Cinco de mayo-fifth of May (yes, mayo is written in lower case because the months of the year are not capitalized in Spanish like in English).

Cinco de mayo is not  Mexican Independence Day (Mexican Independence Day is September 16th). Rather, it is the day in the town of Puebla that the Mexican Army of 4,000 defeated the French Army (led by Napoleon) which was twice its size!

Cinco de mayo celebration recipe

Carne Asada Tacos 

 INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 pounds boneless beef top sirloin, cut into thin bite-size slices
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• crushed red pepper to taste
• 1 lime
• 1 (28 ounce) can tomatillos
• 2 fresh jalapeno peppers, seeded
• 4 tablespoons canola oil, divided
• 1 (10.5 ounce) can beef broth
• 12 (6 inch) corn tortillas
• 1/2 large onion, chopped
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 1 avocado - peeled, pitted and sliced
• 1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1 lemon

DIRECTIONS

1. Place sliced meat into a shallow bowl, and season with salt, black pepper, and crushed red pepper. Squeeze the lime juice over the meat, and turn until evenly coated. Cover, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
2. In a blender or food processor, combine tomatillo and jalapeno. Puree for 15 to 20 seconds, or until thick. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Carefully pour in tomatillo mixture. Cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes. Stir in beef broth. Reduce heat, and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, or until mixture coats a spoon. Transfer mixture to a serving dish.
3. Heat tablespoon oil in a large skillet over high heat. Stir in 1/3 of the beef, and saute for 1 minute. Transfer to serving dish. Repeat with remaining beef. Meanwhile, heat tortillas in the oven or microwave, according to package instructions.
4. To serve, place two tortillas on top of each other. Add desired amount of meat, spoon over some tomatillo mixture. Top with onions, tomatoes, avocado and cilantro. Garnish with a wedge of lemon, to be squeezed over taco before eating.

Okay, the real estate market is not-um how do I say this? not what it used to be? not as reliable? Alright, so that is putting it mildly.

So, why should we spend money to learn Spanish when we barely have enough to pay our bills? Please, let me explain:)

Got floor duty? How often do you answer the phone when on the other line is a Spanish only speaker? Lord have mercy-you are stuck!! But, what if someone taught you the basics and you were able to communicate with the caller? What if you were able to find out the main idea of what they were looking for? Okay, granted, it wasn’t the smoothest conversation but you made it, right? All of this just for spending 25hrs of your life taking a Spanish real estate conversation class-no grammar, no subjunctive verb conjugating-just the meat and potatoes.  Okay, maybe you don’t leave the class speaking real estate Spanish as fluently as you do in English-that’s okay!!! You will leave the class being able to communicate with Spanish speakers. That is a huge tool and leg up that you will have on your competition.

But what if you don’t get the opportunity to use what you learned in class and start to lose it? Did you know that we offer free refresher courses for all of our returning students? I bet you didn’t!! No excuse! We’ll see you in class!!!!!!!!