How to Slay a Halloween Marshmallow

How to Slay a Halloween Marshmallow

I tried to take the marshmallow out of the baking dish. It didn’t budge. I tried to press cookie cutters into it. The giant sticky blob remained firmly in the dish, as defiant as the Stay Puft Marshmallow man from Ghostbusters...

Do-It-Yourself (or Don't) Halloween Candy

Do-It-Yourself (or Don't) Halloween Candy

I decided to take it upon myself, with the help of my friend Adriana, to see if I could make Halloween candy from scratch. Our goal was to make orange-tinted marshmallows. Sometimes in life, things don't go the way you want them to. This was an example of one of those instances...

Our Family's Favorite Pasta Sauce

Our Family's Favorite Pasta Sauce

My kids love this sauce, and it’s versatile. They will eat it with any shape of pasta, tortellini, or ravioli. I spread it over my homemade pizza dough. It goes into my chicken and eggplant parmigiana, two more kid-friendly dishes. I use the sauce as a dip, to go with bread and fried calamari...

Easy Homemade Pasta, Step 2: Rolling Out the Dough

Easy Homemade Pasta, Step 2: Rolling Out the Dough

Rolling out the dough is the hardest step of making pasta but still, it's easier than it looks: just make sure to have plenty of extra flour on hand and sprinkle it liberally onto your rolling surface and the dough... 

Grilling Butternut Squash and the Daily Act of Inventing

Grilling Butternut Squash and the Daily Act of Inventing

One evening, with dinner guests on their way and nothing to serve as an appetizer, I invented this impromptu dish with leftover grilled butternut squash, cheese smuggled from the Cuban countryside, and Trader Joe's crackers shipped in our container ... 

How to Enjoy Any Exotic Fruit

How to Enjoy Any Exotic Fruit

The exterior of the anon is like no other fruit and brings to my mind the shell of a turtle, though the texture is like that of a very mushy banana. When it ripens, the fruit begins to bubble and split open, revealing a custardy white flesh specked with black, watermelon-like seeds. 

Improving Upon the New York Times' Most Popular Dessert Recipe -- with Mangoes

Improving Upon the New York Times' Most Popular Dessert Recipe -- with Mangoes

Living in Cuba, I don't enjoy reading recipes and cookbooks the way I used to. The list of ingredients often remind me of all the things we don't have in Cuba. But the New York Times recipe gave me inspiration instead...

The Secrets of Cuban Coffee

The Secrets of Cuban Coffee

I used to take coffee for granted, before I moved to Cuba. On the island, I am learning about another way to drink and make coffee -- it's a slower process, as Cubans use Italian-style espresso makers on the stove, but one that is just as rewarding as I discovered at my friend M's home recently.