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~

First things first

I started this blog in order to keep track of all the delicious foods that I enjoy making, and also to inspire anyone out there who would like to add a little bit of Cuban flavor to their repertoire.





Desert has always been my downfall, since I was a kid growing up in Cuba I remember being obsessed with all things sweet.



My earliest memory of my maternal grandmother, is of her making the most delicious sweet concoction when ever we would visit her, the best way I can describe it is as a sesame seed brittle, but not so hard it was more on the chewy side, she called it "dulce de ajonjoli".





My mom used to make the most amazing torrejas, arros con leche, dulce de leche, pudin de pan and natilla. Her meals weren't always the best (sorry mom, lol), but when it came to desert she was at the top of her game, bless her heart.


My aunt use to make the best merengues, everytime I had to take something in for school she would come to the rescue with one of her amazing merenguitos. Her other specialties were dulce de naranja, dulce de coco, cascos de guayaba, toronja en almibar, melocotones en almibar, and roasted sugared peanuts. No Kitchenaid or fancy equipment either, it was all a true labor of love.


Growing up in Cuba during the seventies there weren't many extras, I remember going to a place by my house every Saturday to buy pasteles de guayaba, this was the only time they were available. The other desert I remember was the ice cream at Coppelia, there we could buy, if available, a whole tub of the most wonderful chocolate ice cream I've ever had.


You see I grew up in a time of food rationing, in Cuba everything was by the libreta, a little book where the bodega employees would mark your monthly allotment of food stuff. You still had to pay for it though, and there was no guarantee that anything would be available, lol. The usual greeting on the barrio was "what's at the bodega?"

Of course if you had relatives in the country like we did you were able to acquire extras, like bananas and root vegetables, sometimes even a live chicken.. but that was considered highly illegal activity.

Anyway those are the memories that ingrained in me a love for all things sweet.

I'm no longer in Cuba, **thank God** lol, I'm in Miami which feels just like my island in many ways.. now I am free to buy whatever foods I want already made, but somehow I'm nostalgic for the simpler recipes of my childhood you know the type of things that require lots of kitchen prep, lol.

I hope you will follow me on this culinary journey, who knows I might throw in a Nicaraguan desert recipe or two.. love me some pio quinto and tres leches. I'll even take you on a pictorial of El Palacio De Los Jugos, one of the best fruit stands in town, although my favorite thing there is their chicharrones, they are out of this world, lol!

Ay Dios Mio!