a blog post for lucy

Since Lucy has ceased blogging (she actually asked me awhile ago if she could shut her old blog down because it is embarrassing...imagine...to be nine and have all of your eight-year-old thoughts on the internet...the horror! maybe I should scan and post my sixth grade diary where I spend pages writing Kevin Bacon's name in various handwriting styles)....I thought I would share this great poem she wrote at school as part of a biography project.

Frederick Douglass

Frederick was strong
Frederick was smart
Frederick was a slave
Frederick decided he needed to be, needed to be free
So off he went on a mysterious ship
To embark on a trip to the north, to the north
And once he was there he lived as a free man
A free man
Once he was there he lived as a free man.

LBJO, 2/19/09

platanos, puerto rican style

I was perusing Mark Bittman's Bitten blog, which is one of my new favorites, and found a recipe for Platanos Maduros (sauteed ripe plantains), which gave me a craving for a slightly different take on this tropical banana cousin. During my senior year in college, and the summer after I graduated, I worked at an afterschool/summer camp program at a local public school in Hartford, CT, with a student body that was 75% Puerto Rican. Whenever we would have a picnic or potluck, someone was bound to bring Puerto Rican-style platanos, which are double-fried unripe platains (known as tostones in other places). I instantly fell in love, and had one of the Puerto Rican staff members teach me how to make them. It's been years since I've made them, and the only part I could remember had something to do with smashing the slices in the plaintain peel, so I had to google a reminder recipe (please click this link so you can see the majesty of the platano). I will definitely be picking up unripe plantains the next time I see them, along with some adobo seasoning, and maybe some queso fresco, so I can fry up a batch. Muy delicioso!