What we all love about Abuela Celeste!

Today I was off due to the holiday. Mami and I decided to make Paprika Pork rib chops and some chick beans with rice. As we were cooking we both thought about abuela and how the house just hasn't been the same since she went on vacation. Mami and I thought about some of the things we love best about abuela and below are a few things we listed:

-Her positive attitude
-Her sense of humor
-Her lively spirit
-The fact that she is always so friendly and outgoing
-The fact that she is an excellent mother. Her children have always come before her.
-The fact that she is an amazing grandmother
-Her presence. Coming home to her company is always a great thing.
-The way she sneaks into the kitchen to grab some cookies when no one is watching
-Her cooking of course : )
-The fact that she always really enjoys having company over
-The fact that she's so social. She is more popular than any of us here at home.
-The way she imitates my brother
-The fact that she loves to travel and has been to Egypt, Turkey, Israel, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Canada, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic.
-The fact that every time she welcomes you, she treats you like she hasn't seen you in ages
-The fact that she sings to us ever year for our birthdays
-The fact that still at 81 she still loves to look fabulous and fashionable, she still takes care of herself as if she was 30 years old.
-The fact that she has so much faith
-The fact that she puts God before everything and every night when we say good night she says "Si Dios quiere"

Die Dreaming!

Morir Soñando literally translates to "die dreaming." That is the name of a very heavenly, tropical shake that is very famous in the Dominican Republic. Today my dad and I were in the mood for some delicious Morir Soñando. Papi is always the one that usually makes it at home. So as we prepared it together he started to tell me the story about how he came to love this delicious Caribbean beverage. Even though I've heard the story about a million times already, it's always fun to hear about his childhood. " I always used to love Morir Soñando, especially the way my mother used to make it. She used to squeeze fresh oranges, instead of using orange juice like most people do," he said. He told me how popular the drink is in the Dominican Republic, everyone has had it at some point in their lives. "When I was a kid I used to go to the juice bars in the town I lived in, in the Dominican Republic. And I always used to order Morir Soñando, one cup would be about 75 cents. But nowadays they probably sell them for like 3 dollars each," he said. We enjoyed our mouth-watering shake and cherished every sip. My apologizes for not posting any pictures, my camera has been really wacky these days. The image here I found on google image. And it usually comes out looking a lot whiter than in this photo, it depends on how much orange juice you put.

Check out papi's recipe for Morir Soñando!

Ingredients:
-1 can of Carnation-Evaportated fat free milk
-A little bit of water
-4-5 cubes of ice
-2 teaspoons of sugar (papi uses brown sugar)
-A cup of orange juice
- Pure Vanilla Extract

Directions:
-Take 1 can of Carnation-Evaporatated fat free milk and pour it in the blender
-Then pour a little bit of water to dilute the milk
-Then add about 4-5 cubes of sugar, the trick is to get the milk to get as cold as possible before adding the orange juice
-Then add about 2 teaspoons of sugar, my dad prefers to use brown sugar.
-Then start to mix it in the blender
- Pour a cup of orange juice and than mix more in the blender
-Then add 2-3 drops of pure vanilla extract, and blend a little more.

Enjoy!

Baby It's cold Outside, so stay in and enjoy a home-made Caribbean meal!

I was snowed in today. Thankfully I was off from work, because Wednesdays are my day off. But I'm pretty sure no one went to work today due to the crazy snow storm.The weather was pretty bad today, first time in years that New York City closed all the public schools including the City Universities. Oh for everyone who doesn't know, I finally started a new job. I work as a College/ Editorial assistant at a college. I'm pretty excited about it and so far everything has been pretty good. Everyone in my department is super nice and I enjoy the fact that most of my tasks include writing and editing. So it really is a blessing that this job came along my path.

I decided to make a really exotic meal for my family today. I made abuela's signature arroz con Habichuelas Negras (rice and black beans) along with my version of Cuban Coconut chicken. I found a couple of recipes for the coconut chicken, but a lot them required frying the chicken and than afterwards putting it in the oven for 45 minutes. I'm really not a huge fan of frying foods so I try to avoid it as much as I can. I only make the exception for plantains and other meals that really require it. So I grilled the chicken instead. The only problem was I was so distracted with the chicken and the beans, that my white rice dried up too quickly and wasn't rising. So mami had to save the rice, otherwise we would of had some really fluffy rice. I set the table real nice and the four of us sat as a family and enjoyed a very rich and appetizing meal.

Buen Provecho !

Abuela's Habichelas Negras (Black Beans)

Ingredients:
-2 Cans of Black Goya Beans, Premium
-1/2 an onion, red or green doesn't matter
-1/2 a green bell pepper
-1/2 a red bell pepper
-A cap full of olive oil
-Less than a cap full of vinegar
-1 tablespoons of homemade sofrito (check abuela's recipe under the asopao recipe below)
-About 3 gloves of garlic chopped and minced
-1 tablespoon of tomato paste
-1 packet of Sazon Goya seasoning (Con Culantro y achiote). Optional.
-1 cup of water
-Cilantro, cilantro Recao
-Vinegar
-Virgin Olive oil

Directions:
1. Get two cans of Black Goya beans and pour into a sauce pot.
2. Than pour about 1 cup of water into the pot.
3. Throw in 1/2 and onion, 1/2 a green pepper, and 1/2 a red pepper. Make sure not to chop them, just slice them in half and throw them in. That way when the beans are done you can take them out easily.
4. Add a cap full of olive oil
5. Than pour in a little less than half a cap full of vinegar. Just a tiny little bit.
6. Take about 3 gloves of garlic, chop and mince, and add about a teaspoon of minced garlic. No more than a teaspoon full.
7. Than add a couple of pieces of cilantro, I love cilantro so I added like 5 pieces.
8. Then add one tablespoon of tomato paste.
9. Taste it, if it needs salt add a pack of Sazon Goya seasoning (Con Culantro y Achiote). Optional.
10. Stir, bring down the flame and cover.
11. Let it sit for a couple more minutes, when it's ready turn off flame and remove onion, peppers, and cilantro.
12. Serve over white rice.

Johanna's Caribbean Coconut Chicken!

Ingredients:
- Depending on the amount of servings, use 2-8 pieces of skinless, boneless chicken breast tenders. I used 8, because the chicken tenders we had were small, so I wanted each person to have 2 each, and their are 4 of us that ate.
-1 tablespoon of Virgin Olive oil
-1 1/2 onion,chopped
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
-1 green pepper, chopped
- 1 tablespoon of chopped, minced garlic
-1/2 (14 Ounce) can of Goya Coconut milk
-salt and pepper to taste
-Adobo
-Grounded or crushed Oregano

Directions:
-I don't usually season my meat with salt and pepper, I usually sprinkle some adobo on my meat and a little bit of grounded oregano. So first I seasoned the chicken tenders with that.
-Then In a large Skillet (I used a large electric skillet) add about a tablespoon of Virgin olive oil.
-Turn on the flame on medium, in an electric skillet put it on 350 degress.
-Add the seasoned chicken. And then add the chopped onions and peppers.
-Saute until the onions and peppers are translucent. Once the vegetables are translucent and the chicken starts to brown, add the garlic and coconut milk.
-Stir in garlic and coconut milk, once the chicken is cooked add salt and pepper to taste.

Stir Fry Chicken in Ginger Sauce!

Once again I was feeling kind of down today about the whole job hunt situation. So once again I dedicated my day to writing and cooking. I wrote an album review for QRO Magazine and decided to cook something a little different. One of my favorite cuisines is Thai cuisine. I find the taste absolutely amazing and appreciate the creativity that goes into it. One of my favorite Thai dishes is stir-fry chicken in ginger sauce, because I am absolutely obsessed with ginger!

I looked up a couple of recipes online and realized that I was missing a lot of the necessary ingredients. So I went on a whim and experimented completely with what I had. And the final product was so delicious! My mom even said it tasted like restaurant style chicken in ginger sauce. So try it and let me know what you think!

My Stir-Fry Chicken in Ginger Sauce

Ingredients:

-2 large pieces of tender boneless chicken breast
-A cup full of baby carrots/sliced in half, julienne style
-A cup full of fresh broccoli
-A cup of red bell pepper/sliced, julienne style
-Minced garlic ( I used it from a jar of fresh minced garlic I bought)
-4 White button mushrooms/sliced
- 1 large onion/chopped in wedges
-fresh ginger/grated
-Oyster sauce
-Soy sauce
-Olive oil
-Water
-Adobo
-Grounded Oregano
-Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. The first step was to season the chicken, I took the two large pieces of boneless chicken breast and sprinkled a little bit adobo seasoning and a little bit of grounded oregano.
2. Then in a large straight-sided skillet I poured about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and allowed it to sizzle a little.
3.Then I added about 2 tablespoons of minced garlic and added about 3 tablespoons full of fresh ginger/grated. I grated it with a box grater on the side with the smallest holes so that the pieces would be finer.
4. Then I added the chopped onions and let it sizzle some more
5. I took the two pieces of seasoned chicken and took a carving knife and cut the pieces of chicken into much smaller pieces.
6. Then I added the pieces of chicken to the skillet.
7. I added the sliced pieces of red pepper, mushrooms, carrots and broccoli.
8. I ended up adding more garlic, but that's because I love the taste of garlic, so that's optional.
9. I added about two tablespoons of oyster sauce
10. Poured some soy sauce to taste and about 1/2 a cup of water so it wouldn't dry.
11. And sprinkled salt and pepper to taste.
12. Once the chicken was well done and the vegetables were tender I brought down the flame!
11. Served best over white or brown rice.

Enjoy Johanna's fresh Stir-fry Chicken in Ginger sauce!

Cheers to a healthier 2010!

So yesterday mami had her friend Teresa over. We spoke about how one of our new year's resolution for 2010 is to maintain a healthier diet. That means a lot less rice, eating a lot more vegetables and cooking with a lot less salt! And believe me for a Latina cook that can be difficult. But mami and I decided that we are not going to make rice more than once a week. And you know what, beans do not always have to be eaten with rice. As delicious as it is, we can have rice and beans just once a week. And the rest of the week have our meat accompanied with some delicious steamed vegetables or beans.

Today we decided to make abuela's delicious Sopa de Lenteja (lentil soup).
She wrote down the recipe for me before she left for vacation. Mami and I decided to make it exactly the way abuela makes it only eliminating adobo and Goya Seasoning (Culantro y Achiote) completely from the recipe. As much as I love cooking with adobo and Goya seasonings, It's very high in salt and contains a lot of artificial ingredients. So we decided to look for healthier alternatives, such as squash, carrots, and potatoes. And it resulted in the same amazing sabor!

Sopa de Lenteja (Lentil Soup)

Ingredients:
-1 lb or one bag of lentil beans
-10 cups of water
-1 large onion/chopped in wedges
-4-5 garlic cloves minced
-Cilantro, and cilantro Recao
-Half a red pepper
-Half a green pepper
-3 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1/2 tablespoon of dried and crushed oregano
-1 tablespoon of tomato paste
-About a cup of chopped carrots (Optional)
-About a cup of peeled & chopped potatoes (Optional)
-4 pieces of long celery (Optional)
-A cup of chopped squash
-A cap full of vinegar
-1/2 cup of white cooking wine
-Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

-So first we took a bag full of lentil beans and poured it into a large stew pot. We cooked for about 6 people so we added about 10 cups of water.
-We let it boil and waited for the lentil beans to soften
-Then we added the chopped onions
-Then the poured the minced garlic
-We put a couple of pieces of cilantro and cilantro recao
-Then we added a half a red pepper and half a green pepper
-Afterwards we added about 3 tablespoons of olive oil
-Added 1/2 tablespoon of dried and crushed oregano
-Add 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
-Then we threw in the chopped potatoes, chopped squash and chopped carrots
-Add 1/2 cup of white cooking wine, let is simmer and take it the flavor
-Than we took all the seasonings, such as the peppers, cilantro, some of the onions, some of the squash, a little bit of the lentils and poured in the blender. Added about 1 cup of water to the blender. And onced it was all liquified we added it back to the stew pot full of lentil soup, This was to make it more soupy and to liquify the herbs and seasonings.
-Afterwards add about a cap full of vinegar cover and let it sit for a few minutes
-Add salt and pepper to taste.

Good news!

So I have been cooking a lot these last couple of weeks, but unfortunately the battery on my camera died. And I have to go and purchase a new one. So I haven't really been posting because I don't have pictures of the amazing meals I've been making to put up with my recipes. But don't worry I'm working on that. And on a lighter note abuela is coming back! As you all know there was an earth quake in Haiti, and she's currently on the other side of the island (Dominican Republic) and it's been kind of hectic. So as a result, she is coming sooner than she had planned. She'll be back around the first week of February and I'm really excited about it. Hopefully I'll have a job by than, since I've been applying and interviewing at places like a mad woman. But despite what happens the cooking will continue and abuela is bringing back a whole bunch of interesting recipes to try. So keep reading and stay tuned!

When you're feeling down...cook your heart away!

It has been a hard couple of weeks. I am still currently unemployed and it's become extremely discouraging. You tend to ask yourself, why did I go to college for? Why do I have bachelors for? And you find yourself settling as well. Applying for regular assistant or receptionist positions instead of those in your field. Because the assistant jobs are actually hiring and are full-time positions. And so in times like these I try to think of positive things that will lift up my spirit. You can't allow unemployment to get you down and depressed, as hard as it may be. So I do what helps me most. I write and I cook.

Last night I came home and decided to make abuela's rice and beans. And as I was cooking I thought about some of the funny stories she shared whenever we were cooking together. The night she showed me how to make her Christmas cake we spoke about cherries, since we were putting some on the cake. She told me how much she loved cherries from the jar. "When I was a little girl I didn't really like to eat a lot, so my mother would take me to an ice cream parlor and order me some ice cream but all I would eat was the cherry on top," she said in spanish. Oh abuela, she always makes me laugh so much.

I followed her recipe exactly, because I wanted it to taste like i was eating her food. And it came out delicious. I think she would be proud. Check out her recipe below!

Abuela's recipe for Romano beans

Ingredients:
-Two cans of Goya Romano beans
-Half a red onion
-Half a green pepper
-Half a red pepper
-A cap full of olive oil
-a little less than half a cap full of vinegar
-4-5 cloves of garlic
-Adobo
-Grounded Oregano
-A tablespoon of tomato paste
-salt
-Sazon Goya Seasoning (Con Culantro y Achiote)
-Cilantro
-Home-made sofrito( see asopao recipe for sofrito recipe)

1. So the first step is to take a sauce pot and add about a large cooking spoon full of olive oil.
2. Then throw in half a red onion, half a green pepper and half a red pepper.
3. Then finely cut up the garlic cloves and in a Mortar and Pestle add the chopped garlic cloves and sprinkle a little bit of adobo and oregano and crushed it all with the pestle.
4. Now add the crushed garlic to the pot.
5. Pour the two cans of beans into the pot.
5. Then take one of the cans and pour it half way with water, then add the water to the pot.
6. Add the vinegar and let it simmer for a couple of minutes.
7. Then add one tablespoon of tomato paste
8. Taste it, if you feel it needs salt add a pack of Sazon Goya seasoning (Con Culantro y achiote)
9. I felt like mines still needed some more flavor so I added a tablespoon of home-made sofrito.
10. Let it sit for about 10 minutes while covered
11. When ready to serve, take out all the cilantro, peppers, onion, etc.
15. And make sure to enjoy!

This helped so much I just might cook something tonight!