Got Questions about Blogging? Ask Me!

Got questions about blogging? Just curious about the whole thing? Looking to start a blog? Want to make your blog bigger? Ask me here bit.ly/askablogger, and my blogging friends and I will answer them live on YouTube on Wednesday, May 22 at 9 PM.

Who are my blogging friends? Glad you asked...

Shai from HireShai.com and ShaiUnfiltered.Tumblr.com | @shaiunfiltered on Twitter | Fleur Management on Facebook | ShaiUnfiltered on Pinterest

Rae from FromRaeWithLove.com | @fromraewithlove on Twitter | From Rae with Love on Facebook

Tanisha from GirlMeetsGlass.Tumblr.com | @girlmeetsglass on Twitter | Girl Meets Glass on Facebook

Me from SocaMom.com and EvaLoves.com | @socamomdc and @whatevaloves on Twitter | SocaMom and EvaLoves on Facebook | socamom on Pinterest

Any questions that we don't have time to answer on YouTube will be answered on Twitter and Facebook. If you miss it, the video will be available on our blogs afterwards. Looking forward to your questions!

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Paradise in 24 Hours... Caribbean Shoe Style

You love it right?  It just screams Caribbean fabulous to me - I have reached my shoe budget for the month already, but if you still have $26.99, you can snag these babies in red, blue, or yellow.  The MSRP is $65.00, so its no surprise that the last time I checked, there were only a few left on Ideeli.com.

Ideeli.com is my go to site when I need a quick shoe fix - you know, some retail therapy after a hard day with the kids. You have to join, the membership is free, but definitely worth it.  The site is as addictive as gambling (if not more) so if you have those issues, steer clear!

If you are lucky enough to get these beauties, snap a pic and post it in the comments - we wanna see!

Looking for more shoes? Check out my new blog, EvaLoves.com.

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Opening Today: Tyler Perry Presents Peeples

I was given press passes to Peeples.  I was given no other compensation for writing this post.  As always, my opinions are my own. My stories are in blue. If you want to skip it and just get the review - read the black. Want a view inside my mind on this film?  Check out my (totally different) review on EvaLoves.com.

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I never had a boy come to meet my parents at my house growing up. The first time a boy pulled up in my driveway just to say hi, I got grounded for two weeks. My aunt was visiting from Tobago, and she made a huge deal out of the whole thing.  I don’t remember him ever getting out of the car.

Movies about meeting the parents of your significant other always seem to be comedies. Makes sense to me – sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying. During my teen and young adult years, I would just take dates to meet my best friend’s parents.  It was just easier that way – for all of us.  I remember being at the movies with my best friend and her daughter when she came to DC for spring break, and cracking up with her at the previews for Peeples.

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Review: French's Flavor Infuser 10 Minute Marinade - Caribbean Jerk Flavor

As part of a promotional program with The Mommy Factor and French’s, I received product samples for review purposes. No other compensation was received. Views expressed are always 100% my own.

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Chicken and I have a love/hate relationship.  For a Caribbean woman who doesn't want chicken with a "fresh" taste, there is a whole lot of rigmarole that goes into cooking a chicken dish.  So for this review, I had a decision to make.  Big chicken or little chicken (cornish hen)... big fuss or little fuss.

I chose little fuss.

Seasoning jerk chicken usually takes 24 hours in the fridge.  I was interested to see if this could work in just 10 minutes.  After all I have to do to clean a chicken, anything to make the process shorter is a plus, right? Right.

I chose this little cornish hen. Isn't it cute!

I wasn't about to use a lime on this little bird AKA "Little Fuss", so I used lemon juice and salt to clean it.  Rinsed it under cold water.  It only took a few minutes... sweet!

This is the French's 10 Minute Marinade Flavor Infuser™ bottle - Caribbean Jerk flavor.  I removed the cap, removed the foil seal, and got started.

There's no valve or anything to make it stop dispensing if you aren't squeezing it, so you had better have a plan for where you plan to inject the marinade.  There's not a lot in the bottle, so you don't have any to waste.  It cannot be reused.  Since it has the tube shape, you can't set it down on the counter to reposition your bird, so really - have a plan.  You can't replace the cap and set it down that way, because like I said... no valve.

I didn't have too much of an issue because I picked Little Fuss.  With a bigger bird, be prepared to be more strategic.  I gave it two shots in the breasts, two shots under the wings, one in each thigh, and one in each leg.

Sometimes it would plump up and make a bubble like I was giving the bird botox.  That was amusing, but I didn't have time to laugh... I kept on infusing.

After I was all done, I let Little Fuss rest for 10 minutes with some foil over it, while I cut and salted some onions for the cavity.

Here's Little Fuss before...

...and here's Little Fuss after. Looked and smelled really good.  Not much like Jerk Chicken, but good nonetheless.

Look at this itty bitty leg.

So here was lunch.  Rotini with cheese and Jerk cornish hen!  Now the verdict...

Baby Girl - "I wonder if these corny hens know they taste so good."

Mr. Social - "Cornish hens are good mommy... what is this in it? A1?"

Big One - "This is a small chicken."

Mom - "This is really good, Eva."

Everyone liked it, myself included, but no one recognized it as jerk chicken, and we are a family well versed in the smell and taste of some jerk.  It didn't have any real spice, and I used the whole bottle on just one cornish hen.  Even though it is supposed to season three to four pounds of meat, I would be concerned that it wouldn't add enough flavor for a whole chicken.

It didn't have any "heat" to it either. I was expecting a little kick, but there wasn't one.  The kids appreciated the mild flavor, but I was looking for a little something different.

Nice flavor, yes. Family friendly, yes. A good example of "Caribbean Jerk"? No.

Things that French's would like you to know about their 10 Minute Marinade Flavor Infuser™, Caribbean Jerk flavor:

• It does not contain gluten or allergens.
• It does not need to be refrigerated before use, but it cannot be reused.
• There are four flavors: Sweet and Tangy Teriyaki, Classic Steakhouse, Zesty Italian, and Caribbean Jerk.
• MSRP: $2.99 each
• The Jerk flavor was recommended for pork loin (I chose chicken because I don't eat pork.)

Have you used a method like this to flavor meats before?  Could you tell the difference?

For more information on this product, visit the French's website or French's Facebook page.

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New Coloring Sheet: Color the Flag of St. Lucia

I have new coloring pages for St. Lucia!  Download the flag coloring sheet here: Flag of St. Lucia Coloring Sheet

You can also check out the My Family In Flags collection for St. Lucia here: St. Lucia

I have had over 16,000 downloads of our Caribbean Culture for Kids Coloring and Activity Pages so far, and it hasn't been a whole year yet!  Thank you so much everyone for sharing the coloring pages and supporting my efforts to share information about the Caribbean.

Please click here to give me your feedback. I would love to hear what you think of the collection of resources here on SocaMom.com.

Have a wonderful day!

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Caribbean Parenting Month: Take Your Child to Work Day, SocaMom Style

Growing up, every day was Take Your Child to Work Day. For a lot of immigrant families, that's just the way it is.  In Caribbean countries like my family's home country of Trinidad and Tobago, the only way that a business could survive was to take the kids to work... and they actually worked - like every day.  There were options, though.  Learn the family business, and help put food on the table, find a family member to teach you a trade that you were more interested in, work for them and help put food on their table, or get an education abroad, get a work visa, and send money back home to put food on the table.  You could also get an education, and step out on your own, with the support of family of course, and start your own business.

One way or another, learning to work was important. The way my mom explained it to me, you worked because everybody has to eat.  My parents paid me for working, as long as it wasn't part of household chores.  They also supported my businesses as a kid - I could count on them to be my first (and sometimes only) customers.

I homeschool, work outside of the home, sometimes work from home, and I blog - and the kids are there with me for 99% of that, so I had to find a creative way to do Take Your Child to Work Day.  I figured I would give each one of them one of my jobs, and show them how things got done around here.

As you know, Mr. Social has a blog called, "Dave's Car Show". His dad and I manage his blog, and he and his brother provide content in the form of photos and video.  I had shown him how to make his coloring sheets a while back, but I had been adding the photos and videos to the blog when I had time.  Lately, Mr. Social has been hinting that I move too slowly.

Solution? Teach him how to upload and publish his own content.  Yes he is 8. I believe that if you can teach a dog to sing, or a cat to use the toilet - and flush - you can teach a kid to use a computer.

Two obstacles stood in front of me. The content management system that I use for this blog is definitely not user friendly like traditional blogging platforms, and he has the attention span of an 8 year old.  We got through it though.  I had to move fast - very fast.   First, I decided that we would start with watermarking and meta tagging photos in Photoshop, and end with uploading images. I taught him to write down his steps in a journal (just like I do), so that he can refer to them later, then we went on to learning by doing.

Sure I could have typed them up for him, but there's something about him watching, writing it all down himself, and then trying it that makes him really understand it.

Well he understood it, alright. Eventually, he asked me if I could back up some so that he could try it all on his own - politely of course.  I did.  Two great things came out of Take Your Child to Work Day for us - he finally could take full ownership of his website, and there was one less thing I had to be responsible for.  Win-win, right?

He called his dad, turned on his "businessman" voice (him, but deeper and very proper... slightly British?), and told him all about the work he did.  We still do his email and social media (gotta shield him from the meanies as long as possible), but he's cool with that once we told him how that was how the big companies do it too.  We told him, "it's called outsourcing".

After we were done, he says, "so what's my password, Mommy?" Slow your roll, kid. Slow your roll.

How did you spend Take Your Child to Work Day?  For one mom I know, who takes her kids to work with her quite often, she decided it was Stay Your Behind in School Day.  How did you decide to celebrate?

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Caribbean Parenting Month: I Am Caribbean

For those of us who were born and raised outside of the Caribbean, raising our children with a connection to the region can difficult. One of the first places to start is to let our children know that no matter where they were born or raised, the culture of the Caribbean is in their blood. It's where they are from and it will always be a part of who they are. Enjoy Caribbean Parenting month, and find more activity pages here: Caribbean Culture for Kids Free Download Area

Click here for free instant download:  I am Caribbean :: Caribbean Parenting Month Poem

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Caribbean Parenting Month: Playing "House" - I Just Can't Make This Stuff Up

When my kids say, "My mommy has rum in the cabinet, and cooks with it!" - Trust but verify. Wait. Just don't believe anything my children say - unless you run it by me. Mine are notorious for telling part of a story.

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A few years back, I got really sick. One of those mystery illnesses that makes you wish you knew House personally so that he could come and diagnose you with some rare and interesting disease that could be discovered and cured in 60 minutes, just like on the show.

Baby Girl decided she was going to play House... the doctor, not the pretend game.

"I know why mommy is sick... she went into the liquor-ey store. That is why she is sick." Naturally - he looks at me like, "What?" Only a few of my college friends read this blog, and they would be inclined to believe her because they knew me in a former life AND she's cute... and small.

Let me explain...

I needed to send money to my mom on vacation in St. Vincent, and Safeway's Western Union was closed, as usual, so since I was in a hurry I had to go to the liquor store across the street to send it. I made them wait in the car. They wanted to know why they couldn't come in, so I said it was nasty in there (normally when I say "nasty" it is related to putting their hands in their mouths and getting themselves sick), and not a good place for kids to be in. So from that, she figured that I must have touched something in the "liquor-ey" store, and gotten myself sick.

See how kids get you investigated by the Department of Family and Children's Services?!

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