I love colored tomatoes!

I love tomatoes. I do. I really really do. But what I love more than tomatoes? COLORED tomatoes! 

Just a few weeks back I learned that the usual red tomato me and my mom bought wasn't the only type of tomato. So we asked our local tomato-farmer guy to get us some. 

Strangely though, he said that people in Mexico don't buy any other type of tomatoes other than the usual red one. Which is kind of sad, really. 

But Anyway... 

Yesterday, while we were making time to get my little sister from school, we went to this supermarket near her school and the Gods decided to smile down upon us and blessed us with...

Aha! You got that right!

Color tomatoes! 

And of course I had to do a pasta. So stop being boring and try some new colored, new flavored tomatoes!

Go diversity!

BAKED TOMATOES/LEMONY  PASTA.

You will be needing: 

A wide variety of different colored tomatoes. 

Suck as: 

Tiger Tomato

Teacup Yellow Tomato

Golden Tomato

Jubilee Tomato  

Your usual Red Balloon Tomato 

I used 2 of each. 

Which ever kind of Pasta you are fond of. I used Fusilli Pasta. 

The juice of one LEMON.

A handful of Basil. 

One Clove of Italian Garlic. . 

Shredded Mozzarella. 

Olive Oil.

Salt&&Pepper. 

Let's get it started, yeah? 

1. Cook the pasta according package instructions. Preferably until AL DENTE.

2. Make a cross cut on the top of your tomatoes. Drizzle some Olive oil on them. half of the lemon juice and of course finish it with Salt and pepper. 

3. Once your pasta is cooked set it aside and place a generous chunk of butter on it and let the heat 

melt it. Season with Salt&&Pepper and just drizzle of few drops of lemon juice. 

4. Now, as you all know...my oven does not work, so if you have a working oven (which I envy) you might want to preheat it. I don't know exactly at what degrees or how long but don't take too much time nor a really  hot temperature. You just want it to be slightly hot. 

I, preheated my "wannabeovenapn" and drizzled some olive oil and left heat up for 2 minutes on very low heat. 

Once that minute as gone by place all your tomatoes on (the wannabeovenpan or your oven friendly pan) and using that cross cut we made just shove some of the mozzarella into the tomatoes.  Add the clove of garlic and the Basil, and leave it to rest for 20 minutes. 

5. When the cheese has melted and you get this really delicious smell coming from whatever kitchen supply you are working on it will be a sign to add the pasta. 

Before adding the pasta, pour the remaining juice of the lemon and just stir the tomatoes and their juices around. Add the pasta and cover it with the remaining cheese and season again slightly. 

Leave it there for another 10 minutes then serve hot. 

And it's magic. 

No-Bake Strawberry Cheese Pie.

I suppose a big apologize is in order... so sorry if anyone had been expecting more posts, I know I said I would be posting frequently but lately I've also been seriously working on my MS and editing and proofreading and sometimes I don't get enough time to edit-read-cook and post. Still I hope you can all forgive and enjoy the following mouth watering sugar rush recipe.

I saw this recipe in foodgawker (obviously) and HERE you can find the original recipe. 

I would have said that this recipe was seriously sugary, even for me. And that's like saying a lot. But... do to the current mood I am in I will say: You should probably add more sugar to induce the happy-hormone liquid thing. 

Okay so enough boring you with my mood and me wanting to add sugar to everything in order to feel better. Let's get on with this: 

1/4 cup of cornstarch. 

2 1/4 cup of sugar goodness. 

1/2 cup water.

1/4 of strawberries 

2 or 4 blackberries. 

1 stick of butter. 

1 package of graham crackers 

(otherwise known as Maria) 

1 big package of cream cheese. 

(Use light and I'll personally hunt you down and kill you. Live a little will ya?) 

1 tsp of vanilla.

Okay here goes: 

First you mix the cornstarch with the water, berries and 3/4 cup of sugar. 

(Now, usual me wants me to tell you that you should probably add half of that. Right Now me screams: MORE SUGAR)

And you want to cook this in medium heat until it thickens. 

Oh you also want to stir constantly just get all the ingredients together. Otherwise you'll end up with lumps of cornstarch and that's not a pretty sight now is it? 

Meanwhile! You crunch the crackers and mix it well with the stick of butter. 

And then place it on the nice bowl you want to put the rest of the pie in. 

Then you and I are going to work that spatula. Because the next step is mix 1 1/2 cup of sugar with the cream cheese and add the vanilla and work that spatula until there are (almost) no lumps. 

Work it baby! Work it!

Just you know mix it at a break your arm speed. That'll probably do the trick. 

Okay, next step. Pouring the cream cheese filling into the nice pretty bowl we already placed the crackers mix in. 

And then, we add the berry mixture (which has to be cold of course) and we open the fridge and let the pie chill for a while. 

 n.n and there you go as simple as that. 

If you want to see the real pretty step-by-step pictures I urge you to visit Arena's blog.

click on me n.n

Frijoles Charros (Real mexican charro beans)

A few days back, my mother bought this "Mexican Recipes" book, quite frankly I thought it would be a lame book to have. But as soon as I began reading and browsing through the recipes I realized it was a great book. It had a lot of the recipes I like and those I've always thought to be of a champions league... like Pozole or Chiles en Nogada even Cochinita Pibil. 

So after falling in love with the endless recipes and different types of cuisine I decided to try at least one. 

There is a small place near my house, probably one of the only places where I actually eat meat. As you wait for your food they give you Charro Beans (free of charge n.n) and they are heavenly. 

So it was probably one of the main reasons why I decided to try out this recipe in the first place. 

Even though I live in Mexico, I will admit I hardly know anything about our very extent and infinite varieties of cooking that have originated here. 

The small things I know, I owe to my grandma (who has this way of cooking that is simply divine) and I will admit that I was very much impressed with all the recipes the book my mom bought held. 

I know that Mexican food outside Mexico sucks and even when people attempt to do it, they end up with this seriously sick and awful version of our dishes (I am talking tacobell) so I take it as a personal challenge to show typical Mexican recipes every once in a while, just to set people straight for once. 

(I don't mean any disrespect though) This is Mexican cooking according to a Mexican recipe book by a Mexican chef done by me a 100%  Mexican gal. 

Frijoles Charros 

a.k.a 

Charro beans. 

250g of beans. 

 (You can use any type of beans you want, I used Pinto beans) 

Beacon. 

(I used three stripes) 

1/4 of an Onion, chopped. 

2 Tomatoes, chopped.

I clove of Garlic, thinly chopped. 

Olive Oil. 

1 Chile, chopped. 

1 teaspoon of Salsa Chipotle (optional) 

Salt&&Pepper.

(I decided to ignore the Chorizo the recipe calls for, because I am not into it, but by all means if you like it, do add it) 

Work that magic: 

1. First you need to cook the beans. And in order to have very good beans it's a good idea to leave inside a pot with water overnight. When you cook the beans be sure to add one clove of garlic, a small piece of an onion and a tomato, this will add flavor to beans instead of dealing with plain watery tasting beans. 

2. Once you've cooked your beans, taste, season and then set aside... you'll want to chop the beacon. 

Now, in a previously hot skillet, drizzle some olive oil on it and add the beacon. Let it fry there for a while until the beacon realizes its fat (sounds disgusting but I swear it's delicious). 

(If you decide to use the Chorizo this is where you add it) 

2. Once the beacon in reaching a goldish color add the onion, tomatoes and garlic and fry them for a while. 

You want them veggies to be very soft before following the next step. 

3.  Season with Salt&&Pepper, add the Chile and the Chipotle Salsa and add this beautiful, colorful mixture into the pot where you cooked the beans (at this point you can either transfer the beans and the mixture to a different deep pan). Give it a nice shake so that all the ingredients come together. 

And by all means, serve.