I don't know what staple of my kitchen I love more than olive oil. Extra virgin olive oil to be exact. (Please don't call it EVOO in my presence, that's just weird. Thank you.) So I was delighted when the good folks at Crisco contacted me and asked if I'd like to receive a basket of their goodies. (Well, technically, a basket of ...
Nature and Nurture
I homeschool my kids. Lucy is now 16 and a junior in high school. Jonathan just turned 14 and is in 8th grade. We've been at this wonderful, terrifying, exasperating, delicious experiment for the past 8 years and in retrospect, I don't, for even a moment, regret our decision to take on this mighty task. Lucy was in the 3rd grade in our ...
Gimme Shelter
1. We've been doing weather. 2. I decided to make homemade chicken soup, Cuban-style. (I know. Shut up.) But.... 3. I had my (95 year old, very, very opinionated!) CUBAN mom with me when I made it. That means that I was able to achieve The Perfect Storm. The story and my recipe for Sopa de Pollo (Cuban-style Chicken Soup) is posted over at ...
Fresh and Easy Does It Every Time!
The following post has been brought to you by the lovely and talented Kikita (who is still practicing her cooking skills).There are perks to being Mami's "driver/photographer." I get to see and do a lot of cool things.I'm sure Mami has every intention of sharing with you the fantastic experience that came from ...
Birth of an Heirloom
There are things that I treasure, not because they have monetary value, but because they are special to me. That's the way I decorate my home. I ask: Do I love it? Does it have meaning to me? If I waffle on the answer, it just doesn't make the cut. I have a similar process with my jewelry. I confess that I own stuff that may not be ...
“Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”
We're having weather here in So Cal. According to the Weather Service, it's Severe Weather. (Which is weatherman speak for it's-been-raining-like-crazy-all-week-and-we-don't-know-what-to-wear-or-how-to-drive, but that's not important right now.) In the past two days there have been tornado watches and sleet and hail. ...
Ab Fab
I've been helping my friend, Tamera (she of the Amazing Good Taste and Style) put together a blog. (I am super excited about this project, as I believe she is the Embodiment of Fabulousness and can't wait for her to share her amazingly creative lifestyle with the blogosphere, but that's not important right now.) Well, technically, ...
The Writing is On the Wall
We have lived in our current home for nine years now. Before that we were bottom-dwelling-month-to-month renters. (Not to disparage the month-to-month thing, but it was such a grand and glorious feeling to finally own our own home that it completely lifted us up and out of our feelings of inferiority, but that's not important right now.) I ...
Epicuriouser and curiouser…
So, I'm still recovering from the Comelatas that defined the month of December for me. And I'm still struggling to migrate my files from the old Mac G5 to the new (Thank you, God and my sweet husband!) Macbook Pro laptop. There have been multiple trips to the Apple store to consult Geniuses and of course there's a learning curve, but ...
Where are you now, Gaspar, Melchor, & Baltazar?
Back in the day, (that would be Cuba, 1961. After Castro, but before he canceled Christmas) my family, like most other Cubans (and Puerto Ricans and others of Hispanic descent) celebrated El Dia de Los Tres Reyes Magos on January 6th. The Day of the Three Kings. The evening of January 5th, we kids would get ourselves to bed early and look forward ...
