Dos Borreguitas Featured In Associated Press Article on Cascarones

By Cynthia Garza
on April 09, 2012
With 0 comments

We were beyond thrilled to get a call a few weeks ago from Associated Press reporter Jennifer Forker who was working on an Easter story about cascarones. She had read our blog posts about this awesome tradition of breaking confetti-filled eggs on people's heads during Easter, and wanted to chat a little about the tradition and how to make them. We had a great convo and afterwards I also sent her the pictures that ended up running alongside the story (Cascarones: Latin American tradition of confetti-filled eggs expands in US), including this one above of my daughter K playing with cascarones. That photo ended up running in the Sydney Morning Herald -- cool! I just think cascarones are one of the greatest things since sliced cake, so I'm glad the story got picked up by quite a few newspapers across the country. This is one tradition that will hopefully become as American during Easter as Peeps.

Jennifer spoke to us, and also with two of our favorite sites, SpanglishBaby and Tikitikiblog. Here's what we had to say:

Cynthia Leonor Garza’s family brings out the cascarones at weddings, graduations and anytime there’s a celebration.
“I have an aunt who’s notorious for carrying cascarones in her purse for graduations,” Garza says. “You look at my high school graduation pictures and there’s confetti all over my head because somebody cracked one over me.”
Garza lives in Washington, D.C., where she runs an online shop of Latino-inspired children’s clothes and toys, but she grew up in South Texas. Garza recalls crossing the border to Mexico to pick up a massive bag of 10 dozen cascarones.
“I grew up an hour from the border,” recalls Garza. “You’d haul that huge bag back with you home. You can imagine the big party you’d have with those cascarones.”
It’s that annual border crossing with her mother that Garza treasures most.
“I think of that every time this time of year rolls around,” she says. Meanwhile, “the (egg) breaking is one big blur.”

And here's a few of the papers that ran the story:

Side note: We had a BLAST this Easter Sunday with our stash of cascarones. Tons of laughs, tons of smiles, tons of surprises and tons of confetti in every single crevice of your backyard and inside your clothes and hair. Love it.

Need Egg Shells for Cascarones? Try these Egg Recipes

By Cynthia Garza
on March 29, 2012
With 0 comments

If you're like a lot of busy folks, you're not even thinking about Easter yet, much less preparing for it. Or maybe you've got an awesome Pinterest Easter board, but yeah, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but that's just virtual preparedness. Damn, I know. I, too, feel an immense sense of domestic accomplishment after spending hours on Pinterest or watching HGTV. But in the real world, we've gotta trek to the grocery store and spend time in the kitchen to make those pretty things.

Last week, I posted about how easy it was to make cascarones, or confetti-filled Easter eggs, which are a South Texas tradition at Easter. Let me just say once again, cascarones make Easter a million times more festive and fun and are totally worth the effort to make. And yes, they are easy. But the hardest part is remembering to save the egg shells when you're cooking in the weeks leading up to Easter. But never fear, even with just a week to go you can amass a nice little stockpile of empty egg shells for cascarones-making just by making a few egg-centric recipes. These are few recipes that use up a lot of eggs, or at least four each.

QUICHE

Two of my favorite quick quiche recipes are the Knorr Spring Vegetable Quiche and the Knorr Cheddar Broccoli Quiche recipes. I originally found these recipes from a former co-worker who used to bring them in to the office when we had potluck breakfasts. They are so easy to make, and taste delicious.

I didn't have any Knorr Leek recipe or Spring Vegetable packets on hand, so I just winged this quiche I made today with what I had in the frig and freezer. The result, a ham, cheese and broccoli quiche that took 5 minutes to prepare and was ready in about 45 minutes. Here's my recipe (I just tweaked the Knorr recipes.) These are great to make two at a time. Great for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups milk
4 eggs
1 package (10 oz.) frozen chopped broccoli (thawed)
5 slices of ham, chopped small
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (or any yellow cheese mix, I use Mexican blend)
salt and peper
1 frozen deep-dish pie crust
STEPS
Preheat oven to 375°. In a bowl, beat eggs, milk and salt and pepper until well blended. Add broccoli, shredded cheese and chopped ham bits and mix well. Pour into pie crust and bake around 45 minutes.

FLAN

I am a Facebook fan of Hispanic Kitchen and I love getting their daily updates of Latino-inspired recetas. Here you can find recipes for flans you couldn't even dream up: flan de cajeta, flan de coco, flan de maracuyá, flan de nance, flan de naranja y coco, flan napolitano, and on and on. You get the point. The recipe I've used since I was in junior high is from an old South Texas Rotary Club recipe book. It's a no frills recipe and it tastes divine, especially the second day.

TORTILLA ESPAÑOLA

Ah, when I think of the average corner bar that serves tapas in Madrid, I always think tortilla española. This is Spain's version of an omelette, but the olive oil gives it a nice and different texture. Most recipes for tortilla española call for olive oil, potatoes, eggs, onion, salt and pepper. Nothing more, nothing less. Simple and satisfying.

ANGEL FOOD CAKE

Okay, this is the mother ship of using of a ton of eggs in one fell swoop. This particular Betty crocker recipe for angel food cake calls for 12 eggs. And with just that, you've got yourself a good number of cascarones.

CREME BRULEE

If creme brulee got in a fight with flan, I'll be in the stands with a bull horn rooting for Team Flan. But I know there are plenty of people who think creme brulee is to-die-for and would kill for it. So if you're feeling adventurous in the kitchen, why not try this? Here's a recipe. It'll use up 10 eggs.

Any other suggestions? Happy cooking and baking!

How to Make Cascarones, or Confetti-Filled Easter Eggs

By Cynthia Garza
on March 22, 2012
With 0 comments

Last year I wrote about how much I loved cascarones because they remind me of home and growing up in South Texas. But mostly, I like these confetti-filled eggs because they make this or any other holiday or celebration a million times more festive and fun. To me, cascarones equals laughter, and that's what brings so much joy in life.

My mom and I have been diligent about saving our egg shells for the past few months. Use white eggs, not brown eggs as those don't dye well. To make the hole, just tap gently on the top end of the egg when breaking it to let it out. The hole can be about an inch in diameter or so. Just wash and rinse the empty egg shell well and set aside until you've accumulated a decent amount. Yesterday my mom, my daughter and I finally got around to making a few dozen cascarones. I remembered to photograph so that I could write-up a how-to blog post.

Really, these are not difficult to make and my daughter loved the dyeing part. They do take a little time but, I just think that the whole process is fun, from making to breaking. Yeah, especially the breaking part.

So here are cascarones in four easy steps!

Step 1: Dye the Empty Egg Shells

We dyed some with non-toxic child-friendly spray paint, and colored the rest with Paas Easter egg dyes. Let them dry before filling with confetti.

Step 2: Fill with Confetti

Step 3: Seal Top of Egg with Tissue Paper

Cut circles of tissue paper big enough to fit just over the open hole of the egg. To affix them to the egg, you want to either use glue or make a homemade glue by mixing some flour and water until it's the consistency of glue (not too runny). That's what we use. Then we just brush it around the edge of the egg shell hole and push the tissue down to make sure there's no way for the confetti to escape.

Step 4: Save for the Easter Egg Hunt, or Make a Gift Bag to Give to Guests

We just thought these would also make great Easter celebration favors for guests who come over to your home. Just get some clear bags, fill the bottom with colorful crinkled paper or Easter grass, put in a half dozen eggs, slap a label or sticker on them, tie it up with a nice ribbon and voila, you've got an Easter your guests will never forget!