First, don’t go there thinking “Four Seasons”. I mean, it’s not like you have to make a reservation, you can dress down but remember it’s Princeton, so don’t show up looking like…you get my drift!

When you get there, you must enter through the back door. I’m not trying to pull a prank on you here, I’m serious! Nobody uses the front door at Conte’s… EVER.

Once you are there, you must make a line, so Elena or any other of the great staff people take your order. That’s the beauty of a system that works, right there. Now, when you order pizza at this place, think of normal pizza ingredients…don’t go all pineapple, ham and/or basil!

The thin crust will blow you away! It is delicious. My favorite is plain extra cheese, but I sometimes have mushrooms, onions and a touch of garlic.

Drinks from the bar are outstanding. Glasses of wine get filled to the rim!

I hope you try it soon!

Cheers Elena and thanks for your support, we miss you guys! Say hi to Gerry!!!

After Church will be coming back home for a great bash.
I have to figure out a menu, centerpiece, outfits for the family!

Well, if you know something that might help, throw in suggestions, they will be certainly appreciated!

Thanks,

Mabeca

We will begin by preheeating the oven to 350F.

Let’s round-up the cast of characters, in this picture: 5 chayotes,  6 strips of diced bacon, one can of diced tomatoes, one and a half cups of mozzarella cheese, italian bread crumbs (not pictured), one half of a small onion diced, one clove of garlic finely diced, salt, pepper.

This makes 5 servings when treated as an entrée, or 10 servings if you’re using it as a side dish.

First get the chayotes in the pressure cooker and cover them with water. Close the lid properly and the valve. Today I’m using my old cooker, since my seven-year old broke the gasket for my ten-quarts one. (You know, life is not easy, not even for me…). Start it over a high flame and once the pressure indicator sticks out, reduce the flame to medium. At this point,  set your timer to 20 minutes.

In the mean time, get your diced bacon, yes, you heard right, this recipe calls for bacon! Yahoo!

Well get it on a pan without oil over medium-high.  We will begin to render it. This is a cooking term that means we will let it fry in its own fat.

This below is rendering at its best. You have to stay put though, you don’t want it to burn and once the fat gets hot and going, nothing stops it. Beware!

Now faint from the smell in your kitchen….Ahh!

This bacon’s packet had a funny line written on it, it said: “Welcome back to bacon”. Isn’t that something, well to me at least, since I never left baconland!

Now scoop out the bacon with a slotted spoon, we’ll try to get rid of the excess fat by placing it over a paper towel.  Take almost all the fat from the pan and place it in a Pyrex container that you can later cover with an airtight lid. To save this fat will be one of your best investments, believe me. You can later use it to pan-sear fish, to cook eggs in it, your imagination is the limit!

In the pan over medium-high go the onions and garlic, let them there stirring constantly until they get pearly white, not brown…(I’m watching you!)

Get your pressure cooker once your timer’s alarm goes off, under a stream of cold water. Open it and find my favorite vegetable!

Now cut each one in half, after the line at the bottom of  the chayotes, not against it.

Now we are ready to scoop out the inside of the chayote, the meaty part. Do this carefully, trying not to tear the skin as you go, they should be very soft. If you have a grapefruit spoon you can use it at this point. Carefully!

That looks so pretty!

Now get all the meat from the chayotes in the pan with the onions and garlic. Smells, so good!

Add the can of diced tomatoes, two bay leaves, salt and pepper, stir until it’s completely mixed.

In goes the bacon, you can sing “Ode to Joy” while you add it!

After mixing everything down completely. Get the chayotes in a baking sheet and let’s start stuffing them up!

Now, let’s cheese them up. You like where this is going, don’t you…

Finally dust them with bread crumbs and get them in the oven for 25 minutes.

There is a reason the breadcrumbs didn’t make it into the cast of characters picture and it’s a good one too: You see, when I started to cook I asked my husband to go get some for me. He said, he would do it right away. Which in husband’s language means, about one hour, so I had to take that picture without them. Remember I’m a desperate housewife!

When they come out of the oven…Your heart will stop for a second! They look so pretty!! Look at the cheese and the crusty top the breadcrumbs give!

As always, here is your bite. Leave me a comment to know if they were as good for you as they were for me.

Thanks for stopping by,

Mabeca

Picture of me at the beach 2 years ago having dinner. Note how I have the hot sauce right in front of me!

This stats are real and I thank you all for having my blog in your favorites list. For coming back in search of great and easy recipes that can make anyone look like a pro! I also appreciate your comments, I love to know if you like the recipes and how they turned out for you.

Today I went to one of my favorite places in the world: The Sams Club, I know, you may be thinking, maybe she is nuts after all. But, like a friend of mine always says: I get exited about the little things in life!

Well back to the Sams, I just love their meat department. The bakery is great too, they make amazing rolls, croissants, etc. The free samples are other reason to love this place. I have to admit that my four-year old and I, have been spotted many times starting the line for the taquitos. They also have many good deals. I discovered the milk  is one dollar cheaper than in the grocery store. Eggs are also a bargain and I need those kinds of low price incentives, remember I have a family of five! My ten-year old eats like there is no tomorrow. What will I do when he becomes a teenager? (I just fainted at the idea, hormones, mood swings, etc.) I am officially a buy-in-bulk gal.

Sometimes I think that today it’s the Sams, but eventually I’ll have to start thinking of getting a farm… but wait… Did I mention me and the outdoors are no match? One friend of mine once said that I wouldn’t last 20 minutes camping and I believe him. I’m definitely no camping material.

I also found good produce while shopping today, I found a squash we eat all the time in Mexico called Chayote Squash. Turns out that when you stuff them they come out glorious! And you know me I am all about stuffing things. It might be a middle child thing. As a matter of fact, that will be my next recipe for the blog.

Anyway, I’ll catch with you later!

Best,

Mabeca

My Chiles Rellenos are full of flavor. Everyone in the family loves them, even my four-year old. He says it’s funny how such a big pepper is  so mild and delicious! And believe me when I tell you, he puts the cherry on top of picky eaters! So if you are ready for faint-right-away flavors… let’s begin.

Let me introduce the players.

But first, preheat the oven to 350F.

You will need 8 poblano peppers, 1 large can of whole tomatoes, 2 fresh tomatoes, 1 cup of mozzarella and Monterey jack cheeses shredded, one half of a small white onion, two peeled garlic cloves,  two bay leaves, olive oil, kosher salt and pepper.

The first thing you need to know about poblano peppers is that their skin is not edible. You need to roast them and peel them to use them.

I will begin by arranging them on top of my high heat griddle.

In the mean time get your fresh and canned tomatoes (liquid included) in the blender with the onion and garlic.

Keep an eye on those peppers, you need to flip them when they look like this.

Meanwhile get your dutch oven over medium heat and add a little bit of olive oil, like a Tablespoon will work. I don’t measure stuff usually, so go with your gut on this one. I trust you!

Once the sauce is blended through, get it in the dutch oven with some salt, pepper and two bay leaves. It’s important you know the amount of bay leaves you add to a dish. That way you’ll be able to retrieve them from it before serving. Have I mentioned they are not edible?

Let the sauce simmer with the lid on for 5 minutes.

When your peppers are a little charred on the outside, like mine below. It is time to get a shopping bag.

Get all the peppers in the shopping bag. and close tightly. You are know a pepper serial killer! It sounds funny but it is in fact a proved method.

In order to increase the sauna effect on the peppers, now cover the bag with a kitchen towel. We will let them be for 10 minutes.  While this is happening check the sauce for seasoning.

Get a vegetable colander in your sink and one by one peel the peppers.

All the sauce now goes in a baking sheet. Pick a big one, you need all your peppers to lay flat over the sauce. At this point remove the bay leaves.

After all the peppers are peeled, cut a small line on each one of them, remove the seeds and excess of veins, it’s easier to do under a stream of water. Be careful not to rip the skin of the peppers too much, or it will be impossible to stuff them and then close them.

Now, begin stuffing them with the mix of the two cheeses.

Do not try to over stuff them.  Once stuffed, close them with toothpicks and lay flat on the baking sheet. Doesn’t he look cute?

Now this is how the look before going in the oven for 20 minutes covered with some foil. The shiny part of the foil goes facing the chilies by the way. That will make sure all the heat is trapped in your baking dish.

When they come out of the oven. Oh my! I like to get a little more cheese on top of it, take the toothpick out and get my plate in the oven for one more minute. This way, you end up with a cheese extravaganza! Like this!

This is the moment of truth. Quite easy right? Here is your bite!

Let me know how yours turned out!

Love,

Mabeca

The kids had a blast, as good gourmet they had a great time ordering snow crab legs and the catch of the day. Sometimes I wish they were normal! I mean Mac  & Cheese kind of dudes. I guess that’s not going to happen, as they’ve been well taught. (My young Padawans! I love how I just implied that I’m a Master Jedi! Ha!)

They all told our waitress when I wasn’t looking that today was my special day, they even stressed the point that I don’t care for chocolate…now it’s out there. If you need to know something about me, is that I hate chocolate; I don’t like it at all.

They celebrated me with an apple crumble and vanilla ice cream (now with that, you could kill me!)

I love my little pack of rugrats, they are so thoughtful, you should have seen the little guys struggling to talk to the waitress without me noticing.

Anyway, I hope you’re enjoying my recipes, as they come from the heart!

Enjoy your day and your food!

Mabeca

Well, I am not really an outdoors person, coming from a big city and being dreadfully afraid of many bugs mother nature presents in front of me… also I am allergic to bugs that sting, I had that revelation last year after being attacked by a yellow jacket. It made my leg swell to the size of my torso! PAINFUL!

We do go to the beach during summer and we have a pool in the neighborhood. The kids love it when I bring this Pasta salad over and they get to eat outdoors.

The recipe…You need the following ingredients: 1 pound of cooked macaroni, 3 hard-boiled eggs (peeled and chopped, no yolks), 6 heaping tablespoons of Mayonnaise, one Tablespoon of good Dijon Mustard, some Worcestershire sauce, salt pepper and the following vegetables, all finely chopped: 1 carrot, 1/4 white onion, 2 green bell peppers, 1 stalk of celery and 2 Serrano or jalapeño peppers (because you can take it!).

In a big bowl combine the macaroni with half the mayo and the mustard.

Now get some veggies into the action, into the groove, into the fun. Well, you get the idea… first to go in are: Celery, chillies and carrot.

After you mixed well add the green bell peppers and onions. How easy is this recipe?!

Now, add 4 or 5 shakes of Worcestershire sauce (I can spell this word after practicing many times in the blog, can you?) I always go for the more shakes, you know…I’m bold and crave bold flavors!

Get the eggs, some salt and pepper. The eggs are what makes this salad stand out from the rest, wait and see.

Now add the rest of the Mayo, I hope you are using real mayo and not the fake one for this recipe… I’m watching you, you know?!

Combine all the ingredients by gently folding them in, top with some dried out parsley. It gives it more color and a springy note at the end.

Well, you did great! Here is your plate. This salad can be treated as a side dish, for me it was lunch today. The eggs help it become a great vegetarian dish by itself. If you are like me, a meat lover, you can use it as a side to a great BLT sandwich, only I didn’t have one on hand!

And here is your bite. Open up!

I hope you enjoyed it, let me know if you liked it as much as I do!

Love,

Mabeca

I’ll  start lining up the ingredients:

2 avocados, Mabeca’s Tuna salad, 3 big leaves of Romaine  lettuce, 2 cups of spinach, extra virgin olive oil, 1 lime, salt and pepper.

I will begin by chopping the lettuce. First roll it up and then run your knife through.

Now gather the spinach and lettuce together in a bowl, add some extra virgin olive oil (see this is a healthy recipe!)

Add some salt and pepper to taste.

Now let’s begin massaging a lime. If you massage it, it will give you more juice. It just likes being pampered!

I need a good hand lotion desperately, if you know of a good one, let me know.

Now cut the lime in half and juice one half over the greens.

I need you to toss gently. Think slow motion, we don’t want to wilt the greens.

Go get a beautiful platter to showcase your art! Mine is this green square baking dish. Lay the salad, this will be the bed where avocados will rest.

Now cut the avocados in half and then twist to open.

Holding a kitchen cloth in your hand, hold one half of the avocado. Insert the knife in the pit and twist. Remove and toss.

Isn’t that great?! Now very carefully peel each half, try not to make dents as you go but if you do, don’t worry too much. We are not going to grade you after all!

Now plate them over the green salad and splash each avocado half with the other half lime, this will prevent the avocados from going brown on you. (don’t die on me avocados, please don’t!)

Get your Mabeca’s tuna Salad and suff each half with it.

Now get one plate for you…yes, the time has come and you are the winner!

I like to add a little dried parsley on top to complement the limey taste and for presentation of course!

Now take a fork and get ready…

And just when you thought I forgot…here is your bite!

Oops, where did that go?!

Make it tonight and your family will acknowledge you as a true hero!

Let me know if you liked it!

Mabeca

I  make it on Thursday nights or early on a Friday morning and send the kids Tuna Salad Sandwiches for lunch. They love it. One day, my son that goes to the second grade, came back from school reporting that three of his friends, requested a sandwich for next week. (Who would have thought, now I cater to the second grade!)

Ok, I can talk forever but let’s get down to business.

The cast of characters below:

You will need three heaping tablespoons of real mayonnaise (if you must use a low-calorie go with a light Mayo, but never try to make anything in this site with a non fat Mayo!…ever!)

Get two big cans of Solid White Albacore in water, 3 tablespoons of finely chopped white onion, 1 celery stalk (I know the picture shows 2, just making sure you are paying attention…I keep you on your toes, don’t I?)

Gather two Serrano or jalapeño peppers, one teaspoon of good Dijon Mustard, the deli type works fine, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, pepper and salt.

Finely chop the peppers.

Chop the Celery too and get all your chopped veggies together.

Oh my, what a beautiful picture!

Now drain the tuna and get it in a bowl.

Invite the veggies to the party.

Don’t panic if it looks like you have more veggies than Tuna, it’s not so! Anyway, you will get some veggies from eating this dish, so that always takes the guilt out for me.

Add the Mayo, mustard, pepper, a tiny dash of salt, a shake or two of soy sauce…

A shake or two, or tree in my case of Worcestershire sauce. I love it!

Fold everything in, try not to break the meat apart too much.

Serve in a plate with crackers and have yourself a snack, a great snack, you worked hard!

I added some dry parsley on the top, doesn’t it look delish?!

Now take a bite…open up big!

Enjoy in Sandwich, with crackers with a  glass of chardonnay, over a green leaf salad…sky is the limit!

Let me know how you did!

Love,

Mabeca

This is by far, the favorite Saturday breakfast of my family. My twist to this Mexican classic, wakes up the grumpiest person in your family with a smile. In my case I dare say, I am the grumpiest (I can’t believe I said that! Don’t tell my Hubby). One Mother’s day, my family woke me up with a beautiful wrapped present. I wasn’t expecting a present that morning and I certainly, was not expecting a Grumpy (dwarf from Snow White) giant coffee mug! (My family doesn’t know anything about being subtle, I guess?!) I just don’t like to be waken up. It’s not a matter of what time it is, it’s a matter of someone waking me up. I don’t like it! Unless I can smell this Huevos of course…

Back to the recipe…

You’ll need 8 eggs, 1/3 a cup of milk, half of one white onion chopped, 2 cans of petite diced tomatoes (drain them well), 2 Serrano or jalapeño peppers (we had this conversation), a bunch of cilantro chopped and divided, one garlic clove.

Support actors: Crema Mexicana, Flour tortillas, 2 slices of swiss cheese.

Oops! I almost forgot, get 1 cup of Shredded Mozzarella cheese too (let’s make him the Villain!

Break the eggs into a bowl and whisk in the milk, salt, pepper and half the chopped cilantro.

Now heat up a big skillet over Medium-High. Coat with Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Add the chopped half white onion, the 2 chopped Serrano peppers and the one clove of garlic, stir constantly until they get happy! Make the onions go clear white, that’s your goal here.

Now open the two cans of pettite diced tomatoes and drain all the liquid. If you want to use fresh tomatoes, be my guest, just dice them up and go with two. I found that canned tomatoes bring a great color and texture to the dish as well as some unexpected brightness! Aha!

Stir and let the liquid reduce until it looks like this…(below)

Add the egg mixture and reduce the heat to Medium-Low

It will start bubbling…

That’s when you go in. Fold in gently until the eggs are set. Sing a song while you do this and expect compliments,  you might get them for your singing, or chances are your house already smells divine!

Now add the Mexican Cream, if you couldn’t find any use sour cream. I urge you to try your best to find the Mexican one, only because it’s the real deal, you see…Mexican Cream is not really sour. Mexicans don’t really eat sour cream. There! The secret is out!

Now reduce the fire to the lowest and add the cheese, topped by the other chopped Cilantro you had set aside.

Now find a lid that will cover the skillet. I use the one from my big Dutch Oven.

Cover for five minutes.

Meanwhile warm up your tortillas.

Turn off the heat under the skillet, open the lid and get tears of happiness…

Once you realize this is real life and not a dream,  serve yourself a plate with a folded warm tortilla on the side. Don’t call your family yet!

Take the first bite and realize you are in Heaven! Mmm…

And the Oscar goes to… Mabeca’s Huevos a la Mexicana. Guaranteed!

Now go ahead and call your family.

Make them this Saturday!

Happy Breakfast,

Mabeca