Author: Linda

Pollo Gisado with Rice & Red Beans

| Linda

Pollo Gisado with Red Beans & Rice

When Raf and I were first married (almost 30 years ago now!) we lived in Panama for a few years. As I had never been exposed to Latin food (not Mexican…Latin) I was enthralled with all the different flavors I tasted in Panama. My mother-in-law Rosario is a wonderful cook and this dish was one of the first I was able to glean from her. Although technically this is a Dominican Republic classic, my adapted version, in which I omit the green pepper, I consider purely Panamanian! Usually it’s served over a bed of white rice but today I served it over Rice & Red Beans (recipe below), another Latin classic and added a few Goya Platano Maduros on the side. It was absolutely delicious! Let me know if you like it as much as we do…Enjoy!   Continue reading →

Banana Chocolate Chip Molasses Bran Muffins

| Linda

Banana Chocolate Chip Molasses Bran Muffins

My son Andres loves bananas and recently asked me to make some banana muffins for breakfast. Looking in the pantry I saw I had some molasses and bran…I remembered seeing a recipe that called for those three ingredients and decided to adapt it and make these. Now don’t be scared of the molasses and bran! The bran is so subtle that you won’t even know it’s there and the molasses adds just the right amount of flavor to make these moist and yummy. The original recipe was from Barefoot Contessa at Home. I adapted the recipe and halved the batter since I can’t image us eating twenty-four or more muffins. This batter made twelve regular-sized muffins with just enough batter left in the bowl to make ten mini muffins (for the road!). You won’t believe how flavorful these muffins are… Continue reading →

Argentinean Steaks & Sweet Potato Fries

| Linda

Argentinean Steak & Sweet Potato Fries

If my husband had his way we’d have steak everyday. We don’t…and when we do we mostly have sirloin, but we stopped by our local Amish Market and found these beautiful Rib Eyes. They are probably the juiciest of all the steaks. And have the most flavor, even without additional seasoning. But we like flavor! So here’s an Argentinean rub that just brings out the flavor of the meat even more. I accompanied the steaks with sweet potato fries & a mayo-maple dipping sauce and a side salad. Get those sweet potato fries in the oven before you prep the steaks… Continue reading →

White Chocolate Chip Blondies

| Linda

White Chocolate Chip Blondies
Can you tell that we like our sweets? I try to make one dessert a week for everyone to savor. The other day one of my sons asked me to make something using white chocolate chips instead of milk chocolate chips. I decided to make these blondies – they are moist and delicious. Sometimes blondies can be dry – the secret is to just slightly underbake them and when they cool they harden up to the right consistency! Remember to keep them tightly covered with plastic wrap to keep them moist… Continue reading →

Spanish Yellow Rice

| Linda

Spanish Yellow Rice

Since my husband is both Italian and Latin we have the best of both of those worlds and cuisines! As I’ve previously mentioned we love pasta, but we also love Latin food of all kinds. And rice is a staple in our household. I shared our coconut rice recipe recently and decided to share this easy to make yet so tasty Spanish yellow rice. Heidi also loves to cook Latin food…she makes a black bean & cilantro dip that’s amazing and ceviche that is absolutely divine! Hopefully she will be sharing those recipes with us in the future!   Continue reading →

Liebster Award

| Linda

Liebster-Award

Heidi & I are very pleased to have received a nomination for the Liebster Award! This award is presented by fellow bloggers to new bloggers in an effort to welcome them and get to know them better. ‘Liebster’ is a German word that can mean lovely, sweetest, cute, dearest and favorite. We would like to thank Geri from Spring Tomorrow  for nominating us for this online blogger award. Geri lives in Singapore and was our very first visitor when we started just a few weeks ago. In her blog, Spring Tomorrow, Geri loves to write about food too. She also writes about lifestyle, deals, food reviews and more. Thanks Geri!   Continue reading →

Cocktail Corner: Springtime Sangria

| Linda

Springtime Sangria

Last weekend we had a few visitors! My brother Rob came in for the weekend and we had an unexpected visit from my husband’s college roommate Todd on Saturday. While we were overjoyed to see Rob and Todd I quickly realized that my husband Raf didn’t have any beer to offer them! Seeing some fruit leftover in the fruit bowl reminded me of our recent trip to Spain where we tasted the most delicious sangrias in every city/region we visited (Madrid, Barcelona, Seville & Toledo). Every restaurant that we visited in each city had their own version of sangria. Each was unique and tasty! After a quick perusal of our bar, I decided to surprise them with Springtime Sangrias! We were sitting around the kitchen island chatting and laughing while the Sangria was easily prepared. It was a delicious ruby red brandy-inspired sangria that everyone loved…hope you enjoy it too!   Continue reading →