Christmas is long gone but Dia De Los Reyes is just around the corner. Typically children in Latin America and Spain celebrate the Three Kings on January 6th, which marks the 12 days of Christmas. It is believed that three kings came on the 12th day by guidance of the north star and found baby Jesus along with his parents in Bethleham.  The kings bestowed gifts on the new born king, and during the celebration of three kings day on Jan. 6th gifts are exchanged and it is a serious celebration had by all. People also either make or buy a rosca de reyes (Three Kings bread), and it has little toy babies baked inside it (usually between 1 – 3 babies per rosca, depending on who is making it). Enjoying the rosca becomes a big event where a group of people gather to eat it, and if your slice has a toy baby in it, then you are appointed to provide a tamale dinner for the people at the rosca gathering on Feb. 2nd for Dia De La Candelaria. It sounds complicated, but it’s sort of like a game… The rules: if you find a baby in your bread you make a tamale dinner on Feb. 2nd for the group of people at the gathering.

Get all your supplies to make your own Rosca De Reyes at Walmart….  and if you think you’ll get the toy baby, stock up on your tamale supplies there too.

Ingredients for Rosca De Reyes:

• 1/2 – cup water
• 4 – anise stars
• 1 – packet yeast (about 2 1/4 teaspoons)
• 1/4 – cup milk
• 1/3 – cup sugar
• 4 – tablespoons butter
• 1 – tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3 – eggs
• 3 3/4 – cups flour
• 1/2 – cup dried cherries or craisins

Egg Wash:

• 1 – egg
• 1 – tablespoon water

Pasta Topping:

• 2/3 – cup sugar
• 1 – stick butter (1/2 cup)
• 1 – cup flour

Optional:

• dried fruit or paste
• toy babies

Directions:

1. In a small sauce pan over a medium flame add in water and anise stars. Bring to a boil and allow to boil for 5 minutes. Remove from flame and cool for 20 minutes. Remove anise stars and pour water into a bowl, it should measure out to 1/3 cup.
2. Pour yeast into the warm anise water bowl and set to the side for a minimum of 5 minutes. the yeast will start to foam.
3. In a small sauce pan over a medium-low flame add in milk, sugar, butter, and vanilla. Stir to combine and melt. 
4. As soon as the ingredients come together allow to cool for about 5 minutes then add in the yeast/anise water. Mix well. Set to the side.
5. In a separate bowl beat the eggs.
6. Fill a large bowl with flour and cherries, then pour in the sugar/milk/yeast mixture and the eggs. Mix with your hands till the dough comes together.  
7. Then on a lightly floured surface knead bread, and make into a round loaf. 
8. Place the loaf in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let it rest in a warm place for a minimum of on hour or overnight or until loaf doubles in size. 
9. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.
10. On a lightly floured surface roll the dough out with your hands into a long snake. 
11. Make a little slit on top of the bread and insert baby. 
12. Then form the dough into an oval shaped ring binding the ends together. 
13. Make the egg wash: In a small bowl whisk egg and water together. Then brush the top of the ring with the egg wash. 
14. Make the pasta: In a mixer beat sugar and butter until fluffy and light, then add in flour. Mix till combined. It will feel like thick paste, and be slightly crumbly. Gather the mixture and place on a surface and roll out with a rolling pin. Traditionally people cut pasta into thick strips, I decided to cut mine into stars to represent the stars the three kings followed. 🙂 
15. Place rosca on a baking mat on top of a cookie sheet, then pasta shapes and dried fruits onto rosca/ring and bake for 25 minutes. 
16. Cut and enjoy with hot chocolate. 

Disclosure: This is part of a sponsored campaign with the California Milk Processor Board and Latina Mom Bloggers. However, all opinions expressed and recipe is are 100% my own.

Let me tell you about my Nina… she is a hot little spit fire packaged in a petite frame and has long luscious locks that drape her face. She has green piercing eyes and a voice that can carry through the French alps if it needed to. In other words she is loud and feisty and good looking. This firecracker was always kind to me growing up and bossy at the same time. As you can imagine she gave direction well, and didn’t take anyone’s crap. My Nina has always been surrounded by a gang of yappy little mean chihuahuas who were meaner than the Grinch. If people came to visit her they  would nip at the ankles of the guests and tug at their pant hemlines. I use to find this amusing since that was the opposite treatment they gave me. They would jump on their hind legs with their tongues sticking out and their tails wagging. The baby puppies loved me. I think it might have been because I always shared my food with them. Let me add this tidbit, my Nina is an excellent cook, and makes very traditional foods. One day many moons ago she was instructing me in a louder than usual volume to try this arroz con leche she had made. I dug my spoon in and savored the sweetness in my mouth. She watched with knowing eyes that her’s was the best. Then that little kitchen filled up with her loud bullhorn voice and she said ” You like it ha Mija? It’s probably one of the best you’ve ever had. Right?” I felt like Dorothy  when she first encounters the wizard of oz…. no room to agree or disagree. I nodded my head. That was that… I never asked what was in her arroz con leche, but I surely wanted to know.

In my quest to eat the most magical arroz con leche… I decided to mix in chocolate and dried cherries. I still wanted it to be super yummy and didn’t know if that would do the trick so I made it tres leches, and low and behold I figured out exactly what my Nina had made that day.

Here are more creamy delicious milk recipes for your viewing pleasure! Or download a MILK coupon here.

Ingredients for Chocolate Cherry Arroz Con Tres Leches:

• 3 – cups water
• 2 – cinnamon sticks
• 1 – tablespoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 – cups long grain rice
• 1 – cup dried cherries
• 1 – cup milk
• 1 – can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 – can media crema
• 3 – Mexican chocolate disks

Directions:

1. In a pot over a medium high flame add in water, cinnamon sticks, and vanilla. Bring to a boil. 
2. Add in rice and dried cherries. Mix to combine, then bring to a boil. 
3. Once boiling lower flame to a simmer and cover with a lid.
4. Allow rice to simmer for 20 minutes.
5. Once rice is cooked, remove from flame and discard cinnamon sticks. Allow rice to rest for a few minutes. 
6. While rice is resting. In a separate pot over a medium low flame mix together media crema and Mexican chocolate disks. Mix until fully dissolved and a chocolate sauce is formed. Set the the side. 
7. In a large bowl add in cooked rice and cherries, milk, sweetened condensed milk, and chocolate sauce.
8. Mix to combine and serve either warm or cold.
9. Enjoy!

Here’s a little video showing you how:

Buñuelos de viento =  light as air fritters that are melt in a crunchy type of way delicious. These Mexican fritters are made with a rosette and so easy to make. I know for many people buñuelos are made by rolling out dough or frying a flour tortilla, and I do celebrate that type as well. This year I wanted to make a fancy version for my posada , so I decided to give the rosette a try. In essence a buñuelo is a fritter, it could be shaped in a ball, or flat as a disk, but if it’s deep fried and powdered with cinnamon/sugar then it’s a buñuelo.

Buñuelos are certainly enjoyed throughout Christmas time and served with a hot glass of champurrado. I feel like I’m over explaining this delicate crisp friend of mine, when all I really need to say is …. if you’ve never had a buñuelo…. now is the time. Enjoy them this posada season and never look back.

Watch the short video at the very bottom of this post to see exactly how to make these treats.

Ingredients for buñuelos de viento:

• 2 – eggs
• 1 – tablespoon vanilla
• 2 – tablespoons sugar
• 1 – cup milk
• 1 – cup flour
• 1/4 – teaspoon salt
• vegetable oil for frying
• rosette set
• cinnamon sugar mixture

Directions:

1. In a bowl whisk together the eggs and vanilla. 
2. Add in the sugar and whisk well.
3. Add in the milk and whisk to combine completely. 
4. In a separate bowl mix flour and salt together then sift into the egg/milk mixture. Whisk to combine. It should have the consistency of a thick cream.  
5. Set batter to the side for 10 minutes.
6. In a small frying pan fill with 2 inches deep of frying oil. Place pan over a medium flame and allow to get hot.
7. Place rosette on the timbale and place to locked position. Then dip the rosette into the hot oil allowing it to get hot. 
8. Remove it from the oil and blot off excess oil.
9. Then dip the rosette into the batter, but make sure to leave the top of the rosette exposed. Do not submerge it all the way. 
10. Then dip the rosette back into the hot oil. Fry the batter for about 20 seconds then the rosette will easily slip off. Once the rosette slips off, place it to the side and use thongs to flip the buñuelo over and cook it on the inside.
11. Let fry until golden crisp.
12. Drain each buñuelo on a paper towel lined plate.
13. Then dip the buñuelos into the cinnamon sugar mixture and serve. 
14. Enjoy!

Do you ever make things in advance to try them out? You know, like try a recipe a few weeks in advance before a party. I’m a little crazy like that. Well I don’t know if you can call it crazy…. I like to think of it as uber prepared. That happened this past weekend. It had been a year since the last time I made ponche, I make it annually but like to change little things here and there each year.  I think the truth of the matter is I was looking for a reason to make ponche, and Walmart tempted  me further by having everything I needed to make it right there in the store. As I walked down the isles I filled my cart up with apples, prunes, raisins, sugar cane, and tamarindo. I told myself as I pushed the cart that I was gonna have my Christmas party / posada in a few weeks and I had to give my ponche recipe a spin. That was enough to convince me, as everyone knows you can not have a posada without a good pot of ponche. Next thing I knew I was home peeling my tamarindo pods and coring my apples. A few hours later my house smelled of Christmas…. the weather was cold outside and my hands warm wrapped around my gorgeous ponche.

Ingredients for ponche:

• 2 – gallons water
• 15 – tamarindo pods (peeled and devein)
• 18 – dried hibicus flowers
• 4 – cinnamon sticks
• 20 – tejocote
• 5 – apples (cut in half and cored)
• 15 – guavas
• 1/2 – cup raisins
• 20 – prunes (pitted)
• 3 – piloncillo cones

Directions:

1. Peel and devein tamarindo. 
2. Cut apples in half and core.
3. Place all ingredients in a large pot over a high flame and bring to a boil. 
4. When the mixture starts to boil,  lower flame to low/simmer and cover with a lid.
5. Cook for 3 hours. 
6. Remove from flame and serve hot. 
7. Enjoy!

Here is a little snippet of how to devein a tamarindo pod.

Sometimes, just sometimes life hands over a project that is usually hard and makes it so simple you have to do it.  Allow me to start by saying I have been making gingerbread house every year since me and my fiance got together. Initially (over 11 years ago) I had started by doing the whole thing from scratch, but for some reason one of the walls wouldn’t fit perfectly or it would crack. Then a few years later I found a kit where all the pieces came in the box, and you could assemble the house when you got home with a little help from some royal icing. This year I was strolling around Walmart buying some supplies for some posts among other things, and saw a mountain of gingerbread houses for sale. These were no ordinary gingerbread houses….. these were pre-assembled for you. I quickly threw an arm full of boxes in the cart and said to my fiance…. we have to make a few  gingerbread houses now. Then I tilted my head to the candy isle to go find some supplies to further decorate my house. YES, the box comes with candy and royal icing in it, but I wanted to get a little more fancy with it. Can I just say WALMART has the BEST candy isle EVER! I love all the holiday candy they carry. Among the chocolates and chewy fruit candies I found a cute peppermint candy tree (It was only $1.50, I don’t know why I didn’t buy more) … I knew it was going to look fabulous in front of my gingerbread house.

Tips for making a gingerbread house:

• Construct on a plate or dish that the house will live on. That way you can move it around during the holidays to fit your needs.
• I like to use cereal (frosted mini wheats) as the roof.
• Break to candy canes together to form a heart, then place them on a piece of wax paper and bake for 3 minutes at 350 degrees fahrenheit. Then peel the hearts off and use them as you wish. I used mine as a huge window this year.
• If you make several you can give them away as centerpieces for the holidays. Or take it with you to a holiday party as a gift for the host.
• I sometimes put a round mirror in the front of the house to create an illusion of a  frozen patch of water.
• I cover the plate in shredded coconut to make it look like a snow covered ground.
• Cut pieces of candy to fit the length of the roof or walls.
• Choose a color theme and buy the kind of candy that will help accomplish the look you want.

Here is a little instagram of my finished gingerbread house:

Disneyland is already a magical place, but now that California Adventure is celebrating Viva Navidad…. it has seriously taken the experience to a new level of happiness. This holiday season (November 15th to January 6th, 2014 – with a special Three Kings Celebration from January 3rd to 6th) California Adventure is serving up some amazing delicious Mexican food, and I got the opportunity to learn from one of the Viva Navidad Chef’s (Chef Nubia Renteria) how to make her version of sweet pineapple raisin tamales. Watch the video above to see how easy they were to make.

For the recipe and instructions click over to Babble!

I seem to be obsessed with Olaf from Disney’s new animated feature Frozen. I got to see a  screening of the film last week and fell head over heels in love with the adorable snowman character. The film open Thanksgiving day nationwide, and shouldn’t be missed. Then a few days later I found myself hopping between  Disneyland and California Adventure, both parks were decorated in full Christmas cheer with lights and trees sparkling around every corner. The holidays bring a different type of magic to the Disney theme parks and what I was most thrilled to see was the premiere of  “World Of Color – Winter Dreams” water show at Disney California Adventure. I almost became giddy when I realized that Olaf (the cute snowman from Frozen) was the host of the new show. What perfect timing and another opportunity for me to swoon over my cartoon crush. The water spectacular is absolutely breathtaking, with fountains spanning the length of a football field and thousands of lights that brighten the night’s sky. This show in particular is something to see with floating snowflakes made of bubbles that blow out and float over the audience. There is a virtual choir that sings the opening segment of the show and their voices sound like angels. One of the coolest things that impressed me the most was the ears….. Disney has certainly outdone themselves with the ears. They have these new Mickey ear hats that light up and synchronize to the show, so as the colors change in the show, so do the ears. Everyone in the audience was wearing the ears and it was so amazing to see such a large group of people interacting with the show, it is definitely a cool extension of something already amazing. Here is a quick snippet of the show I caught with my phone.

Certainly a magical moment and I can’t wait to get back there over this holiday season to enjoy it again. In the meantime to hold me over from my new Olaf obsession, since I have a few more days till Frozen hits the theaters, and a few weeks till I am back at California Adventure…. I decided to make Olaf inspired cupcakes.

Get the step by step photos on how I made these cupcakes over at Babble.