It has taken me a number of years to convince Dave to spend a vacation in Miami. I would say at least a decade. The humidity, and the heat —I couldn’t stand it, he’d say. I’ve been wanting to visit it not only for the sites, the beaches or the Latin culture, but mostly because part of my family lives there, my dear aunt Isa, my uncle Orlando and their children, my cousins, with whom (more…)
I have a section in the Mama Ía blog called IDIOSYNCRASIES (click here). It is there that I talk about certain aspects of Spanish life and culture that are different from those of the United States, and that somehow have caught my attention. Some of those aspects merit a whole section or post about them, like the way we celebrate Holy Week (more…)
The farmers markets haven’t opened in Fort Wayne, and yet, I can find almost every fruit that I can think of at the store. They are obviously not local, but I’m having a hard time staying away from them. And plums have a sweet spot in my heart (check this post, where I explain it in more detail), so I couldn’t help but get some. I was thinking (more…)
If you subscribe to Mama Ía blog, or if you’ve been following it, by now you’re probably familiar with Spain’s dry rice dishes, like paella in all it’s varieties, or arroz al horno (click here and here and here). But there’s a different category of rice dish in Spain, which is not as familiar outside of the country as paella is. In Spanish we call it (more…)
I am mesmerized by the person of Rafael Guastavino, and I’ve been wanting to write about him for a while. This apple tart made me think of him.
Rafael Guastavino Moreno was a Valencian architect that lived between the 19th and 20th century, and whom, upon his death, the Herald Tribune baptized as “New York’s Architect”, a testament to the more than (more…)
If I were in Spain, this dish would be made with hake. But you know the chances of me finding hake in the Midwest are zero, zip. And yet, as always, I can’t go without enjoying the dish. Filetes de merluza al horno con patatas becomes oven baked tilapia over potatoes. It is a very tasty dish, and yet, easy and relatively quick to make, which makes it (more…)
My son Matthew was home this weekend. This is always an event, because even though he’s only two hours away from us, he doesn’t come home all that often. In fact, we hadn’t seen him since the Christmas break. So whenever he comes home, we make it a celebration. This weekend in particular, we attended a concert, and spent time together, even if some of that time was him doing (more…)
To be perfectly honest, this wasn’t going to be this week’s blog post. But life catches up with me every day, and St. Valentine’s Day caught up with me. Passionfruit and berry cake with mascarpone icing seemed very appropriate for the occasion. A day of love, a day of passion, right? So even though I don’t like posting two desserts in a (more…)
Traveling back to Spain every year is an aspect of what living in North America entails for me and my family. Keeping connected with our family, our culture and our roots is very important to us no matter how long we may live or may have lived on this side of the Atlantic. I keep up with the politics, both national, local, and European, as well as (more…)
Spanish omelet, tortilla española or tortilla de patatas, is the most popular of all Spanish tapas. I dare you to find a restaurant, a bar, or a cafeteria in Spain that doesn’t serve it. I dare you to find one household in Spain that doesn’t make it. As popular as patatas bravas are when it comes to tapas, nothing overshadows Spanish omelet. And yet, like with (more…)
