Can I admit my brain is melting? Between vacation recovery (I drove 900 miles to NJ for my high school reunion and back) and 98-degree heat, me muero. I have barely kept up with the world in the last two weeks, hence we have been buzz-less.

So, I have a few links to share, but if you’re game, how about leaving us links and coolness you’ve been buzzing about this week?

Me first…In case you don’t already read the fabulous Spanglish Baby, I guest posted over there recently, offering up Sneaky Spanish Lessons.

Latinas are offering their perspective on feminism over at Viva La Feminista, for a series called Summer of Feminista. The essays are wonderful and thought-provoking. My own will run in September.

Spendy for a good cause. Give $3 at Macy’s through August 1 and get a $10 off coupon to use toward one $50 purchase. Your $3 will go to Reading is Fundamental. Find out more at the RIF/Macy’s site.

OK, now you. Open buzz. Que esta pasando in your world?

******* We want to know your story! Share your cuentos, videos and fotos about growing up, and living Latino, in the U.S.How to contribute to the Tiki Tiki.Come on, no seas penosa!

Un poquito mas:

1. Musica, Sofia, Spanish Buzz and Giveaways
2. I Like It: Enrique y Mariachi for Today
3. Join the National Discussion on Work/Life Balance

(E-mail and RSS subscribers, click the headline link to see the videos)

Thanks to all of you who have been reading along in our archives this week as we celebrated a year of Tiki Tiki. We’re looking forward to many more years, and many more cuentos.

Below are some lovely and thoughtful video wishes sent in by friends and readers.

Thanks for partying with us!

Carrie and Marta

Angelica Perez-Litwin, aka La Comadre, whose column runs here every other Tuesday.

Liz from Thoughts of a Mommy

Yoly and Ronny from YNR Live and Cuponeando

And if you missed this one yesterday, check out Adrian, son of Dariela from Mami Talks.

******* We want to know your story! Share your cuentos, videos and fotos about growing up, and living Latino, in the U.S.How to contribute to the Tiki Tiki.Come on, no seas penosa!

Un poquito mas:

1. Reader Birthday Wishes to the Tiki Tiki!
2. Ask La Comadre: My Husband Doesn’t Share His Feelings
3. Introducing Your New Comadre, the Family Coach

Ana from SpanglishBaby.com

Happy Saturday…You don’t usually hear from us on the weekends, but we’ve got a lot of Birthday Wishes sent in and they’re pretty awesome.

Here are two videos from Adrian, hijo de Dariela of Mami Talks. Look at what we make our kids do for our amigas! Super wonderful. The third is from the talented Señora López of Latina-ish and her two awesome boys, whom I was lucky enough to meet last week.

Thank you to those of you who sent us love and good wishes — like Ana Lilian from Spanglish Baby, above — on our First Birthday/Anniversary.

More to come tomorrow!

Off to eat a Happy Birthday/Feliz Cumpleanos cupcake. Just because.

******* We want to know your story! Share your cuentos, videos and fotos about growing up, and living Latino, in the U.S.How to contribute to the Tiki Tiki.Come on, no seas penosa!

Un poquito mas:

1. The Difference Between a Latino Kid Party and an Anglo Birthday Party
2. Latina Bloggers go all Tiki Tiki
3. A Year of Tiki Tiki Contributors

Who knew video blogging your crazy, silly and funny would be such a blast?

We love making videos with cuentos because we know Latinos — with all their color — just work better on video. We’re grateful too for the contributors who have let us put the Flip in their faces and offered up great stories for the Tiki Tiki.

As we celebrate a year of Tiki Tiki, here’s a look back at some of our favorites, but you can find them all on our YouTube page, where you can subscribe or join the Tiki Tiki group to add your own.

Enjoy, and thanks for reading a long with us this week as we celebrate our first year of mucho tiki tiki.

I Have a Latin Mother

Cucu and Yayo by Marta’s mom

What is Tiki Tiki?

Papi Plays by my father

Can I Call You Pepe? by Sylvia of Mama Latina Tips

Ed. Note: The Tiki Tiki Blog turned a year in May 2010. This week, we take a look back at the best of the Tiki Tiki. Please take a moment to comment and share these posts with your friends.

And, if you’re up for it, send us a photo of you with a “Happy Birthday, Tiki Tiki!” or some sort of birthday wish a tu sabor. We’ll run it this coming weekend. E-mail: info @ TikiTikiBlog.com

******* We want to know your story! Share your cuentos, videos and fotos about growing up, and living Latino, in the U.S.How to contribute to the Tiki Tiki.Come on, no seas penosa!

Un poquito mas:

1. A Year of Tiki Tiki: A Week-Long Pachanga!
2. A Year of Tiki Tiki Contributors
3. A Year of Habla Habla

I love writing essays for the habla habla. It gives me a chance to tell the cuentos I love to tell about my loving and loco Cuban family, not to mention, what it is like to live la vida Latina in the U.S.

Gathered here is a small collection of the essays Marta and I have written in the last year. Perhaps, you’ll discover some you missed. Leave us a comment and tell us what you think…and if you have an essay, you’d like to contribute, pues ven.

A year of Habla Habla:

I Remember, Do You?

Researching Latino Family Roots.

What is a Latina?

Born to be Reina.

Monkeys and Chickens

Coming to America – My Story

El Cocotaso

A Red Carnation

Ed. Note: The Tiki Tiki Blog turned a year in May 2010. This week, we take a look back at the best of the Tiki Tiki. Please take a moment to comment and share these posts with your friends.

And, if you’re up for it, send us a photo of you with a “Happy Birthday, Tiki Tiki!” or some sort of birthday wish a tu sabor. We’ll run it this coming weekend. E-mail: info @ TikiTikiBlog.com

******* We want to know your story! Share your cuentos, videos and fotos about growing up, and living Latino, in the U.S.How to contribute to the Tiki Tiki.Come on, no seas penosa!

Un poquito mas:

1. A Year of Tiki Tiki Contributors
2. A Year of Tiki Tiki: A Week-Long Pachanga!
3. A Year of Comida

When I went into our archives in search of contributed essays that help define the year we’ve had here on the Tiki Tiki, I had planned to just grab 5. Obviously, I could not stop at 5, and I had a hard time stopping with this list.

I believe Contributed essays and videos are the heart of the Tiki Tiki, for they represent the variety of  voice, look and lifestyle among Latinas living in America. The works submitted here made us laugh and made us reflect, and we are grateful for the generosity of our amazing, talented and generous contributors.

Please take a moment to look back at the essays, maybe you’ll find some you missed, and if you love them as much as Marta and I do, please leave them a comment and visit their blogs.

Enjoy.

A Year of Tiki Tiki Contributors:

Googling for Cultura by Liz Cerezo.

The Difference Between a Latino Kid Party and an Anglo Birthday Party by Señora López.

Mango Season by Lindsey Victoria Thompson.

A Little Respect, OK? By Nilki Benitez.

What are You? by Lizzie Bermudez.

soy de tortillas y tamales by Tessa Lemos.

Smart Latina vs. Sexy Latina by Maya Escobar.

She is Easy Book Fodder by Ailen Arreaza.

Tosotones 101: Or, How My American Boyfriend is Becoming a Cubanaso by Maria de Los Angeles.

A “Miss You” Card Gone Wrong, a video essay by Unknown Mami.

I Say Autobus, You Say GuaGua by Roxana Soto.

Trilingual Parrot, Monolingual Son by Jennifer Vides.

Ed. Note: The Tiki Tiki Blog turned a year in May 2010. This week, we take a look back at the best of the Tiki Tiki. Please take a moment to comment and share these posts with your friends.

If you’d like to contribute to the Tiki Tiki, our door is open.

******* We want to know your story! Share your cuentos, videos and fotos about growing up, and living Latino, in the U.S.How to contribute to the Tiki Tiki.Come on, no seas penosa!

Un poquito mas:

1. A Year of Tiki Tiki: A Week-Long Pachanga!
2. A Year of Comida
3. A Year of Del Alma

Punta Carretas, Montevideo, Uruguay

The del alma is about giving you space – a place to reflect, think, get inspired…smile.

We present beautiful pictures depicting the Americas and Latino culture, plus inspirational quotes and essays we hope offer you a moment to yourself. These posts get little, or no, comment but your survey notes this Spring told us you look forward to them. We appreciate that.

In the last few weeks, the del alma section welcomed Angelica Perez-Litwin, a family therapist and life coach, and we crowned her La Comadre. She is here to offer free advice to the hermanas — y hermanos — of the Tiki Tiki. The goal: To create strong families and independent personas…to live “del alma.”

Here are a few of our favorite del almas:

Random Acts of Bondad

Prayer for Ruins

Gracias a la Vida

Look Up

Reach High and Dream Deep

Ed. Note: The Tiki Tiki Blog turned a year in May 2010. This week, we take a look back at the best of the Tiki Tiki. Please take a moment to comment and share these posts with your friends.

If you would like to submit an essay, photo or favorite quote to del alma, please e-mail us at info @ tikitikiblog.com.

******* We want to know your story! Share your cuentos, videos and fotos about growing up, and living Latino, in the U.S.How to contribute to the Tiki Tiki.Come on, no seas penosa!

Un poquito mas:

1. Del Alma: For The Joy of It
2. Random Acts of Bondad
3. A Year of Comida

When the Tiki Tiki turned 1 in May, Marta was in the middle of end-of-school activities with her kids, and my hometown was under water during a 1000-year flood. So, we put off giving ourselves a big Latin-style birthday party.

We are ready now.

To get in the mood for the fiesta we’ve got planned this week, imagine with us for a moment that there is a piñata hanging outside and there is a table full of pastelitos and cangrejitos, and very loud salsa music playing. Imagine that someone has pushed all the furniture back, that the kids are swimming in the pool and that a group of men is arguing over whether the lechon is done or not. I have a mojito in my hand and Marta is making dulce leche ice cream in the kitchen.

OK, now that we’re properly in the mood, let me tell you what’s going on here this week. We’ve put together a week’s worth of the best of the best from the archives and will hand them out one-a-day. The schedule:

• Monday: A Year of Comida
• Tuesday: A Year of Del Alma
• Wednesday: A Year of Contributors
• Thursday: A Year of Habla Habla
• Friday: A Year of Videos

We hope you’ll scroll through the posts again, or maybe find some you missed the first time. Leave us a comment and share our pages with friends, if you can, to indulge our blogging habit, help us grow and encourage us on the trip into the second year of Tiki Tiki-ing.

Most importantly, this week is a Thank You  to our readers who hang with us here and on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube too.

We love you mucho and we’re grateful you give us your time.

We’ve had a blast this year, and we hope you have too.

Gracias y pa’lante!

Carrie and Marta

******* We want to know your story! Share your cuentos, videos and fotos about growing up, and living Latino, in the U.S.How to contribute to the Tiki Tiki.Come on, no seas penosa!

Un poquito mas:

1. Vlogiando Week at the Tiki Tiki
2. What is el Tiki Tiki?
3. Latina Bloggers go all Tiki Tiki

My Gazpacho stunk. Its only redeeming quality? The 6-year-old enjoyed hanging in the kitchen with me chopping peppers and cucumbers.

I made it last week, after endless days of heat hot enough to freir un huevo en la calle and because I got inspired watching Made in Spain on PBS. Chef José Andrés made gazpacho. And, he made it look so easy. So did Violeta when she wrote about her gazpacho on the Tiki Tiki last year.

Well, I didn’t have the sherry vinegar required for Andrés’ recipe, and I didn’t have 3 cups of tomato juice required for Ina Garten’s recipe and so, I did what any good ama de casa would do: I winged it.

It was too watery and it tasted too much like we were drinking salsa. My husband, a good sport about any culinary failings, tasted, smiled and said “Maybe next time.” The raw garlic made it too spicy for Maria’s tongue.

Fortunately, I had the backup: A cucumber pineapple gazpacho from Whole Foods, pictured above. With little chunks of raw garlic in it, it was delicious.

But, the challenge is now before me: I will perfect gazpacho because I cannot bear a hot kitchen in the summer. So, I hunted recipes online and they are at the ready. The best of what I found, in addition to the two above:

Mango Gazpacho, from All Recipes. It has jalapeno, lime juice and cilantro. Ding, ding, ding!

Avocado Gazpacho, the awesome Martha Rose Shulman in the New York Times.

Avocado and Corn Gazpacho, the crunch sounds good to me.

Green Gazpacho, a mixture of lettuce, spinach, scallions, cucumber, mint and more, this one from Spain Recipes online is a maybe. I imagine little shooters of it…maybe chased by a cold sangria.

So, do you like gazpacho? Do you have  a recipe to share?

Stay cool!

******* We want to know your story! Share your cuentos, videos and fotos about growing up, and living Latino, in the U.S.How to contribute to the Tiki Tiki.Come on, no seas penosa!

Un poquito mas:

1. Gazpacho Girl
2. A Buffet of Latin Recipes
3. Sabor: What’s on the Menu this Week?

Please click the headline link to see the videos in this post.

Happy Friday, Tiki Tiki readers. Lots in el buzz about contests, giveaways and habla habla today.

[WINNERS!: 7/14/2010 - Congratulations to the three Tiki Tiki iTunes card winners: Karen, Melek, and Lisel Laslie. Thank you all entering!]

We’re giving away three pre-loaded iTunes music cards filled with cool new Latino music.

Why? Well, this weekend in New York, Latino musicians have taken the city by storm at the Latin Alternative Music Conference. In honor of LAMC, Café Magazine is giving away iTunes gift cards preloaded with artists from the Nacional Records label. There are 20 songs on each card, which  include: It’s All About Dun Dun by Quiero Club; 9.6 by La Bien Querida;  and Vamos Ya by Los Fabulosos Cadillacs

Check out Café’s coverage of LAMC, their newly launched Café con Música page for all things music and follow along with their musical tweets from the conference @cafeconmusica.

And the Emmy may go to… Sofia Vergara, as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett for Modern Family. Bet Sofia is feeling a good el buzz today for her Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy nomination. Good luck, funny mujer.

And speaking of  buzz, enter to win a Spanish Buzz Lightyear doll at Spanglishbaby and enjoy the video presentation by editor Roxana’s beautiful little girl, who loved Buzz long before he became cool again.

She says: “Este es me muñeco favorito porque habla español.’’

Did you hear that, toy makers?

This giveaway ends Friday, July 16 at midnight EST and you must have a valid U.S. address to enter.

Got a little one whose too old for a Buzz Lightyear? Well, how about winning the Quinces of your nena’s dreams. Verizon is giving away a big, fabulous pachanga at My Fabulous Quince.

You can find all the rules and details in the press release over here on the HispanicPR Blog. The grand prize is worth more than $45,000.

Like to grill?

A smart reader pointed out that regardless of where one comes from, the phenom is the same, such as, the big city adult reaches back to hold on to the small town he came from. But, I am fascinated by the topic when it comes to Latinos, and Latinos of my generation specifically. We were born here. We’re American, but so many of us are trying hard to pass on la cultura de la casa to our children.

There would be no Tiki Tiki Blog if not for this desire to retroacculturate.

The follow-up post was about the images in Spanish I see around me here in Nashville, something that I still am surprised by, given where I live.

OK, OK…here is one we’ve been attempting to get in since June…a winning recipe by a realtor in Arizona. He produced a new version of Pastel de Carne y Verduras that we will put on the family table this fall. (It’s too hot in Tennessee to cook like this right now.) Pero, anyway, Leo Valenzuela, of Snowflake, Arizona, won a $3,000 dining room make-over for his Grand Prize in QueRicaVida.com’s “La Receta de Mi Cocina” contest. Keep an eye on Que Rica Vida for future contests.

You can find the recipe in English and Spanish over at Mama Latina Tips.

Me? I will be at the pool drinking these Blended Golden Mojitos, with dark rum and agave (I will have to sneak them in, of course…But, worth it.)

Feliz weekend, y’all.

******* We want to know your story! Share your cuentos, videos and fotos about growing up, and living Latino, in the U.S.How to contribute to the Tiki Tiki.Come on, no seas penosa!

Un poquito mas:

1. Giveaway: Bilingual, Spanish Alphabet Learning Cards
2. Giveaway: Spanish Children’s TV Show DVDs
3. My Fabulous Quinceañera: A $45,000 Pachanga