fresh, fragrant and flavorful

In my opinion, fresh herbs are essential for cooking. Sure, dried ones are appropriate from time to time but you just can't beat the vibrancy fresh ones bring to a dish. I try to cook with fresh herbs as often as I can but buying them at the market can be a bit on the expensive side. So this past weekend my mom surprised me with this:

While it isn't exactly an herb garden, this basket has exactly what I need. Rosemary, thyme and basil (all seen here) are my three favorite herbs. They all have such distinct flavors that they've got me covered for pretty much anything I want to make. 

From a rosemary crusted pork tenderloin, to a simple caprese salad... I can't wait to get cooking!

the earth laughs in flowers

I think every girl has a love affair with flowers. They just have an inexplicable way of making you smile and brightening up your day, especially when they come from someone special. While I love the brightness sunflowers and the sweet smell of lilies, I simply obsessed with orchids. They're so elegant without being too fussy and perfectly accent any room. My favorite thing about them though, is their resilience.

The pink orchids Quino gave me for Valentine's Day (seen here) lasted well over a month, far longer than any bouquet of flowers ever would have. Though I'm so happy I got to enjoy waking up to those beauties every morning for a while, here's something that really amazes me.

I took this picture today of these stunning orchids Quino gave me for my birthday... 7 months ago! While the flowers did start to fall after a month or so back in October, my mom put the flowerless plant out in the yard and has been watering it weekly ever since. Lo and behold, these enormous flowers appeared last week and it seems like another is on the way!

Here's to spring and its bright, inspiring new beginnings!

fabulous food finds: spris

One of my main reasons for starting this blog was to post about all the fantastic restaurants I frequent and am constantly raving to my friends about. Despite my initial intentions, it's been a few months now and I've only made one restaurant post! Though I attribute that to the shyness I often feel for pulling my enormous D-SLR out in the middle of an upscale eatery, I refuse to let that be the reason I don't follow through.

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Spris, a wonderful little Italian place (locations in Coral Gables and South Beach) is absolutely one of my go-to places for a good, cheap meal. Clarissa, Alyssa and I come here constantly to gossip, attempt to study and, of course, eat great food.

One of our favorite things about this place is that everything on the last page of their menu is priced based on the time you order during happy hour. That means, if we order at 5:13, we pay $5.13 for some of our favorite dishes. That's a deal that definitely can't be beat!

We've been here so many times that as our lovely waiter brings over our waters, he always knowingly asks "so, 3 penne alla vodkas and a pizza margarita?", to which we just nod and smile. Not only is the food cheap but it’s delicious too! Every bite reminds me of my trip to Italy (the Laura Pausini music they play and the fresh sunflower on every table help too). On my non-happy hour trips, the food is still fantastic. Their calzone and prociutto panini are among some of my favorites.

{I love how our waiter knows to just leave the bowl of parmesan on our table after sprinkling it over our pasta}

On our most recent visit, we ordered our usual. This time though, we ended our meal with a shared Nutellino that was out of this world! A calzone filled with melting Nutella, who could say no to that?

ladies who lunch

This past Sunday was my grandma's 84th birthday! Crazy, I know. Since she's never been one for big affairs with too many people, we decided to have her over for a little lunch. A few of the other lovely ladies in the family decided to join us and we had a wonderful time chatting over my homemade lunch.

On the menu: 

Crostini with Artichoke and Cannallini Bean Spread

Chicken with a Lemon White Wine Sauce

Risotto Primavera (one of my all time favorites)

I saw this Crostini recipe on Giada at Home a few weeks ago and had been dying to make it ever since. It was really simple, just throw a bunch of ingredients into a blender and let it rip. It turned out to be delicious, I'll definitely be making it again. We actually ran out of baguette before we ran out of the stuff so I ended up dipping pita chips into it for the next couple of days as a snack.

As for the Chicken, I actually don't even have a recipe for it. It came about once when I was making grilled chicken and wanted to top it with a nice sauce. I had some left over Pinot Grigio and a lemon so I used them to deglaze the pan and make this yummy sauce. It's my go-to chicken dish when I want something simple and elegant. 

Last but certainly not list was the Risotto Primavera. I tweaked this recipe by Ina Garten a bit since I'm not the biggest fan of leaks or fennel. The risotto is to-die-for delicious! I love how the rice practically triples in size and gets exquisitely creamy from slowly adding the chicken broth one ladle-full at a time. Add a splash of white wine, parmesan cheese, peas and asparagus and it just takes the flavor over the top! I would make it more often but the process is a bit time consuming, not to mention the fact that risotto isn't the healthiest thing on the planet. 

As you can see, my grandma was quite surprised that we finished the afternoon off with a vanilla and buttercream cake (I love that Publix carries these mini cakes now, they're perfect for little get togethers like this one).

Here's to the sweetness of simple surprises and many more birthdays to come!

you won't find these in the freezer section, that's for sure

I'd been dying to make fresh pasta for ages so when I saw this recipe for homemade cannelloni while watching Kelsey's Essentials on the Cooking Channel, I figured this would be the perfect place to start my attempt at some more difficult recipes. Once I finally got my hands on a pasta attachment for my stand mixer (I was NOT about to try and roll this out by hand) I got to work.

Like I've seen on pretty much every cooking show ever done about fresh pasta, I started with the "well method"  which is just putting eggs, salt and olive oil into the middle of a pile of flour on my butcher-block counter. After creating quite a large mess, it finally turned into something that looked like pasta dough.

I let the dough rest for a bit while Quino and I went for a nice bike ride around the neighborhood. It was such a beautiful day I couldn't bare to spend it all in the kitchen.

When we got back, we threw together a quick tomato sauce to layer in the baking dish around the cannelloni. We also made the cannelloni filling out of onions, italian sausage, spinach and a TON of cheese (ricotta and parm).

After all the prep work was done, we went on to the insane task of rolling out the pasta dough, which proved much more difficult than it looks. The pasta sheets get so long and thin that we needed 2 sets of hands for the job. Once we finally got it all rolled out, we cut it into squares and cooked them in some boiling water for a minute or two. We stuffed the cooked pasta sheets with the scrumptious filling, layered them in a baking dish and covered them with some more of that tomato sauce before showering them with even more parm.

They spent 40 minutes in the oven before we got to dig into them but it was well worth the wait. 

They were AMAZING! I'll definitely be making them again.
After this attempt at fresh pasta though, I might just make some in the form of fettucini with a nice cream sauce next time... yummm!

bon appetit!

la vida es un carnaval y es mas bello vivir cantando

It may be surprising for me to say considering I'm Cuban but I'd never been to the Calle Ocho festival before this past weekend. Well this year, I felt it my duty to spend an afternoon taking in this compilation of Cuban culture. 

Though I had expected it to be a big event, I definitely didn't think it would be 20 blocks long! Despite the distance, Quino and I walked the whole thing (fueled by too much Cuban food and some mojitos). Needless to say, we took a much needed nap after that but we definitely had a fantastic afternoon :)

Our walk may have taken longer than it should have because I stopped pretty often to take pictures, but I just can't help myself.

The Calle Ocho festival is a definite must see, especially for the food.

Since we can't do it all over again til next year though, I'll more than happily settle for some Havana Harry's or just a visit to grandmas.

a prelude to spring break...

I spent a lovely afternoon at the Biltmore this weekend with Clarissa. Though it was a tad too windy for a boat day (something I've seriously been missing), we got some sun by the pool and had lunch on the golf course. All in all, it was a fantastic afternoon.

Seeing as the Biltmore is old and fabulous, a lot of these pictures were edited with the antique effect. It just seemed so appropriate. 

 

me and my big floppy hat

{the cool effect of this picture was a total accident. the original was way overexposed but thanks to cool iPhoto effects, this is the final product}

{thanks for sorority squatting to make me feel less short haha}

{our fabulous lunch at the 19th hole, the biltmore's restaurant overlooking the golf course. we shared a turkey club. it was so good and so were those fries! i'll definitely be going back. there was more sandwich but we had already had some by the time i remembered to take this picture}

Only two days left until Spring Break! I can't wait to get some more sun and take a much needed break!