Supermarket run..

my excuse for going the the supermarket today was that I ran out of potatoes, seriously dude, I needed them for today's dinner so I left my older son in the car and told him that I would be right back... *insert eyeroll*

"oh I'll be right back, I'm only getting one thing" oy~

as if I didn't have enough junk in my trunk, literally, lol!!

my daughter had signed me up for 10 boxes of the fundraiser chocolate they are selling at her school..

OMG, I nearly passed out when I saw that! luckily I was able to decline and take just one box, hell that's 50 bars of chocolate to tempt me at home.. oh the sacrifice :) btw, there's still my little boy's 50 chocolate bars coming later on today. yumo~

Oven Baked Brisket

One of the easiest recipes that I know, this will look like you slaved in the kitchen all day.


the ingredients:

1/2 cup of red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of pepper
1 cup of ketchup
one diced onion



sprinkle a teaspoon of salt and 1/4 of a teaspoon of pepper on the brisket
place cut up onion on top, add 2 crushed bay leaves


mix the liquid ingredients and pour on top

cover with aluminum foil and baked in a preheated 325 degree oven for 3 hours

I boiled several potatoes and added them once the brisket was cooked through, you should be able to shred it easily at this point if not cook covered for an extra 30 minutes

here is the final result, enjoy! I know my family did as there were no leftovers, lol~

No Method to the Madness~

the other day I was trying to make space in the fridge to put in some new purchases and I noticed I had four containers of cottage cheese, lol. In my constant quest to lose weight I kept buying this safe food that I truly enjoy, however some of the containers of cottage cheese had expired unopened.. same thing with my tea drawer, I keep buying all these different types of tea in hopes that I will drink it- actually I just had a cup of green Jasmine tea. but seriously I should stop buying tea for a few years in order to catch up with my current stash.

a peek into my overcrowded fridge and freezer

there is another overstocked freezer and smaller refrigerator in the laundry room, btw.. and let's not talk about the pantry, oy vey~

anywho, I think besides my LV addiction my food shopping addiction is shamefully out of control.. I find that don't love cooking as much as I once did, yet I keep buying all this food waiting to get motivated ( or inspired?) but sigh...

well I have to admit that the kids do eat all the prepared and the ready to eat stuff, my real gripe is with all the things in the freezer waiting for me to make something with.. lol. in conclusion: I'm addicted to food shopping!

Craving Pastelitos~

I fight this craving to buy pastelitos de guayaba every morning as I'm driving my kids to school, there are like twenty Cuban bakeries on my way there and back, well today I actually went for it. I have no idea how many calories there are in these things but I'm sure they have all the calories in the world and then some, lol!

I only remember to take pics after I had eaten a few, lol..

pan cubano guava pasteles or as we say in Spanish pastelitos de guayaba, beef pasteles- in the center, and cheese pasteles

Lazy Sunday~

This weekend I realized I hadn't cooked in a while, the house remodel is to blame, so I ended up making a fairly easy Sunday lunch, this made dh very happy :)

On the menu- Cuban style Gallo Pinto

fried plantains and grilled steak

I started by caramelizing two onions in some cooking oil
you will need two cans of red kidney beans, do not drain, next
rinse five cups of long grain white rice

once the onions are browned take half of them out and reserve for later, leave the oil in the pan

add the rinsed white rice (about five cups) to half the cooked onions

add the two cans of red kidney beans, four and a half cups of water, and a tablespoon of salt
cover and cook on medium low heat for 25 minutes

there you have it, my version of Gallo pinto, Nicaraguan style rice and red beans~

garnish with the reserved caramelized onions

Fried plantains or platanos maduros, so easy to make and yet so good~

just peel a few ripe plantain, slice, fry until golden brown~

t-bone steaks ready for the grill

I usually add a little bit of garlic powder, salt and pepper while they are grilling

well done on the outside, medium well on the inside~

we finished the meal with assorted cheeses and berries and lots of red vino for dh and I~

Fresh Market~

I finally went to Fresh Market after hearing so much about it, from my sis, I went on the weekend. I really liked it, they had lots of prepared foods, and fresh baked items that my family devoured! The panini sandwiches were the best, so many tempting items to choose from... the apple pie was amazing!

a great deal on a box of mangoes~ this Dulce de Leche was so good, too bad one of the kiddos dropped the whole jar on the floor, lol!

oh the Almond Joy~I haven't had Almond joy since the eighties, these were better than I remember, not as hard.. my old lady teeth wouldn't have been able to stand it, lol!!

I loved the triple berry loaf, it was perfect!

the cinnamon crisppies were very tempting

I'm planning another trip there soon, I loved not having to go to Publix for a change~

What we ate~

these are some of the things we ate this past weekend.. and a little bit of vino~


our Easter dinner was not as traditional as other years, mom made white rice, green beans and shrimp enchilado. My sister was in charge of all the appetizers which included- olives, cheese and crackers, her famous bacon wrapped water chestnust, croquetas (mom made that). this is my favorite desert in the whole world, it's the almond raspberry torte that my sis always brings, from Fresh Market in the Grove http://www.thefreshmarket.com/stores/store_locationsDetail.aspx?StoreID=44

mini cupcakes from Fresh Market

ribbon fries at the Fair~

the London broin keeps us coming back every year

my sis and mom ordering their ribbon fries

my favorite stand at the Fair~

I'm still eating all the delicious fudge that we brought home

My little ones had caramel and candy apples~My parents had to have their cafe Cubano first thing at the Fair~

at Outback with the kids

by the time the food came around I forgot to take pics, lol

Flan

phew, who knew photographing food would be so difficult! I couldn't get one decent shot, lol Anyway, here is the final product~ it looks better in person, really... Well my kids thought it was good, except for the ten year old, after he tried it he asked me for something that "actually tastes good", his own words, "an ice cream cone" lol!!!

once inverted onto a serving plate

when it first came out of the oven

One of the simplest recipes which has a ton of variations, I usually put a bit of lemon peel in it but I don't have any on hand. Another favorite addition is cream cheese, but I'm keeping it very basic this time~ enjoy!

Here is what you'll need:

one 12oz. can of evaporated milk
one 14oz. can of condensed milk
5 large eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 cup of sugar for the caramel

1. preheat the oven to 325 degrees, have a mold ready for the flan and a bigger pan that you can fit that mold into for the water bath.
2. mix the all the ingredients, except for the cup of sugar, in blender for a few seconds

3.caramelize the sugar in a heavy sauce pan, stir until it begins to dissolve. then stop stirring or it will crystallize..

4.once it turns a dark honey color, remove from heat

5.pour into your waiting mold, I'm using a loaf pan

have a pan filled with water, waiting in the oven

6.pour your flan mixture into the caramelized mold, place in the water bath and bake at 325 degrees for an hour and fifteen minutes~

I will show the end results when it finishes baking, when it's done let it cool down for a couple of hours, I've placed it in the freezer on occasions when I didn't want to wait for the natural cooling process.

After it cools down, run a knife around the sides of your mold and invert on a serving plate, let the caramel run down the sides of it~