The Knives.

My mom makes these famously Cuban authoritarian pronouncements.
When she says something, it is with an air of authority that will not tolerate any argument.
Of course, the way she says it immediately makes me question its validity, but since I was raised in a superstitious Cuban home, there is a small residue of what-if-it's-really-true? somewhere in the back of my mind.

For example:
I mention to her that I'm really wanting a great set of knives for my kitchen.
"It's Bad Luck to buy your own knives.  It's better if someone gives them to you as a gift."

Of course, the knives I am coveting are astronomically priced, which leaves me in a perfect no-win situation.  I want the knives.  But I can't buy them for myself because it's Bad Luck and I certainly can't suggest to someone that they should spend this amount of money on knives for me, no matter how much they love me.  Not to mention that new knives are a terrible gift choice for Valentine's or birthdays no matter how skilled the cook. (sigh)

NOTE: Once something is pronounced to be Bad Luck it is pretty much tarnished forever and no amount of actual rational thinking can redeem it.

What to do?

Stew about it.
Fret about it.
Spend years cutting things with sub-standard knives.
Complain about said knives every single time you have to use them, which in my house is pretty much every. single. day.

My family either got:
a) tired of me complaining.
b) tired of using the dull knives we own.
c) stumped on what to get me for Christmas. (NOTE: Christmas gifting doesn't technically fall under the Valentine or Birthday category of gifting because we give each other multiple gifts, so you wouldn't just be giving someone knives as their only gift, which is a great relief to me, but that's not important right now.)
d) all of the above.

So they got me The Knives for Christmas:

Which is a totally win-win situation because they know that now I will have Good Luck and I will not only stop complaining about my dull old knives, but I will probably be compelled to use my new knives a lot more often and my family will therefore benefit from their generous gift.  Life is good.

By the way, I decided not to mention the new knives to my mom in case there was any other kind of Bad Luck Sub-clause attached to the knife gift.  I would argue that I'm not superstitious anyway, but in cases like these, it's just better not to know.  ;-)

So, what's cooking this Thursday in Marta's Cuban American Kitchen over at Babalú?
Frituras de Harina de Maiz (corn fritters or hush puppies).
And yes, I used the paring knife to dice up the onions nice and fine.  You know I'm going to become insufferable now about the whole I'm-so-superior-with-my-rockin'-knives thing.  It's just that I'm so happy about my Good Luck! ;-)

A Wonderful Christmastime

One week til Christmas and this right here is the very best part of it all for me: The preparations. The houseful of busy Christmas preparations. 
The crossing stuff off lists.  The anticipation of the happy and surprised looks.   Christmas music playing and busy people in the house.
The girls call out for us to look at a particular clip they're working on.
We call them into the kitchen to taste the batch with the dark rum.

Adam is making Creme de Vie for everyone we know -  my job is tagging and bottle decorating, which suits me just fine right now. The cookies were labored over earlier by Lucy and Jonathan and their cousin, Cody, at Grandma's House.

Lucy is a goddess when it comes to wrapping. Red & gold paper. Red and golden bows.
We're all kind of working on our own contribution to Christmas, separate, yet together.

And then. . . that bouncy Paul McCartney Christmas song comes on and Adam yells out something about the Bunny Hop and the next thing we know we're all bouncing around the living room.  Bunny Hop.  You know.  Step twice to the right.  Step twice to the left.  Jump forward, then backward. Then Hop, Hop, Hop.  In a kind of conga-line formation.  We were just doubled over with laughter and could barely breathe, but just kept right on bunny hopping in our formation and I didn't want to interrupt the Bunny Hopping to take pictures.  You'll just have to trust me on this. 

It was the most perfect Christmas moment.   And it wasn't staged or choreographed.  But it was like a really great scene out of a really great Christmas movie. 

I love it when life just happens.  I am so damn lucky. ;-)

We used that song for one of our videos a few years ago.  It shows Christmas through the years. Please enjoy. (kudos to my Amazing Amy, once again.)

This magic moment (or Wow. I really love my Christmas tree.)

We put our Christmas tree up over the weekend and I am completely enamored.
Seriously.

As Amy posted a few days ago, my kids all have small trees they put up in their bedrooms with their own ornaments (yes, artificial - I'm really over that whole vacuuming-pine-needles-for-months thing =D).  I'm not being a cool mom or anything by letting them have their own trees.  It's just that I like to decorate the big tree differently each year.  See? Completely mercenary.  So this year it's all red and white and gold and I am in love. (sigh)

I put on some instrumental Christmas music and was just sitting and staring and drinking in the beauty.  (Okay, so maybe the whole sitting and staring thing has more to do with my exhaustion level, but that's not important right now. =D)

Can it get any better than this?

Well, actually it did.

The kids were baking while I was in my little I-love-my-Christmas-tree cocoon.  And . . . this is the really great part . . . they wouldn't even let me in the kitchen!  (Shut. up. I know.)

So, in addition to my I'm-drunk-with-Christmas-beauty moment.  The house smells like fresh cookies!  I totally got a preview of what heaven will be like.  I swear.

They baked my favorite Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies, and even though I don't like nuts and I really don't like peanut butter, I could eat these all day long because they are amazing.  And okay, I'm not really supposed to be eating chocolate, but c'mon!

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup butter - softened
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg - slightly beaten
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 bags Hershey's kisses

DIRECTIONS:
1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2) Cream together the butter, peanut butter and sugar. Beat in egg. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; gradually stir into the peanut butter mixture.
3) Make small balls of dough. Really small. Like less than an inch in diameter.
4) Bake for 10-12 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the cookies look cracked. 
5) While the cookies are baking, unwrap the number of kisses you need to match the number of cookies baking. 
6) When the cookies come out of the oven, quickly push a kiss into the center of each.
7) Remove from baking sheets to cool on wire racks.
8) The chocolate will melt completely when it comes in contact with the hot cookie, even though the kiss maintains its shape, but don't worry, they will harden again when they're completely cool.

However, it's really important that you try at least one hot cookie with the melted chocolate. Just trust me on this. ;-)

Meanwhile back to my idyllic I'm-so-in-love-with-my-Christmas-tree moment:

Kenny G on the stereo (don't judge me).  Plate of my favorite freshly baked cookies in front of me.  Bustelo in my cup.  My oh-so-incredibly-beautiful tree before me.  Magical.  ;-)

"Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree.  In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall."

~ Larry Wilde, The Merry Book of Christmas

Counting the days . . . or making the days count?

Today's advent activity:
Churros, Hot Chocolate and The Grinch.

I cannot even tell you how cool this whole calendar thing has been. There's already so much anticipation!
They've already established rules:

1) They open each box together.

2) No peeking ahead.

3) They immediately tell Amy and Adam what the activity will be and ask them to join us.

It's so awesome how it's making us focus, not just on the coming of Christmas, but on making some really great memories together and celebrating each day. 

I love that.

So, I made the churros and the hot chocolate (and took my bows =D).

And then we watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Why that movie? (Because I'm a total dork, that's why. But that's not important right now. =D)

At the very end, and just before the credits, the director, Ron Howard, dedicates the movie to:

His mom, ". . . who loved Christmas the most."

(Shut. up. I really want to be that mom.)

Crunch Top Applie Pie Recipe: It's as Cuban-American as "Mami, Pastel de Manzana, y la Bandera" ;-)

I know you were wondering what we did with all those wounded apples from Thanksgiving.

Well, wonder no more.

The Galas (those are the red and yellow ones) went to my mom's and she reported that they are now two jars of delicious homemade applesauce.

The Granny Smiths (the green ones) went into a pie.  A good ole homemade Crunch Top Apple Pie.

But, but, but. . . (I can hear you sputtering. . .)

That's not Cuban food!

No. You're right.  It's Cuban-American food.  Lucy made it!  =D

She's a Cuban-American (version 2.0).  (Get your own 2.0 gear here.)

Sheesh!  ;-)

Crunch Top Apple Pie Recipe

Dough and Filling:
Dough for a double crust 9-inch pie (homemade, frozen, or refrigerated)
3/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
Dash of salt
3 1/2 cups peeled, chopped cooking apples (like Granny Smiths)
1 (16 oz.) jar applesauce
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 Tbsp. butter, chopped into small pieces

Crunch Topping:
3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. sugar
Dash of salt
1 Tbsp. butter, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 425° degrees F.

1) Line a 9-inch pie pan with half of the dough.
2) Combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl.
3) Stir in apples, applesauce, and lemon juice.
4) Spoon apple mixture into pie pan and dot with butter.
5) Place remaining crust over top of pie.

6) Cut vents.
7) For crunch topping, combine flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl.
8) Using a fork, cut in butter until mixture is crumbly.
9) Sprinkle over top of crust.
10) Bake for 10 minutes
11) Then reduce heat to 350° degrees and continue to bake for about 45 minutes, or until crust and topping are golden brown.

Getting ready for the holidays here.  I made Crème de Vie (Cuban egg nog) over at Babalú today.  (Impossibly) Sweet!

NOTE: my culinary posts go live around 11:30 am Eastern - just in time for lunch. =D

Es pa'l jalo uin

It's not about the dressing up and getting candy.  Heck, I can do that any day. ;-)

It's that now we have put Traditions in place.  And they must be respected.

First it's the trip to the pumpkin patch to choose the best carving pumpkins and I always make them pose behind the cut-outs.  (They were much more willing when they were younger.  Now they have reputations to worry about.  But they still do it... for me. =D)

Round one: Jonathan and Daisy.

Ben got distracted with the toy cars.  "Where my punkin go?" (too cute!)

There has to be a choco-fest.  (Did I tell you I can't have chocolate? It's so wrong.)  =(

Then the rest of the carving-posse arrived.

And this was the culmination of the evening's work:

What I like most is that even when we adults get tired, they carry on, because it is A Tradition now.
I think that's cool.  I love that their friends feel so at home here. 
I love that there is so much LIFE going on.  They're noisy and busy. And that's as it should be.
I love when they are being creative and having fun and sharing.
There is a sense of abundance.  Lots of pumpkins, lots of candy, lots of food, lots to do.
Lots of life.

Because even though we know that it's Halloween and it has that whole day-of-the-dead thing going for it, we are very busy just seriously celebrating LIFE.

Happy Day!

The Human Condition

It's tempting as a blogger to write about every single little detail of my life.  And believe me, I know I totally over-share enough as it is. 

So I won't go into the gory details of my recent medical tests (which involved a microscopic camera used to look down my throat and I'll be honest, I was tempted to document the procedure, but I thought the doctor performing the test might think me weird if I pulled out my phone and asked him to "hold it and smile", but that's not important right now =D).

Anyway, all that to say this: 
I'm not allowed to eat chocolate anymore.

Mind you, I'm not a big chocolate eater.  I don't really care for cake either.  I'm much more of a tropical dessert kind of gal.  The typical dulce de leche or guava and cream cheese type.  Or better yet, just skip the dessert and give me a loaf of fresh, hot bread and butter and I'm totally happy.  But chocolate?  Seriously, I can take chocolate or leave it. 

I know to some of you that's like breaking an eleventh commandment, but read on.

I didn't give chocolate a second thought until . . .

He made the No-More-Chocolate-For-You pronouncement.

Now, I find myself thinking of chocolate constantly and having mental arguments with my doctor (which of course I totally win because they're all in my own mind =D) about which forms of chocolate should be okay for me.  I have chocolate on the brain and there's no room for anything else. 

Kids: "Let's watch a movie tonight."
Me: "Okay.  How about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?"

See what I mean??

If he had only said: No-More-Salads-With-Lo-Cal-Dressing-For-You.  (sigh)

Four-Bucks

It's me, Amy.  The Sell-Out.

I had a desperate moment.

I was out of café.

I was exhausted.

I was running late (or is it "latte"?)

I sold out.

I BOUGHT my morning cafécito from STARBUCKS!!

And this is how it went:  I walked in, feeling ashamed.  I kept my sunglasses on so I could not be recognized.  I waited in line.  There's ALWAYS a line.

I listened to what sounded like another language.
"Grande Mocha Frappucino"
"No Foam, Half Caf, Venti Latte"
"Grande Caramel Machiato with Whip"
And then, it was my turn . . . "A double espresso please"

You know the Visa commercial where everything stops when someone pays with cash?  I swear that's what happened.

Everyone stopped.  The "barista" looked at me blankly and said,"What?"

I repeated my order, "Double espresso"

"That's it?"  He stared at me in disbelief.

That was the moment I realized that further communication with the sub-species known as "Starbucks Barista" was futile.

:-)

(it won't happen again)

Rum and Garlic Spiced Pork Chops Recipe - A Discovery

Today was Columbus Day.

Yet another reason to celebrate in our Cuban American household.

If you know your Cuban history, you probably know that Columbus landed somewhere in Holguin, Cuba, in October of 1492, and declared that it was "the most beautiful land human eyes have ever seen."  (My grandmother was from Holguin and this was one of her favorite things to quote.)  Columbus also decided to call the new land "Juana" in deference to Ferdinand and Isabella's son, Juan, but it was already called Cubanacan,  so the "Juana" thing never really caught on and the name was eventually shortened to Cuba.

We'll go ahead and ignore the fact that he was a bit geographically challenged.  But he had all that pressure to discover a new route to the East and make the Spanish queen look good, and yes, he did make that quick declaration that he had indeed landed in India and henceforth all native peoples shall be known as Indians and wow, did that one ever stick, (!!) but that's not important right now.

The important thing was that he discovered Cuba, Pearl of the Antilles, "the most beautiful land human eyes have ever seen."  And that's good enough for me. =D

So I created a pork dish with pork and brown sugar and lots of garlic and RUM (in honor of that whole Pirates-of-the-Caribbean-portion of Cuban history) and I discovered that if you get the rum glaze just right, you will have the "most beautiful piece of pork human eyes have ever seen."   ;-)

"But why is the rum gone??"

~ Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean - The Curse of the Black Pearl

Marta's Rum and Garlic Spiced Pork Chops Recipe

• 8 large garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 yellow onion, quartered
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. coarse ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup chili sauce
• 1/2 cup dark rum
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• Juice of three large limes (or 1/2 cup lime juice)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 -3 lbs. pork chops (the fat, boneless ones)
• garlic powder

1) Put the garlic, onion, salt, pepper, chili sauce, rum, brown sugar, and lime juice in a food processor.

2) Process until finely chopped, then drizzle with olive oil and pulse gently to mix.

3) Sprinkle pork chops with garlic powder and brown in a bit of olive oil.

4) Put chops in crockpot and pour sauce over them - it should just cover them.

5) Cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4-5 hours.

OR 15 minutes on high pressure in a pressure cooker.

But where can I get an "applause" sign?

We're back from our fabulous vacation and I'm just starting to get back into the groove of our regular life. 

I have to make lists to remind myself to do the things that I usually do without thinking.  Seriously.  I am so relaxed.

One of the novelties of being away from home is tv.  Let me explain.
In order to be able to watch tv in the valley where we live, you have to have cable and we have chosen NOT to.  Which is why Lucy and I had to travel over to Amy's to watch Gilmore Girls on Tuesday nights, but that's not important now.  I have a pretty addictive personality. It's better this way. Trust me.

Having said that, I found a wonderful and amazing thing on tv last week while on vacation - There is a FOOD NETWORK.  (Okay, so, really I knew that, but I don't get to ever watch it.)  ;-)

I was starting to really enjoy kicking it up a notch with Emeril and making a meal in 30-minutes with Rachael Ray ( is it just me, or does she kind of sound like a scary biker chick? who knew?? I had only ever seen her in PRINT! It was just a weird moment. . .) and biting my nails wondering who will be The Next Iron Chef ???

And then . . .
I came home.
And I admit I am feeling a little sad. 
So, I am back in my own little kitchen, and when I say little, I mean it's crowded with three of us in there at once. =(
And I am cooking for my usual army of people on my old-school, pedestrian stove. 
Pulling things out of my yawn-yawn-yawn Kenmore refrigerator. No state-of-the-art sub-zero for me.
I am chopping veggies on my 8x10 cutting board with my older-than-God knives. (sigh)
Poor Eric.
I start making complaining noises at him. 
"I need new knives." 
"I need a bigger kitchen." 
"I want an island." 
"I miss the food channel."

Without missing a beat, he says, "You just want your own studio audience."

Wow. Am I that transparent?  ;-)

That is why it's good I don't have tv.

BTW, I'm making Pulpeta over at Babalú today. And yes, I made it in my little, tiny, pedestrian kitchen.

But it ROCKS!! =D