[HoneyBrown]

Hello to Everyone!

I am so excited to have found you. I am an American woman. My son's father is Dominican. I want to expose him to his Dominican heritage. He is only 4, so I am teaching his Spanish (we want him to be bilingual). I also want him to enjoy Dominican cuisine, which means I must learn to cook it!

I live in a small town in Michigan, but I understand there is a growing Dominican population here. Hopefully I can find someone to teach me in person, but until then, I will buy the cookbook and try recipes on my own.

Would you recommend any recipes as "starter" or "easy"? I don't want my first attempts to be failures because they were too complicated. Also, how will I know if they are authentic tasting? I suppose if I just follow the recipe...

Thank you for making me feel welcomed already!

[Aunt Clara]

Hi HoneyBrown, welcome!

Thanks for joining our community and hope to see you around often.

All our recipes are marked with their degrees of difficulty. Try starting with the ones marked "easy".

[HoneyBrown]

Hi Aunt Clara -

I am still trying your recipes, and have had success with the easy recipes.

My son's father was killed in an auto accident on January 2, 2010, and his Mom is coming to visit us in a month. I so want to impress her! Is that possible? (smile) Do you have any recommendations that a Dominican Mom would like to eat? I would ask her, but I want this to be a surprise for her. My son's father was partial to the garlic shrimp and the concon.

Thank you for the suggestion. Also, how will I find traditional breakfast dishes? Can you make suggestions on those, too? I've seen some, but am unsure which are the most frequent served in DR. I don't simply want to make her eggs and toast.

Thank You,

HB

[Aunt Clara]

I am very sorry to hear about your loss. May you find peace and strenght in your son's love.


All the things I am going to suggest are included in our recipe collection, a quick search will locate them.

For breakfast nothing is dearest to us than our mangu, but I am not so sure how you will be able to locate plantains in cold Michigan. If you do, that is definitely the right way to go about that. A revoltillo de huevos (eggs a la dominicana) is the perfect match for the mangu. Since Michigan is wicked cold these days, too cold for an old Dominican lady's bones, may I suggest you accompany your breakfast with a hot dominican beverage? The ingredients are easy to find, choose between the lighter chocolate de agua, or the heartier, and very warming avena caliente. If you don't find plantains, don't despair, buy a french baguette and pretend is pan de agua (is not the same, but close enough) and serve in lieu of the mangu.

For lunch, nothing is dearest, or more perfect in cold weather than a sancocho. But forget about that, too complicated and the ingredients may be hard to find, you know what is really easy, the ingredients are easy to find and fits perfectly in a cold winter? A steaming-hot plate of asopao.

I hope this helps. Shoot back if you have more questions.