dessert bars - leftover dulce de leche, jam and apple sauce too!

i really like simple breakfast bars, and i've played around with different flavours, and they all seem to work.

i put this in the latin recipes because of the dulce de leche i used ;)

2 cups rice flour
about a tsp baking powder
1.5 c rolled oats
1 cup demerara sugar or your natural sugar of choice
3/4 cup butter
2c filling - i used 1/2c leftover dulce de leche, 1c of homemade jam (some sort of plum) that a friend had given me, 1/2c of blueberry/apple sauce that the bub had barely touched

mix together ingredients except the filling.

press a bit more than half of the mixture into a greased casserole dish or baking pan.
add filling
top with rest of mix
spray oil or brush butter on top

375 oven for about 30min until a little brown.
let cool and cut into bars.

these are a whole lot of yum and was originally inspired by a recipe i used to make raspberry bars. great way to use up leftover sweet fillings like jams, apple sauce etc.

i had these a few mornings with coffee - and a few midnight+ as a snack.

tostada lasagna - the non-colombian dish of the week

i deviated from the colombian menu for one easy meal on a rainy day. just felt like something a bit different. so still latin themed.

the ingredients
big can tomato sauce
1.5 c onion - chopped
can refried beans
1 tsp ground oregano
2 tsps ground cumin
1 tsp garlic powder
can black beans, rinsed and drained
small can sliced black olives, drained and chopped
1/2 c jalapenos sliced (i used herder)
10 - 12 chipotle tostadas or flavour of choice broken into big pieces (enough to line the baking dish - i think mine is 11x13 - dunno for sure
2c cubed mozzarella cheese
1/2c tex mex shredded cheese mix.

grease baking dish
then add just enough tomato sauce to line bottom
in a bowl blend all the ingredients except for the olives cheese and black beans (save a few jalapenos for the top)
after tomato sauce create a layer with the tostada pieces, then the mix in the bowl


tostada pieces, mix in the bowl, 1/2 the black beans and olives, cheese pieces


tostada pieces, rest of the mix in the bowl, rest of black beans, olives and jalapenos


add rest of cheese including shredded

bake at 375 for about 30 min or until cheese looks slightly browned.

easy, and tasty. you can serve guacamole or sour cream on side or have as is with a side salad.
i froze the leftovers for another week.

aji - colombian week

(looking a bit foamy after i attacked with the hand blender to blend the tomato a bit more, but it settled into more of a murky colour accented by the ingredients)

oh aji (ah-hee) - so simple and so perfect.
i love spicy food, and i have to admit that the first time i went to colombia i was surprised at how little fire was in the food.

instead there was a lot of meat, a lot of fish, a lot of grilling and pan frying, a lot of beans and chicken and rice, hearty soups
- all seasoned well
....but...decidedly un-spicy.

then i tried the most miraculous of condiments - aji
aji is spicy
lights up the plainest dishes
so easy
so good
and i looked for years for a recipe that reminded me of the aji i had with pretty much every meal possible every time i visited colombia.

and a few weeks ago...I FOUND IT!
i made it and this was it,
i was back in a small cafe eating chicken and rice and beans drowned in aji (i know i used a lot of it...the locals commented on my profound enthusiasm for it.

so here it is...and only one modification - it's not easy to get habanero peppers in season right now around here so i used two tiny red thai chilis (half seeded - they are hard to completely seed) instead...

aji recipe

colombian week - kind of like pandebono, kind of not

(final product...)


i tried to duplicate these wonderful, cheese filled buns that dh and i used to get from a street vendor in the candelaria district of bogota

it was just him
a grill
and these corn buns stuffed with cheese (similar to mexican queso blanco)
and aji on the side
the vendor made these tin foil swans - put the piping hot bun in and lots of space for scoops of aji (part of tomorrow's recipe)

you can see my attempts through photos and ingredients - simple ingredients - not purely authentic, but tasted pretty close....we ate all 7 of the buns i made in one sitting - 1 by the 3yr old, 3 each for dh and i - topped with aji i made several times during the week.

recipe - made 7 buns
1 c mozzarella cheese cut into 7 good sized chunks
2c masa flour (precooked corn flour)
1 egg
2c warm water
dash of salt
- mix all but the cheese with your hands in a bowl


- form into balls
- take a piece of cheese per ball and push it in

- reshape the ball so the cheese is completely covered in the dough


- lightly spray or brush with oil or cooking spray

- cooked these in the toaster oven at 350 for about 15min

- top with aji and serve

sancocho - fish stew, colombian style

I used this recipe for sancocho - but I made a lot of modifications.

could not find azafron so i used more cumin and turmeric instead
i also used 3 white potatoes in addition to
the yucca...


and plantains...



also, could not find fish stock
so i used a vietnamese pho base that had shrimp and other seafood flavours in it
i also added a leek (because i had 2 leeks in the fridge that had to be used up and - well - i love leeks in soup)
i used tilapia for the fish

i also used my slow cooker so i could just prep and toss everything in
cooked on high for 3hrs and low for 1 seemed to soften the potatoes and yucca and the crockpot did its magic in terms of getting a really smooth fish flavour throughout the soup...


so i took pics, but duh forgot to take one of it as a bowl of soup

i did however take a pic of the sancocho being used as leftovers with rice and topped with aji (i saved the broth as my 3yr old loved it!)...


this recipe yielded enough for 6 full meals for 2 adults, several bowls of soup for the 3yr old and lots of tasting and lip smacking from the 10mth old - cost-effective and a smashing success. was great as leftovers without the broth too! this is going to be a winter staple for us - so much goodness and so many meals from one recipe!

fruit leather

i found an episode on weelicious that talked about fruit leather...
so decided to use some strawberries and blueberries that needed to be used up to make it

the recipe called for strawberries and agave and in a 250 oven for 2-3hrs

hmmm...not quite. i blended 1lb of strawberries and 2 full pints of blueberries in the blender.
1tbsp of agave
spread it out on a cookie sheet evenly
into a 250 oven
but
after an hour, the edges were crisping and the rest was ready
so a mixed reaction on this one
the parts that didn't burn were tasty

i'll try it again and be ready to pull it sooner.



...yummy berries being washed


...what agave nectar looks like if you haven't used it before


...spreading the blended mix