Tostones...

La semana pasada por fin use las tostonera que me regalo la Senora Maria! En el Whole Foods, el Mercado cerca a la oficina, vi que tenian unos platanos verdes que se veian deliciosos. Claro, casi $2 por libra porque eran platanos “organicos”; pero es el unico lugar cerca donde puedo encontrar los platanos; el Safeway de la marina no los tiene. Como me hace falta el Fiesta!

Para acompanar los tostones, puse a cocinar “Comfort food” latino: arroz con frijoles negros, carne asada, y tostones! Que comida tan rica, gracias senora maria por la tostonera! La proxima semana tenemos que hacer tiempo par ir a la mission, el barrio latino de san Francisco, porque ya casi se me acaban los sobresitos de goya.

Rough Translation ***
Last week I was finally able to use the plantain smasher Senora Maria sent to me with my mom. At the Whole Foods near my work I saw some green plantains that looked delicious. Of course they were almost $2 a pound because they were organic; but this is the only place nearby where I can find plantains, the Marina Safeway sure doesn’t have them. I miss my Fiesta!!

To go with the plantains I made latin comfort food; rice and black beans, carne asada, and plantains! How yummy, thank you Senora Maria for the smasher! Next week we’ll have to plan a trip to the mission, the latin neighborhood in san Francisco because I’m running out of my goya products.

***NOTE: so there are some words that really don’t translate well, such as “tostonera”. So I’ve decided to call it the plantain smasher!” On the other hand, “comfort food” is an American saying that doesn’t really have a Spanish counterpart. This whole dual language thinking can be a little tricky sometimes, I swear one day I’ll go to sleep and wake up talking in French because it will be easier!

Mom & Carol's visit

IMGP1577, originally uploaded by ednita212.

Here are the pictures from my mom and carol's visit a couple of weeks ago. Sorry it took so long to post! We had such a great time. We went out to eat to different restaurants, strolled around the neighborhood, went to the Ghirardelli chocolate festival, shopped at H&M, AND hit up the Muir Woods and Sausalito! I think that our favorite outing hands-down was the bowling at the Presidio Bowl! This is a picture of us by the bridge. It was pretty foggy the whole time they were here, but the last day it cleared up some. I have more pictures, just click on this image and it will take you to a new picture library...

Ok, so I'm trying something new! I love the blog, but I'd like a place to put differeny collections of images when I have large batches. So I've found this service called Flickr, which is a photo sharing place, kind of like a photo blog. I'll place lots of pictures on flickr, and just link to the blog! Hope it works.....

Labor Day in Monterey Bay

Hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend!
Today we got up way early (6:45 am) for our road trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium to see their new great white shark. After 2 hours in the car, we finally got to the aquarium, and got in line. What a crazy day, it was packed. I really wish I had brought my SLR; it was difficult to get a good exposure under those conditions! But here are the best shots of the day.

The shark was in an exhibit called The Outer Bay, a million gallon tank, and they had a “bubble curtain” up to help the shark get used to its new surroundings. The shark was a juvenile, only 5 feet 8 inches and about 150 pounds, a little on the small side and hot the huge Jaws you’d first think of when you hear “great white shark,” but it was quite impressive nonetheless! The tuna in the same tank were HUGE, and the sunfish bizarre. We saw a bunch of cool exhibits with a lot of interesting animals; I think my favorite was the shark though.

After a few hours in the aquarium, we ventured outside for lunch. We had lunch with a great view of the bay, and it turned out to be a great sunny day. We walked around cannery row, Steinbeck Square, and even stopped in a few shops. Monterey os a great little town, I’m sure we’ll be back sometime!