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Walnut Cups – gorgeous holiday cookie alternative (who doesn’t love a cream cheese crust?)

I absolutely cannot believe that I have never posted this recipe!

Yes this much butter, this much cream cheese. Get your jaw off the floor and get cooking!

For the last I don’t know how many years — since my neighbor Teresa brought some over for us one holiday season and was kind enough to give me the recipe — Marianne and family and I (and now Leandro) have included this recipe in our Christmas cookie baking extravaganza although think last year we did Walnut Toffee Triangles instead. When we went to do the cups this year, I went straight to my own blog and was horrified (or perhaps I should say gobsmacked, simply because I can) to find I had never shared this with you! Continue reading →

Tags: Christmas baking, cookie swap, cooking, cream cheese crust, easy baking, food, party food, recipes, unusual cookies, walnut cups

Comments 21 Comments
Categories baking, cookies, desserts, Entertaining, Food, Party Snacks, Recipes

Three Easy and Elegant Tapas for Your Holiday Table

15 Dec

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Tags: appetizers, buffet dishes, Caribbean white cheese, cheese and fruit ideas, chorizo sausage, cooking, easy party recipes, food, holiday tapas, jewelry party snacks, party snacks, recipes, smoked salmon

Comments 7 Comments
Categories Cocktails, Comida Criolla, Entertaining, Food, Party Snacks, Recipes, Side Dishes, Spanish, Tapas

Yuca Salad Revisited – You May Never Make Potato Salad Again

5 Dec

There is no better big-dinner, buffet, picnic, or other party dish in my arsenal than Yuca Salad (aka ensalada de yuca, yuca en escabeche). None. I kid you not.

Pimiento-stuffed olives

It is easy, has big flavor, is unusual, goes with everything, is portable, and very cheap…it is even vegan, but no one has to know until they’ve tried it. I have served it to pretty much everyone I have ever cooked for (and if I haven’t done it for you yet, it is just a matter of time) and gotten rave reviews every time. Continue reading →

Tags: cassava, comida criolla, easy party dishes, escabeche, manioc, potato salad alternatives, Puerto Rican, vegan, vegetarian, yuca, yuca an vinagreta, yuca salad

Comments 18 Comments
Categories Comida Criolla, Entertaining, Food, Party Snacks, Puerto Rican, Recipes, salad, Side Dishes, Spanish, Vegan, Vegetarian

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¡Comida Hispana! Recipes to unleash your inner Latino

Mango Mojitos With Ancho Chili Salt

It was another summer Friday in the neighborhood and that called for another festive cocktail. Riding high on the success of last session’s passionfruit mojitos, I decided to make mango mojitos. The drink itself followed much the same construction, but the mango was decidedly sweeter than the passionfruit, so I decided that it needed a […]
Passionfruit Mojitos by the Pitcher or Glass

Summer evenings in the neighborhood can be wonderful. Occasionally on a Friday some of us neighbors bring out folding chairs and sit together in one front yard for a bit of happy hour while the kids go mental on someone else’s lawn. It’s pretty much BYO, but we do mix up a pitcher of experimental […]
KID IN THE KITCHEN: Tembleque (Tropical Coconut Pudding)

We spent the better part of last summer in Puerto Rico, and among the tasty things that my little guy fell in love with was tembleque, a jiggly (temblar means to tremble) dessert that falls somewhere between pudding and flan. I promised him we’d make it back in New York, and this weekend, for a […]
Sangría Tropical (and rainforest paradise pictures)

When the heat gets tropical, so should the drinks. On a recent trip to the mountains of Puerto Rico, I was inspired by a wonderfully cooling and exotic sangría I had up around and about El Yumque (Caribbean National Forest, the only tropical rainforest in the U.S. Forest Service system) at Noelia’s, recommended to us […]
Salmorejo de jueyes (Land Crab Stew)

There are a number of land crab species skittering about Caribbean coastlines. Some are edible and the one we eat most here in Puerto Rico (although I am told they mostly are imported from Venezuela these days) is Cardisoma guanhumi which we call juey and — if you are English-speaking — you might call the […]