In our many years of homeschooling we have had the most excellent good fortune to meet some wonderful families along the way. The very best part is that many of our friendships had their start in our homeschool years and continue now as those kids are graduating college and making their way in life. Let me introduce you today to our friends, Lizz ...
Friends
Albisa Candles – Home of the Cuban Bread
A few weeks ago an Instagram post was brought to my attention. I was tagged in a photo of a candle. Interesting but what does that have to do with...WHAT?! It's scented like Cuban Bread??!! This immediately caught my imagination. What is this sorcery? I reposted it and shared it with my followers online. With the ...
You Totally Need Guavette in Your Life
I'm continuing to celebrate my 13 Years in the Blogosphere and it's been an absolutely wonderful experience for me. Mostly because I'm so delighted to introduce so many fabulous businesses to you this month. Today I'd like to introduce you to Guavette. Her real name is Yvette Aguilera and she's a lover of all things Guava. Because Cuban! ...
Ladies Who Lunch
{DISCLOSURE: This post is sponsored by P&G & Align Probiotics. All opinions that follow are my own.} If you follow me on social media, you may find yourself wondering: "When does she ever rest?" I admit that I don't show the messier side of my life. Especially for public consumption. Mostly because, I can't personally imagine taking a ...
My (Accidentally Cool) NYC Foodie Tour
Warning: Lots of fabulous food photos and details of my Foodie trip to NYC. Proceed at your own risk. My plan was to arrive in New York, get to my hotel and maybe explore a little bit of the Tribeca area where I was staying before my Cooking Pastelitos for 100 gig on Sunday. I was traveling alone, which doesn't bother me. It was just the ...
Coffee and Therapy
When Lucy was a freshman in high school, her drama class did a showcase of Broadway tune vignettes. In one of them (maybe it was Grease?) she was paired up with one of the boys to do a dance together in the finale. The mother of the boy and I didn't know each other before then, but we sat together and pointed in a ...
I have something to tell my BFF (A Giveaway)
When I was in college in the 70's, I also worked at a movie theater. I was the Day Cashier. Impressive, no? I would work my little day shift because my classes were at night. The Night Cashier did just the opposite. She came in as I was ready to leave for the day. We usually overlapped about half an hour. Each day, we would talk for that brief ...
The Biggest Insult
My kids are generally pretty nice to each other. Of course, there are the occasional sibling fights that crop up when someone's in a foul mood or has had a bad day and chooses to take it out on those closest to them. For the most part, they get along great and are friends. The exception being that the older ones would take advantage of the ...
No “El Tri-co-tri” for you!
My mom calls. "Van a ir al tri-co-tri?" She's asking if the kids are going out and Trick or Treating. El Tri-co-tri. You have to say it phonetically, TREE-COH-TREE. It's what Trick or Treat sounds like with a Cuban accent. The "El" is just to make it grammatically correct. El Tri-co-tri. Noun. (Or verb?) The act of dressing up and begging for ...
The Summer House
My friend, Jana blogs over at The Summer House. It's called the Summer House because she loves the simplicity of living in a summer beach rental-type atmosphere where everything is clean, decluttered, and ready for fun. She lives out her philosophy of simple living beautifully. And I'm always impressed and inspired by ...
This Girl
I fell in love with this girl the moment I first laid eyes on her. It was August 11, 1993. Today is the 18th Anniversary of the Beginning of the Love Affair. Her good friends, Brandon and David made the following film in her honor, with a little help from her brother, Jonathan and a few willing strangers. Get some popcorn. And let the ...
Famous Last Bites: A Cautionary Tale
Marta here. It's summer and the Orange County Fair is in full swing here in our little corner of the world. My Lucy went with her friends, her camera, and her appetite. What follows is her account of the crap unfortunate food choices available to her. CAUTION: Not for the squeamish. - - - I’ve tasted regret. And it’s ...
Cooking With the Troops or Meet Team Cubanaso
I have spent the last three days thinking about what I want to say about our experience in San Antonio and Cooking With the Troops. My family has talked and talked and rehashed almost every detail of our weekend, multiple times. And I'm still at a loss for words to describe all that we experienced. I'm just going to post lots of photos ...
Happy 40th Birthday, Versailles! (An homage and a giveaway.)
“I need a blurb from you about Versailles.” This request came from my friend (the amazing Cuban chef and cookbook author) Ana Quincoces. She was working on a TOP SECRET project and thought I might have something to say about my favorite Cuban restaurant in Miami. Me: “Tell me what you're doing, so I can put it in context.” That's when she ...
Marta’s Birthday Month®
I know. Everyone else celebrates their birthDAY. And some clever folks even celebrate Birthday Week, which I did, too, until I said to myself, "Self, we should try to see if we can drag out this birthday celebration stuff for the entire month of May." No, I don't really talk to myself that way....or maybe I do, but that's not ...
