By Summer 2023. The Juárez fund has eight thousand four hundred dollars. Growing. Sofia's Phase Six timeline says: thirty thousand by 2025. The math: we need twenty-one thousand six hundred more, which at the current savings rate (about five hundred a month from bakery profits) would take forty-three months — three and a half years, not two. Sofia adjusted the timeline by adding a fundraising component: a "Rosa's Kitchen" dinner series. Monthly ticketed dinners at the bakery — twenty seats, fifty dollars per person, featuring Rosa's full menu (chile colorado, tamales, caldo, flan), with Maria Elena cooking and Sofia hosting and the story of Rosa told between courses. A dinner-as-theater. A bakery-as-stage. Rosa's recipes as the performance.
The first Rosa's Kitchen dinner was in June. Twenty seats sold out in two hours (Sofia posted it on Instagram; the five thousand followers responded). Fifty dollars times twenty seats equals one thousand dollars in one night. Minus costs (approximately three hundred), the profit was seven hundred dollars, and the seven hundred dollars went straight to the Juárez fund, and the fund jumped from eight thousand four hundred to nine thousand one hundred in one night. One dinner. Seven hundred dollars. Sofia said: "If we do this monthly, that's eighty-four hundred a year, and the fund hits thirty thousand by late 2024." She recalculated the timeline. The timeline is now: end of 2024. She is seventeen. She just accelerated the Anapra bakery by a year using a dinner series she invented over lunch.
I cooked the first Rosa's Kitchen dinner and it was the hardest and most beautiful night of my bakery career. I stood in the kitchen and I made every Rosa recipe for twenty strangers who paid fifty dollars to eat Rosa's food and hear Rosa's story, and the cooking was the telling and the telling was the cooking, and between courses Sofia stood at the front of the dining room and told the story — my story, Rosa's story, the bridge, the bakery, the promise — and the twenty people listened and ate and some of them cried and all of them stayed until the flan was served and the flan was the ending, the sweet ending, the dark caramel ending that says: this is what Rosa's kitchen tasted like. This is what love cooked by poverty and preserved by stubborness tastes like. And it tastes like this. And it will always taste like this.
Every Rosa’s Kitchen dinner needed an opening — something to land the twenty guests at the table before the heavier plates arrived, something that said you are here now, pay attention. This salad was that something: cool romaine, bright pico de gallo, a creamy avocado dressing that tasted like it came straight from a Juárez kitchen garden. It grounded people before Sofia started talking. It reminded them, before a single word about Anapra or the fund or the promise, that Rosa’s food was first and foremost alive.
Heart of Romaine Salad with Pico de Gallo and Avocado Dressing
Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 0 min | Total Time: 20 min | Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 2 hearts of romaine lettuce, halved lengthwise or chopped
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered
- 1/2 white onion, finely diced
- 1 jalapeño, seeded and minced
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
- Juice of 1 lime (for pico de gallo)
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt (for pico de gallo)
- Avocado Dressing:
- 1 ripe avocado, pitted and peeled
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt or sour cream
- Juice of 1 lime
- 1 small garlic clove
- 2–3 tablespoons water, to thin
- 1/4 teaspoon cumin
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Optional: pepitas or cotija cheese for garnish
Instructions
- Make the pico de gallo. In a small bowl, combine the cherry tomatoes, white onion, jalapeño, and cilantro. Squeeze the lime juice over the top, add the salt, and stir to combine. Let it sit for at least 10 minutes so the flavors meld.
- Blend the avocado dressing. Add the avocado, Greek yogurt (or sour cream), lime juice, garlic clove, and cumin to a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth, adding water one tablespoon at a time until the dressing reaches a pourable consistency. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Prepare the romaine. Wash and dry the romaine hearts. Halve them lengthwise for a plated presentation, or roughly chop for a tossed salad. Arrange on a large serving platter or individual plates.
- Assemble. Spoon the pico de gallo generously over the romaine. Drizzle the avocado dressing over the top. Garnish with pepitas or crumbled cotija cheese if using.
- Serve immediately. This salad is best served right away while the romaine is crisp and the pico de gallo is fresh. Pass extra dressing on the side.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 165 | Protein: 4g | Fat: 11g | Carbs: 14g | Fiber: 6g | Sodium: 280mg