The Boonie Blog has Moved

Friends and Familia...

I have moved the Boonie blog to a self-hosted site. Same url (Bilingual in the Boonies.com), but I'm still tweaking.

If you subscribe to the blog in an RSS reader, you are not yet getting the feeds from the dot com, but you will once the database is redirected and all that stuff you don't really need to be bothered with.

If you are a follower via Google Friend Connect, come on over and join the Pollitos Facebook fan page or the Networked Blogs page on Facebook. (That feed also will eventually work again...) I will eventually put the Friend Connect widget on the site. So many "eventuallys.''

Remember, we also can connect and talk Latinoliciousness over at the Tiki Tiki too. There are some great new contributor posts and links to blogs I discovered during Blogalicious.

See you over on the other site.

besitos...Carrie

Remodeling

Gente, if you stop by in the next few days and the site is down, it is because I am upgrading Bilingual in the Boonies, remodeling, re-organizing, moving to a self-hosted site. Growing up a little, I guess.

Helping me out, holding my hand as we go, is Mary at Okiana Designs, my Zumba-loving, Web Whiz, Peruvian friend...

In the meantime, please visit over at Tiki Tiki Blog, where there's always a party going on. There's a giveaway that ends today, an Ingenio bilingual children's laptop. Go try to win.

Oh, and one more thing. We've just added new designs to Chichi & Flaco and we're working on some changes to Los Pollitos Dicen, which we hope to unveil this Fall.

Girl Powr

If I had to think about it, I would have imagined there comes a time in a parent's life when she realizes her job is done. She's raised the kid she hoped, she's instilled what she was supposed to. Or goodness forbid, you've raised the kid and now there is nothing else you can do about it.

Maria brought home some of her school work yesterday. She is nearly a month into her elementary education. The "story'' she wrote gave us a jolt of joy, a realization that hey, when it comes to self-esteem and girl power, we may just be done...for now anyway.

Click on the image to make it bigger. But, here is a transcript, with her exact spelling, but without her all CAPS:

One day a buttrfly want'ed to see a king and a qeen but the casel was closd and the buttrfly start'ed to cry but she new she had powr and she open'd the door

Girl Powr, gente, Girl Powr.

Country Cuban meets Bob Cat and other Freaky Things

Little more than a week ago, I was washing the breakfast dishes and looking out the kitchen window toward the Guinea coop. I saw a very large, furry creature and wondered what a strange-looking raccoon was doing out at dawn. Then, it looked more like a large cat and then my city brain registered that what I was seeing was a wild cat -- a bob cat.

Ay, Dios Mio! It was huge, but not gigantic and it was slowly circling my coop and sniffing it up and down. My camera was upstairs and because I a) didn't want to miss it up close and b) didn't want it to hang around my coop, I went outside with a broom stick.

Hey! I yelled and waved my stick. It just looked at me. Beautiful eyes and pointy ears. Just looked at me. Kinda like, yeah right, crazy lady, whatever. And then, it turned away, sauntered back into the woods.

I was delighted and terrified at the same time. It is rare to see a bob cat in the wild, or in your backyard. But, my favorite Guinea hen, Rose, the mother of two of my new baby keets, did not come home the night prior. So, I realized Rose was Bob Cat lunch. Probably, anyway.

I kept the Guineas in for a few days, but they are out again and I pray.

The bob cat showed up a few days after this snake greeted me in the garage. I was coming in from the bottom stair, with an armload of groceries, and probably jumped about 3-feet backwards. I have no idea what it is, but even the family cat didn't want to hang out in the garage for a few days.

The wildlife here blows my mind -- even the tiny tick that destroyed my toe a couple of weeks ago is cause for awe. A tiny creature caused a big ugly mess. Amazing and praise be.

My college roommate, and Illinois native who spent time with my family when we lived in can't-get-more-urban-than-West New York, N.J., and with whom I just reconnected via Facebook, read the exploits in the Newsfeed and told me she never imagined I would be a country Cubanita in the wilds of Tennessee.

Me neither, I told her.

But hell, if life didn't turn out better than I could have planned it.

You know?

Some highlights from the family visit yesterday to the Tennessee State Fair....

this is just wrong, isn't it? funny wrong.

Tiki Tiki giveaway: Bilingual North American Map

The Tiki Tiki Blog this week is giving away a bilingual, Spanish North American map puzzle.

Come on over and check it out. It is huge, sturdy and lists all 32 Mexican states.

Created by a new company, Ingenio.

Get it for your little genio.

Talking Modern Mex food and Dulce de Leche

My husband and I used to entertain a lot. A lot. And often, on the fly and a half-dozen times, it was lechon asado for a hundred. Since Maria was born I could probably count on two hands how many times we have prepared feasts for our friends. Que pena.

This weekend, there were 17 mouths at our house, all after a couple of hours of canoeing down a gloriously high Harpeth River.

The kids got pizza (que se chiben), the adults got Modern Mex, which I put together from a few recipes in Bon Appetit, a magazine I love and adore and delight in. (Photo from the June 2009 Bon Appetit article I used).

It made me want to have fiestas every weekend.

I'm sharing some of the recipes, because they were a hit, and because there's a caramel dulce leche version that you can try, and if you know me, you know I am all about the dulce de leche.

First, the sangria -- Rose wine, pineapple and guava juice. I had no guava juice (Hello, I live in Nashville!), but I did have guava mermelada, which my dad brought up from Miami and I had no idea what to do with until this weekend. I used it anyway. Here is the recipe. You can thank me and tell me how much you love me later.

Shrimp with lime and cumin and a mango, avocado salsa. I left out the scallops. Ay, Dios! I made arepas using a cheater shortcut from Publix, and I threw in black beans and corn. I made rice with summer squash and parsley and cheated on the black beans by using canned. Crema Mexicana went on the table, as did sour cream and chipotle hot sauce.

Had I not been pressed for time, I would have made the toasted coconut caramel topping for ice cream. (My guests got Key Lime Pie ice cream). But, goodness, the caramel topping is dulce de leche with Coco Lopez in it. It is so on the schedule for this weekend. Maria likes to make ice cream, and I like eating it.

If you like dulce de leche, by the way, check out Marta's recipe on the Tiki Tiki blog this week.
(And tomorrow, you can read Laura I. Gomez's Tiki Tiki post about throwing a Green treintanera fiesta.)

If I don't post for a while, it is because I am drunk on pineapple, guava sangrias.

The real Bizarre in Cuba

I was totally OK with watching Andrew Zimmern of the Travel Channel enjoy the fruit that is Cuba on his new series, Bizarre World, and share it with the world. I was happy to get another glimpse at mesmerizing Cuba today. But, he (to the left in a Travel Channel photo) completely ignored the reality and made the Cubans out to be happy house slaves.

The New York Times review said this:

"What’s truly bizarre about Mr. Zimmern’s presentation of Cuba — which is, it should be said, quite nicely shot and nearly always interesting to look at — is its failure, or refusal, to connect any dots between politics and the life he sees around him. Why is Cuba one of the few places where the tree rat is hunted for food? Why don’t you see anyone using cellphones? Why are the streets full of ancient American automobiles?

A one-hour cable travelogue doesn’t need to get into an analysis of whether Cuban poverty is a result of the American trade embargo or the policies of the Castro regime (both of which Mr. Zimmern acknowledges). But the show ought to be able to say that the citizens are poor and that they lack freedom, rather than saying that the Cubans are “a people who’ve learned to enjoy life’s simple pleasures without the frills.”

Bravo, Mr. NYT.

It is unfeeling, onesided crap like this episode and other Cuban stories I have read that make Cuban-Americans distrust American media. It tells the "happy,'' how-cool-are-they-and-how-lucky-am-I story. Where's the story about not being able to find milk for your child or an aspirin for your never-ending freaking headache?

The episode was gross and a complete insult. And, to piss me off it has to be bad, for I am a bit more forgiving of media than my Cuban relatives and friends.

I am among the very small number of Cuban-Americans who believes the travel ban should be lifted. I hold out a hope that connection between everyday people of our two countries would lead to change and freedom. But seriously, if what would come to pass would be Americans living Zimmerns experience -- using Cuba as some beautiful whore they can use, pay off and walk away from -- forget it.

If the Cuban people can't enjoy the gem that is their country, then you shouldn't either.

At the end of the episode, Zimmern said the visit taught him to appreciate his privileged life back home. Was he talking about his "stuff,'' or the fact he has compete and total personal freedom?

The Cuban people have neither.

Had I produced the episode of Bizarre World: Cuba, you would have seen this:

• Tourists can rent yachts and catamarans to cruise Cuba's many beautiful uninhabited islands. Cubans aren't allowed on boats that far out to sea. Bizarre.
• Tourists can scuba and catch big, fat lobsters in Cuba's unspoiled coral reefs. Cubans get arrested if they trap, or sell, lobster. Bizarre.
• American, want to take the family on vacation to Europe, to the Caribbean, to anywhere? Save your pennies and go. The majority of Cubans aren't allowed to leave the island. Ever. Bizarre.
• Untold number of souls risk everything each year -- and have for decades -- by jumping on rickety rafts and heading to the United States. Too many have been lost. Those caught and returned: Jailed. Bizarre.
• A million plus Cubans marched in the May Day Parade. That's because if they don't, they get reported to the local Communist Committee for the Defense of the Revolution. Mucho problema. Bizarre.
• Cubans hunt and eat the tree rat, hutia. That's because most of them go months, or years, without access to meat. Bizarre.
• And more about meat: It is illegal for a Cuban to sell or purchase beef on the black market. Doing so risks jail time. The beef is for the big, fat tourist. Bizarre.
• The government tells Cubans to marinate banana peels as if they were beef and pretend. Bon appetit! Bizarre.
• Tourists can rent the room in the Hotel Nacional in Havana where Frank Sinatra and Eva Gardner spent their honeymoon. The cost for one night runs from $142 to $211 USD. The average Cuban earns about the equivalent of $12 a month. Bizarre.
• Speaking of hotels, up until two years ago, it was illegal for a Cuban to even walk into a hotel. Bizarre.
• Americans can go to the hardware store and buy whatever they need for their home. A Cuban can be arrested for "illegally purchasing" construction materials. Bizarre.
• Want a little sexo on your fabulous Cuban vacation? Hey, turista, for the cost of a cheap lipstick or a bottle of shampoo, some hot cubanita -- or cubanito, depending on your preference -- will rock your salsa-loving world. Bizarre.
• Hey, you think the American president is a sucky one and want to post all over the internet or put up a sign in your yard or yell from a street corner. Go for it, Free Man! Do it in Cuba? Jail. Bizarre.
• American, you hate your local newspaper? At least you have a free press. In the a country that owns its press, 22 journalists are jailed for writing the unapproved. Bizarre.
• Dislike where you live? Sell your house and move. Cubans can't. They've got to find someone willing to trade places. Bizarre.

Here's a link to Zimmern's blog post about Cuba. Read the comments.

Los Pollitos Dicen Giveaway on the Facebook Fan Page

Sometimes, it is too quiet over on the Pollitos Fan Page. I wonder, what are all these pretty people doing? Who are these people? Some names I recognize from orders, some are my relatives (of course!) and some are friends...Others, I have no idea. But I know this: The people on our Fan Page are the prettiest people...Yes, just like those guys down there in the Google Friend Connect box.


So, because I need to catch up with all the other Mommy Bloggers and do more giveaways and because I'd like to meet more of these Fans and thank them for the support, we're doing a giveaway on the Fan Page this week. 


What do you get for saying, hola? A newborn Upa onesie, the perfect newborn gift. Be the hit of the baby shower, teach your English-only speaking friends a new word, put your Pollito in one of our Pollitos. 


Just come over and say hello!