Email this page  Print this page  del.icio.us  digg  yahoo!  Comments

Gracias Azucaradas

With Thanksgiving around the corner, let’s put some sugar to our blessings.

We Latinos have many reasons to enjoy living in this country, but if there’s one we are very happy about, it’s the combination of festivities throughout the year. We celebrate not only the customs from our homeland, but we also incorporate to our party calendar dates such as the 4^th of July and Thanksgiving.

South of the border to La Patagonia, Thanksgiving is not celebrated. But for those of us who have made our way up north, this celebration has become a meaningful holiday. It might be that we have come to understand the roots and traditions of this nation, or maybe it’s just about having a long weekend, who knows?

But as the saying goes: “Al pueblo que fueres has lo que vieres” (When in Rome, do as the Romans do). So whatever the different reasons we have to celebrate el Dia de Accion de Gracias, we know it’s another opportunity to be thankful, gather with family, dance salsa and enjoy good food … with a Latino flavor, of course.

While it is important to keep the tradition of turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans and pumpkin pie, to fully appreciate the meaning of Thanksgiving, we would like to suggest an extra dessert that will make your Thanksgiving evening even sweeter than cranberry sauce.

In the past it would have taken hours to cook buñuelos. In fact, it would have been a better idea to find a place to buy them, but in our ever-changing world, some things are now easier to get … and buñuelos enjoy that privilege.

From the Middle East to the Americas, each culture has a favorite celebration to cook buñuelos: Christmas, Ramadan, Passover, Hanukkah … and now Thanksgiving.

It’s not that hard. Go to your favorite local supermarket and buy a bag of flour tortillas. Once you’re home, pour canola into a pan and wait until the oil is very hot, but not smoking. Drop the tortilla into the oil and fry it until golden brown, which should take a few seconds. Remove the tortilla from the pan, drain it on absorbent towels and sprinkle cinnamon sugar. A disfrutar!

Living in a country where so many cultures blend, we do not want to take anything away from this tradition. Instead, we would like share and appreciate the meaning of Thanksgiving the way it is. So why not to add a little bit of sabor Latino? If you fix buñuelos for this next dia de Gracias, pretend every bite is a blessing and be thankful for it.

Gracias LPM!