I have a thing for mangoes. It's not strange, I grew up in a house with two mango trees. I was not considered "lucky" to have the trees since in Honduras, a lot of people do. During mango season, you will see them everywhere. Neighbors exchanging mangos, giving them away, selling them, you just don't know what to do with them. 
My mother-in-law use to make the most amazing mango jam (she passed away a couple of years ago). I remember she use to come to visit us from Honduras and she would bring with her a big jar of mango jam she had made. That jar as big as it was, never lasted long. We ate it with pancakes, with scones, made tarts, you name it. She shared the recipe but I had to modify it a bit because mangos here aren't the same as over there, it could be the kind of mango, who knows, but the final product is still really good. 
I also made mini mango pies which are fantastic and super tasty, they are best served a little warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or just as they are. They also go great with chai tea, hot or cold. I love that stuff. 
Ingredients:
Find the pie crust recipe HERE
For the mango jam
2 lb mango, peeled and cut in chunks1/2 cup sugar2 tbsp lemon juice + zest ofone lemon1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise1/8 cup dark rum
In a large saucepan, combine all the ingredients (except the rum) and let it macerate at room temperature for 30 minutes. Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally until the mixture thickens. Add the rum, stir well and let it cook for a minute more. Fill the sterilize jars with mango jam and let cool.
To assemble:
Preheat the oven to 425 F.Roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thickness. Using a round cutter (mine is 3-inch) cut out circles. Place half of the rounds on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat and fill them with mango jam. Brush the edges of the dough with a little water and place another piece of pastry on top. Seal the pies using a fork and punch holes on top of each pie. Brush the top with a little egg wash and sprinkle it with sugar. Bake for 12 to15 minutes or until golden brown.
30 Eylül 2012 Pazar
Mango Mini Pies
Last Days of Summer Grilling
We don't eat much meat around here but occasionally we like to enjoy a good grilled cut of meat. New York strip is one of my favorite cuts to grill as it has a nice marbling and, properly cooked, it's really tender. But the real star in this recipe is the chimichurri sauce. If you are not familiar with chimichurri, it's an Argentinean sauce (also popular throughout South America) commonly used over grilled meat. It's very simple to make as it requires ingredients that you probably already have on hand. Everybody has their own version, of course, but the usual suspects are parsley, garlic, olive oil and white vinegar. 
Chimichurri also goes great over grilled chicken and vegetables. I particularly love it with roasted potatoes. To change things a bit, I sometimes like to replace half of the parsley with mint, it is really delicious. 
I also made a salad, yes, with figs. I love the combination between figs, blue cheese and honey. This time, I decided to stuff the figs with blue cheese and bake them for 25 minutes then drizzled them with honey. The greens are lightly dressed with olive oil because when you cut into the figs they release a lot of juice and that makes a beautiful "vinaigrette". 
Ingredients:
Chimichurri Sauce
1 1/2 cup parsley(or half parsley and half mint)3 garlic cloves1/2 cup olive olive3 tbsp white vinegarsalt and pepper to taste
Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. Serve immediately or keep in the refrigerator until ready to use just make sure it comes to room temperature before serving.
For the figs
8 figs2 oz blue cheese, coldhoney
Preheat the oven to 350 F.Cored the figs just enough to make room for some blue cheese, we don'twant to get rid of all the seeds. Stuffed them and arrange them on a baking pan.Roast them for 20 minutes and drizzle them with honey before serving.
For the salad
Mix greensExtra virgin olive oilPistachiosBlue CheeseSalt and Pepper
Place the mix greens in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste, toss well. Arrange the salad in plates, top with blue cheese, pistachio and the roasted figs. Serve immediately.
Spaghetti with Grape Tomatoes
Hello guys, just a quick post to share with you this fantastic pasta recipe with tomatoes from our garden. Very simply made but so fresh, filling and comforting. Just a perfect bowl of pasta and also super quick to make. Simplicity at its best!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Ingredients:
2 pounds of grape tomatoes, halved1 small yellow onion, finely chopped1/4 cup olive oil3 garlic cloves, thinly slicedfresh basil, chiffonade1 pound of spaghetti or angel hairsalt and pepper to taste
Cook spaghetti according to package directions. Heat the olive oil, add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally for 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Then add the tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste, lower the heat, cover and cook slowly for 15 minutes. Then add basil and toss well. At this point you can add the cooked pasta, toss very well before serving and add more fresh basil and Parmesan cheese if desired.
Last Figs of the Season
When deciding what to do with the last figs harvested from our tree, an upside down fig cake seemed like a great idea and, oh boy, was I glad I went for it. Even my husband asked me why I didn't do this cake to begin with, and I simply answered, "I saved the best for last".
A slice of perfection: Moist, tender, sweet and beautiful texture, everything I look for in an upside down cake. I love this cake a little warm and a scoop of vanilla ice cream is always welcome to the party but quite honestly the figs are just so good that they are all I want to taste. 
Ingredients:
For the figs:
1 cup light brown sugar1 stick of butter (4oz)9-10 figs cut lengthwise9-inch round baking pans
Place the butter and sugar in a skillet, whisk to combine and cook until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is bubbly which should take about 4 to 5 minutes. Pour the caramel over the cake pan, arrange the figs on top, be very careful as the caramel is super hot. You can even wait a few minutes to let it cool down. Arrange the figs (cut side down) on top of the caramel and let it cool before adding the cake batter.
For the cake:
2 cup flour1 cup sugar1 tbsp baking powder1/4 tsp baking soda1/2 tsp salt1/2 cup butter, room temperature1 cup milk, room temperature1 tsp vanilla 2 Lg eggs, room temperature
Preheat the oven 350 F. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix the dry ingredients just to blend. Add the butter to the dry ingredients and blend on low speed for 2 to 3 minutes. In a mixing bowl, whisk to blend the milk, vanilla and eggs. On medium speed, slowly add half of the liquid to the dry ingredients and blend well, slowly add the other half and mix until well combined. Turn the speed up and mix for 30 seconds or until batter is smooth. Pour the batter over the caramel and figs and bake for 45 minutes to an hour or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the cake cool for 10 minutes before inverting onto a serving plate.
Garlic Soup
As the weather gets cooler, my appetite for soups increases. It is soup season everybody and I'm starting it with a rather uncommon soup; garlic soup. Garlic is my favorite thing ever and when I found out there was a garlic soup I immediately became interested. 
Contrary with what you may think, this garlic soup is not super strong since you first need to roast the garlic to the point where they become "sweet". Now, I'm not saying this is a soup you should make for your date unless your dating your husband for 9 years (my case) then you can get away with it. 
The croutons on this soup are really good, I suggest you make extra as they will fly off your serving plate. I also suggest to serve them at the very last minute to keep them crunchy when you serve the soup. 
Ingredients:Serves 4
3 Garlic heads, peeled5 cups chicken (or vegetable) broth extra virgin olive oil4 thyme sprigssalt and pepper2 tablespoons flour1 tablespoon butter
In a small heavy-bottomed saucepan, place the garlic and two sprigs of thyme and add enough olive oil to just cover the garlic completely. Cook the garlic over low heat until lightly browned, about 25 to 30 minutes. The garlic should be really tender at this point. Do not let it brown too much or else it will taste bitter. Strain the garlic (keep the garlic infused oil for cooking, it's amazing) Place the garlic in a pot and add 1 tablespoon of the garlic oil, with the back of a spoon, mash all the garlic. Turn the heat to low and add the butter and flour, cook for about two minutes, stirring constantly then add the chicken broth and the rest of the thyme and season with salt and pepper to taste. Boil for 15 minutes, strain the soup and return to the pot to keep it warm until ready to serve.Note: This is no a super thick soup but you can add heavy cream to make it a bit richer.
For the croutons
Slices of breadBlue cheese
Chopped scallion to serve
In a baking sheet lined with a silicon math, arrange the bread slices and brush them with some garlic infused oil. Add blue cheese on top and place it under the broiler for a couple of minutes until the cheese melts and the bread is golden brown and place a slice of bread on each bowl of soup. Sprinkle with scallions.
29 Eylül 2012 Cumartesi
Fill in Friday
I wish I was done my thesis. It's a slow process on the university's side.
I want to go to Korea.
I always brush my teeth before bed.
I need to weed my yard.
I feel blessed.
I think about New York daily.
I ask a lot of questions (less now than I used to though).
I hear music most of the time.
I smell pizza. Just made one.
I ponder everything.
I seek achievement.
I play to win.
I try to be nice to everyone I meet or know.
I prefer salty to sweet.
I wonder what my future holds.
I believe that happiness is a choice.
I mean to get up early, but it doesn't happen.
I never usually remember movies after I see them.
I plan to go to Mexico and New Orleans in the Spring.
I hope to also go back to NY in 2013.
I worry that spiders are infesting my house every time I find one inside.
I dislike most pizza crust.
I struggle getting up in the morning.
I like Fridays for more than the obvious reason. I like that I don't have to pack a lunch for Fridays as some of my coworkers and I always go out somewhere quick. Today was Taco Time.
I had a veggie burrito (couldn't finish all of it), and Mexi Fries Deluxe.
Easy Pumpkin Pie Recipe
So this is my Easy Pumpkin Pie Recipe:Ingredients:
- 1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
- 1cup condensed milk
- 1/2 cup Sugar
- 1tbsp butter, softened
- 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 eggs
- Whipped topping
- Preheat the oven to 350º F.
- Grease a 9-inch pie plate.
- Blend all the above ingredients except whipped topping well and pour it into pie plate.
- Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.
- Let it cool for 30 minutes.
- Refrigerate about 3 hours or until chilled. Serve with whipped topping.
Trout Fillet Recipe
Trout Fillet Recipe I am going to share today is a Baked Trout Fillet Recipe. Making these Baked Trout Fillet is actually very easy, and these make a great delight of seafood. You can have these delicious trouts for dinner.You will need half an hour to make this delicacy for 4 people, and you will need to follow the recipe below:
Ingredients:
- 1 pound Trout fillets
- 1/4 cup grated cheese (Parmesan)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 tbsp onion (finely chopped)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Paprika
Procedure:
- Put the trout fillets in a greased shallow baking dish.
- Combine Parmesan cheese, sour cream, lemon juice, onion and salt in a bowl.
- Spread the mixture evenly over the fish.
- Sprinkle it with paprika.
- Bake the fish at 350 degrees F until fish flakes easily with a fork (takes 20-25 minutes). [Do not cover the fish while baking]
Smoked Salmon Pasta Recipe
Here is an easy Smoked Salmon and Pasta Recipe:
Ingredients:
- 8 ounces Pasta (Spaghetti preferred)
- 4 ounces Smoked Salmon, cut into bite sized pieces
- 1/3 cup chopped Onions (or Shallots)
- 1/4 cup Pine Nuts
- 2 cloves Garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup Cream
- 1/3 cup dry White Wine
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh Parsley
- 1 tbsp Lemon juice
- 2 Tbsp Lemon zest
- Fresh ground Black pepper
- 2 tbsp Olive oil
- Salt to taste
- Boil at least 4 quarts of water in a large pot.
- Brown the pine nuts by heating it in a large skillet.Heat on medium heat, occasionally stir until it is lightly browned. Keep these pine nuts aside.
- Add salt to the boiling water, about a tablespoon or to your taste. Then add the Pasta in the pot.
- Let the pasta cook with the pot uncovered on high heat for 8-10 minutes. (Or as mentioned in the pack. )
- Prepare the sauce while cooking the Pasta.
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
- Cook onions and garlic in it for 2 minutes, then add lemon juice, white wine and 1 tbsp of lemon zest.
- Let the sauce boil down by half by increasing the heat.
- Add the cream and let boil a minute more.
- If the pasta is not cooked yet, let the sauce off the heat.
- Pasta is probably already done by now, reserve one cup of the liquid from pot.
- Drain the pasta and add it to the skillet with the sauce in a medium heat.
- Add the reserved liquid to the pasta if it gets a little dry.
- Finally add the smoked salmon, parsley, browned pine nuts, and the remaining lemon zest.
- Season with freshly ground black pepper.
Easy Ice Cream Cake Recipe
Ingredients:
- 16 ice cream sandwiches
- 1 container non-dairy frozen whipped topping
- 1 jar chocolate fudge topping
- 1 bar grated chocolate candy bar
- Place the ice cream sandwiches side by side in a baking dish (Do in parts if all does not fit in your baking dish).
- Spread half of the hot fudge topping, then half of the whipped topping evenly on the sandwiches.
- Sprinkle them with some grated chocolate bar.
- Freeze them with covering for at least 1 hour before serving.
28 Eylül 2012 Cuma
Cooler Corn: How to Cook Corn in a Beer Cooler ♥
How to cook fresh summer sweet corn in a cooler – and more importantly, why you want to cook those gorgeous ears of corn in one, whether you're camping or not. Now let me confess right off, I got some grief for cooking corn in a beer cooler. "You might as well cook that corn in the dishwasher," was the less-than-excited response. But a real veggie evangelist will press on even under pressure, ever on the hunt for new and interesting – and always, useful – ways to cook vegetables.
Besides, I was pretty sure my dear Auntie Karen was onto something when she sent me the "recipe" awhile back. (Ha! Is something this easy a recipe? Yes, if it's life-changing, you bet.)
It felt like a good idea for cooking corn outside, camping, say, or for a shore lunch when fishing. It felt like a good way to cook a whole mess of corn for a crowd with practically zero fuss and muss. But here's the thing, why this is my new way to cook corn:
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Corn & Cucumber Salad with Fresh Blueberries ♥
Today's summer salad recipe: An intriguing blend of corn (for sweetness), cucumber (for bulk) and blueberries (for tart) in a vinaigrette spiked with a little cumin, which adds just the right amount of underlying smokiness. Not just vegan, "Vegan Done Real".What a difference a single ingredient can make! I made this salad a few weeks back, making what I thought was a "safe substitute": inexpensive blackberries for expensive blueberries. The texture was right, the size was right, the color was right but with blackberries? The salad underwhelms.
Then, laden with more blackberries and peaches than was prudent for someone leaving on vacation in a few days, I was chatting up a woman in the pay-up line out at Wind Ridge Farm not far outside St. Louis. She'd arrived early and clutched several quarts of blueberries. Masking my blueberry-envy, I asked her plans for them. First, she said, she'd make her favorite corn and blueberry salad, then ticked off all the ingredients you see here.
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Quick Side: Simple Skillet Green Beans ♥
How to cook fresh or frozen green beans quickly right in a skillet. A little garlic, a pinch of sugar and plenty of salt and pepper make this a recipe to make again and again. Low carb. Just Weight Watchers 1 point.~recipe & photo updated in 2010 & reposted 2012~
~more recently updated recipes~
2007 ORIGINAL POST The inspiring recipe calls these 'stir-fried green beans a la Tang'. But mention 'stir fry' and my eyes glaze over over as I imagine lugging the twelve-ton cast iron wok from the basement – something that's just not happening on a weeknight, if ever. But this recipe works in an everyday skillet, no wok required. In fact, it calls for a skillet! Perfect! The recipe comes from this month's issue of Saveur. It's one of my favorite food magazines; every issue always includes one or two recipes that I want to make right away.
The beans cook up in just minutes, with minimal attention. They are very good, even with slightly woody supermarket beans. Next time I'll give frozen green beans (which are great) a shot using this same technique.
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Summer's Best Corn Chowder ♥ Recipe
A simple corn chowder recipe, packed with our favorite fresh summer vegetables like onion, carrot, red pepper, potato and sweet potato and of course, the soup's real star, kernels of sweet corn. As bright and colorful as crates of fresh vegetables lined up at the farmstand. Perfect for CSA members because the corn chowder recipe uses so many fresh vegetables, all at once. In winter, big pots of simmering soup are a given, hearty bowls to warm us from the inside out. But what about summer soup, do you make summer soup? Summer soups are just different, aren't they? Lighter and livelier, more likely to be all about the fresh vegetables that are so alluring during these heady summer months.
For me, summer just isn't summer without at least two must-make summer soup recipes, Tomato Gazpacho, the chilled tomato summer soup that turned me into a seasonal eater, and this corn chowder recipe, bits of summer vegetables and sweet kernels of corn in a milky broth. It's takes a little chopping, we do love to cut vegetables, don't we? :-)
I like this corn chowder served warm, not hot, the better to really taste the individual vegetables, bite by bite. It's similar to Finnish Summer Soup, one of my very oldest recipes. Add shrimp and scallops and bits of fresh tomato for Summer Seafood Chowder, another summer chowder.
All fans of summer soup will definitely want to check out my collection of Favorite Summer Soup Recipes, some chilled, some warm, all filled with summer vegetables (and fruit too!) and summer color.
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Slow Cooker Butternut Squash with Ginger & Dried Fruit Recipe ♥ Recipe
<< Today's Thanksgiving recipe: A plain-looking but anything-but-plain tasting butternut squash side dish, bright with ginger and slightly sweet with orange and dried fruit. It's cooked in a slow cooker, oh-so easy and oh-so good. >>On Saturday, I stood in the detergent aisle at the Walmart, already confounded by too many choices only to be blasted by a perky Jingle Bell Rock from the sound system. As if the detergent decision wasn't enough, to hear, you know, Christmas music in September, I could have melted into an anything-but-red-and-green puddle right then and there.
But an early Thanksgiving? Bring it on! American Thanksgiving is early this year, which actually makes the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas almost manageable. But the Canadians are even more sensible with an October Thanksgiving, this year a week early too, on October 8. Most years, I cook a turkey for Canadian Thanksgiving, a sort of prelude to the big family gathering in November: not so this year, I fear.
But this is an easy, oh-so-tasty side dish for Thanksgiving, especially since it's cooked in a slow cooker because we all know how quickly the oven gets overloaded cooking that big meal.
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