Every year around this time, I start to get requests for a story or a recipe to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. It struck me that it would be fitting during this month of heritage celebration to tell the stories of Cubans who had to flee their island home to make a new life here in the U.S. So, I put out the request to my readers and you have ...
Everyone Should Have a Giant Chalkboard
Back at the beginning of the summer I had the opportunity to host a big birthday bash. It was a joint birthday party for my sister, Helen who would be turning 70 and my daughter, Amy Kikita who was going to be 29. Because we entertain so often, we have tons of dishes and silverware and vases and cups and tablecloths and all the sorts of things to ...
9/11 – Remembering
Eleven years ago today, the 11th of September, I remember awakening to the news that a plane had hit one of the World Trade Center Towers. So odd and random. It was before 6 am here in Southern California and had to take my son, Adam to school. By the time I returned home, a second plane had crashed into the second tower and the real horror of what ...
La Virgen de La Caridad – A Personal History
September 8, 1961. My family had been in the U.S. for seven long months. There was still a longing for anything or anyone that reminded us of "home." We eagerly waited for news that the revolution had failed and that the new regime had fallen and that we would soon be heading back to all things familiar. The Catholic Archdiocese of ...
Croqueta Talk
Every now and then I get invited to be a guest on someone's radio show and talk about my life and about Cuban food. I never, ever say no, but that's not important right now. Tonight at 7 pm Pacific, I'll be a guest on Silvio Canto Jr.'s radio show, along with the lovely and talented Sonia Martinez, another amazing Cuban cook who ...
Wassup En LA? A Kickstarter Project
Do you love sitcoms? Do you miss real-old-school-laugh-out-loud-funny sitcoms? Are you as tired as I am about what passes for comedy on tv sometimes? Say hello to my little friends...There's a group of very talented Cubans who are producing a fabulous bilingual comedy called "Wassup en LA?" And I've been following their ...
90 Mile Marker Giveaway – A Winner
I know I can be pretty irreverent sometimes. Another Cuban recently called me out, saying that I obviously like the "jodienda.*" *To mess with people. From the root word, "joder," which means to joke about something. However, I should warn you that even though it's accurate, it's not really a word you want to trot out ...
90 Miles to Cuba – A (little) Giveaway
I was in Florida a few months ago for the KIA Fun and Forty Challenge from Miami to Key West. My time was pretty much booked (in the best way possible) with all the fun activities connected to the trip. KIA treated us to a fabulous dinner at A & B Lobster House in Key West, after which the rest of the group wanted to meander down to Duval ...
An Afternoon in Hollywood (or How to Stress Out Your Overprotective Cuban Mother)
My kids (Lucy, 19 and Jonathan, 16) have been doing homegrown improvisational comedy for years now. I've written about this lots of times. Both of them are quite good. (Yes, I know I'm the Cuban mom and I confess to a certain amount of bias, but they are. Shut up.) So the following exchange which was initiated by Lucy came as no surprise ...
Island Girl
For as long as I can remember, summer meant finding a body of water to jump into to cool off. Simply stated, if it's hot and I see water, I want to jump in. Maybe this desire comes from having been born on an island. Surrounded by pristine and inviting blue everywhere always made me want to be a part of the liquid beauty. In Cuba, we spent our ...
