Dinner and dessert menus for Thanksgiving

Hey guys! As I continue this post from the last one, here were the menus for the night! Dinner was incredible! We had so much good food! My aunt and mom came out of the kitchen and gathered everybody. Dinner was served. We walked into the kitchen and the table was beautifully put together. Many dishes of food and desserts were lined up along the table. Our menu included three turkeys, a honey baked ham, white rice, black beans, fried plantains, avocado and tomato salad, break rolls, green beans, parmesan crisps, and "yuca con mojo." Yuca is a type of plant that is boiled and eaten with garlic sauce and pork. As you can see, we had QUITE the selection. Everything tasted great! What an authentic Cuban Thanksgiving! After stuffing ourselves, we ate dessert which included pumpkin flan, regular flan, bread pudding, and cake. I was in a food coma after we ate. The night was also full of many kinds of drinks including grandpa Pipo's famous mojitos! I must have had about five of those! He made pitcher after pitcher. What a wonderful celebration it was! The men left the table after dinner to go outside and smoke Cuban cigars while the women stayed inside and gossiped about EVERYTHING....again. Jokes were told, Cuban espresso coffee was made, and a game or two of dominos was played. We left my aunt and uncles house around one in the morning. I already can't wait for next year! I truly cannot stress how blessed I am- the people I love make my life worth living for.

Finally, it's Thanksgiving!

"How many people are we having this year at Thanksgiving dinner, mom?" " Well, this year we will have about 40 people there." I couldn't have been happier to hear my mom say this. All I could think of was how much fun Thanksgiving would be this year at my aunts house. Great good, good company and so many people! The ratio would be 39 Cubans and 1 Caucasian. My uncle is the only white person in our family but he obviously loves being around us loud Cubans or else he wouldn't have married my aunt (who is a replica of my mother). This year, my mom would be making not one turkey, not two turkeys, but THREE turkeys! You can never have enough food at these things. Our Thanksgivings are usually very different than traditional celebrations. Many of my friends stick to the traditional food and traditional customs. We do not. You see, like I explained at the beginning of this blog, we are just different. We take things to a completely different level. First let me start by explaining  we do our dinner pretty late. People arrive around 5 pm and we don't eat until about 7pm. For those two hours, we eat appetizers, talk about each other, other people, and go through a few bottles of wine. People talk over each other and try to compete with who has the best story, the best kids, and the best stories in Cuba. "Cuando yo vine de Cuba..." That's how all of the stories start! During this time, I laugh and socialize with everybody. My aunt comes out of the kitchen and happily announces that dinner will be served. A very fancy dinner that contains champagne glasses, silver treys, and a few floral center pieces for the table. This is a very exciting time! Stay tuned for the dinner and dessert menus!

Thanksgiving- I love this holiday!

Thanksgiving is one of my FAVORITE holidays! It's a time to really show everyone how much you love them and appreciate them. In my house, there is always such a warm feeling around the house. My mom insists to decorate our house for every holiday. She is really into that kind of thing. I love her for it, though. My dad cracks up at her, but hey, we all love her for it. At school I always ask my friends what they do for the holidays. The answers always vary. Some stay home and have a small dinner on Thanksgiving, others go to relatives houses, and some don't really do anything at all. When I heard that, I didn't really know how to take it. My Thanksgiving is always huge! There are always so many people, a lot of food, and alcohol. How can you have thanksgiving without a few bottles of good wine? You can't! The funny thing is, our Thanksgiving holidays are a little different than everybody else's. We celebrate Thanksgiving the Cuban way. To us, it is the best way.

Just a special reminder!

Thanksgiving is always a great time to appreciate what we have and give thanks to the people around us. I can't help but to think about all of the wonderful things in my own life. Use this time to really appreciate and spend time with those you love! Surround yourself with positivity in your life. This holiday season should really be a special one! Spread the love! Happy holidays, everyone!

Those Damn Expensive Phone Calls to Cuba

So the other day, our house phone bill came in the mail. How did I know this? My dad made it pretty obvious. He called my mom downstairs immediately and I already knew what was coming! "Oye chica! Tu sabes cuanto vino la cuenta del telefono de este mes!?" In english, this means, "Hey woman, do you know how much the phone bill was for this month?!" It wasn't said in a very good tone either. I also knew that lately my mom has been talking more to our family over there because some of our family members have been planning to move to Miami. Of course, who wouldn't want to talk to their relatives when they are planning to move somewhere like the United States! My dad wasn't such a fan. Our phone bill was so expensive, it was a joke. One of the things about having a family in Cuba is that phone bills are always expensive. They always have been and will continue to be. Phone calls are not cheap! Part of being Cuban means you talk to your family ALL OF THE TIME...even everyday. No matter what the cost may be. Family is such a huge part of our daily thoughts that it is hard not to have them in mind. When my dad became upset, my mom simply answered, "Why does this surprise you?"When you married me you knew that I liked to talk about..especially to my family. He looked at her for a minute, tilted his head and smiled. "You're right," he responded.

The Family Visits!

Hey guys! So as I had mentioned before, my family was coming to visit and we did a lot of exciting things with them! We were able to go to San Francisco and see the cable car, pier 39, and of course AT&T park. My family was extremely overwhelmed! They did not know what to do when they saw such BIG landmarks and buildings. This can be extremely overwhelming for people who come from a place where there is nothing. We got to eat at really nice places in the city, and even did some shopping. They took so many pictures it was unbelievable! I think one of the best things was when we entered the "Westfield Mall" in San Francisco and walked around. They walked into the mall and immediately looked straight up. "Dios Mio. Tantos pisos, tantas tiendas, porque hay tantas cosas?" This meant," Oh my gosh. So many floors, so many shops, why are there so many things here?" They were totally excited, but a little overwhelmed. It was a bit much for them. They come from a very poor place and to see all of this- was just a complete culture shock for them.

We took my family to Alcatraz, Coit Tower, and to one of my favorite places: The Castro. One of my favorite nights was when we took them to Oakland's most famous ice cream parlor called, Fentons. This has to be my favorite ice cream place ever. They make their ice cream there and it is always served  fresh. It is one of my family favorites so we HAD to bring them there. Fentons is known for their great flavors but also their HUGE ice creams. I would highly recommend it for anyone who likes ice cream a lot! This was probably their favorite place to eat.

Overall, it was amazing to spend time with them. Although I didn't get to spend much time with them because I'm here at school, it was fun while it lasted. I will cherish these memories forever and hope to see them again when they visit. We have so many fun things to do in the Bay Area, I'm so excited I live here!

"But wait, your name isn't Latin..."

During my lifetime, many people have asked me where my name comes from and why my parents chose such a unique name. Growing up, I always hated my name. No one could pronounce it correctly or spell it the right way. This would upset me and cause me to become frustrated with my parents. "Seriously guys, why couldn't you have named me Katie or Ashley. That way I didn't have to spend five minutes helping people figure out how to spell or pronounce my name." My parents always tell me the same story and end with, "come on, being unique is a cool thing." I never understood that until I became older and now I don't really want to be like anybody else. 

When my mom was a little girl living in Cuba, she would walk to school every morning and passed a dozen super markets and stores. "There was always this one store that caught my attention. It was a shoe store." If anybody knows my mom, she LOVES shoes. She has kind of an obsession. In our house, she has two walking closets full of shoes but she claims she doesn't have enough. The shoe store was named Lissette. The little girl on the sign had bright blue eyes and long brown hair. Go figure. My mom was right on the money. I was also born with a lot of brown hair and bright blue eyes. So pretty much, I was named after a shoe store in Cuba. I have grown to love my name and even though it's French and not Latin, that is perfectly fine with me! My parents picked it and I wouldn't change it for the world. Remember ladies and gentleman- love your name because your parents picked it for a reason!

The Favorite Childhood Drink

"You gave Lissette coffee when she was THAT young?!" Ladies and gentleman, my parents along with every other Cuban parent out there has done this. It's what they do..."it's what we do" as my mom says. Here in the United States, parents give their children cereal and milk for breakfast or even apple juice with some eggs and ham. That sounds just about right. Well, we don't really think that way. We love a drink called, "Cafe con Leche" or Coffee with milk. Every morning when I was a little girl, my dad would wake me up and place my Cafe con Leche on my dresser. I would drink it before I started school. This is how we are raised. Maybe that's why some of us are so short...Oh well! Many of my friends find this extremely weird and still cannot grasp the concept. Coffee at such a young age?! Yes. That's how they do it in a Cuban household!