By Week 354. The blog is going on without me noticing it, each week showing up on Sunday night and asking to be written, and each week I write it, and this week I am writing it from the back porch because it is sixty-eight degrees on Sunday evening and that is a Hartford miracle and I am not going to waste it by sitting at the kitchen table.
Saturday Lucas came over to make tostones with me. Our second tostones lesson. He is almost five now — his birthday is this month — and he has gotten better at the smashing. Less brute force. More control. I coached him through the salt-water dip (the trick), and his tostones came out golden and crisp and he ate six of them, which is too many for a four-and-a-half-year-old but which is not going to kill him. Eduardo drove him home at 4 PM. Lucas was asleep in the car seat within a mile.
Sofía came Tuesday after clinical. She has been doing OB rotations — she delivered a baby on Monday, her first actual delivery, she was a supporting hand but she was there — and she sat at my kitchen table and she described the whole thing to me with the trembling voice of someone who has just witnessed something they will never un-witness. She said, "Ma, the mother was my age. Twenty-three. She did not stop screaming for an hour. And then the baby came out. And she was crying and laughing at the same time. And I was crying." I said, "Mija, welcome to nursing." She said, "It is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen." I said, "You will see it again." She said, "I know."
I fed her arroz con pollo and a glass of white wine and she slept on my couch for an hour before driving home. This is the new normal. Sofía comes when she is depleted. I refill her. She drives home.
Mami came Wednesday. She was quiet. She ate half a plate. She said, "Tell me about your day, Carmen." I told her. She listened. She did not comment. This is what she does now — she asks the question, she accepts the answer, she does not offer opinions. The editorial phase of Mami is ending. The listening phase is beginning. It is not better. It is different. I miss the opinions. I will take the listening.
Thursday at work Marcus showed me a draft menu for July — he is running July, under Gladys, after my departure — and the menu is good. I made two small notes. He accepted them. He will run that month without me. The kitchen will run without me. This is both reassuring and painful.
Friday I started packing up my office. The office is small — ten years of accumulated papers, photographs, menus, the certificates from fifteen different food safety recertifications, the photo of Luz María and me at the cafeteria on her first visit in 2019, laminated, stuck on the bulletin board with a thumbtack. I started boxing. Slowly. One box a week until June 30. Wepa.
The tostones were golden and Lucas ate six of them, which I already told you, but what I did not tell you is that he ate them with this salsa — roasted, smoky, just thick enough to cling to the edge — and he did not slow down once. I have been making this alongside tostones for longer than I can remember, long enough that it does not feel like a recipe anymore, just a reflex. If you are going to do the lesson, you might as well do the whole lesson.
Roasted Salsa
Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 20 min | Total Time: 30 min | Servings: 8
Ingredients
- 6 roma tomatoes, halved
- 1 medium white onion, quartered
- 4 cloves garlic, unpeeled
- 2 jalapeños, halved and seeded (leave seeds in for more heat)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves
- Juice of 1 lime
Instructions
- Heat the broiler. Set your oven to broil on high and position a rack about 6 inches from the heat. Line a large baking sheet with foil.
- Arrange the vegetables. Place the tomatoes cut-side up, onion quarters, unpeeled garlic cloves, and jalapeño halves cut-side down on the prepared baking sheet. Drizzle everything with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.
- Broil until charred. Broil for 15 to 20 minutes, until the tomatoes are blistered and collapsing, the onion is softened and charred at the edges, and the jalapeño skins are blackened. Watch closely after the 12-minute mark.
- Peel and rest. Remove the baking sheet from the oven. Peel the garlic cloves once cool enough to handle. Let all vegetables rest for 5 minutes so the steam settles.
- Blend to your texture. Transfer all roasted vegetables and any accumulated juices to a blender or food processor. Add cumin, cilantro, and lime juice. Pulse 8 to 10 times for a chunky salsa, or blend 20 to 30 seconds for something smoother. Taste and adjust salt.
- Cool and serve. Transfer to a bowl or jar. The salsa thickens slightly as it cools. Serve at room temperature alongside tostones, chips, or anything that deserves it. Refrigerate leftovers in a sealed jar for up to one week.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 45 | Protein: 1g | Fat: 3g | Carbs: 5g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 150mg