The NY Times, aka the official news agency of the Obama administration is reporting:

... informal meetings were being planned between the State Department and Cuban diplomats in the United States to determine whether the two governments could open formal talks on a variety of issues, including migration, drug trafficking and other regional security matters.
And the [...]

Porter J. Goss writing in The Washington Post about the selective amnesia on enhanced interrogation that is endemic in Congress. Read the whole thing.
A disturbing epidemic of amnesia seems to be plaguing my former colleagues on Capitol Hill. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, members of the committees charged with overseeing our nation's intelligence services [...]

Here's something completely off-topic but so beautiful I had to share it with all of you. Check out the
close-up pictures of Saturn published today. Makes you take stock of our place in the universe...

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That's right, boys and girls, I cause...
GLOBAL WARMING!
I want to make a commitment, right here, right now, to stop farting and exhaling. It's the least I can do.

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Well folks, it's done. President Obama capitulated and has lifted all travel and remittance to Cuba restrictions for Cubans living in the US (please note I did not say "Cuban-Americans" as there is a stark difference) without a single concession from the castro regime.
I doubt that said restrictions will ever be put back in [...]

Every now and then I receive a panicky sounding email or phone call with a recipe question:
Q: “I have 30 Cubans coming over for my son’s first birthday party. What should I serve?”
A: “Arroz Imperial or some Quick and Tasty Lechón.”
Q: “Can I make your crockpot recipes in a pressure cooker?” (Okay, so I don’t [...]

I made way too much picadillo the other night.  It wasn’t my original intention, but three out of the six of us had other things going on and so I was left with an abundance of picadillo, which is not a bad thing, per se.
As I usually do with leftover picadillo, I was intending to [...]

I’m lazy. There, I said it.  No, it’s really okay. I freely admit it.
Yep, L-A-Z-Y. Which is why I’m not a big fan of spending hours in the kitchen slaving over a hot stove.  I’m going to go out on a limb here and guessing that there aren’t a whole lot of fans of hot-stove-slavery [...]

All the young people in my big, fat, Cuban family seem to be getting married all of a sudden. (I think there’s something in the water. =D)
My nephew, Michael got married in Miami last summer (which gave us an excuse to GO to Miami, but that’s not important right now) and now there are [...]

The entire month of December has flown by in a blur.
Like many of you this time of year brings lots of scheduling challenges, but also lots of opportunities for gathering with friends and family, which is of course, The Best Part.
There is always that last minute invitation to which I always try to be polite [...]

My friend, Ana Quincoces (don't-hate-me-because-I'm-beautiful) Rodriguez has a fabulous new Cuban cookbook out called "Sabor!" And when I say fabulous, I mean that Every. Single. Wonderful. Recipe. is like-abuela-used-to-make perfect. Nothing frou-frou or nouvelle about it. Ana knows Cuban food and if you love Cuban food, you will want to own this [...]

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Our family certainly did. And boy did we have leftover turkey!
The re-heated turkey meal started to get old really fast. So I suggested sandwiches.
Me: “Hey let’s make Elena Ruz’s.”
My kids: “Mom, use your words.” (smart alecks!) “What are EL-EY-NA ROO-ZES?”
I very patiently [...]

If you’re Cuban, you know that we love to refer to things diminutively.
For example, we don’t just have café. We have a cafécito.
And to my big, fat Cuban family and friends, I’m not always Marta, I’m Martica. Which is totally fine by me. The diminutive form of the word makes people and things friendlier and, [...]

I apologize in advance. Yes, I know it's Thursday, but no, there’s no recipe today.
With all the tension we’ve been experiencing this election season, I, like many of you, have lost my appetite for the moment. (Only for the moment.)
But fear not, I do have plans to post some more of my wonderful recipes [...]

My 97-year-old uncle, Fernando, lives in Miami.
My 94-year-old mother, who lives here in California, visits her big brother (!!) at least once a year. Tio Fernando loves bread pudding and so, my mom, being the devoted little sister that she is, insists on bringing him the bread pudding he loves so much. She will [...]

It's not Thursday and I don't have a recipe today. (WHAT?? Marta, I'm so confused!)
I'm having a blog-party instead.
And because I consider all of you a very important part of My Big, Fat, Cuban Family, please come over and celebrate with me today.

My blog is two years old today and to celebrate I'm giving away [...]

WARNING: This is a bonafide blog-post hijacking.
Mami (that’s Marta, La Cocinera to you) has been sick and you don’t want a sick person doing your cooking, so I (Kikita, hija de Marta) have taken over Marta’s Cuban American Kitchen this week. I promise to keep it simple.
Out of all the things Mami cooks, there is [...]

I tend to feel extremely patriotic on this date in history, hence the following story and recipe:
Years ago, my big, fat, Cuban family moved to a sleepy peanut-butter-and-jelly neighborhood in Anaheim, California. Our house was at the end of a cul-de-sac where the other families had been living forever. They had their own [...]