In Argentina and many other Latin American countries, Catholicism is the main religion and is very common the avoidance of meats (other than fish) on Holy Friday.  So, based fish dishes such as “Empanadas de vigilia” (vigil empanadas) are very popular at this time of the year. Also “Rosca de Pascua” (a Passover breadroll) is traditional sweet bread originated in Italy with simple ingredients (flour, milk and egg) to compete with the traditional eggs. Chocolate eggs are a must! You can find them in all sizes, colors and filled with a wide variety of candy or mini pieces of chocolate. The tradition of exchanging eggs originated in Europe as eggs are a symbol of fertility in coincidence with Easter occurring during spring. So, Christianity sees eggs as symbol of resurrection. Easter eggs weren’t made from chocolate at first!

As Holy Thursday and Friday are holiday in our country, many people uses these days for tourism.

How is Easter celebrated in your area? Do you have any traditional recipe to share?

I love cooking. I started to cook with my mom when I was a kid, she is my teacher and inspiration. My favorite cuisine is Italian (my dad born in Italy) and I love baking. So, I wanted to share my bread recipe! Last year, I bought a KitchenAid mixer (brought one to Argentina from the US) and started to make homemade breads. My specialty is whole wheat seeded bread. It’s really easy and I make a batch of 4 loaves to have it always on hand for my everyday breakfast (it’s been months without store-bought bread). My husband loves it too. It is yummy and healthy! Here is the recipe (2 loaves):

• Dissolve 1 tablespoon brown sugar in 2 cups of warm water in a small bowl. Add 1 ½ tablespoons of dry yeast and let the mixture stand.
• Place 4 cups of whole wheat flour, 3/4 cup of low fat powdered milk, 1/3 cup of brown sugar, 2 teaspoons of salt and 1/3 cup of mixed seeds (sunflower, sesame and flax seeds) in the mixer bowl. Attach bowl and hook to mixer. Turn to a low speed and mix about 15 seconds.
• Gradually add yeast mixture and ¼1/3 cup of vegetable oil and mix about 1  1/2 minutes longer. Stop and scrape bowl if necessary.
• Continuing on low speed, add 1 to 2 cups of flour, 1/2 cup at a time, and mix until dough clings to hook and cleans sides of bowl. Knead on low speed 2 more minutes.
• Place dough in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover and let rise in warm place about 1 hour or until doubled in bulk.
• Punch dough down and divide in half. Shape each half: roll each half into a rectangle (a rolling pin will smooth the dough and remove gas bubbles); then, starting at a short end, roll the dough tightly and pinch to seal the seam; finally, pinch the ends and turn them under.
• Brush the top of the loaf with water and sprinkle with seeds.
• Place the dough, seam side down in a greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise in a warm place about 1 hour or until doubled in bulk.
• Bake at 400 F for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature at 350 F and bake 30 minutes longer.
• Remove from baking sheet and let cool on a rack.

Per serving (1 slice, 30g): about 70 kcal, 2 grams of protein, 10 grams of carb, 1.2 grams of fiber, 2.4 grams of fat.

I love when my house smells like a bakery! This bread lasts about 1 week on the fridge and months in the freezer. It is best when toasted, when all the nutty flavor from the seeds comes up!

Do you have any good recipe to share?

I recommend you to read the article from the March issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, which addresses the need of dietetic professionals to serve the Hispanic population. The article describes the challenges in the health and nutrition care of this population and states that the ideal for RDs that serve this population is to be fluent in Spanish. That makes sense. It is not enough to know names of food and simple phrases if you want to connect with your clients and change the way they are eating. If you are thinking about interpreters: they are not always available, and if they are, many concepts can be lost in translation depending on the interpreter’s understanding.

So, I imagine there are many dietitians and dietetic technicians learning Spanish right now.  Have you ever felt frustrated learning a new language? I did! Learning a foreign language is a fun, but difficult task.  It’s something you cannot learn in a few “intensive” classes or months. It takes time and effort. I’m native Spanish and I have learned English at high school, plus private lessons for 2 years. But it wasn’t until I move to the U.S. that I started to learn the real language. At first, I only was able to understand half of what people said to me and it was hard for me to find the words to express my thoughts. I felt so frustrated and embarrassed! Reading English was easy for me but it was harder when it came to listening and talking. I was not used to hear and make those new sounds all day (as you imagine I had many headaches). With time, I became more fluent and realized that the best way to learn a foreign language is when you are in a situation where you are forced to use the language on a daily basis.
After 2 years of living in the US, I came back to Argentina where I was afraid of losing the English fluency I had achieved. Well, it’s been almost 3 years since then and here I am, forcing myself to use the language daily! J
I read, write, talk and listen to some English every day. It’s not hard because here we are exposed to music, movies, technology, and also professional continuing education and research updates that are in English.
But, what if you are an English speaking person learning Spanish? I’ve heard is more difficult to learn Spanish for you than English for us, because of all the Spanish pronouns, articles and verb variations, and of course the pronunciation. But don’t panic. You can take Spanish lessons but it is key to have a “workout” plan to master the language. Plan something for everyday to use the language. Some examples:

• Read a newspaper or health and nutrition news in Spanish. You can find many of them on the internet. Read out loud as much as possible to also practice pronunciation.
• Listen to the radio/TV/music/movies. This is a fun way to develop your “ear” for Spanish.
• Speak! You can start by speaking to yourself to loosen up, but look for a conversation partner (native or near-native Spanish speaking) to learn the real accent.
• Save money for a trip to “live” the language in a target country (come to Argentina to learn Spanish!)

Bottom line is: have a plan, be consistent (but alternate the type of activities so you don’t burnt out) and lastly: don’t expect to be perfect! It takes years of practice to be fluent and you probably will keep your native language accent, which (in my opinion) is okay!
Are you learning a foreign language? How? Please share with us any other tip!
I hope this helps and buena suerte!

Romina