Post Holiday

Now that the holidays have come to a close, I'm actually home on the weekend. We've been out of town the past 2 or 3 weeks so it's been pretty crazy. There was lots of cooking going on over the holidays but mostly not my doing so nothing significant to report there.

On New Year's Eve, I decided to start by making some Cuban bread. A friend of mine, Joe, who is from Florida (and half Cuban) brought some of the pig they roasted for "Noche Buena." From what I understand, it's a traditional Cuban celebration around Christmas time where a pig is roasted in someone's backyard and lots of good food, fun and family time is had. I'm not sure if it is their family that does this, but I think it's a Cuban thing. Joe and I had been talking about making Cuban bread for awhile now. According to my friends from south Florida, the bread is what makes the Cuban sandwich so I knew we had to master this. I found a website awhile back: Taste of Cuba. This website has authentic Cuban recipes and of course had the recipe for Cuban bread. I'd never successfully made bread before so I was a bit nervous. It came out great. Those of us who didn't know any better thought it was perfect. Joe, however, said the taste was spot on but the texture needed to be changed a bit. We brought in the new year with delicious Cuban sandwiches and a good time.