The third best thing...

Hey everyone!  So I promised you a recipe with a boatload of memories, and here is what I have for you todayJ

Rewind three years ago this month and you would find Scott & I on one of our favorite trips EVER:  Our honeymoon to Costa Rica (a place, we both agreed, we think we could visit YEARLY!)  And among the zip lining...

...beautiful (SPECTACULAR) sunsets...

...monkeys climbing on our heads...

...getting acquainted with the locals...

...and the world's most breathtaking place I've ever had breakfast...

...we also had some unexpected AMAZING eats (mostly had in a row of open air restaurants that overlooked the ocean.  I mean, can you even??)  And one of my absolute FAVORITE things I tried while we were there were the pulled pork AREPAS...

Arepas are little corn cakes that are popular in Central & South America.  It was seriously love at first bite, as I've been trying to find these ANYWHERE ever since!!

The only place I've seen them so far????  At the ITALIAN MECCA FESTIVAL: San Gennaro in NYC!!!!  You KNOW they must be good if I passed up a meatball sandwich for one of these mozzarella stuffed wondersJ

Sooooo since Arepas are lacking on menus in NEW JERSEY, I had to take the next best option.

OK...let's be honest, the next best option would be booking a trip back to Costa Rica.

So we went with the THIRD best option:  Making them at homeJ

I combined about 1/3 parts cornbread mix, 1/3 part masa flour & 1/3 parts water to form a dough...

Once the dough was able to be gathered (add more water if the dough is too dry), I flattened the dough into little round cakes and cooked them on an olive oil coated flat skillet...

(ps-the THINNER you make the cakes, the better!)



Cook on each side until browned.  The whole process from mixing to finished arepas is about 10 minutes flat.  Not too bad, right?? 

Next, it was time for the toppings.  You can mix and match any flavors that you want, but we went with our favorites:

1.- Cumin-coated seared pulled pork chops....

2.-Mashed black beans  (just drain, rinse, heat & mash...no muss, no fuss & No hydrogenated oils of most canned refried beans!)

3.-  GUACAMOLE!!!!!!!  (made SUPER quick by just mashing 2 avocados with a 1 small diced onion, a bit of lime juice, salt & pepper...super easy!)

And then it's time to layer...

...like... 

...so! J

And my last little addition:  my favorite 'convienece food'...

That's right, folks.  I have a secret LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEE of bagged 'preshredded lettuce.'  It's one item I don't mind paying extra for the convenience of it already shredded.  It brings me joy.  Just as it did when we had it on tacos last nightJ

Anyway...the arepas were lovely and all came together in about 20 minutes!  I almost could have saved MORE time and ditched the pork & just had the black beans & guacamole, since that was the best part!  They were good...but still no Costa Rica arepas.  (Scott, how can we fix that????J)

And as some of you may have saw from my Facebook post, I spent yesterday morning dragging my Mom to Cracker Barrel as I had been DYINGGGGGGGGGGG for more of their exceptional pancakes.  And we were even MORE excited when the 'winter special' of the day was: 

photo source

Oh. My. Heavens.  Just tooooo die for, with their sweet potato filling and CRISP pancake-y edges.  And the best part????  The BROWN SUGAR BUTTER!  Oh yes.  Go try these now!

Alright, we'll that's all I got for you today!  Have a good Thursday, everyone!!