I am so excited to share this fancy little salad! I was inspired by a video from one of my favorite hosts on Food Network, Barefoot Contessa, about how to make delicious roasted beets with raspberry vinegar (find video here).
This salad recipe is vegetarian, simple, light, tasty, and only requires five main ingredients plus olive oil and salt (I never count those last two because they are always in my pantry). This has become a personal favorite this week alone! I’ve already had it three times and it’s only Wednesday. It is that good.
To make this recipe, we have to prepare the star of the dish: Drizzle vegetable oil over the beets, wrap them in foil, and bake for 1 hour at 375F. After one hour, pinch them with a knife and if it goes straight through they are cooked. Don’t forget to peel them and cut them, too.
The beets are marinated with a sweet dark cherry vinegar, olive oil, and salt to taste. If you don’t have cherry vinegar, there are other options you could use that are also sweet, such as fig vinegar, raspberry vinegar or even balsamic vinegar with a little bit of honey since that one is not sweet. You can play around with it and make it your own. Drizzle a little bit of olive oil and a little bit of the vinegar. Add salt to taste.
Make a salad bed with mixed greens, add the marinated beets, and top with goat cheese and walnuts to enjoy. If you like your salads drenched in dressing, drizzle more olive oil and vinegar on it.
I think you are going to love the combination of ingredients in this delicious salad. Enjoy!
- 2 small beets (I make one per person)
- 3 table spoons of dark cherry vinegar (or other sweet vinegar)
- 1 table spoon of olive oil
- Goat cheese (a few drums to top the salad)
- Walnuts
- Sal and pepper to taste
- Preheat your oven to 375F.
- Drizzle the beets with a little bit of vegetable oil and wrap them in foil.
- Bake for one hour or until the beets are soft.
- Cut them in half and slice them.
- Season with the 3 table spoons of dark cherry vinegar, table spoon of olive oil, salt and pepper to taste and toss around until all beets are well coated.
- Place them on top of a mixed green lettuce salad.
- Sprinkle a few walnuts and a little bit of goat cheese.
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I found this Martha Stewart recipe through google. It is now a keeper for my next wine party! It doesn’t take long to make, they are tasty, and the best part: It only takes four ingredients! Yay!
One of my favorite things to make in the kitchen are crostinis or little bites. Whenever I have guests over or take a wine tour with friends I like to come up with a new recipe that will pair well with the occasion.
Now that my husband and I have moved to the country, or more specific, Virginia’s Loudoun County wine country, we have enjoyed discovering all of the wineries that surround us. We just love visiting the unique locations, tasting the different wines, and pairing them with those fancy little chocolates that are SOOO delicious. Anyway…
The ingredients you need for these are:
1. Baguette
2. Cream cheese (or your favorite kind of cheese)
3. English cucumber (cut in diagonal slices)
4. One lime
I made very little changes to this recipe. It calls for feta cheese, but because I love cream cheese I decided to substitute it. You could do the same and use your favorite cheese. I am sure it will pair very well with the toasted baguette and the english cucumber.
The steps to make these are simple. First, preheat the oven to 450F, cut the baguette in diagonal slices, drizzle olive oil and toast in the oven for about 3 minutes. Toasting times can change depending on your oven. I suggest you check them every 3 minutes until they are crisp and lightly browned on the edges.
For the spread, make sure the cream cheese is at room temperature. If it’s not you can put it in the microwave for 10 seconds at a time until it softens. Add salt and pepper to taste. When the baguette slices are out of the oven and cool down a little bit, you can spread the cream cheese and top with several slices of cucumber, a little bit of olive oil, lime juice, salt and pepper. That is it — Enjoy!
You can find the original recipe and video here.
- 2 ounces of cream cheese at room temperature
- 1 baguette
- 1 english cucumber thinly sliced
- 1 lime
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Preheat your oven to 450F
- Cut the baguette in diagonal slices and drizzle olive oil
- Bake for 3 minutes or until the edges get golden brown and crisp
- Season your cream cheese with salt and pepper and spread over the slices of baguette.
- Top with cucumber slices
- Drizzle with a little bit of olive oil, season lemon juice, salt and pepper
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This recipe brings back memories from my hometown in Monterrey Mexico. This is the way my mom used to make corn soup. It is very easy and doesn’t take too much time to cook, plus it is a very good summer soup.
Just five ingredients for this recipe:
1/2 small onion
1 cup frozen or fresh corn
1 medium or big tomato
2 cups milk
1 cube of chicken bullion (substitute 1 cube of vegetable bullion for vegetarian option)
Optional: cubes of panela cheese. If you can’t find panela you can add queso fresco or monterey cheese. 
Place the corn, onion and tomato in a pan with a little bit of oil over medium heat. 
Cook until the tomato begins to soften.Add the milk and the chicken bullion until the bullion dissolves and the milk gets warm. Don’t let the milk boil. 
Place half of the soup in the blender and blend to give it more consistency. Then put it back with the rest of the soup.
And that is it! Serve when it’s warm. Top it with cheese if you prefer, and enjoy.
- ½ small onion
- 1 cup frozen or fresh corn
- 1 medium or big tomato
- 2 cups milk
- 1 cube of chicken bullion (substitute 1 cube of vegetable bullion for vegetarian option)
- Optional: cubes of panela cheese. If you can't find panela you can add queso fresco or monterey cheese.
- Heat a skillet over medium heat
- Add ½ teaspoon of vegetable oil
- Place the tomato, onion and corn in the skillet and cook until tomato begins to soften
- Add the 2 cups of milk and the chicken bullion
- When the milk warms and the bullion dissolves it is ready to serve
- Add cubes of panela cheese (you can substitute with queso fresco or monterey cheese)
I have been trying to stay away from refined sugars as much as I can, so, when I make smoothies I usually don’t add any sugar to them. If I am in the mood for something sweet I add one banana to my smoothies and use it as my sweetener. Lately, I have been using dates every time I need to sweeten something like homemade dressings, smoothies or desserts, and I love them so much!
This smoothie is 100% natural and good for you (in my opinion, it is at least better than dairy and refined sugars, but I’m no expert), especially if you can find a good quality coconut water. My favorite is Harmless Harvest’s coconut water. If you can’t find coconut water and are trying to stay away from dairy you can just use natural water instead and it is also good!
I hope you enjoy this recipe. It’s perfect and refreshing for breakfast or as snack. I love it in the middle of the afternoon when it’s so hot like it is lately in Northern Virginia. Enjoy!
- 2 frozen bananas
- 2 cups of coconut water
- 1 date
- Pinch of cinnamon
- Place all the ingredients in the blender and mix until smooth.
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I made this last week for me and my husband for dinner. Super easy and quick to make salad with a delicious marinated chicken. It was so good I couldn’t wait to share it with you.
For the marinade I only used five ingredients; maple syrup, garlic salt from trader joe´s (my favorite, I use it all the time), grated garlic, the juice of 1 lime, and ground ginger. I really wanted to use fresh grated ginger but it was too late when I realized I didn’t have any left so I went with the ground ginger. If you have fresh ginger definitely try that if you want.
Slice the chicken, add it to the marinade and turn to coat. Stir-fry with a little bit of oil. I suggest you use a non stick pan and cut the chicken in thin slices to cook it faster and to avoid burning the syrup.
I used a stainless steel pan and it needed a lot of oil to prevent the syrup from sticking to the bottom and burning. Next time I will definitely use non stick pan.
For the salad I used baby romaine lettuce, corn, yellow bel pepper, tomato and avocado. The sweetness of the yellow bel pepper was perfect for this dish. Use you favorite creamy ranch dressing to finish it and enjoy!
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 3 grated garlic cloves
- the juice of 1 lime
- ½ tea spoon ground ginger (or fresh ginger)
- Trader joe's garlic salt to taste (if you don't have this is simply sea salt, roasted garlic, onion and parsley)
- 2 Sliced chicken breast (1 per person)
- ½ table spoon canola oil
- Add all the ingredients in a bowl, mix well, add the chicken to coat.
- Preheat your pan over medium heat. Add the ½ table spoon of canola oil, add the chicken and cook.
The maple syrup burns easily and fast, make sure you slice your chicken in thin pieces to cook it faster and prevent it from burning.
You can also use this recipe to grill.
]]>I woke up this morning to a beautiful sunny day perfect for a refreshing drink like hibiscus water. Back in México my mother would make this almost every day, especially in the summer. It was either hibiscus water, lemonade or both.
Dried hibiscus
If you have never tried this, it is really easy to make. Making hibiscus water is like making any other kind of tea: You just have to add the dried flower to really warm water and your favorite sweetener. 
To make it, bring 6 cups of water to a boil, turn off the heat and add the hibiscus. Let it sit in the hot water for three minutes. The water gets a beautiful red color. Drain the water but don’t throw the flowers away because you can repeat this process to make more hibiscus water later, or you can actually eat it! (I will show you how next time). Anyway, once you have the warm hibiscus water it’s time to add any sweeteners you want. There is no measurements for sweeteners. Some people like it sweet, but others like it with no sugar at all, just like green tea or sweetened green tea. Sometimes I like to make a simple syrup on the side. That way, people can decide how sweet they like it. Enjoy with a lot of ice.
Hibiscus water
- 6 cups of water
- 1 cup dried hibiscus
- Simple syrup to taste. (to make simple syrup bring 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar to a boil until sugar dissolves).
- Bring 6 cups of water to a boil
- Turn off the heat and add the hibiscus. Let it sit in the hot water for three minutes
- Drain the water and add the simple syrup to taste
- Let it cool down and serve cold with a lot of ice
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Greetings readers!
It’s been way too long since I posted here. I apologize, and hope to get back on track with exciting posts more often. I have been gone for a good reason, however. My husband and I bought our first home together almost three months ago. It is a small 108 year old country cottage, just north of Leesburg Virginia. As you can imagine, an historic house like this needs a lot of work! We have been extremely busy doing everything from landscaping on the outside to painting and repairs on the inside. We still have a long way to go, but I am really excited to share our progress here on this blog as we go, in addition to delicious recipes, of course.
We are located right in the Virginia wine region surrounded by vineyards and really beautiful countryside near the Potomac River. We are so happy living here and are adjusting quite well to country life. I am really enjoying all of the local farms and fresh organic foods that you can find here.
So, here are some pictures!
This fast and easy recipe is perfect for parties or any time you have people over. You can make the filling ahead of time and just assemble the empanada before your guests arrive and put it into the oven.
Filled puff pastry is very common in Mexico. I usually make something like this whenever I would get together with my girlfriends. What I love about this kind of meal is that you can make any filling you like and put it in a puff pastry. They never fail me. I just love them so much!
If you love to bake and make your own pastry puff sheets, you are awesome! If not, you can get these sheets already made in the frozen section at your grocery store. The package usually comes with two sheets.
Start by preheating your oven according to your puff pastry package instructions.
To make the filling you just have to fry the onions, peppers (red and green), tomato, tuna and chipotle for extra flavor. I like to add the hard boiled eggs in slices after I have place all the filling in the pastry sheet so when you bite into the pastry you get big pieces of egg and not just egg crumbles. That would happen if you mix the hard boiled eggs with the filling.
The filling has to be cold before you place it on top of the pastry, or else it will get mushy.
When you place the top pastry sheet make sure you wet the edges of the bottom sheet with an egg wash and press all of the edges with a fork to seal them.
I also like to mark where I will be cutting the pastry. If you cut the pastry after its cooked, it can break. So I recommend you do this very gently with a knife.
Serve this pastry with a nice salad and you have a perfect, easy to make brunch or dinner.
- 2 sheets of puff pastry
- 2 cans of tuna in water
- 1 egg
- 2 Hard boiled eggs
- ½ tablespoon oil
- 1 onion chopped
- 1 red pepper chopped
- 1 green pepper chopped
- 1 roma tomato chopped
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 canned chipotles
- Prepare your puff pastry. If you bought an already made pastry puff, thaw it according to package.
- In a medium skillet over medium high heat add the oil, onion, peppers, and garlic.
- When the vegetables get soft add the tomato, the two cans of tuna and the chipotle. Saute for 3 minutes and set aside to cool down.
- Line a heavy large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Arrange one sheet of pastry on the baking sheet and top it with the filling.
- Cut the hard boil eggs in circles and add it on top of the filling.
- Crack the raw egg in a small container and whisk until combined to use it as sealer.
- Brush all the sides of the pastry with the egg.
- Put the second pastry sheet on top and seal with a fork.
- Brush the top of the pastry with the egg to give it that golden color.
- Bake according to package or until the pastry cooks and has a golden brown color. About 30 minutes.
If you are using a frozen puff pastry make sure you read the instructions.
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My mouth waters just thinking of this delicious and simple soup.
I had my beautiful friend Zandy over for a day and she ended up cooking this flavorful soup for both of us. Of course she gave me her yummy recipe. I have to say that before this one I had tried other ones but this has become my go-to butternut squash recipe.
- 1 lb of butternut squash cut in squares
- 1 big carrot roughly chopped
- 1 whole potato roughly chopped
- 1 whole onion roughly chopped
- 1 stick of celery roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoon of butter
- 3 cups of water
- 1 cube of chicken bouillon
- Salt and pepper
- Melt the butter in a cooking pot at medium heat.
- Add the butternut squash, carrot, potato, onion and celery to the pot and cook for 5 minutes or until vegetables soften a little bit.
- Add chicken bouillon and cook for 45 more minutes at medium heat.
- Blend the vegetables and serve.
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Delicious roasted chicken breast. Bone in skin on.
This chicken breast turned out absolutely delicious, with a lot of flavor on the meat. Moist inside, crispy outside.
No difficult science on this one, just season, sear and bake. That’s it.
This is a recipe you will want to keep and experiment with. Add spices you like with chicken and take off whatever you don’t like.
- Chicken breast with bone and skin
- 1 table spoon canola oil
- 1 teaspoon canola oil
- 2 tablespoons Butter
- Freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
- Sea salt (to taste)
- Dry parsley (to taste)
- Dry onion (to taste)
- Dry garlic (to taste)
- Preheat your oven to 400 Degrees.
- Add butter underneath the skin without completely tearing it apart (just make a small pocket).
- Rub the chicken very well with 1 tablespoon oil to get a nice crust on the skin.
- Season with salt, pepper, onion, garlic and dry parsley.
- Preheat a skillet to medium high.
- Pour 1 tea spoon canola oil.
- Place the chicken skin side down onto the skillet for about 5 minutes or until golden brown.
- Turn the chicken skin side up and if your skillet is oven proof place it in the oven. If your skillet is not oven proof just transfer the chicken to a baking dish and bake for 40 minutes or until the chicken is fully cooked.
- When done let the chicken sit for 5 to 10 minutes to absorb all the juices.
If you have a food thermometer, the internal temperature of the chicken should reach 165.
You can add carrots, onions and other kind of vegetables to the baking skillet or pan to have a side dish to go with your delicious chicken.
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