A Century of Life

My mom, Luza, of Cuco and Yayo fame, will be celebrating her 100th birthday in a few weeks.

100.

A century.

If you've been reading my blog for a while you know that she gives me some of my best material. She's still pretty funny and with it. And I appreciate that you've all come to know and love her.

We're going to be celebrating, of course. That's what we do best. She's very excited about her party, too.

I'd love it if you would join us in wishing Luza a Happy 100th Birthday.

Please leave a comment here on this post with your good wishes. I'm going to be compiling all the greetings into a book to be presented to her on the actual day, Sunday, February 23rd. 

She reads in both English and Spanish, so send your greeting in the language that is most comfortable for you.

Also, she loves stuff like this.

Gracias.

In case you haven't seen this already, please enjoy my mom (back when she was only 96!) explaining how the internet search engines work.

I give you.....Cuco and Yayo.

The Best of MBFCF in 2013

I'm looking at my calendar and it's already the 8th day of 2014. I was planning on taking a few days off at the beginning of the year and wow, did they go by quickly!

Come to think of it, 2013 feels like it went by pretty quickly also. Is it just me, or is this one of those things people tend to repeat a lot as they get old? Shut up. Don't even say it!

This past year has been quite eventful in lots of ways, which makes me happy that I blog (and scrapbook) because I would otherwise forget the thoughts and events and conversations I've had this past year. I know. There's that getting old thing again. Stop it.

Here are the top posts for each month of 2013. (Time is seriously flying, isn't it?)

Drum roll, please.

1.The Things I Didn't Blog About in 2012 - Luza - in which I confess my growing discomfort with my mom aging and how our roles are shifting.

2. #LookAtMyFood in which I continue to overshare what exactly I had for breakfast, lunch, and dinner via Instagram. (Also, if you don't already, you should follow me. I'm Smrtqbn.) I'm really very good about sharing my food.

3. Cuban Word of the Day - in which I share my delight at being honored by the wonderful artists from Wassup En LA? in their Cuban Word of the Day segment. (Technically it was 3 words - Pastelitos de Guayaba - but that's not important right now.)

4. 99 Red Balloons in which I share how we celebrated my mom, Luza's 99th birthday. Cute video attached to that post, too.

5. Ahora Sí! in which I tell about the night I finally got to meet Andy Garcia. (I know. I still can't believe it. Pinch me!)

6. Hello, Outdoor Movie Nights - in which I list all the great movies we have to choose from for our Summer Backyard Movie Theater. Also, it always marks the official beginning to our summer. And this pleases me greatly.

7. "If you build it..." - in which I celebrate the wonderful farmhouse table that my kids built for me.

8. Hurry up...and wait - in which I tell the story of Jonathan's first acting job in a feature film. (Now that I told you, I'll probably have to kill you.)

9. We Visited Coffee Heaven and Lived to Tell the Tale - in which I describe (in great over-sharingly detailed detail) our wonderful visit to the Gaviña Coffee plant.

10. My Big, Fat, FROZEN, Cuban family - in which I gush (yes, there's gushing) about my day at the Walt Disney Animation Studios and the making of the animated feature, FROZEN. Also, the Disney Animators made me a personal video which totally put me over the edge.

11. ALL the Picadillo at the Blurb Books Food Fair in which I share about my visit to San Francisco and how I got to cook for lots of hungry book buyers. Also, there's a very cool video they did about me and my picadillo.

12. Cuban Picadillo Pies^® - in which I developed a new and fun way to eat and share picadillo. (<--also, what a weird descriptive sentence that was!)

Thanks to all of you who have been faithfully following MBFCF for all these years or who have just found me in the last year. I write this blog mostly for myself, so it genuinely pleases me when you respond so generously to my over-sharing.

Also, did the year just fly by for you, too? (I know. Old. Shut up.)

Happy New Year, my friends!

The Cuban Hipster Thanksgiving

When I host family or friends for a big, elaborate dinner, my delight is in designing the tablescapes.

My job, as I see it, is to create a warm and welcoming atmosphere, but not get too hung up on making things so department-store-perfect that it feels too cold and impersonal. It's fun for me to set a pretty table. It's much more fun to make the people who come into my home feel that they are truly welcome.

Originally, I wanted real chalkboard tablecloths so that we could write on them or play tic-tac-toe or whatever. My daughter, Amy Kikita and I spent a good long time on Pinterest, getting ideas and pinning inspiration. (If you're on Pinterest and you're not already following me, you totally should! Here's my link.)

We found that a roll of chalkboard cloth was a bit too pricey, so we attempted to paint sections of kraft paper with chalkboard paint. The result was not at all satisfying.

I ended up going with a 50 foot roll of black, glossy paper that I found at Hobby Lobby that we then cut and pieced together to cover the tables. We used Simply Tacky to hold them in place.

(Note: They just opened a Hobby Lobby in our area code recently and I am super inspired every time I go in there. They have everything! Who knew?)

I was originally going to tag the glasses with each person's name because it's super important to me that everyone has their place at the table, so place cards are always at the top of my list. Amy suggested we just paint "plate circles" and write their names right on the chalkboard tablecloth paper. Genius.

I used one of my plates as a guide and just drew a circle at each place, then wrote in the person's name in the center. I used White Chalk Markers which dried quickly and looked really fun and friendly. So here we were on our way to the most Hipstery Thanksgiving ever.

I didn't worry too much about making the circles perfect, as you can see.

On each table for the centerpieces, I put the silverware and napkins in caddies and dropped the forks, knives, and spoons in mason jars with tags to finish off the cool look.

I had 32 people here. THIRTY-TWO. Of course, we had to move furniture to fit them all into our freakishly small cottage-sized home.

I had three tables set. One was our regular dining table which seats six. The second was actually created by putting two eight foot long tables together which seated fourteen. (We had to move furniture out of our living room to do this, but that's not important right now. Did I mention my house was freakishly small?) And my beautiful farm table, which lives outside on the patio, seated twelve. The kids were seated alongside the adults. No kids table for them this time.

I added some succulents in baskets next to the caddies. And added a gratitude quote in a decorative mini picture frame. We cut some branches from the green belt across the street and added those for color and texture. So hipster, no?

We set out the tall altar candles (I picked them up at our local Target store). We put the napkins in tin buckets and tea lights in mini mason jars and tin cans. Tin cans, people! I actually washed out tin cans to use on my table!

I was worried my mother was going to have a stroke when she saw this whole set up, but she was delighted and amazed at how elegant the whole thing looked in spite of the simple (read "barbarian") touches. (Win!)

There were two (!) turkeys and lots of delicious sides and plenty of desserts. I opted for just a plain white cloth for the food table and made the chalkboard menu board the focal point to keep with my chalkboard theme.

My family came early and stayed late. And there was sooo much food left over, as there always is. We Cubans are "exajerados" when it comes to food, am I right? (I'm right.)

So, I had made sure everyone was able to take home some leftovers. I ordered the take out boxes from an online supply place and added chalk tags.

 The consensus was that a good time was had by all. Even the not-so-hipsters.

Habana Brand Clothing - A Winner

First of all, I'd like to thank Habana Brand Clothing for being so supportive of My Big, Fat, Cuban Family in everything I do here.

Secondly, I'm so grateful to all of you who faithfully read, and follow along with my blogging adventures and enter my fun giveaways. I'm grateful that you're the ones who have made this little corner of cyberspace such a great place to hang out. Gracias.

Congratulations to...

Martha, you won! Please send me an email with your mailing address and HEY, MARTA! I WON STUFF ON YOUR BLOG! in the subject line (so I don't accidentally delete it).

I'll forward to my good friends at Habana Brand Clothing and you can let them know which shirt you want and what size and all that and they will send out your goodies ASAP. You will be sooo proud to represent. I promise.

Also, don't miss any of their new designs and promotions, follow Habana Brand Clothing on Facebook. And love them on Instagram. You can thank me later.

Thank you again to everyone who participated. You make me so happy.

Habana Brand Clothing (MBFCF Giveaway #7)

There's still a whole lot of celebrating going on around here.

I'm the kind of person who likes to celebrate birthdays for the entire month, so celebrating my 7 years in the blogosphere really does deserve a month-long celebration, but that's not important right now.

Also, I've been busy lining up the very best the Cuban community has to offer for My Big, Fat, Cuban Family readers. So thanks to your wonderful response, this is going to be a really fun giveaway.

Let me tell you what I have in store for you today.

My wonderful friends at Habana Brand Clothing have very generously offered the following giveaway to celebrate my 7 Bloggywonderful Years. You probably remember Roland from his beautiful Cuando Sali de Cuba story that he shared with us last year.

Here's just a taste of the Habana Brand Fabulousness that you sooo want to be a part of:

Lucy and Jonathan looking sooo accidentally cool in their Habana Brand shirts.

The winner will receive both:

1. A Habana Brand T-shirt - they have some amazing designs that you get to choose from.
2. A 16 x 20  poster - you can choose from one of 5 beautiful designs.

This is my favorite.

To enter this drawing for A Habana Brand Shirt and Poster of Your Choice, please leave a comment on this post and answer one or both of the following questions:

• Do you love wearing your Cubanness for the world to see? (Or is the word, Cubanity?)
• Do you have Cuban art in your home?

Please leave your comment on this post and I'll choose one winner on Friday, October 25th, 2013 at 11am PST.

2) For an extra entry, please go "like" Habana Brand Clothing on Facebook and come back and leave me another comment telling me:  

• "I like Habana Brand Clothing!"

So that's not one, but two entries. Because that's the way I roll...

Seven Years. (MBFCF Giveaway WEEK!)

You know that I'm all about celebrating.

Big events. Birthdays. Anniversaries. Summer. Dinner. I believe in celebrating. Often. And well.

Today marks my 7th anniversary here in this space. SEVEN.

My big, fat, Cuban family is 7 years old today. And so I'm celebrating. *fires off the confetti canon*

But first you have to sit through the usual recap of my 7 years in the Blogosphere. 7 years, people! I totally deserve a party. Or at least a recap. But before the 7 year recap, how about a celebratory video?

Yes, I think a video would be perfect. Enjoy!

Did you know I also have a YouTube Channel? I know. The over-sharing never ends.

Also, if you're following me on Instagram, you'd recognize that most of my life takes place at #CasaDeLaLoma. I'm Smrtqbn, by the way. (See what I did there?)

Year One. October 1st, 2007. I was delighted to have found my voice and an audience.

Year Two. October 1st, 2008. I was taking care of my family and sharing the stuff I had cooked. And people liked it. Who knew?  I also wrote a cookbook that year, which gave me something to give away. And so the giving away commenced in earnest.

Year Three. October 1st, 2009. Three years? I was amazed that I had been able to keep at it for so long. And I fell in love with you, my readers. Always kind and ever gracious. I felt like I had won the lotto.

Year Four. October 1st, 2010. I could have graduated from an institution of higher learning with a degree. Bachelor's in Bloggology?

Year Five. October 1st, 2011. It was a rough year, filled with some physical challenges, but then I became the "little Cuban that could" and just kept right on writing. (<--That last bit took tremendous grammatical focus, as do most of my blog posts, but that's not important right now.)

Year Six. October 1st, 2012. Six years. Add lots of great experiences and some amazing blog-friends later, I was still standing. Seriously so much to celebrate.

Which brings us to today.

Year Seven. I am so very grateful that I get to write and you are still there, reading and sharing your lives with me. You get my sense of humor and you seem to enjoy my writing style.

I have met so many of you in person and I'm always amazed and humbled by your enthusiastic response to whatever silly things I'm up to. I enjoy hearing from you on Facebook and Twitter and (even if I don't respond right away) I love receiving your emails.

And yes, of course I'm going to get to the giveaway, but first I want to say thank you. I would not be doing this at all if it wasn't for my awesome online and (for some of you) now real life friends.

Thank you. From the bottom of my big, fat, Cuban heart. Seriously. Thank you.

You may have noticed that I've changed up the banner up on top there and added color. It makes me happy and I hope you'll enjoy the things I've got coming up this year.

I have so much to celebrate!

In fact, I'm going to be celebrating ALL WEEK. From today, October 1st, 2013 through October 7th, 2013.

Seven glorious days and seven fun-filled nights of celebrating that I've survived and possibly even thrived right here on the internet. For this next week I've lined up some wonderful Cuban friends that I've met because of my blog who have graciously agreed to sponsor some very cool giveaways every single day for the ENTIRE WEEK to celebrate each of my SEVEN bloggy years.

I can officially call this MBFCF Giveaway Week! (7 days and all that...) Yay!

To kick things off - here's MBFCF Blogiversary Giveaway #1

My Big, Fat, Cuban Family Cookbook

An autographed copy of My Big, Fat, Cuban Family Cookbook. I know. Shut up.

Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win my cookbook and please answer the following question:

• When and how did you find My big, fat, Cuban family?

I'll choose a winner at the end of MBFCF Blogiversary Giveaway Week on Wednesday, October 9th, 2013 at 11 am, so you have lots of time to enter.

Thank you again and let the celebrating begin!

The Cubans: Our Footprints Across America (A Winner)

When I first read Fernando Hernandez's book, The Cubans; Our Footprints Across America, I was intrigued. I read through and was impacted by two things:

1. The scope and reach of the Cuban community is not a small thing.
2. Our stories are so familiar and yet absolutely unique.

Thank you all who left such beautiful and poignant comments about your lives. If you haven't already, please consider sending me your complete "coming to America" stories to include in my Cuando Sali de Cuba feature.

The book, The Cubans; Our Footprints Across America is available on Amazon. (Click this link, or look over to the right on my sidebar.)

The winner of the book, The Cubans; Our Footprints across America is:

**************************************************************

**************************************************************

Congratulations, Nancy!

Please send me an email with your mailing address and put: HEY MARTA! I WON STUFF ON YOUR BLOG! in the subject line (so I don't accidentally delete it) and I will forward to Fernan who will get your book to you ASAP.

Thank you, again, to Fernando "Fernan" Hernandez for his generosity in providing this book for my readers and for so fearlessly and eloquently telling our stories. He believes, as I do, that we Cubans have to keep letting the world know the cause of our exile. We musn't be shy in explaining that communism ripped all we love from us and that we have survived and thrived and that we have a brave generation of parents that we can never completely and adequately thank for their sacrifices.

In Fernan's own words,

"One of my goals before I depart this existence is to see erected a statue in a free Havana honoring our Pedro Pan parents, their suffering during the separation period from us was incalculable."

Amen.

Carne Con Papas Recipe

The Question

I work from my home, and I homeschool my kids, which means I field all kinds of questions from them all day long. And even though I love to cook and try out tons of recipes and nothing makes me happier than hungry mouths to fill, there is one particular question that always makes me feel pressured:

“What’s for dinner?”

(I hear it in a growling, distorted, horror-movie voice with scary harpsichord music playing.)

Even though I plan menus and usually know what I’m making, the question still paralyzes me.

It’s probably some latent test anxiety left over from high school. I somehow feel like I’m on the spot and I’d better get the answer right - or . . . DIE. (buahahahaha! Insert crashing thunder and lightning effects here.)

Enter my crockpot, which I (obviously) love. I love being able to fix something in the morning and forget about it all day. It gives me a happy feeling of accomplishment. It's like having a Cuban grandmother in the house serving up the very best comfort food there is.

But here's the most compelling reason for my unnatural attachment to my crockpot: it preempts the dreaded question, because, they can peek in the pot early in the day and know what they can look forward to at dinnertime. Not only that, but the smell of whatever is happening in the kitchen starts wafting through the house and all I get is positives: “Dinner smells awesome.” "Whatever you made is going to be great!" "Should we set the table now?" (ok, that last one was really more of a fantasy. . =D)

I usually set the timer on the bread machine so that the smell of freshly baking bread coincides with dinnertime and the olfactory overload completely disorients them. They get so focused on what they are smelling, that all other senses become useless. It doesn’t even matter what I’m making any more, because the smells are making them salivate and sing my praises before they get to the table. Yes, I admit it’s manipulative. But it works.

Too bad this process doesn’t translate to the internet, because on Wednesdays I usually find an email in my inbox from Val wondering what I’m cooking for Babalú on Thursdays.

Can you guess the subject line?

Carne con Papas Recipe

• Olive oil (twice around the pan)
• ½ small white onion, chopped
• ½ green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• ½ tsp. ground cumin
• ¼ tsp. salt
• ¼ tsp. pepper
• 2 tablespoons bijol
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes
• 2 lbs. beef stew meat
• 2 white potatoes (cut into small cubes)
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 4 cups beef boullion (6 cubes)

1) Make the boullion with 6 cubes and 4 cups water.

2) Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Saute the onion, green pepper and garlic until the onion is translucent.

3) Add cumin, salt, pepper, bijol, and bay leaves.

4) Add tomato sauce and cook for about a minute. Just to heat through.

5) Put the rest of the ingredients into the crockpot.

6) Cook on low setting for 6-8 hours.

NOTE: If you’re impatient and not intimidated by it, you can make this same thing in a pressure cooker.

Follow steps 1-4, but put in a pressure cooker instead of a crockpot.

Following manufacturer’s directions, cook under 15 pound pressure for about 45 minutes.

Cuban S'mores Recipe. Believe it.

We're gearing up for the 4th of July around here. And frankly, that means All-American food. Burgers and hot dogs and stuff like that.

Eric picked up a fire-bowl-thing a few weeks ago from Home Depot. He thought it might be fun to enjoy a fire in our back yard every now and then. And he was right. We're kind of loving it. 

The combination of 4th of July, hot dogs, summer, and fire-bowl-thingy just scream "S'mores!" to me.

When I was a girl scout and went on my first camping trip, "s'mores" were on the menu. I was about 10 years old and still fairly new to this country.

All of us were given un-bent (<--is that a word?) wire coat hangers and marshmallows and I followed the lead of the other girls as they put their marshmallows into the fire. What strange food ritual was I being initiated into? 

"S'mores!" They said it with such passion. What was this food that inspired so much ecstasy?

Then I tasted my first s'more. And I got it.

The passage of time has not diminished my love of the graham cracker with melted marshmallows and chocolate prepared over an open flame, but I felt like it needed something slightly different. Maybe a touch of....Cubanity? (<--is that a word?)

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce you to..... *drum roll, please*

Cuban S'mores Recipe!

I know you're already asking, "How is this fabulousness achieved?"

The secret is in the Marias. Maria cookies instead of graham crackers. Genius. (Deliciously genius.)

INGREDIENTS

• Marshmallows
• Chocolate bars (broken into pieces)
• Maria Cookies (You heard right. MARIAS! It's what gives this s'more its Cubanity.)

1) Heat the marshmallow over an open flame until it begins to melt and brown on the outside.

2) Place a few squares of the chocolate on a Maria cookie.

3) Place the hot, cooked marshmallow on the chocolate.

4) Sandwich with another Maria cookie. If you like the taste of more chocolate, place more squares over the marshmallow before you top with the other cookie.

5) Allow the marshmallow to cool just a bit before eating.

Come back here and tell me how much you love this.

You're welcome!

You can get Maria cookies online at the Cuban Food Market.

{Full disclosure: This idea came from one of my Facebook followers. If you are not yet part of that "relajo," please follow My Big, Fat, Cuban Family on Facebook. Who knows what they will think of next? Damn Cubans.}

Whole Roast Chicken - Pollo Asado

Lost In Translation

My son, Adam is a handsome guy. (Okay, I know I’m his mom and all that, but I am being truly objective here. Shut up.) And even though he’s not fluent in Spanish, he can defend himself pretty well for the most part.

Adam

So he was visiting my mom (his grandmother) the other day. She speaks as much English as he does Spanish. (Ay Dios mio!)

Adam to me via text: What does ‘mono’ mean?

Me in reply: Monkey.

Adam: Doesn’t ‘pollo’ mean chicken?

Me: Yes. Why do you ask?

Adam: I think she’s insulting me.

Me: She’s not insulting you. Take whatever she’s saying as a complement.

Adam: She called me a monkey and then said I was chicken.

I know there’s been something completely lost in translation, so I call my mom and ask what it was that she said to Adam.

My mom: “Nada. Lo encontre muy mono y le dije que esta hecho un pollo.”

I clarify: “Adam, she thinks you’re handsome and you look great.”

Adam: “Damn Cubans.”

Me: “I’ll just take that as a complement.” =D

Chicken

Pollo Asado (Roast Chicken)

• 2- 4 lb. Roasting chickens
• Freshly ground salt and pepper
• Ground cumin
• Ground thyme
• 1 bunch of fresh thyme
• 2 large heads of garlic, cut in half, cross-wise
• 2 lemons – cut in half
• 4 Tbsp. Melted butter
• 2 large red onions, sliced

(Instructions are for one, but I always make two)

1) Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

2) Remove the guts (giblets and such) from the cavity and rinse the chicken inside and out.

3) Pat the outside completely dry.

4) Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the cavity.

5) Liberally sprinkle the ground cumin and ground thyme also inside the cavity.

6) Stuff the cavity with a bunch of the fresh thyme, all of the cross-wise sliced head of garlic, and both halves of the lemon. (Yes, just fearlessly shove them in there!)

Stuffed

7) Brush the outside of the chicken with the melted butter and sprinkle again with salt, pepper, thyme and cumin.

8) You can tie the legs together at this point if you prefer, with kitchen string.

9) Place chicken on a foil-lined pan that’s been scattered with the onion slices.

10) Roast the chicken for about 1 and 1/2 hours. The juices should run clear when it’s done.

11) Remove to a warmed serving dish and cover with foil.

12) I like to serve it with smashed red roasted potatoes.

13) Here’s an added bonus, when the chicken has been carved, dig into the cavity, past the lemons until you find the garlic and thyme. Butter a piece of bread and carefully spread the roasted garlic and thyme over the bread.

Bread

Now that’s what I call doubling my pleasure. Buen Provecho!

// <![CDATA[ var pfHeaderImgUrl = '';var pfHeaderTagline = '';var pfdisableClickToDel = 0;var pfHideImages = 0;var pfImageDisplayStyle = 'right';var pfDisablePDF = 0;var pfDisableEmail = 0;var pfDisablePrint = 0;var pfCustomCSS = '';var pfBtVersion='1';(function(){var js, pf;pf = document.createElement('script');pf.type = 'text/javascript';if('https:' == document.location.protocol){js='https://pf-cdn.printfriendly.com/ssl/main.js'}else{js='http://cdn.printfriendly.com/printfriendly.js'}pf.src=js;document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(pf)})(); // ]]</p></div>