Category: Latino culture

Latino culture, Latino family tradition, Mexican food, Mexican Vegan food

A to Z Challenge: O is for Olla

Mona Alvarado Frazier
A variety of cooking pots, photo by Scott Umstattd for unsplash.com

 

I’ve passed the halfway mark of the A to Z Challenge. Yay me!

Today’s letter is O. O is for Olla.

An olla (hoy-ya) is a cooking pot. The pot can be any of the sizes above.

In my house, when Mom asked me to get her olla, the conversation was some version of this:

 “Small olla, big olla, the medium one?

“The one for the beans.” 

“Big olla then. Just say the olla for beans.”

“You’ve sat at that table cleaning beans for ten minutes, which other olla did you think?”

On a cold evening when Mom had more days in the week left before her next check, we feasted on frijoles de olla and hot tortillas.

The recipe is simple but not quick*:

1 lb. pinto beans, soaked for two hours. Rinse first.

6 cups water

2 garlic cloves

1 jalapeno

1/4 yellow onion

2 tablespoons salt

Combine all in a large olla, add the water. When it boils, cover and reduce flame to simmer. Check after an hour; salt to taste. When they’re soft they’re ready.

Cumin is also used but I hate the smell so no cumin in my recipe. Salt pork or bacon can be added.

If I’m making chile beans, like I am tonight, I add cooked soy chorizo, “beefless ground” (Trader Joe’s) and powdered New Mexican chile. The no meat recipe is for the vegans in my family.

The simple dish looks like this:

Frijoles de Olla, homestyle pinto beans. Photo by gailanng

Buen provecho! (Bon Appetit).

 

Here are a few A to Z Challenges that I’ve enjoyed reading:

For funny and weird French expressions see Evelyne’s blog.

Margo’s View: that little voice.

A blog of great DorkyMom doodles.

Short-short stories from Trina Balaka Looks Back.

 

Latino culture

A to Z Challenge: N is for Nina

Mona Alvarado Frazier
parents awaiting baptism, photo by @gardient for unsplash.com

 

Today’s letter can be confusing. It’s an N which is short for a P word.

N is for Nina, which is the slang word for Godmother in Spanish; Nino is Godfather.

This is not to be confused with the word “niña,” where the tilde (~) over the ‘n’ means “little girl.”

The correct word for Godparents is Padrinos. (I know this further complicates the letter N).

It may be that a child can’t say the entire word “Padrin/a,” so he/she shortened it to “Nina” or “Nino.”

To be a godmother/godfather is to be chosen.

Parents of an infant, in the Catholic faith, chose a man and woman (who must also be Catholic by baptism) to preside over the upbringing of their infant if they die.

The main responsibility is to bring the child up as a Catholic. In effect, the padrinos are the spiritual parents. But, the ninas and ninos also partake in the baptismal ceremony and host the baptismal celebration.

If you’re Latina you aren’t necessarily Catholic, especially in the last thirty years, so this custom is no longer as popular as before.

So now, if you hear someone, under thirty years of age called Nina, it’s probably her birth name.