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Lemon Blueberry Quesito

This easy-to-make lemon blueberry quesito ( Puerto Rico's version of the danish) is one of my favorite summer dessert recipes. OK, if I'm keeping it 100, I make it all year. But it's super awesome during the summer when I get a little crazy buying a ton of berries at the farmer's market. You can have this baby in the oven in under ten minutes and on your table in under thirty. When you choose fresh blueberries at the market, go for plump ones, dent-free, and a deep blue. Skip blueberries that have any red patches on them, as this shows they were picked before their time. Blueberries do [...]

2021-07-24T18:03:31+00:00By |breakfast, brunch, Desserts, Fruits & Veggies|2 Comments
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Easy Recipe: Peach Galette

Peach season is in full swing, my friends! This easy-to-make peach galette is my favorite way to showcase this succulent summer fruit. A galette is a rustic, free-form pie baked on a sheet pan, not in a pie pan. You can use store-bought pie dough, puff pastry, or use my simple two-ingredient pie dough recipe to get this luscious dessert on the table in under an hour.  The most important step is to make sure you taste your peaches before you add them to the dough. Not all peaches are overflowing with flavor. If they're lacking in the taste department, add a touch of honey, a few drops of [...]

2021-07-04T19:09:44+00:00By |breakfast, brunch, Desserts, Fruits & Veggies|2 Comments
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#StopFoodWaste: Asparagus Ends

I love asparagus season. The appearance of the vibrant green stalks on market shelves means spring (I.E. Foodie Christmas) is just around the corner. It's the most wonderful time of the year. (That last sentence should be sung in your best caroling voice.) Asparagus is ridiculously easy to prepare. Rinse the stalks and then bend them until they break. They'll magically snap exactly where the tough woody end and the tender spear meet. Isn't nature glorious? Of course, the tender part is the best part, but that doesn't mean you have to throw out the woody ends. They have just as much flavor and only need a little love [...]

2021-05-10T15:41:13+00:00By |#StopFoodWaste, Appetizers, Fruits & Veggies, Recipes, Uncategorized|0 Comments
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Easy Mango Salsa

This mild salsa has a fruity punch, and with just five ingredients, it's a perfect recipe for an easy, breezy Cinco De Mayo celebration. You can add heat by incorporating minced jalapeno to taste. This recipe makes about 3 cups of salsa.  A couple of handy tips: You don’t have to choose organic mangoes or onions as they don’t usually contain high levels of pesticide residue, especially since you remove the peel before eating them. Choose organic when it comes to cilantro, bell peppers, jalapenos, and limes as they all test high for pesticide residue. You can reduce the sharp bite of the diced red onion by soaking it [...]

2021-05-03T18:30:18+00:00By |#IslandFlavor, Appetizers, Fruits & Veggies, Sauces, Uncategorized|0 Comments
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Island Ratatouille Pie

Spring is here and nothing quite puts the season on the plate like a batch of ratatouille.  If you've never had it, it's a vegetable dish usually made with onions, zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers. The veggies are sauteed or roasted with a little oil until they've softened and released their juices. Ratatouille can be served hot or cold or in a Disney movie prepped by the cutest team of rodents ever. Traditionally, ratatouille is accompanied by a few slices of crusty bread to sop up its savory sauce. I wrapped my ratatouille with a pie crust and dressed it with an herbaceous lemon ricotta to create a one-pot dish [...]

2018-04-19T16:00:28+00:00By |#IslandFlavor, Appetizers, Dinner, Fruits & Veggies, Recipes, Uncategorized|0 Comments
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#IslandFlavor: Abuela’s Rice and Beans

There's nothing I love more than getting messages like this one: My name is Jamie and I watched you on MasterChef and I just saw you on The Kitchen. My mom is from Puerto Rico and her mom used to make "the best" rice and beans. She doesn't know how to make it, she's not a good cook and she's been in America for a very long time. Do you happen to have a good traditional recipe for rice and beans? It seems simple but I wouldn't know where to start with seasonings. Thank you!!! Jaime, one of the biggest reasons I focus on Puerto Rican flavors is that they [...]

2017-12-19T00:37:22+00:00By |#IslandFlavor, Fruits & Veggies, Recipes, Uncategorized|0 Comments
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#IslandFlavor: Coconut Hot Fudge Sundae

July 25th is National #HotFudgeSundaeDay. It also happens to be Danger's birthday (he's turning seven) which makes this day one of The. Biggest. Days. of the year for me. What better way to celebrate than with a tropical, coconut hot fudge sundae! My little man Danger loves sweet fried plantains (he may not have been born on the island but that kid is Puerto Rican I tell you!) and he loves chocolate, so I combined those flavors with one of our favorite things in the world: vanilla ice cream. This is a really easy quick sundae but if you don't have sweet plantain, you can substitute a ripe banana or [...]

2017-12-19T00:37:22+00:00By |Desserts, Fruits & Veggies, Recipes, Sauces, Uncategorized|0 Comments
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#IslandFlavor: Simple Sofrito

When it comes to building flavor, the french have mirepoix (onions, celery, carrots) and creoles have the holy trinity (onions, celery, bell peppers).  Puerto Ricans have sofrito.  While it is the base of hundreds of Puerto Rican dishes, sofrito is derivative. You see Puerto Rican cuisine is the original fusion cuisine, with influences from Africa, Europe, and Asia. Much of our food is adapted from different cultures and sofrito is no different. This powerhouse of flavor was brought to the island by Italian immigrants that relocated in the 1800's during the Second Industrial Revolution. The Italians (along with other Catholic immigrants from Ireland and Corsica) were granted land after swearing loyalty [...]

2017-12-19T00:37:23+00:00By |#IslandFlavor, Fruits & Veggies, Recipes, Sauces, Uncategorized|4 Comments
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#IslandFlavor: Limbers (Frozen Fruit Pops)

It doesn't matter where you are in Puerto Rico- your block, your school, or in a downtown plaza- someone will always be selling frozen fruit juice pops called limbers. My Abuela Alicia lived in a tenement building in Rio Piedras and had a neighbor that would sell them out of her apartment. My brother and I would hand her fifty cents through a gap in her wrought iron door and in return we would get two little dixie cups filled to the top with frozen sweetened coconut milk. It was the tastiest way to stay cool in a world with no air conditioning. These frosty, refreshing treats are named [...]

2021-07-24T22:42:10+00:00By |#IslandFlavor, Desserts, Fruits & Veggies, Recipes, Uncategorized|0 Comments
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#IslandFlavor: Tropical Coconut Mug Cake

I developed this microwave coconut mug cake for Food Network's The Kitchen. If you're anything like me  (impatient, with a sweet tooth so big it rides shotgun) this is an awesome recipe to keep in your back pocket. This cake is ready so fast you can make it during a commercial break. Plus you can substitute the tropical fruit with almost anything your heart desires. (And yes, for me, that will almost always mean chocolate.) A big thanks to Katie Lee, Jeff Mauro, Geoffrey Zacharian, Marcela Valladolid and Sunny Anderson for having me on their Stove Free Summer episode! Ingredients 1/3 cup  angel flake coconut sweetened 1  egg, [...]

2017-12-19T00:37:23+00:00By |#IslandFlavor, Desserts, Fruits & Veggies, Uncategorized|2 Comments
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