Cooking with Zoe: Mangos

It is hard for me to look at a mango without thinking back to my time in Jamaica, when my Rastafarian friends would eagerly yank one off a nearby tree, rip it open with their teeth, and offer it to me for a snack while we hammered wood together. That refreshing, smooth, sweet taste under the hot sun was pretty divine. I've been a bit obsessed with the fruit ever since. And with the touch of heat slowly making its way through into our weather, I've been craving it lately.

image taken from here

What's been even more fun than just the pure joy of enjoying the mango itself, has been introducing Mainers to their first taste of mango ever. Ok, Mainer, singular. I'm sure plenty of Mainers have had mangos, but you have to admit, it's a different climate from the Caribbean up here! But we had some students over recently and when one of them mentioned that we had introduced him to this succulent orange fruit, I decided that fact alone made the event a grand success.

Mangos are a tricky fruit, because of their softness and their awkward seed. I remember my mom once asking for advice on how to cut into it to serve for a dinner party, and my sister, just back from a mission trip to the Bahamas, offerred to help. She promptly bit into it and tore the skin away with her teeth, just like she and I had both seen demonstrated. Classy, Sissy. Classy! ;) Should you be sharing the fruit with others who do not prefer your saliva on their food, I would recommend getting your hands on one of my favorite kitchen tools, the mango slicer. This makes cutting into magos sooo much more simple AND sanitary!

So Handy! [click on the image to purchase one for yourself and give Emily and I a tiny commission :) ]

To keep on my kick of spreading the good news of mangos to even more of you, I would like to share two of my favorite uses of what is perhaps my favorite fruit.

1) Southwestern Salad Bar. This recipe came from this Best of Cooking Light Everyday Favorites book. It makes a great meal for a large group, especially where you might have a mix of people who are vegetarian or gluten free or just picky, as it allows for full customization. Basically, you get lettuce, tortilla chips, and lots of good mix-ins. Line them all up and let your guests fix the salad the way they like. Before this, I'd never had mango in a salad and it was a grand discovery! Other mix-ins include corn with taco seasoning, black beans with garlic, avocado in lemon juice, red onions, cheese, cilantro, chipotle-ranch dressing [ranch with chipotles chopped up and mixed in], and plenty of lime juice. So very yum!

Champagne Mangos:
SO sweet and tasty, but too small
to be worth it when
you are making a huge salad!

Better meat to effort ratio!

2) Zesty Fruit Salad. This is a Reyes family favorite. And I always over-do it when I make it. Again, quite simple. Basically, pick a handful of fruits you enjoy together, chop and mix them up. Then drizzle honey, brown sugar, lime zest, and lime juice on top and mix it all together. Most recently, I did this with apples, grapes, kiwi, pineapple, and of course, Mangos. It's amazing how much the little hidden additions to the fruits liven things up. My common mistake is to make this for a party and buy all the fruit at Cosco/Sams, and wind up with enough fruit salad to feed and army ten times over, I just get too excited. My most recent mistake was buying a whole box [15] of champagne mangos. For one salad. It took me about two hours to get a decent amount of fruit out of those mangos, and that was while resisting the temptation to suck all the spare fruit off the skins. I hate to think about how much good fruit was lost! Instead, I would recommend picking out a few of the larger variety instead.

Cooking with Zoe: A Hot Mess of Chocolatey Goodness

Are there any other Lobsters out there who feel like it is just a miracle to ever cook yourself just the basic meals? I really feel that way lately. And then, I am trying to be social and make friends. But all these things I go to are with these amazing women who always bring incredible home made treats. I always feel embarrassed, either empty handed or with a poor excuse for a baked good. I can just feel their heads tilt with pity. 

Well! This week, I finally showed up to a social gathering, proudly carrying a dessert in hand! I picked the recipe because it only had three ingredients - score! Should be totally simple, right? Apparently, not for me with my muddle headed brain these days. That is not to scare you off from trying it yourself, more just a commentary on my recent state of mind. If you actually follow the directions [what a thought!], it should be quite simple. While I did not invent the recipe, I still want to share it with you (with the holidays coming up and so many opportunities where you're called on to bring a dish), so I am owning it by re-titling it. I present to you: 

A Hot Mess of Gluten-Free Chocolatey Goodness. 

[a.k.a. "Oreo Balls" not sure who to credit the original recipe too - if you are out there - thank you! let me know who you are and I'll update this post!]

Ingredients: 

1 pkg. Oreos [I found gluten free oreos so I could make sure my gluten free girlfriend didn't have to miss out]

1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese

Chocolate for melting [i used chocolate chips]

Directions [colorfully retold]:

I started in on this recipe after my fifth attempt at getting my baby down for her nap. She did finally sleep, thank the Lord, but I had plenty of pent up frustration from the day! Therefore, step one was very therapeutic:

1. Crush Oreos.  

I took a fork to those suckers like they were evil demon cookies that I had to crush in order to save the world. The feel and the sound of it was as good as letting it out on a punching bag! better? 

2. Melt (or just soften) cream cheese and mix with Oreos.  [skipped this step for fear my baby would wake up too soon. unwise. did not speed things up in the long run!]

3. Chill thoroughly (in freezer, if needed).  

4. Form well chilled mixture into balls.  

Despite the misleading instructions about working with a "chilled" mixture, this is where things turned into a hot mess. I think I failed to let it chill enough, and/or my palms were still extra hot from the frustration [or with a more positive spin - the pleasant warm weather?]. So instead of forming into lovely walls, we mostly just got gooey, crumby, chocolately hands:

I can self-correct though, so I eventually just put it back in the fridge to let it chill some more. This helped a bit, but not a ton. With round two, I wound up with something that did vaguely resemble balls:

5. Melt chocolate and roll balls to cover.  

This seems like a basic cooking skill, and yet I have never been able to master it. My insufficiently chilled balls of round one completely fell apart in the chocolate, making it even less smooth to roll over the following balls. All the while, my hands (and let's be honest, my counter, clothes, floor, etc.) were getting more and more caked with those three simple ingredients. So I gave in, washed my hands [for like the fifth time since I started], and got the balls into the freezer so they would hold their shape a bit better with the hot chocolate.  

Somehow, after all this self-correcting, and beating myself for not just simply following the recipe, taking a breather with another project so I didn't get too frustrated, it got done. 

6. Return to chill to harden.  [this was a step I could manage!]

I have a personal rule of never making a dish for others that my family does not also get to partake in [my mother, a teacher, used to always bake these amazing treats for her class and we were never allowed to snitch. boo! ]. So Manny was my guinea pig. What's so great about Manny, is that the appearance of his food almost never phases him, as long as it tastes good. Bless my dear sweet husband. He took one for the team and approved the treat, even though I made him eat the uglier earlier batch renditions. Then I brought about a dozen for my three friends to snack on at our evening get together, and after their encouraging accolades, these four remained: 

Turns out, when you don't know what you're doing with the chocolate, and you end up coating them with about a gajillion times as much chocolate as they need, the dessert turns out to be rather rich and people enjoy the one or two they eat, but can't handle much more. It was a hot mess, but it was a tasty mess. 

Eating with Zoe: Long Distance Influence

My favorite part of Thanksgiving has always been the leftovers. Always. Tasty slabs of turkey meat, a 'lil mayo, canned cranberry sauce, and white bread. I look forward to that sandwich all year. On the years I do not get to partake in this sandwich, I get very very depressed. What is it about those few extra hours that make the Thanksgiving food so much more delightful?

Perhaps it is the release of all the pressure of the formal Thanksgiving Dinner. Once the food is just left overs, you can let your hair down, kick back, and just enjoy each other's company however you wish. Eat it standing at a kitchen counter, sprawled out on the floor while playing some games, curled up on the couch watchin' some football, whatever suits your fancy. It is casual, it is communal, it is comforting!

The first Thanksgiving I ever spent away from home was actually with Emily's family. I remember calling my mom that afternoon in a mini-crisis because eating at someone else's house necessarily meant I did not get my leftovers sandwich. Good thing her family had all these amazing, exotic family traditions that had me sufficiently enthralled to allow me to get too depressed over it all. You should ask her about her Thanksgiving family traditions, because that is a day when Emily Fazakerley shines in the kitchen like no other! Impressive!

When we lived in the Bay Area, we were friends with one of the coolest families on the planet. One of their many cool traits as a family is their amazing hospitality. Despite the great dinners and roaring parties we did get to enjoy with them, they had one annual tradition we always had to miss out on. Each year, on the day after Thanksgiving, they hosted a party where everyone could bring their left overs to share and hang out with friends. Buh-rillllliant!!! You get to enjoy hospitality AND the magic of Thanksgiving left overs all in one. I can hardly handle it.

After years of having to miss out on this party, we are missing out yet again, seeing as how we are on the opposite coast of the country. Blerg. BUT WAIT! Sometimes there are silver linings to long distance friendships like this. See, with them so far away, there is very little [zero] overlap in our social circles, THEREFORE! I have decided that it is NOT a social faux pas to totally steal their idea and host my own Thanksgiving leftovers party.  

Thus, the annual "Reyes Remainders Replay" is born (you know, cause my husband is a mathematician, get it? remainders? heh)! I can't wait. Even if no one shows up, I will have a grand festive time with my own family being in town, making a little extra hooplah over the leftovers this year. They may not exactly be mine to give, but nevertheless, I extend to you the rights to throw your own left overs party. Just please report back and let me know how it goes! 

Isn't it cool how even friends that are far away, whether or not I am faithfully in touch them, have touched my life in a moment and steered my path, even if only slightly?

home

photo credit: Craig Stewart

My father recently planted a huge orchard of olive trees at his lavender farm. He sent me this photo with the comment, "Olive trees thriving and offering hospitality to the locals..."

A) I think the photo is gorgeous. B) This image and thought is bringing me great comfort as I look towards being amongst new "locals" in one month. C) Hospitality is a beautiful gift and a skill I hope to cultivate more and more.