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Home/Tag: Monti Carlo

#EasyRecipe: Peanut Butter Cookies

  I've been making this recipe since I was a pre-teen. I  sold them at a trailer park playground so I could score the things I thought I needed to survive, like George Michael's album Faith. Hahaha! I wrote this recipe's origin story for Bon Appetit and it was just published. You can check it out here. Made with just four ingredients, you can whip these peanut butter cookies up in a few minutes. I recommend that you rest the dough for an hour to solidify the oil in the peanut butter and help control spread as they bake. The white sugar helps create a deeper caramel color [...]

2021-09-22T16:47:49+00:00By |#EasyRecipe, Desserts|0 Comments
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Cool Down with Piña Colada Popsicles

Today is national Piña Colada day! Though I'm all about a silky, creamy, icy piña colada, I love Puerto Rico's national drink even more in popsicle form, especially on 100 plus degree days. I make mine virgin because I'm not much of a drinker, and I have a teenage boy in the house that eats six of everything. Of course, you can make these frozen pops with spicy rum. Just remember that alcohol doesn't freeze, so you have to be careful with your ratio of juice to alcohol. If you go heavy on the alcohol, you'll be eating piña colada slushies, which doesn't sound all that bad either. Buen [...]

2021-07-10T19:12:40+00:00By |#IslandFlavor, Desserts, Recipes|0 Comments
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Two-Ingredient Pie Dough

Nothing says summer’s here quite like a homemade fruit pie. Tangy blackberries, tart cherries, and luscious peaches are all in season and make incredibly easy fillings. It’s always a good idea to have some dough tucked away for a quick fruit pie. It’s a wonderful addition to a brunch or impromptu get-together. Drop it on the table and watch it get gobbled up. #Trust. If you’re intimidated by making your own dough, don’t be. It’s not as tricky a process as some would have you believe. My recipe calls for just two ingredients and a touch of water. The key step is to make sure all the ingredients are [...]

2021-07-04T19:03:20+00:00By |breakfast, brunch, Desserts|0 Comments
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Easy Recipe: Peach Galette

Peach season is in full swing, my friends! This easy-to-make peach galette is my favorite way to showcase this succulent summer fruit. A galette is a rustic, free-form pie baked on a sheet pan, not in a pie pan. You can use store-bought pie dough, puff pastry, or use my simple two-ingredient pie dough recipe to get this luscious dessert on the table in under an hour.  The most important step is to make sure you taste your peaches before you add them to the dough. Not all peaches are overflowing with flavor. If they're lacking in the taste department, add a touch of honey, a few drops of [...]

2021-07-04T19:09:44+00:00By |breakfast, brunch, Desserts, Fruits & Veggies|2 Comments
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Easy Recipe: Spinach Pancetta Quiche

Don’t you love a slice of cold quiche on a hot day? This recipe is so perfect for a summer cool-down. It’s easy, it’s fast, and it’s SO YUM. In case you’ve never had it, a quiche is a savory custard with a pie crust or, as my son puts it: scrambled egg pie. From the outside looking in, quiche seems like a sophisticated recipe, but it isn’t. It really is just a scrambled egg pie. What I love the most is that just like your favorite omelet, you can add in any bits and pieces of food that are left in the fridge to make something new and [...]

2021-07-03T19:07:36+00:00By |Uncategorized|0 Comments
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PRESSURE COOKER RICE PUDDING (ARROZ CON DULCE)

My digital pressure cooker is one of my most used kitchen tools. I’m a busy mom and the ability to make a one-pot meal in half the time is something I can’t pass up. So much so that I wrote a cookbook of my favorite Caribbean recipes made easy with Quick Pot, one of my favorite brands of digital pressure cookers.  […]

2021-03-14T17:09:44+00:00By |#IslandFlavor, Desserts, Pressure Cooker, Recipes|5 Comments
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Island Ratatouille Pie

Spring is here and nothing quite puts the season on the plate like a batch of ratatouille.  If you've never had it, it's a vegetable dish usually made with onions, zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers. The veggies are sauteed or roasted with a little oil until they've softened and released their juices. Ratatouille can be served hot or cold or in a Disney movie prepped by the cutest team of rodents ever. Traditionally, ratatouille is accompanied by a few slices of crusty bread to sop up its savory sauce. I wrapped my ratatouille with a pie crust and dressed it with an herbaceous lemon ricotta to create a one-pot dish [...]

2018-04-19T16:00:28+00:00By |#IslandFlavor, Appetizers, Dinner, Fruits & Veggies, Recipes, Uncategorized|0 Comments
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My first Food Network show debuts April 10th

Forgive me for being sentimental, but it's not every day a dream comes true. When I was 24 years old, after years and years of working in restaurants, I signed up for broadcast school. It was a six-week course. On Day 1 I was asked what my dream was and I said I wanted to host a show on Food Network just like Emeril. On my way to school on Day 3, my car was hit by a dump truck. I woke up from a coma to find that I had 19 broken ribs and a punctured lung. I checked myself out of the hospital as soon as I could [...]

2017-12-19T00:37:22+00:00By |Journal|21 Comments
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#IslandFlavor: Pastelón, Puerto Rican Shepherd’s Pie

  What I love the most about social media is that it allows me to connect with people that I would never have met otherwise and my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE is getting a message from another Boricua who feels as strongly about Puerto Rican flavors as I do. I recently received this note from Hilarie Santiago: Dearest Monti, I've been a huge fan of yours since your appearance in Master Chef 3. I truly identified from the beginning, being a Puerto Rican mom, hustling to make a better life for her  baby. Let me just say, you are a fantastic mom and Danger is a lucky little guy, to have [...]

2017-12-19T00:37:22+00:00By |#IslandFlavor, Recipes, Uncategorized|2 Comments
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#IslandFlavor: Sazón

Sazón is a type of seasoned salt used heavily in Puerto Rican recipes. In its simplest form, it is a blend of salt, garlic and onion powders, cumin, coriander, oregano and usually features annatto, which gives it its orange color. You can also find versions with the additions of cilantro, black pepper, saffron or tomato. The most popular brand of sazón on the island without question is Goya. While I'm a huge fan of most Goya products, they use MSG in their sazón so I prefer to make my own. It only takes a few minutes to have one of the most distinct flavors of Puerto Rico at your fingertips. [...]

2017-12-19T00:37:22+00:00By |#IslandFlavor, Spices, Uncategorized|8 Comments
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