Celebrando la independencia de Guatemala: el 15 de septiembre

Guatemala…

hay mas ideas para celebrar aqui:  Arte de la bandera y papel picado,  Pastel de papel para el 15 de septiembre,  y Manualidades para el 15 de septiembre

Que disfruten el dia!! 🙂

 

One more Blue and White thing:

Whew, the weekend is over.  Our Independence Day celebration is over, my daughter’s birthday is over.  The parties are over.  For this week.  😉

Well, maybe not.  We should probably watch a few videos from the parades in Guatemala, look at some photos and listen to the national anthem.  It was such a crazy busy weekend that there were several things that never got done!  4 birthday parties this weekend that someone from this house was involved in!  (plus Guatemala’s b-day).

Anyways, I just wanted to do one more little post about el 15 de septiembre because of this cute thing that I just couldn’t resist:  (and there’s one other reason after the photos)I printed out a party cake favor box and colored it.  And glitter-glued it.Specially for my dear Guatemala.

with all my heart….and all my glitter 🙂I have been going wild with these cute printable cake boxes…
Aren’t they cute?
Ahhh, the details!!  You can find these adorable printable party favor cake boxes at Paperglitter’s Etsy shop here.

And I also wanted to mention a very cool blog that I found (or that found me) this morning….

Growing Up Bilingual at growingupbilingual.com.  I’m excited to have found it!  Please check out Paula’s home page and scroll down a bit to see some of the posts….I’ve already found a bunch that interest me about encouraging my kids in their bilingualism, stuff about Guate and some yummy recipes!  (among other things!)  There are some lists of books for kids in Spanish, too.

Feliz 15 de Septiembre! Eat, sing and be merry…

Happy to be together on this day, even though we’ve been stressed and tired!  My blog photos make it look like I have a lot more patience than I do.  Really.

To celebrate the 15 de septiembre, Guatemala’s Independence Day, we ate some “traditional Guatemalan” food.  Well, about as close as I get nowadays.  I do know a few recipes, but I’m afraid that I now take the shortcut version of all the recipes I know.  The other day was so exciting because at our corner grocery store I found…..tomatillos! Finally! This is the first time I’ve seen a can of them for sale (once in awhile I see the fresh ones in some stores).  So Henry obligingly picked up the ingredients.

The shortcut I take on this recipe is that we buy a rotisserie chicken…that’s pre-cooked.  (I call them “rosti-pollos”)  So I just make up the sauce…..oops, I forgot to mention the name of the dish I’m making…it’s called jocón.  Pronounced “hoe– (as in ho-ho-ho) cone“.  It is a chicken with green sauce dish.  Super tasty and super good for you.  I mean it.

It’s easy, too.  Grab the bunch of cilantro and a bunch of green onions (wash first if you wish) then throw them in a food processor or blender (I don’t have a blender) and process!  Then throw in the drained can of tomatillos, process!  Pour this into a pot and add the secret spices.  This is one of them:

Do you know what it is?  Cloves.  In North America a lot of people don’t “cook” with cloves, they just use them in desserts.  But cloves (called “clavos de olor” or just “clavos“) are an important part in traditional Guatemalan dishes.  The same goes for cinnamon (canela)….add a piece of cinnamon bark.  Add some black pepper corns (pimienta) and some salt.  Is that all…clavo, pimienta, canela….I think so.  Heat it up for awhile and then toss the chicken in….in pieces, and cook for a bit.  That’s all I did.  I know that it’s a really quick version..I’m sure somebody somewhere is rolling in their grave. (eso solo es un viejo y conocido dicho…)

The kids were a bit suspicious, some of them couldn’t remember having eaten it before, but they loved it!!!  Licked the platter clean!  We added a spinach salad and avocado and lime.  I had honestly wanted to food-color the jocón blue…but Henry didn’t like that idea at all.  I thought it was a very green meal for a blue and white holiday…but hey…I guess quetzals are green……..And now for dessert, this I made sure was blue and white.

Cupcakes with a little surprise in the middle.

The light was so dim in the room, it was hard to get the photos.  I brightened this one up, but that’s really what it looked like!  A blue heart to say:

WE LOVE YOU GUATEMALA, VIVA!! VIVA!!  HAVE A GREAT DAY EVERYONE!!