http://www.tolerance.org/magaz.....epers-word

It is about storytellers that keep traditions and languages alive, and about children being in a school environment that could encourage them to be connected to their own heritage.

How can we as parents give our children the most access possible to ancient stories, that are not usually included in a school curriculum, or reprised in a Disney movie? We probably have to make a special effort to seek out books, music, cultural events, etc. And... what resources may lie in our own families that need to be captured?

As we strive to raise bilingual and bicultural children we commit to surrounding our homes with the richness of our cultures, such as the traditional recipes from our different regions. These platillos are such an exciting and delicious way to teach kids about where our family comes from, learn the names and tastes of exotic ingredients and to pass down the traditions surrounding these dishes.

I know I want Camila to identify with the sabores from Mexico and El Salvador. However, I have to admit I wasn't born a culinary master. ¡Ni cerca! I do the best I can. My husband will say that he's grateful I keep them fed, but I just know that he would love for me to regularly make them some chilaquiles, huevos con machaca, enchiladas, pozole or just at least stop being scared of cooking with chiles!

Just one more thing my daughter, unknowingly, is inspiring me to do: learn how to cook...for real. (By the way, I finally made Roxana's recipe for her suegra's flan de queso and it was a HIT!)

So, in lieu of spending recession money on cookbooks, I've done research online and found some amazing blogs dedicated to Latin food and its culture.

Here are the ones I've subscribed to, bookmarked and am now following on my path to mamá bilingüe y culinaria.

1.- Las Recetas de Laylita--Layla, beautiful mother of two boys, shares in this blog recipes inspired by her upbringing in Ecuador. The site is written in both English and Spanish and illustrated with gorgeous pictures she takes herself. I seriously drool every time I see her picture for the Arroz con Pollo recipe. I've promised myself I will make it next week-no excuses! And since Camila has inherited my craving for both plátano maduro and cheese, I'll be treating us to Layla's Plátano maduro asado con queso. Yummy!

2.- Canela y Comino--I was excited to discover this one since Peruvian cuisine is one of my hands-down favorite.  The woman behind this blog is Gretchen Noelle. She's been living in Perú since 2003 as a missionary. Her love for cooking and baking drove her to discover the richness in Peruvian cuisine.  In her words:  "I love the variety of cultures within Peru and I find that variety so often represented in the foods of the different regions...I hope to take you on an adventure through Peru, showing you the many delicious foods found here as well as all the creative things you can do with them." For starters, I'm betting on the Papá a la Huancaína recipe and, oh yes, the Peruvian Ceviche.

3.- From Argentina With Love--Rebecca Caro married an Argentinean and now is hooked on the country's traditional food. She writes:  "Argentine food is food that piques the senses, that fills not just a void in the gut but the void in the soul, too. Many of the recipes were once new and unusual to me, but have become such a part of who I am that I just long for the next time I eat them--in Argentina, at my in-laws' table."
The first thing I searched for in her blog was empanadas. I wasn't dissapointed. She has a series called "Empanada of the Month" where I found all sorts of recipes to prepare these delicious treats. I'm hooked.

4.- A Little Cup of Mexican Hot Chocolate...and More--Here I found traditional Mexican food recipes with a sense of humor. This blogger calls herself "La Traductora" and asks us to "...enjoy a little cup of Mexican hot chocolate together, sharing recipes and stories, never forgetting where we came from or those who taught us to love chilies and cactus and the joy of cooking for those we love." That's exactly the vibe you get when you visit this bilingual cooking site. It has recipes for the basics such as tortillas, frijoles, salsa verde and horchata but also ventures into teaching us how to correctly roast a pepper (not as easy as it seems...the trick is in the plastic bag.  I learned the hard way!) and make juicy tacos de carnitas.  Every recipe is prefaced by a funny story or observation that makes this blog a very enjoyable and mouth-watering read.

5.-Nikas Culinaria--In her site she combines the arts of cooking and photography to create excellent "How-2" guides for her recipes. I appreciate her attention to detail since I'm a visual person and need to see as well as read/hear directions. Nikas makes it appear easy to prepare the labor-intensive Colombian meals she skillfully makes, such as arepa de huevo.

What are some of your favorite platillos that you want your children to enjoy? Please post a link to a recipe if you have one.

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Unfortunately--and in what many would describe as very non-Latina--I hail from a long list of inept mujeres when it comes to the kitchen. I hate to admit it, but it's my reality. Growing up, mi papá was the one who took care of our nourishment. It wouldn't be fair to call him just a cook, though. He actually deserves the title of chef, for his dishes were always the most delicious treats. He had a knack for transforming a few mismatched ingredients into finger-licking meals. Food has always been extremely important in my family. My father firmly believed in "barriga llena, corazón contento" which loosely means that eating well will bring you happiness. Coincidentally, he used to say the same thing as my mother-in-law about the ease of cooking--I never understood why.

Flan de la Abuela: Y-U-M-M-Y!!!

Anyhow, my mother-in-law's recipe for flan de queso has been posted on my fridge for at least a year now. I haven't had the audacity to attempt making it. Truth be told, I'm afraid of failing. But, since Valentine's is coming up and my husband has been more understanding than usual these last few weeks with the craziness my life has become in preparation for the launch of SpanglishBaby, I will go for it. And also, I have to admit, it's important for me to learn how to make meals and desserts like this one, so Vanessa can learn more about our culture. After all, food is a huge part of our identity!

You might want to do the same with your children or maybe you're just more skilled and adventurous in the kitchen than I am, so I've decided to share Abuelita Ivette's recipe for what's arguably the best flan de queso my palate has ever tasted...

Ingredients:

1 - can evaporated milk

1 - can condensed milk

3 - large eggs

1 - 8 oz. package of cream cheese

1 - tsp. vanilla extract (or liqueur of your choice)

sugar and water (for the caramel.)

Directions:

• Mix all the ingredients--minus the sugar and the water--in the blender. Set it aside.

• Pour enough sugar in a metal pan to cover its bottom and add just a bit of water on medium heat. Stir occasionally until it becomes a light brown liquid.

• As soon as that happens, pour it into a mold. Make sure you spread so it covers the bottom of the mold evenly. Wait until the caramel hardens, it will happen fairly quickly.

• Then, pour the mixture from the blender into the mold. Cover it with foil paper and take to the oven which has been preheated to 350 F. The mold needs to be cooked using a method called baño maria. This means you boil water in a larger pan and place the mold inside it into the oven for one hour.

• To check if its ready, use a knife to poke it. If it comes out clean, you need to take it out of the oven. Let it cool, this will take a while so be patient, and invert it so the caramel is exposed. Just writing about it makes my mouth water!

Good luck and, don't worry, I will tell you all about how incredibly easy it was for me--yeah, right!--in a future post. In the meantime, I'll just sign off by revealing that the only other ingredient I didn't include in the recipe is: LOVE. You see, whenever we asked my Dad how come his dishes were so delicious, he would always answer: porque está hecho con amor.

¡Buen provecho! And, by the way, gracias Suegrita!!

We hope you attemp to make this recipe and then come back and tell us how it went. Or, maybe you can share with everybody your own links or recipe for flan!

But before we even get there, let me just tell you the reasons why I'm doing this. First, it is HOT as hell in Denver. I'm actually sitting in front of my laptop wearing almost nothing and even though all the windows are wide open and thank God there's a breeze and the sun has gone down, igual me estoy derritiendo! So, nothing would make me happier than eating un ceviche acabadito de hacer in front of the most majestic of all oceans - the Pacific - with an ice-cold beer... ok, ok... enough daydreaming, I'll have to settle for the view of the beautiful evergreens I can see from my home office's window and a cold glass of limonada (let's not forget I'm pregnant).

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know I'm no cook. Well neither am I an expert in this subject, but one thing is for sure, my father was a cook, an excellent one, if I do say so myself. And so, my family was treated daily to his manjares. One of his favorites? Ceviche.

You'll probably be surprised and incredulous when you see how simple the ingredients and how easy the preparation. We're talking fresh fish, freshly squeezed lime juice, onions, salt and ají or hot peppers. Eso es todo.

In case you're wondering how legit all this is, you may or may not know that even though there are many variations of ceviche depending on where you hail from in our great, big Latin American continent, the ORIGINAL version is from PERU!

Ok, enough bragging... Here goes:

INGREDIENTS

- 1 red onion thinly sliced

- 1/2 ají limo rojo or rocoto (these are Peruvian chiles, but sometimes you can find them in Latino supermarkets)

- Juice from 16 key limes

- salt

DIRECTIONS

First, you'll need to cut the fish into small chunks (about 1/2 an inch thick) and mix it with the sliced red onion.
Then, you have to wash these two ingredients and then make sure you drain them thoroughly. Afterwards, you add the salt and the ají limo. (FYI: if you can't find it, you might want to try a Serrano chile, it's not the same, but it's not bad.)
Mix in the freshly squeezed key lime juice.
Wait 5 minutes, add a few ice cubes to refresh the ingredients, mix well and remove them before they melt.

Serve the ceviche immediately accompanied by Peruvian corn and sweet potato (as in the imagine above).

That's it! Just remember: FRESH, FRESH, FRESH is the key to success!!

Before I leave you, I'd like to explain that the reason why you'll never be able to duplicate the taste of the ceviche you would eat in Lima has to do mainly with the ingredients. Even though the key lime is the closest thing to the Peruvian lime used in this recipe, it's really not the same. Believe it or not, the same can be said about the fish and I guess it has something to do with the Pacific Ocean and its temperatures along Peru's capital. So don't feel bad, you just have to visit to see what I'm talking about :)

By the way, I have a disclaimer: I only recently dared to prepare this typical Peruvian dish mostly because I was afraid I'd suck and having a cook for a father, I'm sure you can imagine the pressure. Although I haven't made it too many times, with each one it gets better and the best part is that it reminds me of how mi pobre padre had to hide the bowl he'd make it in because we'd try to devour it even before the table was set for lunch!

¡Qué lo disfruten!

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