Top 10 recipes for 2011 and Roast Pork in Dominican Republic

"Puerco asado" is the typical meat eaten on holidays in the Dominican Republic. The pigs are roasted on a spit, called "puya" that spins over burning firewood. Not much seasoning is used because  their flavor comes mainly from the smoked wood. I ask a friend that always roasts for us how they season it and he told me they just use a garlic- oregano rub and kosher salt. Pork roasted on a spit has a superb taste!

An amazing amount of pigs are roasted in many street stands in the rural areas the day before Christmas and New Years Eve. My hubby and I drived by a few stands and enjoyed watching hundreds of pigs being roasted.  I manage to get a few pictures, but since it was late night I couldn't get a picture that showed all of them roasting at once.

En español: AQUÍ

If you do not have access to a local stand that roasts pig like these or if you prefer to roast your own pork ham at home I recommend this post:

Preparación del Pavo y Pernil

Here is my "pernil" pork ham in brine:

I made some deep cuts with a knife and filled each of them with a little of the following mixture: 5 Tablespoons of oregano, 2 heads of crushed garlic, 2 sachets of Goya seasoning with annatto (achiote), 3 tablespoons onion powder or ADOBO and 2 teaspoons of salt. I then left it in brine with all other ingredients as indicated in the brine recipe. This ham is 15 pounds (6.5 kg) so it will bake for some 4-6 hours.  Let me know how GREAT you pork ham tasted when you do this :)

Mari's Cakes 2011

Some recipes of  2011 en Mari's Cakes

They were many favorites this year, these are the Top 10 I selected:

MORO de GUANDULES (Rice and Pigeon Peas)

CINNAMON Cookies

Chocolate EGGNOG

Bizcocho de TRES LECHES de CHOCOLATE

CHALLAH

CHOW FAN

Lemon Chicken with Thyme and Garlic

YANIQUEQUES

OATMEAL COOKIES

CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES with CHOCOLATE CHIPS

I would also like to take this opportunity to wish you a happy New Year full of blessings for all. Thank you all for your support, the wonderful comments and emails that I receive constantly. THANK YOU for making me feel like family and for being part of this blog.

En español: AQUÍ

Strengthen the hands of those who are weak. Help those whose knees give way. Say to those whose hearts are afraid,"Be strong. Do not fear. Your God will come.
He will pay your enemies back. He will come to save you." - Isaiah 35:3-4

Happy and Blessed 2012!

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Decorated Cookies, Christmas 2011

These last four days I been baking and decorating cookies. Although I love making cakes, I must say that I also like decorating cookies very much. I wish had had more time to continually bake and decorated cookies. If you have yet not baked cookies, you still are in time. Gingerbread men are easy to decorate and dry the same day. Today I share photos of the different styles of cookies I decorated. Some are inspired from the web.

En Español: AQUI

The famous, favorites and TRUE classic are the gingerbread man. Thanks to my new gingerbread men cookie cutters in large size. The last two years I’ve been using a mini cutter. These are easy to decorate. All you need is a decorating bag with tip # 1 or # 2. What I like most about them is the smell of the spiced gingerbread cookies.

The snowman faces CUTE! Hats are decorated with disco dust in, Rainbow color. See how to decorate with disco dust: Here.

The garlands are my favorites, I will be using them in our gingerbread house. See step by step how to do a gingerbread house: Here.

I could not leave out the Christmas trees, another holiday favorite. Since this is a new cookie cutter, I look for a simple decorating style. Instead of a star, I made a poinsettia flower with royal icing.

Finally, the three angel cookies, one for each of my daughters. This is also a new cutter that I need to get used to. For the wings: I covered them with icing in gold color, and sprinkled with, holo-gram gold disco dust. This color is thicker than the rainbow dust therefore it covers much more. Note: use only a very small amount.

The recipes to make decorated cookies can be found in the right hand side of this blog or in the recipes index. This is all for right now. Remember to share your creations on our facebook page.

En español: AQUÍ

I dedicate this post to all my nieces and nephews. Big hugs to all,  Tia Cake  :)

Always kiss your children goodnight even if they're already asleep :)

Blessings to all and Merry Christmas,

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Baked Sweet Potato Cups Made with Batata

En Español
These baked sweet potato cups are just to cute to eat! They are a perfect holiday side dish and go well with baked chicken, turkey or ham.  What I liked most about it is that it is served in orange cups. I have had this recipe for quite some time, but I have yet to try it with sweet potato because they are not grown here, however, we do have boniatos, what we call batatas.  Batatas are great tasting too, but not as moist as sweet potatoes. I was not surprise that this recipe still came out DELICIOUS even when I substituted the main ingredient. So here once again I made an American dish with a Dominican twist. I hope you enjoy it!

The oranges in Dominican Republic are fully ripe and very sweet even when their color is still green in the outside. I tried to get the fruit the most orange in color as I could possible get from our orange trees, YES... the oranges and batatas are from our farm, a true blessing, but lots of hard work. The funniest part is that I had to go out twice to get oranges because in the sunlight they looked yellow-orange, but when I got inside my home they were greenish. I did have a nice time looking for "orange" oranges, some may still not be as orange as the ones in US, but they are close and tasted great too!

Baked Sweet Potato Cups

(Adapted from Southern Living  magazine)

 
Ingredients:
3 pound medium-size sweet potatoes
6 large navel oranges
½ cup butter or margarine, melted
2 teaspoons grated orange rind
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup whipping cream
2 large eggs
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground  ground cloves

Topping:
½ cup finely chopped pecans
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter or margarine, softened
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preparation:
1. Place sweet potatoes in an aluminum lined baking sheet and bake at 400ºF (200ºC) for 45 – 60 minutes or until tender. Let cool, cut in half and scoop out pulp reserve and discard skins.

2. Cut oranges in half, remove pulp and reserve for another use. Rinse orange rind cups twice in cold water and sprinkle with a little white granulated sugar, reserve.

3. With an electric mixer beat sweet potato pulp at medium speed for a minute; add melted butter, the juice of one orange, orange rind, vanilla, cream and eggs, beat for 2 minutes. Add the next 7 ingredients. Beat at medium speed until smooth, remove any tough fibers if necessary.

4. Spoon sweet potato mixture evenly into orange cups and place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake at 350 ºF (175ºC) for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, Combine five topping ingredients and sprinkle evenly on top of each cup bake for an additional 5-10 minutes or until golden brown.



Note:
a) The sweet potato mixture rises in when baked, so just fill cups up to the top line.

b) Scooped orange cups and sweet potato mixture can be made one day in advance. Store them wrapped in plastic separately in the refrigerator until ready to assemble and bake.

c) YESSSS ... you can bake in a baking dish. You may also add mini marshmallows to the pecan topping and bake until marshmallows begin to melt a little and become golden brown.

Yield: 12 servings

I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. - 1 Corinthians 6:12-19