My resolutions for 2014

1.      Keep improving my español and study Spanish every day

2.     Keep visiting Buenos Aires

3.     Shorten this newsletter (or at least try)

4.    Exercise every day when I'm at home and try to continue when I'm on the road

How did I do?

 Buenos Aires

We spent five weeks in Buenos Aires last year.  Our group trip in November is coming up, so we'll go at least once in 2014.  Joe and I would have liked to try to squeeze in one more time before that, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen. 

Spanish

I've been working very hard on my Spanish, which has improved greatly, but never enough. 

I'm now meeting with my Spanish group once a week until our teacher comes back in September. 

I am overjoyed to have Hilda's home from her vacation, so we can resume our weekly "habla" lunches.  My learning sessions with Horatio, my other Spanish luncheon companion, continue.    

To my Spanish speaking amigos: Please keep "hablando espanol conmigo" no matter how much I might resist.

Newsletter

In an effort to shorten this newsletter, I replaced most of my New York and New Jersey tango listing with a link to Richard Lipkin's web page.  It is comprehensive and up to date.  Check it out.  http://www.newyorktango.com/NJTango.htm

Exercise

I'm back to 20 minutes every morning, which will most likely continue easily until my next vacation. 

To Sue - June 3, 2014

Here is my Pickle recipe with the optional spices! For a spicy lady!  After your first batch you get a promoted to the "pickle mama's club"!

 XO

 Jan

Ridiculously Easy Homemade Pickles!

At my farmer's market, there's an amazing pickle stand with about 12 different kinds of delicious homemade pickles. They have garlic pickles, super dilly dill pickles, sweet pickles, spicy pickles and all the flavors in between. I love my pickles so the pickle stand was a weekly must stop for me.

.....Until I realized how ridiculously easy it was to make my own homemade pickles. I'm talking really, really easy. I can't stress to you how simple this is. Like so easy I could kick myself for spending so much of my hard earned money at the pickle stand for years and years when I could have been making them myself all this time. No canning, no special equipment - just water, salt, spices and your cucumbers! Easy peasy.

This will literally take you 10 minutes tops and in 3-7 days, you'll have the best homemade pickles in town. I like to make a bunch of jars of pickles at one time while I have all the ingredients out. I can knock out a couple jars of pickles in no time flat.

The recipe down below is a basic recipe for old fashioned  homemade easy dill pickles and it's my very favorite, cut right out of a falling apart old, old church recipe book that I think was my grandmother's (best kind of recipes, right?!).  But, I also like to experiment with the spices, add some hot peppers to one jar, add extra garlic to another jar - you get the idea.

Oh! I almost forgot to tell you about the second best part of this recipe - or maybe it's the first best part, I can't decide between this and how easy they are. These pickles are lacto-fermented, which means they contain the really good, beneficial bacteria (probiotics!). So eating these will help heal our gut lining, provide anti-inflammatory benefits, give us better digestion, strengthen our immune system, and turn us into super heroes. Okay maybe not so much the last part, but I sure feel like a super hero when everyone who eats these pickles tells me how amazing they are 

Ridiculously Easy Homemade Dill Pickles

Makes 1 quart sized jar

Ingredients:

cucumbers

2 cloves of garlic

2 sprigs of fresh dill (the flowered heads of the dill taste the best for these pickles, so use them if you can get them)

½ tsp coriander seeds

¼ tsp mustard seeds

¼ tsp whole peppercorns

1/8 tsp red pepper flakes

2 cups of water

1 tablespoon sea salt

Optional ingredients:

handful of fresh grape, raspberry, oak, blackberry or cherry leaves (these types of leaves supply tannins, which help keep the pickles crispy and crunchy)

onion or a clean rock piece to weigh the cucumbers down and keep them submerged in the brine

DIRECTIONS:

Decide what size pickles you would like and cut your cucumbers into your desired size. Keep in mind that sliced cucumbers will ferment faster than whole cucumbers. Pack your cucumber slices into your jar. Pack them tight! Add the spices on top. Mix the water and sea salt together until the salt is dissolved. Pour your water/salt over the pickles. Leave about an inch of space between the water and the top of the jar. All the cucumbers must be submerged in the water. If you are having trouble getting them totally submerged, you may need to add a "weight" to the jar to keep them submerged. I like to add a big chunk of onion. Not only does the onion give great flavor, but it does a good job of keeping the cucumbers under the water. You may also add a clean rock if you don't want to use an onion.

Hi everybody, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. Let's talk about the learning process. I've noticed that whenever Pat and I teach a class -- particularly the kind that we teach at Firehouse Tango in which we generally focus on figures -- there are always a few people who see what we're teaching, and decide to walk out of the room -- because (as we've often heard these people say), "they already showed me that step," or "I already know that one."

In our opinion, such people entirely misconceive the learning process. They think of it as a superficial accumulation of steps or figures. (Sometimes, we call these people "Step Meisters" -- or maybe more appropriately "Schlep Meisters.")  Once they've seen something once, they're in a big hurry to move on to the next thing. To people like this, learning is little more than checking items off a list. "Okay, I've got that one. Yup, that one, too, Come on, what's next?"

Oichhhh!

Today, I'd like to take a nice, deep breath, and offer a different approach to the process of learning how to dance Tango. In the first place, Tango is NOT an accumulation of steps. In our own current dance culture, we tend to think of dancing as an aggregate of figures and techniques. (This, I think, has a lot to do with our unfortunate reliance on dance schools and dance teachers to learn how to dance.) By contrast, my early teachers from Argentina constantly stressed that "there ARE NO STEPS IN TANGO." Their meaning was that Tango is a way for a leader and follower to interact on a dance floor, a way to respond to a particular kind of music, a way to enjoy an intimate social experience.

When I teach Tango, any figure I offer in class or in a private lesson is actually a way for me to demonstrate -- and provide you, the student, with a practical opportunity to practice -- the art of lead/follow, and the art of balance. These are the crucially important elements in learning how to dance. Any individual figure is no more than a means to an end, not an end in itself. So when you come into my class, from now on I'd like you to try thinking about how any figure I've decided to work on with you is, in fact, a conduit to enhancing your ability to move well, to lead and follow well, to balance more precisely -- rather than to little else than memorizing another step.

In my own learning process, I have found over the years that each time I work on a particular figure, I learn more and more about how the individual movements come together, about how to more effectively lead my partner so that she's comfortable and balanced during each segment of the ongoing figure. I learn more about waiting for her to finish one thing before I lead another, and eventually I learn about the infinite number of ways in which the timing of any sequence can be managed in order to connect the figure with the music. These are the things you, too, can learn, if you can get beyond thinking of Tango figures as commodities to be put into a memory box -- and instead as opportunities to advance your own personal creativity.

Every Saturday, from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Dance Manhattan, Fran and Pat host a special beginner/intermediate practice, geared toward helping you bring your skills up to speed. The cost for the practice is $10 per person. (Bringing a partner isn't necessary.) Fran and Pat are always on hand to answer any questions you may have about your dancing, and to help you with material you're working on. If you'd like a private lesson, call Fran directly at 212-662-7692, or email him at franchesleigh@mac.com. For the practice, all you have to do is arrive with $10 and your dance shoes in hand.

 Every day, our dear friend and teacher in Buenos Aires posts a historical tango fact of the day. These interesting and informative tidbits always include English, Spanish and Italian  information and a relevant recording. You can see all of them and listen to the recording by simply joining Monica Paz PractiMilonguero Facebook page. Below is a link to the Facebook page, where you can hear the music:

August 31st, 1925

OSVALDO MANZI (Osvaldo Ramón Mancione) is born. Pianist trained at the Conservatorio Nacional De Música. He reach the peak of his career with Troilo's orchestra (1954/1957). He was the fourth pianist of the seven who played in this formidable group over time. Moreover he substituted Pugliese when the maestro was imprisoned for his political ideas.                                                        

♫ LA CUMPARSITA Aníbal Troilo (1955)

⊙ CD Nº37 Colección Natucci (40 CD) +info

Note from Sue -  Curious to know why the great Osvaldo Pugliese was jailed? Read this excellent article from the Chicago Tribune, July 16, 1991, about the maestro.  Pugliese was born in 1905 and  lived until 1995.  

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1991-07-16/features/9103200161_1_osvaldo-pugliese-maestro-tango-master

 https://www.facebook.com/MPTango

And the following one for her latest interview (She regularly posts interviews that she does with surviving old milongueros) : 

MP Tango Interview

MPTango Presents Eduardo "El Nene" Masci at PractiMilonguero

Click on cc underneath the screen for English subtitles.

Special guest teachers and performers - Carolina Jaurena & Andres Bravo

Andres & Carolina are one of the best known Tango performing couples and Instructors in the New York City area.

Expect a great Tango performance...

More information about them at http://www.andresycarolina.com/

Class at 7:00pm, social dancing from 8:00pm
Couples, singles and beginners welcome!

Admission $15, including home cooked "delight"

         Location: VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars)

                                     725 Franklin Avenue (corner of Pulis Avenue)
           Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417

                                       For directions click here                            

For more information contact us at:
info@lospitucos.com
and visit our website at
http://lospitucos.com

We look forward to the reopening of Domingo Tango Club after a well-deserved summer break.   This is our favorite New York milonga with our favorite New York DJ, Rich Ariza.

Sunday Evening:

6:30 'till 10:30 PM

hosted by Richard & Eddie

TRIANGULO

Ballroom Dance Resort Weekend: September 12-14, 2014

 Joe and I are planning to attend the weekend.  Let me know if you would like to sit with us (firehousetango@gmail.com .) 

This is our 99th dance weekend!  We are pleased to introduce you to the new HONOR'S HAVEN RESORT & SPA (formally known as the Fallsview Resort).  Located only 90 miles from New York City and Albany on a 250 acre private estate with spectacular surroundings and glorious views of the Shawangunk Mountains.  The new ownership has renovated all the public spaces and the hotel grounds.  Best of all, they have thousands of square feet of wooden dance floor. Honor's Haven Resort also has the finest chef in the Hudson Valley, making it the perfect dance venue!

• Overnight Accommodations at Full Service Resort
• 7 Meals
• Champagne & Wine Reception
• Open Bar Cocktail Party & Smorgasbord
• Over 50 Dance Workshops
• Night & Day Dancing to 4 Great DJ's 
• Swing Shift Orchestra
• Great Gatsby Theme Saturday Night
• Dancing During Lunch & Dinner
• Top Nite Club Entertainment Each Evening
• Friday Lunch is on us! (Served from 1 - 2 PM)
• Your choice - Separate Dance Facilities for Latin, Ballroom, Argentine Tango, & Hustle/West Coast Swing
• Special Thursday Night Package (Join us for our Stardust Mixer Thursday Night to meet old and new friends)
• Call for more information 800-537-2797 (Monday-Friday 9am - 5pm) Outside USA & Canada 845-794-4707
• DAY PACKAGES AVAILABLE (based on availability, limited space) - Click here for info!

 *For more information click here --> Dance Weekend FAQ Section

OVER 50 DANCE WORKSHOPS
Please note: Each class is designed for different levels of proficiency.
Most classes are repeated offering everyone a chance to learn these stylish new steps.
(A) Beginner     (B) Intermediate     (C) Advanced

*SPECIAL WORKSHOPS*
2 Hour Salsa Workshop
2 Hour West Coast Swing Workshop
2 Hour Argentine Tango Workshop
*2 Hour Hustle Workshop

Click Here to Meet The Stardust Dance Faculty

The following folks helped set up, break down and clean up before and after the milonga. Without them, there would be no Firehouse Tango.

• This week at Victor's Maywood Inn

And of course, without Terri Lopez, we would have to close up shop.

• This week at Victor's Maywood Inn

• This week at Victor's Maywood InnEduar Krukovsky