to celebrate the blending of my two defining cultures as I live life on the Cuban-American hyphen. I’m 100% Cuban and 100% American.

Marta’s Cuban American Kitchen was born online six years ago when I was invited to become a regular contributor to the popular Cuban blog, Babalú. I am pretty masterful (if I do say so myself) at taking the Cuban recipes that I grew up with and re-inventing them for today’s modern kitchen. (I also make a mean all-American apple pie, but that’s not important right now.)

In 2009, along with my online partner and friend, Carrie Ferguson Weir, I helped launch the popular Latina Cultural site, Tiki Tiki Blog. Many of my stories, recipes, and videos can be found populating those pages.

Ten Things You Should Know About Me (in no particular order)

I’m passionate about “all things Cuban,” especially the food and the music.
I talk with my hands.
I always wear perfume and red lipstick.
I’m fiercely loyal to those I love.
I find humor in pretty much everything, and don’t take myself too seriously.
I have homeschooled my kids for years and have a passion for learning and I read anything and everything I can get my hands on: Kindle, books, magazines, cereal boxes.
I’m a Reagan Conservative and an Evangelical Christian.
I’m a techie, especially loving anything with the Apple logo: Mac, iPad, iPhone.
I am the family historian - a job I take very seriously, therefore I scrapbook.
I take pictures. Every. Single. Day.

I Live A Lot of My Life Online

Social_icons

Email: mdarby@cox.net

Twitter: @Smrtqbn

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MyBigFatCubanFamily

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/marta_m_darby/

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/smrtqbn

Instagram: http://instagram.com/smrtqbn#

RSS Feed: http://www.bloglovin.com

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MartaDarby/

Welcome to my world. Please make yourself at home.

My blog-casa is your blog-casa.

Besos,

Marta

November 03, 2011

Cuban Ropa Vieja Recipe In A Slow Cooker

November 03, 2011/ Marta M. Darby

When we arrived in Miami in the early 60’s, we barely had enough money to cover basic expenses. As you can imagine, rent, utilities, and food dominated the budget. Because we left Cuba with just the suitcases we could carry, we were glad to receive donated clothing. We were grateful for other people’s cast-offs. My parents especially appreciated the charity. I don’t think they could have managed otherwise. Trying to clothe five daughters on a ship welder’s hourly wage? Impossible.

But then, something amazing happened. My dad finally found a job in his field, which was engineering. He began working in early spring, so that by Easter, my mom made the announcement that we were going to buy new clothes for Easter.

Seriously, this was an Easter Miracle. And although, we had grown used to “making do,” we rose to the shopping occasion like the true Cuban women we are. Dresses, gloves, hats, purses – the works! I confess that every year at this time, I remember the giddy relief of that Blessed Event.

And I continue to be so very grateful that the only “ropa vieja” I have now, I usually eat with white rice. =D

Ropa vieja 1

Crockpot Cuban Ropa Vieja Recipe

The Meat:

1 ½ - 2 lb. flank steak

½ green pepper, sliced into strips

½ Spanish onion, sliced into strips

2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed

2 tsp. Salt

2 tsp. Coarse Black Pepper

1/2 tsp. cumin

½ cup red wine

Ropa vieja 2

1) Put all these ingredients into the crockpot in order. Add water to just cover the steak.

2) Set it on low and cook for 6 to 8 hours.

When the meat is very tender (comes apart with a fork), remove from the crockpot and finely shred it into a separate dish.

Ropa vieja 3

The Sauce:

The pepper, garlic, and onion from the crockpot

3 Tbsp. Olive oil

2 cups beef broth

1 small can tomato sauce

1 small can tomato paste

1 tsp. oregano

Salt and pepper to taste

With a slotted spoon, remove the onion, garlic and peppers from the crockpot and sauté in a large frying pan. Add the tomato sauce, tomato paste and beef broth.

Add the shredded beef to the tomato mixture and cook together for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve with white rice.

Buen Provecho!

(originally posted at Babalú blog - April 2007)

October 04, 2010

Celebrating My 4th Bloggiversary - Winners!

October 04, 2010/ Marta M. Darby

I want to thank you all for your kind words and good wishes.

I love celebrating blog birthdays because unlike regular birthdays, I get to give stuff away.

It makes me so happy to be able to give back to you, even in this small way. I so want you to know how much I appreciate that you read and enjoy my stories and misadventures.

To choose winners, I used Random.org. I put in the number of valid entry comments into the True Random Number Generator and it gave me 4 random numbers that I matched to entries. So without further ado, here are the winners of the giveaway.

Congratulations to the winners. And thank you to all of you. I love you MORE.

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1) The My Big, Fat, Cuban Family Mug goes to:

Marta Quinn said...

Congratulations on 4 great years, just a side
note: I mastered Arroz con Pollo thanks to your
recipe. Thanks for the recipes and the storys
Carinos tu tocaya, Marta

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2) The Cafe Cubano Mug from CubaToGo! goes to:

martacperez@gmail.com said...

Congratulations! I love your Cuban recipes.

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3) The Marta's Cuban American Kitchen Apron goes to:

Angela Garcia said...

Love you and your blog, Marta! I've had you bookmarked for about 3 years now, and you are a daily "must click" for me. Thank you for all the wonderful stories, insights, inspirations, and of course your delicious recipes (especially that magnificent guava glazed turkey recipe, which was a hit at my house last Thanksgiving!)

Carinos,
Angie G.

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4) The My Big, Fat, Cuban Family Cookbook goes to:

Mercy Arrate said...

Congratulations! May you (and we) enjoy many more years of the adventures of Marta!

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Once again, thank you. Congratulations to the winners. Please send me an email with HEY, MARTA! I WON STUFF ON YOUR BLOG in the subject line (so I don't accidentally delete you) and send me your snail mail address so I can get your goodies out to you right away.

You truly make me happy (but that's not important right now). ;-)

August 12, 2010

Link Love

August 12, 2010/ Marta M. Darby

I've been blogging here at MBFCF for almost four years (Wow! That's like high school!) now.

I love blogging as an a creative outlet. Not only because it's my blog and I can write pretty much whatever I want, but also because I get feedback. And for the most part, that feedback is positive, which makes me happy.

I enjoy blogging so much that I also cook (and write) over at Babalú blog as you know. My feature there is called Marta's Cuban American Kitchen. That's where most of my recipes live on the web.

I'm assuming you already know that I also co-edit a blog called Tiki Tiki with my friend, Carrie Ferguson Weir of Bilingual in the Boonies fame.

Carrie gave me the news yesterday that Parenting.com had chosen the Tiki Tiki as one of their Must-Read Moms: Mom Blogs We Love.

I was especially excited that they chose a blurb from one of my articles. (See actual post about my family's cleaning habits here.) They also mention my recipes....

And I quote: "And the recipes!? Oh. My."

I know. Shut. UP!

Our friends from Modern Mami and Spanglish Baby also made the list. Congratulations, amigas!

If you get a chance, check out the other Mom Blogs. Those women are talented! But also, get yourself over to the Tiki Tiki. Check out the contributor articles and videos. And you may want to consider sharing some of your stories there. (Sin pena!)

What exactly is the Tiki Tiki? This video from Cuba Nostalgia explains a lot.

Look for Christina Diaz Gonzalez, author of The Red Umbrella. Also, Tony Mendoza the phenomenal Cuban artist. My friend, Val Prieto, editor of Babalú blog is represented here. And yes, you may even recognize yourself.