June 22, 2018. Madison, Mississippi. Cuban Cooks.

Cuban cooks do unusual things with meat. Our present cook called me to the kitchen when she had finished her work. She likes to show me her handiwork. That day she had made a pot of chicken vegetable soup, a pasta with tomato sauce and meatballs and finally, four pieces of steak. I had asked her to use meat from our freezer because friends had given us meat for Christmas which we had not yet used. Plus we had purchased meat when friends had visited. But I knew we had no steaks, except the filet mignons Ken had ordered, using a gift certificate. Sure enough, she had thawed two of the steaks, cut them in half to make four thin steaks, sautéed them then coated them with cheese. At dinner that night, I served two of them, which we enjoyed. They were tasty. But before she came the next time, we made sure that Ken cooked the other two filets, which were delicious. I had to admit that her method served us for two meals. Then yesterday, she cooked a pan of pork, cooked with a sauce and onions. We ate two pieces tonight. They were delicious and tender. But I knew we did not have thin pork. What she had done was to slice the think boneless pork chops before cooking them, so instead of us eating one thick pork chop each, she made them last for two meals, which is probably better for us. The first year our cook Lourdes worked for us, I asked if she would like to cook a fancy Cuban dinner for our friends. She was delighted to be asked. We were to be five adults and seven children. Her plan was to do some cooking at home, then arrive at 4:00 to finish up at our home, with dinner to be served at 6:30. When she arrived, she showed me her ingredients, which included a lovely piece of steak. She was excited to tell me that she went to a fancy store to buy the steak, which I could see was a piece about four by six inches. I did wonder how she could cook for twelve with one piece of steak. But I never said a word. What she did was to cook the beautiful steak well, then shred the meat and serve it with beans and rice. The dish was wonderful but you could not really see the meat by itself. But that meat went a long way. Our present cook, Reides, is a much better cook than Lourdes. She is younger and uses more meat and less lentils and beans. But she is still from Cuba and she still makes a piece of meat last a long time. Her sauces are delightful and we are happy with her cooking. We will just be sure to put the really good meat in the other freezer.