Sharing life.

Twenty-five.

That's how many steps it takes us to walk from our front door to our next-door neighbor's door.

Twenty-five steps.

And we walk those twenty-five steps dozens of times during the week (sometimes during one day, but that's not important right now).

Debbie ( the mom): "We made homemade enchiladas. Come for dinner."

Me: "I made arroz con pollo tonight. Can you bring a salad?"

Rafe (the dad): "Can we borrow an onion, some butter and a roll of paper towels?"

Our kids love each other. Their two oldest daughters are part of our regular Sunday Improv group.  They totally love introducing each other to classic movies.

Lucy babysits for their two youngest.

Eric and Rafe are great friends.

We share a meal every Friday evening, taking turns cooking.  The kids and the parents split up afterward, so we can talk about what's really happening in our lives.  They are friends, confidants, role models. When our two families are all together there are TWELVE (!) of us.

And so it goes.  We share community life at its finest. Organically. Not contrived. We just LOVE these people.

Me: "Rafe, it's my mom's birthday! Can you please come take pictures of my family?" 
(He just happens to be a FABULOUS photographer. Do I lead a charmed life, or what??)

So we take those twenty-five steps. Back and forth. Back and forth. Feeding. Helping. Borrowing stuff. Listening to each other. Driving together. Making plans. Watching movies.

Their kids: "We're making homemade pizzas tonight, Darbys. Come over at 5:30." 

The MYOP (make-your-own-pizza) was a particularly fun time. The best part of it was that it was completely spontaneous.
 
Make-your-own Pizzas

Ingredients:
Trader Joe's herb (pre-made) pizza dough
Trader Joe's pizza sauce

Assorted Cheeses:
shredded mild cheddar, jack, monterey, swiss, parmesan and mozzarella
 
Assorted toppings:
Buffalo mozzarella cheese slices
Pesto
Salami
Cooked chicken
Fresh tomatoes
Fresh diced garlic
Fresh basil
olive oil
pepperoni

Cook in a 450 degree (hot!) oven.
Cut the pizzas into small slices so that everyone can have a taste.  =D

Everyone gets at least half a pizza to add their own blend of toppings to.

The amazing variety  of pizzas. (The green and white one - pesto and chicken - was to die for!)

Add a big spinach salad and it becomes a MEAL.

And it occurs to me that as we go back and forth between our two homes, taking those twenty-five steps each way, making homemade pizzas together that we're not just sharing food, we're sharing LIFE. 

Thanks, Guajardos!  You make our lives SWEET.

Do you have neighbors that are like family?  Tell me.

Learning to do advanced geometry

One of the beautiful things about home education is that I get to learn stuff alongside my kids. 

Seriously, I think back to when I was in high school and learning Algebra and Geometry.  Well, "learning" might be a bit of an exaggeration. 

I showed up. I kind of did what I was told to do. I parroted answers that I had stored for the moment when I'd have to regurgitate them and quickly forgot what I had been "taught."  Besides, I was busy learning the things I wanted to learn.  I read voraciously. I taught myself to write.

It wasn't until I started researching homeschooling that I began to see where my own education had broken down. I was never taught how to think.

In fact, although I did well in Geometry (because I was a visual learner, a term which I'm sure my teachers back in the late 60's and 70's had never even heard of) I never quite understood Algebra.  It wasn't until I had to teach my own kids that I learned how to even do Algebra. 

Painful Flashback Memory:  I got a "D" in Algebra my freshman year of high school from Mrs. Gremmer, bless her heart.  It was a gift, really, because I think she felt sorry for me because I was trying so hard and maybe because I kissed up to her just a little, but that's not important right now. All that to say this: I just didn't get it and nobody cared.

So now I'm learning right along with them. And I couldn't be more delighted. I feel like I can learn anything. (Italian is next on my list. =D)

We're the type of family that has a dictionary at the dinner table at all times to contest a word or a spelling or a meaning of something.  (It's a lot more fun in real life than what I'm making it sound like here....) 

I once mentioned that one of the church worship leaders had a quavery voice and Eric challenged, so out came the dictionary which of course proved me correct.  =D

qua•ver (noun)
A shake or tremble in a person's voice.
Derivative: qua•ver•y (adjective)

So this week when I had some leftover picadillo and was going to make a combination emapanada/samosa, I looked to geometry to help me solve the problem.  (I know. Shut up. Go figure!)

I call them Empanadosas.

Just to prove that yes, you can use the things I'm teaching in real life. =D

I'm challenging you to do some Advanced Geometry to make these Empanadosas. 
Following this chart (which I created with Amy 's help):

Thanks Amy Kikita for your invaluable help.  The recipe is over at Babalú blog today. (I hope you're impressed.)

The truth is that this is really more my speed:  =D

Gratuitous breakfast photo

We don't (and can't) eat like this every day. 

But every now and then (usually on weekends so that Adam & Amy Kikita can be here) we make it a point to sit down to a crazy-abundant-is-that-real-bacon breakfast.

Breakfast is my favorite meal to eat out. And in typical Gemini fashion, it's my favorite meal to eat at home.

(NOTE: I don't really believe in horoscopes and all that, but it serves my purpose for this particular post to illustrate the whole eating out/eating in, Gemini/twin thing , but that's not important right now.)

The coffee was hot.
The juice was cold.
The pancakes were fluffy.
The French Toast was thick.
The bacon was crispy.
The conversation was lively.
The family was satisfied.
Success!

You wish you were here, don't you? ;-)

Fat Tuesday

Another fabulous post by Kikita

A few days ago, a box arrived at my home. And abuela was instantly excited. From the outside of the box, she and I both knew the glorious heaven that lay inside. And she reminded me about the game. About how there is a baby Jesus somewhere in the cake and whoever gets the piece with him in it has to buy the next cake.

BUT . . . there was more than just the "kingly" cake inside!

THERE WERE GOODIES!! Coffee, a cd, a magazine, Mardi Gras beads and a note:

I couldn't wait to see Sheila & her tree again . . . no, really. I couldn't.

In fact, I didn't.

I took the cake to work and had it for breakfast, lunch, tea, or any other time I felt like having it.

So, needless to say, I found the baby . . . and I may consider sending away for another cake (to actually share with Sheila this time).

Today I had 3 pieces (I was determined to find Jesus). And find him I did!

Yes, feeling rather fat now. And it's Tuesday, so I guess it's appropriate. Mardi Gras. Fat Tuesday. HA!

Well, what can I say?

Laissez le bon temps rouler!!

(Oh yeah, and THANKS BILLY!!)

Foodie patootie

I cook.
And I like to eat.
But I don't consider myself a "foodie." 

(In fact, I'm not really sure what a foodie is,  but it sounds too much like "roadie" or "groupie" for it to have a positive connotation, but that's not important right now.)

Okay, so I admit I sometimes (okay, well.... a lot of the time) sit down to read a cookbook like you would a novel. But that doesn't make me a foodie, does it?

And yes, it's true that I would totally be addicted to the Food Network if we actually had cable, which we don't because of that whole addictive-personality thing I'm constantly battling. 

So I decided to stray from my usual Cuban menu. I don't know. I was craving something hot, but not soup, maybe some kind of stew.... and I have been working harder to put fresh vegetables on the table.... 

My kids happened to be watching a movie when I suddenly had an inspiration.

Sooo... thanks to the demi-gods at Disney/Pixar, I knew exactly what I wanted to make!

Ratatouille (Vegetable Stew)

Ingredients:
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced
1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced
4 zucchini, peeled, quartered and diced
1 large eggplant, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 large can (14 1/2 oz.) diced tomatoes in puree
1/2 cup vegetable stock
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1 1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
2 Tbsp. fresh shredded basil
2 Tbsp. fresh minced Italian parsley
2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper to taste

(I made this in my pressure cooker and it only took 20 minutes of preparation and 6 minutes to cook.)

1) In a large frying pan, heat olive oil and sauté onions, garlic, green and red bell peppers until onion is soft.
2) Add zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant, vegetable stock, thyme, salt and pepper.  Cook over high heat, stirring occasionally for about 4 minutes.
3) Reduce heat to medium, cover and simmer about 15 to 20 minutes.  (Or in pressure cooker, cook at high pressure for 6 minutes) When vegetables are soft (but not mushy) it's done.
4) Add fresh basil, parsley, and balsamic vinegar.

5) Season with salt & pepper to taste.
6) Serve hot over rice.

The ratatouille was WONDERFUL! 

And in my own defense, it wasn't the cute little French-rat-cook that inspired me, it was the lingering fantasy of having my own kitchen staff:

But everybody dreams about this, right? Right??

Uh-oh... I might be a foodie, after all.  *sigh*

Emile: W-w-wait. You read?
Remy: Well, not excessively.
Emile: Oh, man. Does dad know?
Remy: You could fill a book - a lot of books - with things Dad doesn't know. And they have. Which is why I read. Which is also our secret.
Emile: I don't like secrets. All this cooking and-and reading and TV-watching, while we read and cook. It's like you're involving me in crime and I let you. Why do I let you?

                                                                                                       ~ from Disney/Pixar's Ratatouille

Making Christmas

"Making Christmas" is usually the mom's job.  At least it's always that way at my house (I'm guessing it's that way in most homes).  I do a lot of stuff anyway, but in December I kick it up to Warp Nine.  =D

This year I was especially busy because I took the time to make some special homemade gifts:

1) The Quiz books.  (Remember the quiz about the Best and Worst?)
Well,  I did it. I sent quizzes out to each member of the family.  Then I took their responses and created a page for each person. The quizzes varied from person to person.  I was very pleased with how they turned out.  Here's a sample page:

I made them for both sides of the family.   The 12x12 I bet you didn't know book for the Darbys.  The smaller 8x8, Family is something everyone can relate to  for my big, fat, Cuban family (it had to be smaller to keep the cost the same - that book had 43 pages, which means between the two books I created almost 70 pages, but that's not important right now).  All were created using Photoshop Elements 6 for the Mac. I saved the pages as jpg images and uploaded each page to Shutterfly.

The small one on the front left, 2008 - The Year of Improv was for the friends of Lucy and Jonathan who have been here every week of 2008 playing Improv games with them. I created that in iPhoto using their drag-and-drop-into-a-cute-little-book feature with short captions on a handful of pages.

They were all a huge hit. (she said modestly, polishing her nails and then admiring them.... =D)

2) Homemade Cuban egg-nog or Creme de Vie.  You can find my recipe for that right here.  Or go visit my friend, Adriana, for the Puerto Rican version which involves a coconut flavor and is called Coquito. (In fact, just go visit Adriana and educate yourself on what a Cuban-Rican Christmas looks like. =D)

The bottles are just empty wine bottles we picked up at a local wine bar (they were happy to have us recycle them).  Michael's craft store had clean corks (which made me wonder what exact craft one uses bottle corks for, but that's not important right now).  The labels I ordered from Wonderful Graffiti (I will post another day on all the writing that I have up on my walls). 

I just loved that my bottles were so decked out with those fabulously 80's looking butt-bows.  ;-)
The hanging tags I also made using Photoshop Elements 6.

3) Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies - that recipe can be found here.

We made dozens and dozens which we packaged and gave away. But we also kept a few dozen which we froze so that in January when I get post-New-Year-Christmas nostalgia we can thaw and enjoy. =D

4) Of course, we (Amy Kikita and I) made a 20 minute film (part of which you saw yesterday) and I duplicated 17 dvds and created the cover art (again using Elements) - we had to make copies for everyone and ship a few to Texas and Miami.

 

The very best part of all this Christmas-making activity (which is a lot! I realize now as I'm writing this):

I didn't have to do it all.  =D

Okay, well...yes, I did do all the graphics for the books & dvds. But because I was occupied with creating those books, my kids all stepped up and did the baking and creme-de-vie-making and packaging.  Which I thought was very cool.

They all helped bake and mix rum and condensed milk and wrap packages and make tags and all the other things that are usually Mom's domain.  I don't think I ever stopped and said specifically, "this is how you make Christmas happen..."

But obviously my love for all-things-Christmas was catching.

Which is cool because I believe that "making Christmas" is more caught than taught.  ;-)

How my mom's activities when she was young are affecting my life today

Yaaaayyy!! Kikita is posting again! :-)

'Tis the season to be busy . . . and let me tell you, work has been crazy. And when work is less than crazy, there's blogging to be done, or a video to be made, or gifts to wrap, or decorations to put up or . . . I'm getting exhausted just writing about it!

In order to maintain my sanity, I decided that this year I would make sure I kept things balanced and would do fun things for me (not just make things fun for other people - videos, decorating, etc.)

So when my dear friend, Sheila, called and asked if I wanted to go on a harbor cruise of Marina Del Rey while wine & chocolate tasting (all for a good cause), I jumped at the chance.

Yes, it all sounds so posh, doesn't it?

And it SO was! (Although, I admit, I was nervous about it being a 3 hour tour)

But once we boarded the ship and saw the chocolate spread, all nervousness quickly turned to excitement.

I. LOVE. CHOCOLATE.

We were giddy with the joys of chocolate and making our way through a SEA (ha!) of people when . . .

BAM!! A face I recognize! So, naturally, I started screaming like a girl.

It was Mia. She has known me since BEFORE I WAS BORN! She is very good friends with my cousin, Little Helen. (In fact, Helen is married to Mia's cousin Daryl - which makes Mia my cousin too! - but that's not important right now) There's more. Mami used to hang with Helen & Mia, and I believe there was even a Bruce Springsteen concert involved at some point . . . but you'd have to ask Mami, it was before my time. ;-)

I'm busy screaming and trying to explain to Sheila who this person is, but the minute she hears, "Mia" Sheila too starts screaming. Apparently, the friend that had told Sheila about the event had been telling her how she "JUST. HAD. TO. MEET. MIA!"

It was just too cool and too exciting to be written off as a "coincidence."

It was one of those amazing moments that only God could have orchestrated. 

Cruising the harbor (which was GORGEOUS with all the Christmas lights), sipping wine, tasting chocolate, talking, laughing, a bit of dancing (of course), and Mia.

It was a magical of the evening. One that wouldn't have been made possible if it weren't for Sheila, Helen del, Mami, Bruce, and Mia.  What's really fun is to think that these wheels had been set in motion waaay back in the early 80's and look where we are in the present! Yes. A present. Because this totally feels like a GIFT!

Love you, Mia!

General rules have exceptions, don't they?

So, as a general rule I don't eat donuts.  Nothing against them.  But I don't love donuts.  I don't go out of my way to pick up a donut at church on Sunday (which is where I'm most likely to have a run-in with a donut, but that's not important right now).

See?  Donuts are not even on my radar.

But we had to go to Borders and to Best Buy today which meant we had to drive by here:

And when the hot doughnuts sign is on, well, I guess..... it makes me want to have a donut! Although, let me reiterate that as a general rule, I don't eat donuts!

But these are not just ANY donut, of course.  A Krispy Kreme Original Glazed.   See?  So suddenly I know what classes donuts are to be found in. 

I know species and genus and I could quickly sort them into a pleasing configuration for maximum eating pleasure.

I don't eat donuts as a general rule, remember? Except for when we drive near Krispy Kremes and that HOT NOW sign comes on and the smell hits me and I throw caution to the wind and I order a DOZEN Original Glazed - straight out of the oven.

Okay, so technically the "no donut" thing is really more of a loose guideline than a hard and fast rule.  =D
(you wish you were me. =D)

Somebody in Wisconsin (who has recently been to Spain) loves me!

My friend and fellow blogger, the class-factotum (linked over on the right under Smart Cuban Women and Friends) was recently wed.  She and her new husband honeymooned in (among other places) Spain.  C-F was kind enough to send me this little gem right here:

Yeah, baby!  That's pimentón - paprika's smokier and spicier Spanish cousin. 

If you don't already know, you can add this stuff to anything.  It adds an amazing smoky flavor to any kind of food.

Are you grilling meat, chicken, or fish?  Add pimentón for a bit of color and a whole lot more.

But what else?  Umm.... ANYTHING else!

Bean soups.  Eggs. (EGGS!!) Potatoes. Roasted Asparagus. Paella. (PAELLA!!)

I can't even tell you how excited I am about having my very own Spanish Pimentón in the house. (I feel taller somehow... =D)

I ran out and got some baby-back pork ribs and made them (ahem) in the crockpot ... WAIT! I've said too much!

You'll just have to wait until tomorrow when I post that recipe on Babalú blog.  ;-)

In the meantime, go visit my friend at her fabulous blog: The class-factorum speaks. 

Tell her Marta from MBFCF sent you.  Thanks again, C-F!  (MUAH!)

(P.S. - are there any other pimentón lovers out there?)

NOTE: La Chinata Pimentón available online at LaTienda.com.

So accidentally cool . . .

Yes, of course it's me, Kikita. Who else would be accidental in their coolness? =D

Now that I've turned 25, I swear something is different about me. I spent 25 years saying, "This is not my real life," because my life really is a novela and I always find myself in "movie-like" situations (Meaning: "If I saw this in a movie, I would not believe it could happen in real life"), but I have finally come to terms with this and now embrace my novela/movie-like life.

So when a girlfriend of mine who lives in L.A. calls and invites me to go wine tasting with her on a Tuesday evening, I didn't hesitate.

A few disclaimers: I am really not that into wine and have never been interested in "going wine tasting." The only reason I so readily agreed was because I rarely see this friend, and am still trying to get to know her better, and because I did not mind the activity so long as I could enjoy her fabulous company.

So she emailed me a link to the event and said all I had to do was buy my ticket and meet her there. Fair enough. I got the link and was buying my ticket when I found that this event I was going to was a fundraiser for Women's Cancer Research. AND it was Argentinian wines so you know what that means . . . there will be Argentinos there!

As I pulled into the parking lot of the Skirball Cultural Center I was already starting to feel very cool . . .

I mean, I was at a fundraiser. In L.A.  Tasting wine.   Does it get any cooler than that?

I must confess, I had NO IDEA what I was doing. And when my friend called to tell me she was running late I was TOTALLY freaked out.
I kept wondering, "Where is that confidence I'm so known for?"
The answer I gave myself was, "I'm surrounded by wine and I'm a cute blond so how hard could this be?"
Let me tell you, it was not hard at all.

I started by walking by each table and just people watching. It was fascinating. Finally I started tasting. I know I didn't do it right, but I had been watching, not everyone was doing the "swirl and smell" technique so I elected not to. I would let people explain things to me that meant nothing to my world . . . like how this one was aged in oak barrels and this one was in steel and this has a fuller body while this was . . . it all became a blur.

Until I found The Empanada Man. He brought three kinds of empanadas with him: pollo, carne, & espinaca (chicken, beef, & spinach). As I had with the wine, I started slowly.

Just one empanada de pollo please.

Ahora una de carne por favor.

Otra de pollo . . . (I couldn't help it, they were DELICIOUS!)

When my friend finally arrived and it was like starting the whole evening over again, but this time I had a pro by my side so I learned so much more! And then I told her about my favorite table - The Empanada Man.

THIS time he introduced himself and then said, "Eres Cubana, verdad?"

We were surrounded by Argentinos, so HOW DID HE KNOW?!?!

Did I really care how he knew? Not at all.  All that mattered was that a non-Cuban at a non-Cuban event actually thought I was Cuban (instead of just some blond girl who could speak Spanish).

GLOWING, I told him he was right.

I was a Cuban at an Argentinian Wine Tasting Fundraiser for Women's Cancer Programs in LA.

If you saw that in a movie, would you believe it?

I feel SO accidentally cool.