Special shout out to the National Mango Board for sponsoring this post and helping keep this site/me moving/shaking/twisting.

This year we’re kicking off thanksgiving festivities with a Mango Friendsgiving.

A bunch of bloggers working with the Mango Board are virtually gathering to have some fun and show how versatile the mango is. A bonus is that it’s also available year round through different varieties, so even in the winter you taste a little sunshine.

I was tasked with bringing the cocktail, which, no problem there, that’s a task I welcome anytime.

I knew I wanted to incorporate bourbon somehow because it’s a great fall and winter spirit and has no issue pairing well with any thanksgiving dish, including dessert. The drink itself sort of just happened with trial and error, with the mang leading the way with the bourbon riding in the passenger seat.

I wanted to brighten up the cocktail so I went ahead and added some lime juice along with some cranberry and sparkling water to make the cocktail pair even better with heavier dishes that might be served for the holidays.

The parrot part comes into play with the combo of the green lime, the red cranberry, and the bright yellow mango, all of it coming together to actually make a beautiful golden color.

Special shout out to the National Mango Board for sponsoring this post and helping keep this site/me moving/shaking/twisting.

We’re wading into the waters of pumpkin spice and holiday seasons, but what if we could make the colder months mango spice season instead?

This recipe uses fresh mango puree from a v v v large green-skinned mango, aka the Keitt mango. This delicious, versatile fruit is in season and available fresh year-round, thanks to the six varieties that have staggered growing seasons, and I’m not complaining. To ensure your mango is ripe, give it a gentle squeeze. It should give slightly when pressed. Each mango variety has a slightly different color (like the green Keitt mango I used in this recipe), so don’t use color as an indicator for ripeness.

When used in a recipe like this, the mango almost takes on the same responsibility as pumpkin in the fall and adds a bunch of sweet moisture to the muffins. The warm spices give us pumpkin spice adjacent vibes, dare I say combatting the need for any pumpkin at all in this season of pumpkin spice.

The muffins come together easily and are a perfect start to any day, but the streusel makes them a perfect sweet snack throughout the day.

Special shout out to Mezzetta for sponsoring this post and helping keep this site/me moving/shaking/twisting.

As the summer dwindles down and fall foods start to creep in (I had an out of body experience the other day while my hand just involuntarily reached for a pumpkin spice almond creamer). I figured there needs to be some sort of summer send-off produce bucket list, a salute to all the good things we can’t have for another year:

– sweet juicy tomatoes
– perfect peaches etc.
– cute ripe strawberries
– cheap basil everywhere

When Mezzetta reached out and asked if I wanted to work on something I figuured it was the ideal time to cross perfect tomatoes off the list and give myself something to make all summer long.

Next year.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The recipe really does lend itself to whatever vegetables you have on hand though, and would do really well as a fall salad with some roasted squash or chickpeas, I think it’ll appear as something fresh a few times this fall.

I will take any and all reasons to eat bread and call it a salad 🙂

Overall this is an incredibly dish to throw together. The dressing is just two ingredients (olive oil and brine from the Mezzetta peperoncinis) and brightens all the ingredients effortlessly. The bite you get from the peperoncinis is the boost of flavor every salad should have. And the cherry on top is that it lends itself to being made ahead of time, that extra 30 minutes for the bread cubes to soak up their olive oil peperoncini bath dressing is exactly what the salad calls for.

Whether you’re using the salad as a salute to summer or a hello to fall, it’s the perfect thing to serve to celebrate.

Special shout out to the National Mango Board for sponsoring this post and helping keep this site/me moving/shaking/twisting.

It’s officially ice cream season (even though for me, ice cream has no season and is consumed year-round). It’s so hot outside right now that I want to eat something cold/refreshing for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and ice cream usually fits that bill.

Today, we’re talking about the more refreshing area of frozen treats in the form of sherbet. A little bit of dairy to add some richness but not too much that it overpowers your chosen fruit. It’s my favorite form of frozen fruit desserts and a great way to showcase the fruit’s flavor profile. I love mangos for this recipe because mangos are especially rich in vitamin C, with a ¾ cup serving packing in half of what you need for that day!  

Technically, sherbet is supposed to use a certain milk fat percentage etc etc buuut this definitely isn’t ice cream and any sorbet that adds dairy is just lying to itself. The great thing about this recipe is that it doesn’t require churning and the sour cream really helps boost the fat content to keep the texture smooth.

And for an added fun twist, we’re also tie-dying the sherbet so we get nice swirls of the mango with the raspberry.

If you wanted to do a mango-only sherbet, you could certainly double the mango ingredients but still make it in two batches to help the machine not overheat. Whatever you do, make it in preparation for any upcoming heatwave.

It’s heeeeeere! My other half, Esteban, has finally released his book child Chicano Eats into the world. It’s been a long couple years of him shooting and testing and stressing and I couldn’t be more proud with what he put together.

The book has everything: it’s beautiful, fun, informative, delicious, etc. and I love it. Not as much as I love him, but there’s a close-ish capacity.

It was really hard going over everything and figuring out what I wanted to post on the blog and shoot but I landed on something a little more celebratory with cake.

Not just any cake, it’s a strawberry hibiscus cake. Hibiscus tea in the buttercream gives it an insane vibrant color while layers of strawberry filling give it a fruity slap across the face.

His recipe does not look like this in the book, it’s a classic layer cake, buuut the wrecking balls of hands that I was gifted with do not compute making a cute cake. I went with the milk bar naked cake method because it’s nearly foolproof for a good looking cake if you’re into dessert nudity and added some strawberry cake crumbs that are totally optional but not really.

If you’ve ever wanted a fun cookbook, it’s this right here. It’s got all you need to make Mexican food in your kitchen with Crossover recipes to make something familiar you’ve never had before.

Special shout out to the National Mango Board for sponsoring this post and helping keep this site/me moving/shaking/twisting.

Summer’s finally starting to heat up here in the central valley which means more fruity, refreshing desserts. As much as I love a good strawberry shortcake, it’s nice to switch it up from time to time.

Enter the Mango shortcake.

We’re transforming this recipe by adding in sweet mangos (Hello, it’s National Mango Month!) and pairing them with buttery biscuits and whipped cream. Mangos are always in season, and they are especially rich in vitamin C – a ¾ cup serving packs in half of what you need for the day. The juicy mangos are complemented by lime juice and sandwiched between biscuits and cream of coconut whipped cream.