Sweet Corn and Shrimp Chowder Soup

January 19, 2014 by Monica in Quick Meal, Savory, Seafood, Soup

The last week I have been sick at home with the mother of all flu. I have sustain myself on HUGE amounts of liquids, grilled cheese sandwiches and can soup. Anything else was too much effort and frankly I could not find anything else remotely appetizing.

I been so weak and tired that I could not bring myself to do anything else but stay in bed, read and hope that this nasty thing will just go away once and for all.

During my time in bed, besides reading huge amounts of trashy romantic novels, watching the whole season of Orange of the new Black and House of cards, I Pinterest myself to death. Since I was not cooking in real life, I let pinterest cook for me virtually by browsing hundreds of pins about all the food I wanted to eat by was to lazy to get up and cook.

Esquites - Mexican Corn Street Salad

July 04, 2013 by Monica in Appletizers & Snacks, BBQ, Cheese, Entertaining, Grilling, Latin, Quick Meal

You all know by now my love affair with corn. So you can imagine that when summer arrives around these parts and the BBQ season starts, I’m giddy with excitement of all the corn that is going to show up.

If there is one country that knows how to eat corn is Mexico. Anywhere you go you will find carts in every street corn selling something made with corn and where there is corn there is this dish called Esquites. It’s a snack and the word comes from the Nahuatl word izquitl, which translates to “toasted corn”.

Mandocas - Sweet Corn Fritters

April 10, 2013 by Monica in Appletizers & Snacks, Family, Family Cookbook, International, Latin

When I was 8 years old my mother sent my sister and I to live with our paternal grandparents. She was coming to the states to prepare our arrival and she decided that our grandparents should spend some time with us before we moved to the United States.

My grandparents lived in the state of Zulia, which is located in the northwest of Venezuela, around the Marcaibo Lake. This lake is the largest water body of its kind in Latin America and its basin covers one of the largest oil and gas reserves in the Western Hemisphere.

Maracaibo is the state capital and it has the second (Caracas being the first) largest population among Venezuela states. Like any country, each state is known for their own individual personality. Maracuchos (the population of Maracaibo) as they are referred, are loud, talk fast and everyone cuss like sailors – and I mean everyone, toddlers to gradmas.