Caridad Pineiro® Romance Author
NY Times & USA Today Bestselling Romance Author
We’re expecting torrential rains and what could be better than to hunker down under a blanket with something warm to drink and a good book to read. I had started Rancher in Her Bed by Joanne Rock during a recent flight and I’m going to sit myself down and finish this very sexy and enjoyable romance. After all, who can resist a very handsome and caring cowboy and a spunky heroine! What about you? Any special plans for today?
I’m off to my local Liberty States Fiction Writers Holiday Party but before it’s time for the festivities, I want to shout out to my friend K.M. Fawcett who has a new release for the holidays! Check out the teaser below, and if it grabs you as it grabbed me, you can order the book at https://books2read.com/WildeChristmas.
As Lacey Wilde works to open her bed-and-breakfast in time for Christmas, she meets Marine veteran Dean Hunter — who claims her adopted military working dog is his! Can Dean and K-9 Remi protect Lacey from a mysterious threat? A suspenseful small-town romance to warm up the holidays.
P.S. – If you love stories set around the holidays, check out One Summer Night. Although the story starts on the Jersey Shore during the summer, it has many scenes in New York City during the Christmas season.
OMG I’ve got a new release! Move over Indiana Jones ‘cuz The Fifth Kingdom is a thrill ride packed with action, suspense, romance, and sexual tension! You know what’s even better? It’s FREE on Kindle Unlimited or if you subscribe to my newsletter! If that’s not your thing, don’t worry. As a holiday gift to you, The Fifth Kingdom is also specially priced at 99 cents. I love this story with a strong and wounded heroine, a compassionate Alpha hero, and an emotional family dynamic. Here’s a teaser for The Fifth Kingdom:
Deanna Vasquez and her archaeologist mom had a falling out long ago when her mom went off in search of the elusive Montezuma’s tomb. But when CIA agent Bill Santana pops into Deanna’s classroom with the shocking news that her mom’s been kidnapped, Deanna’s ready to jump into action.
Bill’s on a mission to uncover the secrets hidden within her mom’s latest discovery before the terrorists do and he needs Deanna’s know-how to track it down. But there’s a twist – Bill and Deanna have to get all cozy and pretend to be lovebirds in Mexico to make contact with the terrorists. And, as if that’s not enough pressure, sparks fly between them along the way. Will they save Deanna’s mom and keep the secrets safe? Only time will tell.
There were so many interesting sights to see in Korea but I knew there was one place that I absolutely had to visit: the DMZ. I had to go both as research for the new romantic suspense book and also because of the uniqueness of the area. I never imagined that it would impact me as emotionally as it did as our tour guide explained about the division of the Korean peninsula and the families who could never return home or see and speak to loved ones who remained trapped in North Korea. It hit me because of the similarity to my family’s story of escape and exile from Cuba. As you see the photos in the video, you’ll notice a stone monument that is actually a temple at the site of the DMZ where older Koreans visit and mourn the hometowns and people they can no longer visit. But more on that later.
We started the tour by having to turn over our passports for inspection by the guards at the entrance to the DMZ. They were given a list with our names and the passports were checked against the list when we entered and also when we left since the area is actually a military area and heavily guarded. Our bus had to pass not only the security gate, but there were also barricades blocking the road, and we had to zig-zag around to reach the tourist areas.
Once we arrived, we walked to the closest spot to what is known as the Civilian Control Zone. This is a buffer zone around the actual DMZ and it is patrolled by the military. We were prohibited from taking pictures of that area and many others for security reasons. The few things we could photograph were a rusting and bullet-ridden hulk of one of the last trains to leave North Korea, a fence festooned with ribbons with wishes and hope for those left behind in North Korea, and a bridge that was used for prisoner exchanges at the end of the war. The bridge was called the Bridge of No Return since any prisoners who were returned to North Korea would never see South Korea again.
The bridge also leads to the Joint Security Area where North and South Korean soldiers face each other across a short distance and guard various buildings where diplomatic meetings are held.
After that, we did a short walk to an observation tower that let us see across the Civilian Control Zone and into the actual DMZ and North Korea. Our tour guide even pointed out areas where it was possible to see the North Korean guards patrolling. Kind of crazy to think North Korea was right there but out of reach.
Next up on the tour was a visit to one of the tunnels that North Korea had built to try and infiltrate South Korea. South Korea has actually found four such tunnels built since the ceasefire between the two countries and has created interceptor tunnels to stop the infiltration. It is believed there may be many more such tunnels and South Korea continues to look for them.
We were able to walk down the interceptor tunnel, but we were not able to take pictures or video as the tunnel is a military facility and guarded by the South Koreans. The tunnel was so long and steep that we only went part of the way down as it was getting a little claustrophobic and we were worried about making it back up the intense incline.
You might be wondering if we weren’t ready to leave the DMZ already! Well, there was one last thing to do: take the gondola ride over the Civilian Control Zone and into an area surrounded by land mines. Yes, land mines. Both sides placed land mines in the area to protect their borders and some say it could be as many as 2 million land mines. In recent years, North and South Korea have started to remove the landmines, but it is uncertain whether they’ll be able to clear all of them. That’s why there are bright red and yellow warning signs in various areas to tell visitors of the risks of the land mines. The area surrounding the gondola is one of the areas cleared.
It was amazing to see the area from the gondola ride. We even saw one of the South Korean guard posts as well as a bridge that was once used for rail service between the two Koreas. The area in the Civilian Control Zone and by the Han River is used primarily to grow rice and since the area is overseen by the UN which has stringent standards about fertilizers, etc. the rice is prized for being so organic and it is available for purchase only by those visiting the DMZ.
Touching down from the gondola ride, it was finally time to head back to Seoul which was only about an hour away from the DMZ. During the ride, I reflected again on the pain of the Korean people who had to leave their homes and even their families to be free of the communists who had taken over North Korea. It was much like what my family had to do when Castro came to power in Cuba. My heart knew their pain because it was so similar to my pain. It’s a pain I wrote about in The Family She Never Met which has quite a few of my family’s real-life stories about our experience in leaving Cuba and coming to the United States.
I feel for those people and much as I hope I will one day be able to visit Cuba, I hope that they will be able to return to see their towns and the family and friends they had to leave behind.
If you’re in my newsletter group, you got an exclusive reveal of the cover for Sabotage Operation! If you’re not, it’s not too late to sign up for those exclusive reveals, giveaways, free reads and more. Just visit https://bit.ly/CaridadsNewsletter to sign up. But now, without further delay, OMG, isn’t the cover just so beautiful? I love the colors and the way they’ve got our K-9 heroine, Butter, on the cover. Why did I name the Belgian Malinois Butter? Well, it’s my favorite song from the Korean boy band BTS! Sabotage Operation is available for pre-order and will be released on May 21, 2024.
In our house, Christmas Eve is a mix of Italian, Cuban and American foods, but the signature dish has to be the Cuban-style citrus-marinated roast pork.
It is a family affair to cook the roast pork since we start preparing it the night before after a trip to Union City, New Jersey to pick up some Cuban staples and the pork leg.
I used to feed anywhere from 15 to 25 people on Christmas Eve, but now my daughter has taken over the tradition. We’re expecting about 19 people for this year’s festivities and I can’t wait to share the night with family and friends. For that many people, we need a really really big pork leg (pork shoulder/picnic ham/pernil). We normally get a piece of pork that weighs around 25 pounds, but you can buy a much smaller piece and adjust the cooking times (more on that later).
Juice all the above citrus into a large pot. We use one of those large buckets in which your grocery store deli get its potato salad, etc. Drop by and ask them for one! Ours is only used for the Christmas Eve pork.
The citrus mix should be sour, but with a strong hit of sweet (the navel oranges and grapefruit really help with that). You should have enough citrus juice to fully cover your piece of pork. Once you’ve tasted the sweet/sour mix, then add 3 to 4 bay leaves, about a half cup of garlic (less for a smaller piece of pork) and about 1/4 cup of cumin. Mix this all up.
Take your piece of pork and make multiple slits in it so that the marinade can penetrate into the meat. Place the pork leg in the citrus juice, cover and refrigerate. You’re probably wondering how I keep that big bucket cold? I put the bucket in a big cooler filled with ice.
In the morning (around 6 a.m. or so) pre-heat the oven to 425. Remove the pork from the citrus and place it in a large roasting dish. Keep some of the citrus juice, bay leaves and garlic for use as a marinade. Discard the rest. Ladle about 1 to 2 cups over the pork and then stick the pork into the oven for one hour at 425. For a smaller piece of pork, cut down this initial high temp roast accordingly. For ten pounds make it around 30 minutes, anything smaller than that no more than about 15 minutes.
Do not baste the pork during this high heat roast.
When the high heat roast time is up, baste the pork and lower the oven temp to 325. Then cook until the meat pulls away from the bone in the leg and is starting to fall off. Marinate every half an hour or so during the cooking process. For a 25 pound pork leg, I will cook it for about 8 to 9 hours. The pork will turn this beautiful mahogany brown and just melt in your mouth.
For smaller pieces of pork, adjust the cooking times. A 10 pound picnic ham may take only about 4 or so hours. The key is to keep basting and cooking at a low temp to keep the meat juicy.
If the pork begins to brown too much, just cover with aluminum and keep on cooking until the meat is fork tender.
Hope you enjoyed this recipe! If you try it yourself, let me know how it goes!
Books are like magic carpets, zipping us off to new worlds or whisking us back to familiar spots we adore. My happy place is anywhere with sand and sea, the ultimate combo for a satisfying beach read. But I also love stories set on sprawling ranches or deep in the mountains. What about you? Do you have a fave setting that makes your heart race and your fingers itch to grab the book?
