Sunday morning breakfast is what comes to mind when the word “Chilaquiles” passes my lips.  It is the breakfast that I have been enjoying since I could identify a date and time.  The old traditional Mexican dish has made me and my family come back time and time again and beg for more.  This simple dish is super easy to make and is not only enjoyed in the morning but really could be eaten at any time of the day…and it is!  What I love most about Chilaquiles is I usually have all the ingredients on hand and can whip them up whenever I get a hankering for the comfortable dish that tastes like enchiladas.  Some people make them with red chile, and some people prepare them with green chile, and if you serve both types on a plate side by side they are called “Chilaquiles Divorciados.”  I’ve had them smoothered in mole too. Wowsa…. my mouth just watered.  All sauces are a great compliment to the fried corn tortilla triangles that are pleading to be topped with cheese.  I tend to use a variety of cheeses on mine, but traditionally Queso fresco holds court on this recipe.

It’s a real head scratcher when I come across a person who says they don’t enjoy Avocados.  I just don’t understand.  I can’t comprehend it cuz I LOVE Avocados.  It’s a wonderful thing Avocados from Mexico are available year round because going through guacamole withdraws wouldn’t be good.  Avocados are a winter fruit and have their peak season from September to May.  Perfect timing.  I’m not alone on this you know, Chefs and gourmands praise the Mexican Hass Avocado.  I sometimes will walk into my kitchen and warm a flour tortilla, slice an avocado open and make myself a Avocado burrito with just a dash of salt….Mmmmm….

Recently I was digging around my bag of tricks in order to submit a recipe to this great contest called “Aguacate Lindo y Querido Recipe Contest” going on RIGHT NOW!  You can join too if you have an original Avocado recipe and get it in before May 25th, 2012.  Just click here to enter the contest.  The Grand Prize is a $500 dollars plus a trip to Houston for a private cooking lesson with Mexico’s spectacular celebrity Chef Aquiles Chavez.  Did that spark your interest?  Here’s what I made!

Ingredients for Avocado Cilantro Sauce:

2 – jalapenos

2- huerito chile

3 – tomatillos

1/2 – onion (fried)

3 – garlic cloves (fried)

3/4 – cup water

2 – teaspoons salt

1 – teaspoon black pepper

1 – teaspoon vinegar

1 – cup chopped cilantro

2 – Hass Avocados from Mexico

Fill a pot with water halfway and place over a medium high flame.  Bring to a boil.  Add jalapenos, hueritos, and tomatillos and allow to boil for 20 to 25 minutes or until chiles are soft.  Set to the side.

In a small frying pan over a medium flame add oil and allow to get hot.  Then add onion and garlic cloves.  Fry until golden brown.  Set to the side.

In a blender add all ingredients listed for sauce, and blend well.  It will be thick, spicy and most importantly Avocado delicious! Set to the side.

What you need for the chicken enchilada:

3/4 – cup vegetable oil

12 – corn tortillas

1 1/2 – cups shredded cooked chicken

1/2 – cup chopped onion

1 – cup queso quesadilla (grated)

Preheat oven to 325 fahrenheit

In a small frying pan over a medium low flame add vegetable oil and allow to get hot. Then add corn tortilla and fry for about 30 seconds on both sides.  Remove from oil and add a handful of chicken to the middle, along with a pinch of onion and a small handful of queso quesadilla.  Roll tightly and place in a baking dish.  Repeat until all tortillas are rolled and ready to be put into the oven.  Bake for 30 minutes.

Once they are done. Remove them from the oven and place on plate.  Then slowly pour avocado cilantro sauce over the top.  Garnish with queso fresco and cilantro.  Serve with rice and beans!

Disclosure: This is part of a sponsored campaign with Latina Mom Bloggers and Avocados From Mexico. However, all opinions expressed are my own.  

All photos taken by: Nicole Presley and Mando Lopez

That’s a picture of my Mom.  I have always been insanely attached to her.  She is the center of my world and if you know me, there is a good chance you know my mom too.  We are inseparable.  She is my best friend.  She is my confidant.  She is the strongest woman I know.  I respect her more then anyone or anything.  I just LOVE her.  I always want to make her happy or let her know how special she is to me.  This momma’s day we will celebrate with a sweet mango up-side down cake.  She loves mango, and up-side down cake. So why not combine the two?  This is for my Momma and maybe yours too…. Sweet Mango Up-Side Down Cake!

Enjoy!

All photos taken by: Nicole Presley

Ingredients for sweet mango up-side down cake:

1 – box yellow cake mix ( prepare according to package, replace water content with the same amount of a mango orange juice instead)

3 – mango’s (peeled and sliced)

1/4 – cup melted butter

1 – cup packed brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit:

Prepare cake mix according to box. Set to the side.

Peel mangos with a potato peeler, then slice into 1/2 inch spears.  Cut around the bone.  Set to the side.

Pour melted butter into a 9 x 13 metal cake pan. Then sprinkle brown sugar over butter. Next arrange mango slices.

Then pour the cake batter right over the top.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the  middle comes out clean. Then remove from oven let sit in pan for about a 5 minutes, then place a heat proof plate on top of the pan and flip it over and remove pan. Now you got sweet mango up-side down cake.

 Happy Mother’s Day!

My grandfather is a sandwich lover.  He always eats a sandwich on days where the temperature tips the thermometer anywhere over 83 degrees.  I have so many childhood memories of my grandfather’s crumbs left on an empty plate… evidence a  sandwich was there.  By nature I am my grandfather’s granddaughter and enjoy a sandwich every chance I get.

I am also a strawberry lemonade devotee.  I crave the type you can buy at the country fair or at some farmer’s markets.  Lucky for me I have a big lemon tree in my back yard and take full advantage of it on a warm day.  I make a big pitcher of strawberry lemonade and a mouthwatering sandwich to go with it, then for the rest of the afternoon I’ve got it made in the shade!

Ingredients for strawberry lemonade:

1 1/3 – cups sugar

2 – cups freshly squeezed lemon juice

16 – ounces fresh strawberries (stems removed)

10 – cups water

In a sauce pan over medium heat add sugar and 1 cup of water.  Stir till sugar dissolves completely…. making a simple syrup. Remove from heat and set to the side.

Then pour lemon juice in pitcher.  Set to the side.

In a bowl add strawberries and smash with a masher…. or muddle to break up.  Then add to the lemon juice pitcher.

Next pour in simple syrup, and 9 cups of water.

Mix well and you got STRAWBERRY LEMONADE! Chill overnight in the fridge or serve on the rocks!

All photos by: Mando Lopez and Nicole Presley

With Camp Blogaway just around the corner, my anticipation grows with excitement. Camp Blogaway is one of the most exclusive conferences a food blogger can attend. Only 100 lucky attendees will join the group for a weekend up in the San Bernardino Mountains for 3 days of learning how to take our blogs to the next level.  Friendships will be made and some will be solidified in stone around the campfire. The curator behind this special event is Patti Londre and she will best explain what it all entails. This is my interview with the lovely Patti….

Me: Why did you start Camp Blogaway?

Patti:  FIRST, let me tell “how” I started it…  since 2005, I have owned another camp business called Camp GetAway for Mothers & Others, putting on retreats up in the local mountains.  This was a fun side business for me, as I also had a food PR agency, working for some of the nation’s largest food brands.  In April 2009, I decided to launch my own blog, called  Worth The Whisk. And around September of that year is when it struck me… food bloggers would LOVE a full weekend learning how to better our craft.  I know, I know, there are other “blogger conferences,” but my idea was CAMP.  Totally different – peaceful, serene, a place to slow down and think.  Cabins, roaring fireplace, big lodge.  I knew how to run a camp, so the business model just clicked.  Priced right, lodging included, just get yourself here.

The answer to WHY I started it is, I felt there was a real need for this specific type of learning atmosphere, and from my PR experience, consciously connecting brands with bloggers would make big things happen for our attendees.  Other conferences, that isn’t the focus.  It is here.

Me:  Since Camp Blogaway sold out so quickly this year, are you looking to expand capacity in the year to come?

Patti:  Nope, not my vision.  There are enough conferences out there to choose from, this one sold out is because people like it the way that it is… around 100 people, mountain venue, great speaker lineup, awesome sponsors, excellent value.  If they missed out  this year, they will plan earlier next year.

Thank you COOL WHIP for sponsoring this post. Join us on Facebook for inspiration and recipes for everyday treats. What you add makes it. #coolwhipmoms

Some folks go to culinary school, some folks have a momma, dad or grandma who was a master in the kitchen, or some folks were just born with it…. where you pick up your baking chops depends on the individual and their journey into the kitchen oven.  For me, I think the baking gene was instilled deep in my DNA.  It was just a question of time when I would discover it.

It was summer of 1992, my aunt had just moved into a cute condo in Los Feliz, CA and I took it upon myself to make her kitchen my second home and really practice my baking.  At the time I didn’t have much experience to fall back on other than a few tips from my 10th grade home economics class and knew I had to take baby steps into honing my skills.  This was going to take lots of trail and error. There was no cooking shows of any kind at that time to refer to other than the occasional Julia Childs re-run on PBS…. basically I was on my own.

I was dreaming of chocolate cake with bananas and a light icing, like the cakes from the Asian bakeries that I had tasted so many times growing up.  I wanted it to be fluffy and full of flavor but not overpowering.  I grabbed a box of Devil’s Food cake mix and followed the instructions on the back of the box then I sliced up three ripe bananas placed them in the middle of my freshly baked cakes and topped the whole thing with COOL WHIP.  Voilá!  My first attempt at baking came to life and it was beyond delicious. I must have baked that same exact cake 100 times that year.  Everybody I knew got some and loved it.  Soon it was being requested for every occasion and for no reason at all.  This was the cake that allowed me to take my baking training wheels off and ride free into the world of cake making.  I love this cake, it’s so simple and yet unforgettable.  Fast forward 20 years, my son Max is a big fan as well.  No matter how much I’ve grown in the baking arena, I will always revert back to where I started, by baking this special treat…. Chocolate Banana COOL WHIP Cake…. this is where my roots are at.

All photos taken by: Nicole Presley

Ingredients for Chocolate Banana COOL WHIP Cake:

1 – box of devil’s food chocolate cake mix (bake 2- round 8″ inch cakes according to package)

3 – ripe bananas

2 – 8 oz. containers COOL WHIP

Take one round cake and place on a cake stand. Then take half of one COOL WHIP container and spread it on cake.

Then slice the bananas and place on top of frosted cake. It’s okay to pile some on top of each other.

Now place your second cake on top of banana layer.

Now for the COOL WHIP…. Take the other half of the first container of COOL WHIP and frost the sides.

Then take the other container and frost the entire cake! Sprinkle with little candy sprinkles on top and make this everyday dessert part of your family happiness.

My boy is thinking “Is this your piece, because the rest of the cake is mine!” #FMcoolwhipmoms

Disclosure: Sponsored posts are purely editorial content that we are pleased to have presented by a participating sponsor. Advertisers do not produce the content. I was compensated for this post as a member of Clever Girls Collective, but the content is all my own.

Seeing how April is national Grilled Cheese month, I couldn’t let another day slip by without saluting one of my favorite things in the whole world…. the Grilled Cheese Sandwich.  I usually whip up a grilled cheese sandwich when I want something super fast to eat that will whole heartedly satisfy my soul.  This recipe here happens to be the one my man most enjoys. Heck, who am I kidding, I love it too!

All photos taken by: Nicole Presley

Ingredients for grilled cheese:

French bread loaf

butter (room temperature)

fig jam

manchego cheese

prosciutto

It’s very simple.  Start with two slices of french bread. Spread a 1/2 teaspoon of butter on one side of each slice of bread.  Then on the opposite side spread with fig jam.

Next take a few thin slices of manchego and place atop fig jam side.  I use a cheese slicer to attain the perfect thin-ness.

Now add a slice or two of prosciutto to the manchego and bring the two slice of bread together to make your sandwich.  Butter sides should be on the outside.

In a non-stick pan over a medium high flame add sandwich and allow to crisp on each side for 4 to 5 minutes or until perfectly golden brown!

 HAppy GrillEd ChEEsY MoNth!