Easter Traditions

This Easter weekend has really made me reflect on our traditions and how they have fallen by the wayside. At least that’s what it seems like from my perspective. It is hard when you are married into different traditions but I say make your own!  With our busy lives, holidays should be a time when we slow down and spend time with our families that we don’t get to see as much. I honestly do not have family nearby. Since moving to Rochester, I’ve left my family either in NYC or PA. And as my family gets older they are moving further south, including Dominican Republic. But that does not mean that we should let the traditions that our parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles taught us slip by.

What I remember most about my childhood is the holidays that we spent together as a family either in the US or in Dominican Republic. It made us closer as a family and I cherished the relationships that I had with my cousins…that we still do to this day! Shout out to my prima Melissa, an avid reader of this blog and the unofficial godmother of my son! I say unofficial because again, another tradition that fell by the wayside and my three year old has not been baptized.

So back to the matter at hand. Get you some cookbooks if the elderly in your family can’t help you prepare your meals. Teach yourself if you can’t be taught. It’s great to stick to traditions or even mix them up and create your own! So this is what I’m saying…next year Easter egg hunt at my house for friends and family as well as a big ham and things like tostones and bacalaitos as well as egg coloring. Keep those traditions alive for your children to cherish as they get older. And if anyone wants to come in from out of town (hint hint!) you’re more than welcome!

It may be a bit of hard work in the beginning, your house will probably be torn up and down but it would still be some great memories created for everyone!

The Holidays at Mamitas

The following post was written by Matt Ciscart, a Married father of one seven year old handsome SLMB (Sexy lil man beast). Decided to go back to school as work turned into just a job, and longer enjoyed it. So after ten plus years he’s back in school to become an educator. he’s just recently started blogging. Check him out at Back 2 Go Forward.

Remember the sitcom Cheer’s, which took place in a bar in Boston? The title song talks about a place where everyone know’s your name. Well, it didn’t have anything on Mamita’s, where instead booze there seemed to be something going on in the kitchen, but the holidays, olvidate man, te digo, it was crazy. I personally, could care less about the holiday season, not that I didn’t like getting gifts, but being that my birthday is four days prior to Christmas, meant I kind of got the short end of the stick, if you know what I mean. It was one gift for two occasions, but anyway like in life you get over it or like me make amends when you get older. Yep! I ensure that I buy myself a wonderful gift for my birthday each year.

 
On Christmas Eve you’d swear it was the grand opening of some major Broadway show. Mamita would be in the kitchen to all hours of night. You know those jars of crushed garlic you find at the supermarket know-a-days, well if you ask me, Mamita invented that idea. She’d used an empty apple sauce jar and spend her time peeling and pressing ajo until that jar was full. By late Christmas Eve or Early Christmas day the fridge would be loaded, not that it was ever empty, but you best be careful opening it around this time of year. The pernil, pork shoulders to those who don’t know, it just sounds so much better in Spanish, y el hamon would both be seasoned so well, cono, I swear if you were in a coma you’d immediately recover after a quick whiff. Mamita would also be up at the crack of dawn to ensure that everything was going as planned. Please realize that, whoever ventured into her kitchen would immediately be ushered out, and please dare not touch a pot lid, what you’d hear next would be something along the lines of "Cono tocate el culo". Mamita would make breakfast for not just the us, but in the early years it would included my nieces and nephews who would spend Christmas vacation with us. Imagine our house looked like a small village, we went from seven to about fourteen at times.

Though this changed as we got older, one thing that did not change was the fact that everyone appeared for the Christmas feast, instead of having my nieces and nephews stay during vacation, they would all stop by with there friends, and significant other on Christmas day, and my brothers and sister would come with their spouses and their children. So many people would be in the house that we have to open doors and windows, which never sat well with Mamita. All the guys would be downstairs eating, watching sports and just basically hanging out. While all the ladies stayed upstairs eating, and doing what ever ladies may do when you get together. Outside of the wonderful cooking, which I experienced every single day of my life growing up, after dinner was done everyone would end up upstairs crowded into the living room, dining room and kitchen just talking about what ever came to mind.

What I love and treasure is, looking at Mamita sitting at the head of the table with a sparkle in her eyes. I used to think it was the food, but know as an adult, I now know what the sparkle in her eyes really was about. That on that day she got to see all the hard work and sacrifices she made during her life. I realize that Mamita, as a pirate who surrounds themselves with gold, Mamita surround herself with what she considered a pirates gold equivalent. Familia! Our familia was not just us, but every friend or significant other that came over and made sure that they were there the following years after no matter what. So with that, te dejo con un dicho, que Mamita siempre decia, "Donde come dos comen tres". If you don’t know what that means ask a fellow Latino, they’ll be glad to explain.

Chimi-What? Only The Best Burger EVER!

Okay I’m going to admit I have food on my mind. With the bbq-ing and all else and writing about Dominican food I started thinking of the Dominican hamburger, the Chimichurri. This burger (I know the name may be hard to pronouce) is sold out of street stands in Dominican Republic and in my old neighborhood in NYC. They used to get those hot dog type of carts/trucks and sell chimi’s out of them. So good…..ooh sorry. Back to the recipe! I found it on Dominican Cooking. I’ve been checking out the site and this is one I’m definitely going to cook next weekend! Check out the recipe here. Finish it off with a batida and it’s the perfect end to this great Dominican meal!

Happy Mother’s Day!

I hope everyone has a great day!