On Nov. 8, 2012 locals had the opportunity to learn from three generations of one local Mexican-American family when they met Yvette Marquez-Sharpnack and Veronica Gonzalez-Smith over their first book signing. Want to get hungry? I did when I watched their video (link) and then sought out Veronica on Facebook to do a quick 5-question interview for Beacon readers:
EB: Hello Veronica! When I saw your Facebook invite to join you for your book signing I remembered running one of your recipes on my website two years ago! Tell readers what you are up to right now.
VS: One year ago I moved to Germany and I’m still cooking up a storm. I love all the wine tastings locally. When you contacted me I was on my way to the Bad Durkheim Wurstfest, where lots of German wine and wurst is served. I am currently teaching Spanish part time and loving it. I work on the Air Force base in Ramstein, Germany where I have the privilege of teaching children whose parents are in the Armed Forces.
EB: Tell us about the cookbook. I know you have an awesome website with recipes, was the cookbook always the next plan?
VS: Funny you should ask, but we always had the intention of writing a cookbook. My sister and I have always wanted to gather our favorite family recipes and stories together in a cookbook for our kids. The blog was just a way of sharing some of the recipes until we got the cookbook published. Along the way Hippocrene Books offered to publish our book and so here we are, with this gorgeous cookbook to pass along to our kids, family, and friends. Everyone at Hippocrene has been amazing, helpful, and we love them. We could not have done this without them.
EB: I love the Cucumber Margarita and the White Peach and Mango Sangria recipes on your site. Do you cook with wine or alcohol? Any pairing suggestions with your recipes?
VS: Thank you. Yvette and I share a mutual love of good wine. She loves Rioja and I am currently fond of Chilean and French wines. Living here in Germany I’ve tasted some darn good white wines…Germany makes some great white wine. We do love cooking with wine. Check out our Brie and Figs paired with Moscato, it’s a great way to end a meal especially now when figs are at their peak. We also love sangria –here is a sneak peak to our Mexican Fruit Sangria that is also featured in our cookbook. On occasion we cook with wine or tequila; here is our very own Spicy Mushroom Torta with Queso Quesadilla which has a splash of tequila. We also enjoy drinking a glass of wine while cooking; it makes cooking so much more relaxing. As far as pairings go, I like Chilean wines with our spicier dishes; they just seem to complement them so well. Yvette would probably choose a Rioja from Spain. We also have all sorts of mojitos, festive martinis and margaritas perfect for this time of year. Take a peak at some of our other drinks on our blog. We have about 25 drinks in our cookbook!
EB: I was very impressed with your YouTube video. Do you have plans for some how-to videos or maybe a local TV show?
VS: Thank you Eve. We had so much fun shooting that video, probably because mom, Yvette and I had the luxury of being together, something we don’t have the chance to do very often. We are such a great team in the kitchen. We are planning on making some how-to-videos to add to our blog (vlogging), hopefully in 2013. Unless of course we are offered some fabulous cooking show on TV (grinning big here).
EB: Where else can locals find you? Cooking classes, newsletters or…?
VS: For now you can find lots of recipes on our blog at MuyBuenoCookbook.com . We’ve saved some of our best and most favorite recipes for our cookbook which is available to order through Amazon. Yvette and I are coming out to Valencia to do a book signing at the Barnes & Noble in Valencia on November 8. As far as cooking classes go please visit us at a cooking demo and book signing November 10 at Surfas in Costa Mesa and then at the Surfas in Culver City November 14. I hope some of your readers can make it out to one of our stops in California.
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Sign up at MuyBuenoCookbook.com to receive new recipes
