Complaining about cold days and hot links
We woke up here Sunday morning to powdery snow. It was beautiful, but I covered my head with the blankets again. I long for Spring, warm breezes and nesting baby birds.
Aye.
The snow has mostly melted, but it’s still freezing here in the Boonies. And, I am beginning to think of myself as Jack Nicholson in The Shining, but instead of typing “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” over and over and over and over again, I would be typing “Que freakin
g frio, que freaking frio, que freaking frio, que freaking frio.”
I whine about the cold a lot.
It gets old.
I know.
Here’s hot stuff though:
Through Spanglish Baby I found this post by a writer whose kids do not speak Spanish. She feels judged by Spanish-speakers for her monolingual children. Be sure to read the comments. Yowza.
My opinion: Whatever works for you. No one should judge a family’s decision to speak a second language or not. But, if you want your children to be bilingual, it’s not that hard to speak Spanish to your kids. Even bad Spanish. If my lazy ass can do it here in Tennessee, you can too.
I feel strongly about it because my second language has opened doors and expanded my brain — not to mention avoid ordering tongue tacos and buy correct train tickets in Italy. I want my daughter to have extra skills and heart-ties to the culture that swims through her veins. Even her very American father wants that, so we work at it. Constantly. Check out this post too.
As an aside, last week I attended a Latina business women’s luncheon. It was in a popular restaurant. Lots of hip locals, lots of Music Row people. My former newspaper publisher was sitting in the next room. I do not think he heard the women break into a rendition of Los Pollitos Dicen — a loud rendition — as they passed the t-shirts around the table. It was very fun and a reminder that it’s a good thing “English-Only” did not pass.
OK, mira here. I found two Latino food blogs this week that have left me very excited and very hungry. Laylita is from Ecuador and she has a delightful and delicious food site. Excellent photography too. I found her when I was googling for a plantano and three-cheese casserole recipe. I never found the recipe, but found Laylita. (The picture to the left is from her fish ceviche recipe.)
And then there is A Little Cup of Mexican Hot Chocolate and More. I am going to make her albondigas soup. I love the pictures too.
Given that I have had Latino sites on the brain lately, please also allow me to introduce you to a blog portal called Blogadera. They just launched with the mission of gathering the best of Latino blogs. If you have a blog, be sure to submit your site if it isn’t already listed. They’re also on Twitter at @blogadera.
Do you mean Piñón? Here’s something, use whatever cheeses you like:
http://www.cookscompass.com/recipe/198
I don’t know about the eggs and pimientos though.
Thanks so much for commenting about that site. Roxana and I were also affected by the article, but most of all the racist comments. Hard to believe offering your children a second language can stir up so much nationalist passion.
Anyway, I´m sooo excited about the latina food blogs you found! Especially the traditional Mexican..yummm
That is one way of doing the Puerto Rican version of pastelón which is as Anon calls it Piñón.
The way I learned it from a friend it is three layered, plantains, beef, plantains, beef, plantains and you throw the beaten egg all over so that when in the oven cuaje (settles). My recipe does not take pimento, but it does take judías (green bean) in the beef mixture.
Carrie, you can also make canoitas (little canoes), in which you make an incision on the ripe plantain lengthwise, fill it with a beef mixture, but cheese on top and then bake.
As far as the language thing goes, it’s entirely a personal decision. While I believe in being bilingual (it was highly stressed in my house), I’m no one to tell another person what they feel they should teach or not to their child. The racist comments, I don’t even pay attention to, since it was clear they were meant to just be inflammatory – as neither author had read the article.
Hey guys, thanks for trying to help me find the recipe, and sharing your own versions.
My friend pointed me to the link.
It is here: http://tinyurl.com/cme4yd
It is by Kraft, if you can believe it, and it is in their http://www.comidakraft.com site. I loved this “pie.”
And Roxana, you are welcome. Your site is great.
I had seen Laylita’s blog before and I have it in my reader, it’s awesome!! I also recently discovered Spanglishbaby which is GREAT! Thanks for the other links, specially blogadera, pretty cool!
Hola!
Thank you so much for mentioning my little old blog, A Little Cup of Mexican Hot Chocolate! It makes all the cooking worthwhile.
Un fuerte abrazo!
La Traductora