I'm still laughing at how seriously you all take your "taka taka" and how often you celebrate National Coffee Day. Some of you, it seems, celebrate National Coffee Hour, but that's not important right now. ;-) I hope you enjoyed the "Taka Taka Time" video. I laugh out loud every time I watch it. It's obvious that ...
Archives for September 2011
National Coffee Day – It’s “taka taka” time! (A Coffee Giveaway, too.)
Don't ask me how I know these things. I just do. This is one of those geeky things that has gotten stuck in my brain and screams to be celebrated. Like Hobbit Day, which we always celebrate elaborately. Or like Pi Day, which also happens to be Albert Einstein's birthday. Or even Star Wars Day ("May the 4th be with you!" - ...
Cuando Sali de Cuba – Jorge’s Story
Marta here: Welcome to my ongoing celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month: Cuban-Style with a series of stories about Cuban American families and how they ended up here in the U.S.:Cuando Sali de Cuba, stories of courage and hope. Today I want to introduce you to my friend, Jorge Carmona. He is one of the Cuban masterminds behind Dos Cubanos Pig ...
¡Sabor! Cookbook Winner
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 ...
Rice. An in-depth look. (And a giveaway.)
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 ...
Cuban Coffee Basket – A Winner
First, I'd like to thank you all for your awesome response to this "Cuando Sali de Cuba" series. I love having the opportunity to share your stories. I'm so very grateful to Maria Elena for sharing her story. The image of her holding that doll waving goodbye is still stuck in my head. I have lots more stories to share, and if ...
Cuando salí de Cuba – Maria Elena’s story + A Giveaway
Marta here: I'm celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month: Cuban-Style with a series of stories about Cuban American families: Cuando Sali de Cuba, stories of courage and hope. Today's story comes from MS. She owns and operates the online store, A Taste of Cuba. *Tissue warning!* I was born in ...
The Circle of Life – Lion King 3D and Eternal Disney Uber-geeks
Back in 1994, I took Amy and Adam to the premiere of the Disney film, The Lion King at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood. This was obviously before Lucy and Jonathan were born. We all loved the film so much that we couldn't wait to own it when it was released on VHS. (Yes, this is waaay back in the day.) A few years later, when we added ...
Fricase de Pollo Recipe – a lo Cubano
As you know, I've recently been participating in Mizkan's™ Cooking Challenges. See here and here. To kick off Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 through October 15), we were asked to share a recipe from our country, or "Receta de Mi Pais." For this challenge, I chose to enter one of my ...
Cuando salí de Cuba – Christina’s story
Marta here: I'm celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month: Cuban-Style with a series of stories about Cuban American families: Cuando Sali de Cuba, stories of courage and hope. This one is from my friend and fellow blogger, Christina Gomez-Pina. Inspired by the book/film Julie & Julia, she has embarked on her own Project: to celebrate ...
La Mala Letra – my cousin, the dissident Cuban blogger
As many of you know, I still have family in Cuba. Aunts, uncles, cousins and their offspring. We used to be thick as thieves back in the day, but time and distance and a repressive dictatorship has managed to destroy what close relations we had. I have a cousin in Cuba, who is my age. (One of the few photos of us together from ...
A lesson in Male vs. Female problem solving
We have had some seriously schizophrenic weather here in the O.C. in the past week. First there was a string of really ridiculously surface-of-the-sun type hot days in the 100+ range. Then, poof! The hot weather disappeared and there was a thunder-lightning-downpour with a nice cool breeze. All that to say that when the weather changes in ...
It takes a village. (iVillage to be exact.)
According to Wikipedia: Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15–October 15) in the United States is the period when people recognize the contributions of Hispanic Americans to the United States and to celebrate Hispanic Cultural heritage and Hispanic culture. Hispanic Heritage Week was approved by President Lyndon Johnson and was ...
Ten years later. I will never forget.
Ten years ago at the end of September of 2011, my daughter and Amy went to New York City. We were there exactly two weeks after Muslim jihadists flew airplanes into the World Trade Center buildings and left a gaping hole in the New York skyline and in our collective American consciousness. The wreckage was still smoldering and burning and the ...
Why I * heart* Amazon
My family and I are all voracious bibliophiles. Voracious. Personally, I don't care either way if the book is the old-school paper kind or a good e-book. I love to read. Full stop. I have been loving the free Kindle for iPad app because I can store dozens of books on my iPad and make notes and add highlights and do all the things I ...
Da life.
We just returned from an amazing cruise vacation in the Caribbean. And while our bodies are physically back home, our brains are still here: Me & Eric in Barbados. (I think he looks like a mad scientist in his swim goggles, but that's not important right now.) I swear, I haven't got one original thought in my head right now. ...
