traditional mexican cooking, one recipe at a time. served with a pizca of culture and travel.

FAVE KITCHEN TOOLS: box grater with storage

We all have a kitchen tool or gadget that makes our lives simpler or easier.

I wanted to share some of the kitchen tools that I love best, starting with this one: a box grater with storage.

This is a great tool that I often use several times per week. It’s a box grater that has a storage tupperware under it, and you can pop the grater top off and seal it with a lid that comes with the set. I love this because it makes grating cheese easy, but I’ve used it for prepping other foods too.

I try to get creative and use one item for multiple tasks, and I’ve discovered this box grater is also good for zesting citrus on the side that has the small graters, and grating cheese and onions on the large side. I’ve also used the large side for grating apples, zucchini and cucumbers.

When I pop the grater top off, I just wash it in the dishwasher. I seal up the top with the lid and store the contents in the refrigerator. This tool is not one that I might have bought on my own; it was a gift from my mom several years ago and probably one of the best kitchen gifts I’ve ever received.

• What’s one of your favorite kitchen tools or gadgets that makes food prep easier for you?

 

Wordless Wednesday: quesadilla de chorizo

Who doesn’t love a quesadilla? It can be a perfect breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack.

Especially if it has chorizo in it. This one has queso Oaxaca, chorizo and salsa verde. So simple, yet it made me so happy when I ate it!

• What’s your favorite filling for a quesadilla?

VEGETARIAN: Tacos de hongo, chile poblano y cebolla

I’ve really been wanting to reduce the amount of meat we eat on a daily basis in order to be a bit healthier. I love veggies and don’t mind vegetarian meals, but when you live with a serious carnivore, it’s sometimes really difficult to convince them that a vegetarian meal is a) good and b) filling enough to be a meal and not just an appetizer.

Sometimes the mere mention of serving a vegetarian meal summons an apocalyptic response in my household. If you can’t get your family to eat a full vegetarian meal, this dish makes a great appetizer to ease them into enjoying it; just double or triple the recipe depending on how many people you’re feeding. They may soon see that an all-veggie meal isn’t so bad after all.

And if you’re truly desperate to get them to eat veggies, you can always add a little crumbled chorizo to this dish. It’s not meatless, but hey, at least they’re eating veggies, right? (You could also attempt to substitute soyrizo for chorizo if you’re brave, but I can’t be held responsible if they figure you out and throw chanclas at you.)

Regardless, whether you’re vegetarian, trying to get your family to eat less meat or just trying to observe meatless meals during Lent, this is a quick and easy recipe you’re bound to enjoy.

I like to use baby portabellas for this recipe, but you can use  just about any kind of regular-sized mushroom you like so long as you slice them somewhat thickly so that when they saute with the onions and butter, they don’t shrink too much or get too thin when they’re fully cooked. Read more »

AGUA FRESCA: Agua de mandarina

As the weather starts to get warmer, I’ve gotten an itch for making aguas frescas. This happens to me just about every year. Toward the end of the winter, I always seem to fall into a rut in the kitchen as I wait for spring to arrive. And like clockwork, as soon as we get our first day of warm weather, I head to the store looking for fresh fruits to make aguas frescas. This year was no exception, and the first fruit I spotted was a large bag of mandarinas, mandarin oranges.

I love mandarin oranges both because of the refreshing, sweet juice they produce and their portability as a vitamin-packed snack. In fact, I’ve been carrying two mandarin oranges my purse at all times for the last few weeks so that I always have a healthy snack at the ready.

But I’ve also got some cherished memories of the early days of hanging out with my cuñada, when she used to take me out for aguas frescas and where we almost always ended up with agua de mandarina, one of her favorites—and consequently, now, one of my favorites too.

This is an incredibly simple recipe, but one I’ve been asked for time and again by friends. It’s perfect for serving with any meal, and any gathering—large or small.

A few notes: my husband likes his agua de mandarina to be a little sweeter, but I prefer mine to be more natural and without sugar. My advice: try it without sugar first and perhaps leave out the lime juice. If you feel like it’s not sweet enough for your liking, you can mix about 2 tablespoons of sugar with 1/4 cup of warm water to get it to dissolve, and then mix it with the remaining 1-1/2 cups of cold water.

I also like to use a handheld citrus press for this recipe because I found that my electric juicer doesn’t always extract all the juice due to the small size of the mandarin oranges.

Read more »

Join us for the Maseca Twitter fiesta!

This Wednesday, March 7, we’ll be participating in a Twitter party with all of the Maseca Amigas Blogueras to talk about healthy cooking, nutrition and more. I hope you’ll joint us! Like any good party there will be some special prizes you’ll have a chance to win.

Here’s all the info you need to know to participate:

Participate and follow along with the #clubmimaseca hashtag using TweetGrid, TweetChat, Twitterfall or your favorite Twitter tool, such as Tweetdeck to keep track of the conversation easily.

RSVP online via Facebook or Twitter and read the official rules in order to be eligible to win prizes.

Make sure you follow the Amigas Blogueras and the moderator, @LBConnect, to help you keep track of the conversation in addition to the hashtag.

And if you’re not familiar with all the Amigas Blogueras listed above, you can check them out on the Maseca website! Meet the Amigas Blogueras in Spanish or in English to get to know them a little before the fiesta and read some of their stories!

¡Nos vemos en Twitterlandia!

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