Josefina's Carne Asada

Brightening up a steak with bold flavors in an easy marinade!

We have been suffering through a really unbearable heatwave, just like the rest of the world, and it's made getting excited to go outside even for just a few minutes pretty much impossible. Fortunately, Jess and I decided to try our hand at doing some indoor grilling that had some really fabulous results, which we're excited to share with all of you! 

Carne asada translates literally to "grilled meat," and its a hugely popular staple in northern Mexico, as well as other parts of the country. Read on to see how you can make some yourself, even if you don't have an outdoor grill!

Josefina's Chicken Fajitas

The perfect easy weeknight dinner!

So as many of my readers know, I am actually a really lazy cook when it comes to non blog related culinary adventures. Cooking after a long day at the office is not something I find especially relaxing, so I'm a big believer in cooking something big on the weekend and then rationing the leftovers over the course of the rest of the week. Because of that, I'm constantly on the look out for new things to add to my repertoire of dishes that create lots of leftovers. 

Take the humble fajita for example! This Tex-Mex classic is a great option if you're looking for something that you can put your own spin on, or follow a recipe that will get you a hot and tasty dinner on the table in about half an hour. Read on to see how you can make these for yourself!

Josefina's New Mexican Hot Chocolate

Warm yourself up with Josefina’s favorite breakfast treat!

We’ve had a really weird winter down in the Mid Atlantic, and I can’t decide if this is just how it is, or if I’m getting an up close and personal look at Global Warming, but in either case, here we are. I never know how to dress before leaving for work in the morning. This means I often end up waiting on the metro platform after work for a train that never arrives wishing I’d thought to pack my scarf or wear tights, or slowly suffocating in my wool coat and gloves. 

Since it’s still technically winter no matter what the temperature might say, I figured it might be time to feature an official American Girl recipe I’ve been eying for some time. This treat definitely helps take the edge off the cold, while being tasty enough to enjoy no matter what the weather’s doing outside.

Josefina's Apricot Sponge Cake

Sponge Cake Take 2!

And last but not least from last summer’s recipe vault, here’s Josefina’s apricot sponge cake! I’d been wanting to do a recipe for Josefina with apricots in it for a while. An apricot tree is an important plot point in her stories, and also apricots are in general pretty delicious, so it seemed like a perfect combination. 

Fortunately, the American Girl Party Handbook had a dessert suggestion that sounded pretty promising, and last summer I decided to break it out for a shot.

Josefina's Flan

Some good, old fashioned health food that's now better known as a tasty dessert!

Now that I've been doing this blog for over two years, I've become pretty comfortable going out on a limb and trying things I never would've thought of tackling before. Sometimes, this means I need to get creative in the kitchen, and it doesn't always work out as well as I would've hoped.

That's not exactly what happened here, but there were a couple speed bumps along the way in making this classic custardy treat. I'd never had flan before, and I didn't know much about it besides it's something that usually shows up on dessert menus at Mexican restaurants. Could be fun to try, right?

Josefina's Champurrado

Just the thing for a chilly day!

I love chocolate. I'm sure that doesn't come as a surprise, if you've been around these parts for long enough. But I usually try not to just make recipe after recipe using chocolate as a central ingredient.

This month? Is kind of accidentally turning into a chocolate history lesson. Until February, we're going to be talking about different ways people have used chocolate to make food just a little more interesting and delicious.

To kick it off, we're going to talk about champurrado, a hot, thick Mexican drink that can trace its history back to the first people who discovered the joys of eating chocolate and is still enjoyed by people today! That's some serious longevity! It's basically hot chocolate, but with a secret ingredient that makes this have an incredibly unique texture and thickness. Even if it doesn't turn out to be your new go to hot chocolate recipe, you'll be glad you tried it.

Josefina's Green Chile Stew

A tasty, simple stew that's perfect for a fall evening!

Fall is officially here! A little earlier than we'd like, considering we've already started to lose a fair amount of our leaves in my neck of the woods, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't love those sort of cool mornings where all you want to do is stay curled up in bed and enjoy your warm blankets for another couple minutes.

When you don't have that, at least there's simple stews like this one. Although it only has a handful of ingredients, this green chile stew is quite tasty and has enough heat to make you feel nice and warm, if not scald the inside of your mouth! I've had some hit or miss experience making recipes from American Girl cookbooks, but this one was pleasantly simple and was a success with my taste testers, so I'm considering it a success! Hopefully you will too, if you give it a shot.

Josefina's Green Chile Salsa

Another way in which I'm learning to appreciate mostly homemade foods!

Before starting this blog, there are several things I always sort of assumed would be difficult to make because most people I know choose to buy them prepackaged. Things like soup, sauces and salsa were all things I barely ever considered making myself because hey, if it was easy to make tasty, homemade versions of Campbell's or Pace or whatever, why would people - especially people who already love to cook, like my mom - buy them from the grocery store?

Obviously, I've learned my lesson, and this feature is no exception. Although it's definitely easier to just open a jar of salsa and dump it into a bowl - or just eat it straight from the jar - I have a much greater appreciation for the fact that most people choose to buy prepackaged foods because they're faster, not because it's more difficult to make them from scratch. I always assumed speed was just part of the equation, that maybe there was something inherently really, really hard about cooking, and it was only until I started digging in to this blog that I realized it's not that bad at all, really.

Well, most of the time. We can still have mishaps, as you'll hear about in a little bit.

Josefina's Bizcochitos

A New Mexican favorite that's perfect for the holidays!

While this isn't anything close to the Christmas cookies we usually have in our house at this time of year, I've been curious about what a bizcochito actually is and what it tastes like pretty much since Josefina came out over ten years ago. While I've got access to a diverse range of food and goodies in my neck of the woods, I'd never seen or heard of one except in the context of her books, and already, I've found out some neat trivia. Did you know there's such thing as a state cookie? I didn't before doing research for this post! I also discovered that most people I've seen since making these cookies had never heard of them before.

Fair enough, really, because even if they are the state cookie of New Mexico, they really only seem to have huge ties to that specific part of the world, and other places are a little less familiar with them. When I tried to explain that they were basically a sugar cookie with anise seeds and cinnamon sugar on top, my taste testers were convinced to give them a chance, and were surprised to discover they tasted like old fashioned Italian cookies they'd tried before! Who would have thought.

Josefina's Pumpkin Pastel

A really interesting spin on your favorite Thanksgiving dessert!

November is here, which means Christmas commercials, the sun going down before I leave work, and Thanksgiving, the latter of which is probably the only thing I genuinely enjoy about November.

Well, that and the fact that people still consider it to be pumpkin season, and as I've mentioned, I happen to be a fan of pumpkin. There's a part of me that almost wishes it was available as a flavor for things like ice cream and cupcakes year round - don't even get me started on the pumpkin pancake mix my mom usually breaks out at Christmas time! - but I have to admit, it's also kind of nice to have it as something to look forward to in the fall. It keeps it a little special!

So, needless to say, I was excited to discover that the recipe included with A Reward for Josefina featured pumpkin as one of the main ingredients. I know the last time I tried an American Girl recipe starring pumpkin was kind of a disaster, but I went into it with a fair amount of cautious optimism, and I think I'm pretty confident in saying it worked out way better than I thought it would!

Josefina's Black Bean Corn Salad

A tasty cold salad with the flavors of the American Southwest!

Bean salads are a relatively recent invention compared to some of the other dishes we've featured on A Peek Into the Pantry. They apparently were an invention first really published and talked about before the turn of the 20th century, and have remained a popular side dish and starter to picnics and dinners ever since. While this isn't an especially historical or cultural dish from the perspective of Josefina, its main ingredient is an important staple of Latin American cuisine, and has so for thousands of years! After trying it at my cousin's graduation party, I knew I had to give it a shot myself and share it with the rest of you!

It's a pretty quick side dish or starter to throw together for a party or dinner, or even just to eat on its own if you're looking for a meat free protein dish with a lot of tasty vegetables in it. I know I've been trying to be a little more health conscious in terms of what goes into my mouth - not that you'd know it from looking at what food I've been making for the blog for the last couple weeks - and often have a hard time finding things I actually like eating, but this fit the bill pretty nicely.

Josefina's Agua de Melon

A fun, different way to cool down this summer!

So originally, I wanted to do a series of posts featuring birthday treats highlighted in each American Girl birthday book, like I did with holiday treats last December. Unfortunately, between not having a lot of free time on my hands and kind of needing to cool it on how many desserts we go through a month, that plan has... kind of gotten away from me.

Still, I wanted to do something, so happy birthday, Josefina! Very late, but I suppose it's better late than never.

Josefina posed an interesting challenge at first because her birthday treats were a special bread and a cantaloupe. I'm sort of burnt out on trying to make bread work for me, and I mean, what is there to do with a cantaloupe that's not a fruit salad?

Well, little did I know that there was a very easy solution just waiting to be discovered!

Josefina's Three Bean Tortilla Soup

Whoever invented tortilla soup was a genius.

I think a lot of people are really intimidated by the idea of making their own soup - I know I sure was! Since it's so easy to just open up a can of soup and let the factory and your stove or microwave do the rest of the work for you, I definitely get how people might think making a soup is more complicated than it actually is. While I hope I've showed you guys that making soup is actually pretty easy, it does usually end up taking a long time to taste good.

This has become more of an issue for me than it had been in the past. Now that I have a full time job, and hopefully will continue to for quite some time, I've got much less time to cook than I did when I was unemployed and sadly poking at job websites trying to find someone to hire me. This means while I still like trying out new, exciting, complicated things, an easy recipe that doesn't take too much time to make is a nice thing to be able to throw together on a day where I'm already tired from work, and it's even better when it turns out to be something very tasty, filling and good for you! This hit all those notes, and was tasty enough that I would definitely make it again, and would highly recommend giving a try yourself if you're ever in the mood for something a little different than microwavable soup.

Josefina and Kirsten make Steak Sandwiches with Brie

A super fast way to spice up lunchtime!

Sometimes I'll come across a recipe or be told I should try something out that doesn't really fit any of the AG characters I've got at my disposal unless I really stretch the connection. I'm definitely not above doing that - I have, for example, considered letting Rebecca host some Italian or German recipes because Rebecca represents the time period, if not the culture of when some of my relatives came to the United States - and of course I've always got Kailey to host anything that just flat out doesn't make sense for a historical character to be the host of. Really, this sandwich probably should have been given to Kailey, because there's nothing much about it that says Kirsten or Josefina, and it's not like they're from similar cultures or parts of the world.

But there is a reason I picked these specific characters to be the hosts here, and that reason is...

Josefina's Chicken Enchiladas

Super tasty, but beware the corn tortillas!

Now I know I owe you guys an Ivy feature, and I promise I'm working on it. We have a (hopefully) really good recipe planned, but are hitting a snag in being able to find dumpling wrappers, since apparently our local supermarkets have severely downsized their Asian section. This means we need to head down to the big ("big") city on an expedition to an Asian market, and unfortunately, that meant we needed to reshuffle our schedule of upcoming recipes a little.

But honestly, I'm not too bothered. We would have had to head down there anyway to get an ingredient for another treat I'm hoping to feature at the end of the month. What is it? You'll just have to wait and see!

In the meantime, we're going to be doing a feature with the stowaway we picked up from our recent trip to American Girl Place New York! Her identity isn't much of a surprise - the header image and title of the post definitely give it away... - but I'm still very excited to reintroduce you guys to...

Josefina's Beef Mole Tamale Pie

Feliz Día de los Muertos! (Two days late.)

November 2nd was the last day of the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead. While my family doesn't celebrate it, and this is by no means an attempt at celebrating it, when a family friend mentioned that I was welcome to borrow her daughter's Josefina if I ever wanted to feature her on the blog, I figured this would be a good chance to reference and discuss this important cultural tradition in a way that would hopefully educate people who are just familiar with it because of the iconic art style used in decorations for the event.

Unfortunately, as I was sort of busy and burnt out this weekend from my mind numbingly boring yet oddly stressful new job, the post kind of fell by the wayside, so I'm getting it up a few days late. But better late than never, right?