Juan of Words

Mujeres, Your Man: ¿Machote or Metrosexual?

¿Cuál de los dos?

Beginning today, every Friday on Juan of Words I’ll be offering a weekly vlog series titled Viernes Vloguero.  Why?  Just for fun… and because I’m hoping it will be a good kickoff to all of our weekends.  At the very least, a good laugh at my expense.

What will be on it?  Mostly burradas that I come up with, strictly for your entertainment, prometo, along with any of your cool ideas that I’m brave enough to carry out… or able to produce in a halfway decent manner.  Espero les guste la idea y se sientan libres de dejarme comentarios.  ¡Los que sean! (bracing for them)

So this first vlog is on Machos vs. Metrosexuals!  Well, more accurately, on how this mexicano came to the realization that I do have more metrosexual in me than I would care to admit.  The proof is in all the chucherias stashed away in my restroom right now.  Way more than junk than I would have ever imagined!

Can you say facial scrubs and blackhead strips?  ¡Uuyy, que cosas!

Bloopers, ‘Cepillo’ Interview and More Bloopers: Juan & Anjelica

Married people behaving badly.

This video started out as a joke.  My wife and I had been talking about maybe doing a vlog together.  She has the editing system… a little bit more sophisticated than what I have been using, mostly FlipShare and YouTube, and she wanted to show me what Windows Movie Maker could do.

We hadn’t agreed on any subject or concept for the vlog and just decided to go for it.  The interview, with cepillo for a mic and all, is a little difficult to understand because we tried using a cell phone and a laptop to add our own soundtrack, but the Bloopers are well worth the wait, LOL!  Anyhow, I hope you enjoy.

It was all in good fun, and I am now a fan of Windows Movie Maker as well.

Ash Wednesday, Random Acts Of Kindness & Paying It Forward

Ash Wednesday, A New Beginning

So since the last vlog  I’ve obtained a new video camera that my wife purchased at a very good deal.  Something like $20 for it at a major retailer…and it’s HD and everything.  Very cool!  Only I was so impressed by its bells and whistles that I was afraid to use it until now. My mind literally couldn’t think of anything to talk about on a video, lol.

Words are SO much easier!

But since yesterday was Ash Wednesday and we sort of ended up at church inadvertently at the last minute, it gave me inspiration, and more than anything the courage, to actually film myself on this new camera, which by the way has a side panel that makes it very distracting to look straight into the camera only (I’m not used to seeing myself while filming).  Anyhow, the subject matter of this vlog is pretty self-explanatory:  Ash Wednesday, Random Acts of Kindness, and Paying it Forward.

Hope you like it.

Juan of Words does Salsa Verde

After taking your votes on Twitter, everyone wanted salsa verde instead of salsa roja, which I guess makes sense because everyone prefers green salsa to red salsa on their tacos, well most people anyway.  The process is very simple.  All you need to get started are a few green tomatoes (tomatillos), the peppers of your choice – I chose chile piquin because it is a personal favorite – a skillet or flat iron, and of course a molcajete.

My goal is to make this recipe as simple as possible for anyone to make, or at least get an idea of how to make salsa verde.  For red salsa you would basically change the color of your tomatoes – and remember folks the more chiles you add to your salsa the spicier it will be.  If it comes out too spicy people might accuse you of having been angry when you made the salsa.

Your comments are always welcome – thanks for watching!

Frijoles Fried with Juan of Words

Refried Beans

So for Fourth of July what better way to commemorate our diversity in people and cultures than to highlight one of my own cultura’s most exportable recipes.  In the Great State of Texas refried beans, or frijoles refritos, are the perfect companion to any number of Tex-Mex dishes, as well as the main dish itself.  Wether with rice on the side, cheese on top, chile verde or rojo, eggs, or anything else your little pancita desires, this treat is all of one word, all the time: delicious.

Now for you professional cooks, both domestic or otherwise, you’ll have to forgive my methods in this how-to video.  I am cooking from the perspective of a pseudo-machista Latino male who very rarely cooks…mas bien, who doesn’t know how to cook much at all.  I know.  I am working on that.  But anyhow, the beans used are Goya Pinto Beans and the video is meant to show that if a guy like me can do it so can anyone else.

Please enjoy, share your recipes for this and other dishes, and let me know what other foods you think a guy like me should attempt.

Project Give Back

At the age of 15, working for free in a homeless shelter for an entire week was not even within my radar of things to do.  Maybe that would have been different if I could have done it in place of school.  In fact, I know it would have. 

Katie and Alice are ninth graders at the Houston British School and they were lucky enough to skip a whole week’s worth of classroom instruction by volunteering at a place of business for one week.  They don’t get counted absent or reprimanded for not being in class.  Instead they are congratulated and tested on what they have learned in their real world work experiences.  

The British teens tell me this a tradition most schools in England adhere to!  Somehow, Take Your Child to Work Day is beginning to look like a rip off!

Anyhow, I digress.  These young ladies could have spent the week at the Houston Zoo, a law firm, the Mayor’s Office, or anywhere else…more uhm fun, but they didn’t.  They chose to work with the dozens of local homeless women and children who have been displaced in the fourth largest city in the United States, and who live at The Salvation Army’s shelter, Family Residence.  Very cool!

Hear from them why they chose this assignment:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PsjUKY3pUw