It started because I couldn't find one for myself.
I grew up in Indiana. My family is from Zacatecas, and there was no Mexican food anywhere near us.
Both my parents worked factory jobs on opposite shifts. My mom was either coming home tired or getting ready to leave. So she cooked, and to keep me busy she gave me the jobs that took the longest. Cleaning frijoles, passing them back and forth in my hands to get the basuritas out. Peeling tomatillos for chiles. I was six years old, sitting on the floor with a molcajete making salsa while she handled everything else.
By ten I could pull every ingredient for rice or salsa on my own. By sixteen I could make anything she had ever shown me.
I thought it was a chore. It turned out to be an inheritance.
The rule in our house was that everybody ate at the table. We were all in motion all the time, and that hour was the one time we stopped. It was where we talked about hard things. Pozole, tacos dorados, costillas, chile verde con nopales. Every recipe I share is a memory.
When I started posting my cooking online, I spent six months looking for an apron to wear on camera. Everything was either stiff and old fashioned or plain and sterile. Neither one felt like me.
So I partnered with artisan families in Mexico and had them made. Hand embroidered, in every color. A person guides every flower.
I was posting about the food. But people kept asking about the apron.
That is how Mi Agenda started.
Every apron is made by hand in Mexico. Pockets on all of them, an adjustable neck strap, straps long enough to fit anybody, and yes, they go in the dryer. Built to actually be cooked in.
Thank you for being here.
Brenda