Salad days...BBQ chicken salad with creamy avocado garlic dressing

La Diva just loves the vibrant colors of Miami Beach!

Ahhhhh....darlings, it's so hot that La Diva has not been cooking hardly anything at all! In sticking with my promise of easy summer salads for main meals, here's a great recipe for a salad that everyone will love! Spicy barbeque chicken salad with a cool 'n' creamy avocado dressing.....mmmmmm.......

La Diva's BBQ Chicken Salad with Creamy Avocado Garlic Dressing
Serves two

BBQ chicken:

At least an hour before dinner (if not longer), rub two or three boneless, skinless chicken breasts with your fave bbq rub. La Diva uses brown sugar, white sugar, paprika, garlic salt, chili powder, cumin, salt and black pepper. Grill and baste breasts with your fave sauce! (Bottle is fine, hey, it's HOT and it's SUMMER and that = convenience!)

Set aside to cool. Go to beach.

No, darlings, this isn't La Diva and gal pal but it might as well be. The BEST purchase I've made this summer is for two collapsable beach floats! These are perfect for those days when you just have to be in the water to stay cool and there is no wave action happenin'! When it's time to go, just deflate and collapse into a circle and carry off! The best thing about these floats is that you can sit up in them AND lay back! aaaaahhhh.....

La Diva likes sitting up for two reasons:

1. It's always good form to see what's going on in the ocean and not get "too" relaxed.
2. And, how the hell can you drink your cocktail laying back on a float?!

After an hour or two, come back from beach and pull it together for dinner!

JICAMA: Here's a photo just in case some of you aren't familiar with this excellently crunchy and refreshing vegetable. (the "J" is pronounced like an "H"!) Click on the photo to learn more about it!

Salad:

Add to a layer of mixed greens:

• 1/2 ear of fresh cooked corn
• jicama julienned
  
• red pepper slices
• red onion slices
• celery sliced thin
  
• carrots julienned
  
• tomatoes

Cut chicken into slices and fan across top of salad and veggies.

One of the many noisy cigarette boats on Miami Beach. I love this photo though as it's a perfect representation of the beautiful color of the water here in on South Beach! Paradise!

Creamy avocado garlic dressing

1/4 ripe avocado
1 clove garlic
1 T mayo
1 T low fat or fat free Greek yogurt
1 T olive oil or canola oil
1 T white wine vinegar
1 T fresh lime juice
2-3 T milk (I used low fat)
salt and pepper to taste

Take avocado and garlic and put into jug to use with immersion blender. Add all ingredients except for the milk and blend well. Add milk by the spoonful until well blended and dressing can be easily poured. Do not make too thin.

Click on the photo to see all of its crunchy refreshing textures!

Result: Wow! One of La Diva's fave salads! The bbq chicken is slightly spicy and sweet and works great with the crunchy jicama and celery. The corn adds another texture and enhances the Southern-style flavor profile. The creamy coolness of the dressing is divine! Gotta go, the beach is callin'!!!! Ciao!cooking class, cocktails, parties, cocktail party, Miami, coral gables, events, bartending class, cocktail class, Laura Lafata, Miami Beach, miami cooking classes, bachelorette parties, bachelorette party

Just sayin'!!

La Diva's Indonesian-style lychee vanilla vodka snow cone!

Click to see the gorgeous details of this beautiful Balinese art!

Darlings, today's post was inspired by the dreadfully hot weather here in Southern Florida. For the last week it's been well into the '80's and up to the low '90's each day and with humidity thrown in at 100%, it's equatorial, tropical and DAMN HOT!!! Unless one is living the life aquatic or are holed away in a darkened, air-conditioned room, it's quite miserable out!

La Diva was suffering from heat exhaustion yesterday by over-doing it on her bike in the middle of the day (duh!) Today I was still feeling the wrath of the evil sun with an agonizing skull-pounding headache and was craving a good old-fashioned coke slurpee to cool myself off. Of course, the once-a-year that I want a freakin' slurpee, the stupid machine was not working properly and all that came out was the syrup. Sigh...no joy. Unable to enjoy the other sickly sweet flavors on tap, La Diva thought of a Plan B.

Now, very determined to have some icy cool refreshment and heat relief, La Diva trudged home wearily alongside DJ Nevah L8 and with my headache hammering away, picked up a bag of ice and came up with this concoction based on treats from my past life in Sydney.

As you know, La Diva lurves her Asian food and was reminded of what used to cool her down when traveling to steamy Bali and her fave Indonesian restaurant in Sydney: The Indonesian version of a snow cone, es campur.

Indonesian sweet treat es campur is like a fruit cocktail made with a variety of fruits, syrups and jellies all over shaved ice!

This Indonesian refreshment (mixed ice) is sold from street vendors during festivals but I've only had it in restaurants at the end of a meal. In typical Asian fashion, es campur is a refreshing snow cone with some pretty surprising stuff in it. Ingredients can include some sort of sweetening syrup like grenadine, condensed milk or coconut milk, fruit such as pineapple, mandarin oranges, lychees, jackfruit or mangoes all over cool and delectable shaved ice. Some versions include agar agar cubes (think of Asian-style Jell-o!) red kidney beans and even corn! There are as many styles of this refreshing treat as there are Indonesian islands!

La Diva's fave combo is: sweet condensed milk, freshly-shaved coconut slices and avocado chunks, and believe it or not, it is quite refreshing and tasty to have creamy avocado served sweet alongside coconut. I've found a recipe for es campur, you can click here to check it out. (But, DON'T get all caught up with the whole "eeeewwww, beans and corn" thang! If you are not game to try 'em, omit them and experiment with other flavors, fruits and syrups! But, TRY IT YOU MUST!!)

Now, let's get back to today's version of this icy treat!

The rice terraces of Ubud, Bali are divine!

La Diva's Indonesian-style Lychee Vanilla Vodka Snow Cone:

(Darling, it's easier to make than you think!)

1. First, it's imperative you have a food processor or some way to make ice "snow." If you have an old fashioned hand crank one, it'll do too!

2. Put the grater disk into the processor, put ice in feed tube and push down and process until you have filled the container. Put aside into another bowl and work fast so the ice doesn't melt before you use it!

3. I picked the lychees up from the Asian grocery but you'll find them in the regular grocery too either in with the canned fruit or Asian section. What? No lychees in your cupboard? Use pineapple chunks, mandarins or any other canned fruit packed in syrup.

4. The lychees are packed in syrup that you'll use for the mixed ice so don't strain the fruit!

5. Put four lychees per person into the base of the processor and for kicks, thinly slice a few kaffir lime leaves and process until smooth. Mint would be nice too. You can also leave the fruit whole if you want to eat with a spoon! (Hell, it's YOUR fruit cocktail!) Notice my ice ready to go on the side.

6. Take a bit of ice and add to a martini glass, add a bit of lychee and repeat until glass is full with lychee on top. Pour over about an 3/4 of an ounce of vanilla vodka (or not!) and two tablespoons of the lychee syrup.

7. Zest a bit of lime over the top, put in a frou frou cocktail straw and DEE-LITE in the cool tropical flavors!

Click on the photo to see the bevvie's icy goodness!!!

Hot damn, is that good! Of course you can omit the vodka and serve this as dessert for a very icy cool and easy summertime refreshment. Make it for your kids with bananas and some pineapple and condensed milk. I'm going to try making it again with ginger and lemongrass syrup, pineapple and passion fruit! The best part about it is, you can use a variety of canned fruits or syrups that you keep in the pantry, you don't even have to have fresh fruit!

Ahh... La Diva has been properly cooled and headache is fading. Yay, mission accomplished!

A study of the terrible teenage palate!

I'd like to say that my darling niece Boo would love to be in a tub of Cheetos but the little lass is SO PICKY that she'd complain that they were the puffs, NOT THE FRIED and would refuse!

Darlings, darlings, darlings! La Diva has missed her dear blogging buddies and has been on "holiday" for the last week and working VERY HARD as a Miami tour guide, taxi, on-call chef and ATM to her darling teenage niece Boo and her just as lovely 18-year-old friend Kitty! Sigh...but La Diva is TIRED. I know, I know, some of you out there even have your own teenage creatures to deal with yourselves 24-7 and feel NO PITY but La Diva is

SO NOT USED TO THEM! ARGH!

When one is living in close quarters with teenagers one discovers some nasty teenage habits: Like what they eat! La Diva had a small inkling but in reality had no idea how BAD the teenage palate really is!

Neon red and not a color found in nature, FLAMING HOT CHEETOS are number one on Boo's list of fave food staples! blech! Apparently, these chemical crunchies are highly addictive to kids and are the bane of teachers everywhere. Click here to listen to the NPR report from a few years back. (Mmmmm....extruded cheese flavored snacks!)

Ahhh, lovely little fishy-shaped cheddar crackers, I was not yet born when Pepperidge Farm introduced them in 1962. Back in the day, when La Diva was a teen herself, I would have these as a treat and they were bought by my parents in a 6 oz. package. In that small pouch, SIX PEOPLE could partake in 55 fishies at 140 calories per serving with five grams of fat. Boo insisted on getting the BUCKET SIZE of fish crackers at a whopping 33.5 ounces! That is more than TWO POUNDS OF CHEDDAR CRACKER CRAP!!!

If the serving size is the same, approximately one ounce, then the carton should be enough for 33 people!! In less than a week, she managed to put a healthy dent into it and then took the rest with her on the plane when she left! La Diva can't imagine the havoc that ingesting almost 168 grams of fat will cause on her cute niece's thighs (and her veins!) in a few more years when time will not be so forgiving!

Besides for parties, why would you need TWO POUNDS OF JUNK FOOD all in one handy container?

Kitty couldn't LIVE without her ranch dressing and insisted that she needed it with everything! When we were going to eat leftovers from the restaurant the night before, she said she couldn't eat them as she had no Ranch dressing! She went to the convenience store to get some and lo and behold, found they had none and could not understand why. La Diva told her she's SOL!!!

Ok, La Diva KNOWS she sounds like a cranky old lady when she says this but since when is it not considered rude for guests tell you what they will and won't eat? La Diva was starting to feel like the tail was wagging the dog after a few of these demands, er, conversations.

Here's a ranch dressing fountain, like ANYONE NEEDS FREE-FLOWING CHEMICAL CRAP on tap! yikes! Here are the chemicals, oops, I mean ingredients from the Original Hidden Valley Ranch bottle:

Vegetable Oil (Canola and/or Soybean Oil) Water, Egg Yolk, Sugar, less than 2% of Buttermilk, Salt, Lactic Acid, Vinegar, Modified Food Starch, Disodium Inosinate and Disodium Guanylate, Dried Garlic, Dried Onion, Phosphoric Acid, Monosodium Glutamate, Xanthan Gum, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Spices, Disodium Phosphate, Sorbic Acid and Calcium Disodium Edta As Preservatives. YUM YUM!!!

Ok, we ALL KNOW that kids can be picky when it comes to eating and teenagers have hollow legs and will eat you out of house and home. But what La Diva wants to know is:

WHEN DID THE HUGE "SNACK" PORTIONS COME INTO PLAY?

and

WHY DO THE KIDS NEED TO CONSTANTLY BE EATING?

There was a time when one could not get a bag of Starburst chews or a bucket o' cheddar crackers besides at Halloween. In fact, La Diva never even had the dough to buy such huge amounts of junk food when she was a kid. (although ONE TIME during summer vacation my sister and I snuck up to the grocery store and bought a can of frosting and ate most of it!)

And further.....we were not allowed (SHOCK, HORROR!) to even eat such a large amount of "snack" food. We hardly ever had snacks in our home, cookies and chips were considered special treats and fruit was de rigueur for lunch. We ate when we were hungry and could have a snack (aka fruit) but we were certainly not allowed to constantly "graze" on pounds of junk food!

The odd thing was, my sister, the PARENT, never said a word. If I dared to say anything, her defensive quip was: "They are on vacation." The problem that La Diva sees in that philosophy that so many times as adults we get tend to get overly sentimental about food from times past and then at 40-years-old and 40 pounds overweight, you hark back fondly to your childhood vacations in Miami when you were allowed to eat pounds of cheddar crackers and ranch dressing and do so every time you go to Miami as an adult just like old times. Not good.

No longer content with just a packet of Starburst candies, teenagers MUST buy the chews in huge bags that La Diva only bought for Halloween treats!

What happened? Did parents just give up? Do kids today have too much disposable income and freedom? Have parents lost control? Are kids today super-spoiled and over-indulged? And, most importantly, how does La Diva handle these incidents when seeing her lovely niece engage in this self-destructive behavior that will surely lead to cottage cheese thighs, a lifetime of bad food choices and hysterical crying in myriad department store dressing rooms?

Comments?

I'm a big ol' hambone!

A HAMBONE with an uber-ego and several shows on Food Network! blech!

Darlings! It's time to break some rules here! Yep, La Diva swore she'd never write a negative post but after seeing Guy Fieri's latest cooking disaster, La Diva just HAD TO break her own rule and gripe!

What's got La Diva's knickers all in a knot? Food Network's "Guy's Big Bite episode: Thai it, Yuu'll Like it" (his spelling) where GF attempts to teach America about making a Thai green curry. Darlings, seriously, it's like watching a train wreck!

You know, La Diva doesn't mind too much when non-Asian cooks and chefs "stylize" Asian recipes to make it a bit easier and less mysterious for the novice cook, La Diva even does it herself. But Fieri completely disregards basic Thai ingredients and flavor profiles and has La Diva wondering if he's ever even eaten proper Thai food? His Thai green curry paste includes the following, very non-Thai tasting ingredients:

• ground ginger (best used in gingersnap cookies, NOT proper Thai food!)
• ground cloves (best used in pumpkin pie, NOT proper Thai food!)
  
• hot curry powder (best used in Indian cooking, NOT proper Thai food!)
  
• anchovy paste (best used in Italian cooking, NOT proper Thai food!)
  

Not one of these give the correct flavor profile for traditional Thai cooking and in fact lean more towards Indian. While GF DOES use Asian fish sauce in his recipe, his inclusion of anchovy paste just baffles La Diva. WTF?!

What GF reminds La Diva of....bland canned ham.

He further adds insult to injury by adding the following "toppings:"

• pear chutney
• bacon
• chopped tomatoes
• hard boiled eggs
• raisins
• coconut

Again, La Diva has to wonder if GF is perhaps mixing up his countries as some of those toppings would be more fitting for an Indian curry than on a Thai curry?! La Diva has NEVER been offered bacon or eggs or raisins in any Thai restaurant and I've eaten in a LOT OF THEM. Crikey, do they even HAVE raisins in Thailand? I doubt it.

To view the entire "dog's breakfast" of a recipe click here. Sorry, Guy, you seem like a nice "guy" but PLEASE stay away from the Americanized "Asian" recipes and stick to what you know: fried dude food.

Food Network goodie-goodies: The Neelys, there's more saccharine in them than in their bbq sauce!

All this has got La Diva wondering:

Am I Food Network material?

Rachel Ray, Food Network's "good girl," gets naughty for her photo shoot for horny-boy rag FHM.

Which Food Network chef is more boring? yawn......It's close....very close!

La Diva loves the irreverence of her fave snarky chef Anthony Bourdain! (Nice bone, Tony!)

When one looks up to these gals as role models, you KNOW you aren't Food Network material!

La Diva thinks she's more Bravo TV than Food Network!

Anthony Bourdain sports a tee from La Diva's fave local dive bar, Mac's Club Deuce on Miami Beach. Happy hour starts at 8am and goes til 7pm daily! Ahhhh....NOT Food Network approved! Tee hee!

What say you? Tired of the goody-goody blandness of Food Network "stars" and their equally bland dishes? Comments? Diatribes? Snarkiness? DO TELL, La Diva wants to dish!cooking class, cocktails, parties, cocktail party, Miami, coral gables, events, bartending class, cocktail class, Laura Lafata, Miami Beach, miami cooking classes, bachelorette parties, bachelorette party

Salad days...Spicy, crunchy Thai beef salad!

Darlings, it's been SUCH AN UPHILL battle for La Diva and her dieting...two pounds off, one pound on, three pounds on, four pounds on...... YIKES! Ah well, what can be expected when one drinks her own weight in wine and cocktails each week? Sigh...

So in spite of the setbacks, the weekly salad selections as refreshing and light summer dinners continues and La Diva is back on track! As you well know, La Diva loves Asian food so decided to head to Southeast Asia for added inspiration and also to offer me some caloric restraint without sacrificing taste!

I've loved Thai food since the first time I tried it in Chicago in the early '80's. That's when La Diva had her first Pad Thai noodle and would add extra dried chili, torturing myself, and with tears in my eyes, would quench my burning tongue by greedily slurping up creamy Thai iced coffee! Ahhh, dee-lite-ful!

Then when I moved to Sydney in 1993, I was living so close to Southeast Asia and Thai food was so prevalent, that I was able to eat very authentic Thai food about four times a week (and therefore cementing my love affair with it!)

Kaffir limes don't look anything at all like Persian limes with their bumpy skins! Although the skin and juice are utilized, it's actually the leaf of the kaffir lime that is used predominately in Southeast Asian cuisine. Click here for more kaffir lime info.

Today, I'd like to explore La Diva's take on Thai beef salad.....but first, let's talk about what ingredients will give you that authentic "Thai" taste! (Cuz, honey, slappin' a bit of sweet chilie sauce on some grilled beef don't make no Thai beef salad!)

To me, Thai food encompasses these flavor profiles: sour, sweet and savory. That profile can easily be achieved if you use a combination of ingredients that will give your Asian dishes that genuine Thai taste. Once you master the flavor profile of Thai cooking, there will be no stopping you!

Kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass flavors dominate many Thai dishes!

Here are some ingredients commonly used in Thai cooking and I've offered links with more information to help familiarize you with them:

• lemongrass
• fresh ginger root
• cilantro aka coriander leaves
• kaffir lime leaves
• palm sugar
• tamarind
• Thai chilies
• siracha chili sauce
• coconut milk
• fish sauce or Nam Pla
• fresh basil or Thai basil
• red curry paste
• green curry paste

Kaffir lime: These shiny double leaves are prized in Thai cooking.

With the exception of the kaffir lime leaves, all of these ingredients are pretty easy to obtain at your local grocery in the Asian food section. Tamarind is also used in a lot of Latin cooking so you may find that ingredient in Latin grocery stores as well. If you don't have an Asian grocery, you may buy these ingredients online but try to get FRESH kaffir lime leaves and not DRIED as there is a huge difference in flavor.

Let's get started! (C'mon now, don't be scared to try something new!!!)

La Diva's Spicy Thai Beef Salad

1-2 lb. piece of flank steak
2 T red curry paste
1/4 c coconut milk
2 T fish sauce
3 T palm sugar (can substitute brown sugar)
4 fresh kaffir lime leaves cut into very fine slivers (I use scissors. When I mean "fine" I mean about a millimeter in width!)

One day before, mix all ingredients together for marinade and pour over steak and seal in a zip lock bag, refrigerate, turn a few times if you remember. Take out the next day, scrape off excess marinade and heat up grill. Grill meat until medium rare and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Set aside.

La Diva's Thai lime dressing
:

Squeeze juice of one small lime
2 T canola oil
1-2 T white wine vinegar
1 T brown sugar or palm sugar*
1 T fish sauce
1/2 t siracha chili sauce
1 T minced cilantro

Place all ingredients into a jar and shake until sugar is dissolved and all ingredients are well mixed. Set aside.

*palm sugar generally comes in a hard cake so you have to grate it before you can use it!

This salad is packed with flavor and Thai goodness! Clickety-click on the photo to check it out!

Puttin' it together:

On two large salad plates put

• a layer of greens
• shredded carrots
• finely sliced red onions
• fresh snow peas cut on a bias into bite-sized pieces
• red, yellow or orange pepper slices
  
• finely sliced cucumber rounds

Fan out layers of the steak and dress the salad. Top with chopped peanuts and eat!!

Result: Wow! This is one of La Diva's most favorite and flavorful salads. The meat is divine as the kaffir lime adds such an aromatic citrus flavor, the coconut milk is less prevalent yet combines with the curry paste to give that authentic Thai taste. DON'T BE TEMPTED to omit the fish sauce, that is one of the main flavor components that give Thai food that very real depth of flavor.

If you are a "texture" person like La Diva, you'll love all the crunch and zest of this satiating salad! เพลิน (enjoy!)cooking class, cocktails, parties, cocktail party, Miami, coral gables, events, bartending class, cocktail class, Laura Lafata, Miami Beach, miami cooking classes, bachelorette parties, bachelorette party

Blue Monday

Salad days...Roasted sweet potato and black bean salad with cumin amd coffee rubbed pork

Peppers are considered one of the worst vegetables to retain harmful pesticides. Click to download a helpful shopping guide from the Environmental Working Group on what produce to avoid.

Darlings, it's time to get serious for a second! Ever since La Diva started buying organic produce from Community Supported Agriculture, I've been trying to be very conscientious about avoiding eating produce that retains harmful amounts of pesticide residue. Some of the worst offenders are:

• apples
• bell peppers
• celery
• cherries
• imported grapes
• nectarines
• peaches
• pears
• potatoes
• raspberries
• spinach
• strawberries

Master's Touch Organics produces gorgeously sweet mini bell peppers

As La Diva has been doing a number of salads each week for main meals where I am eating uncooked produce, I think it's important to eat organic for not only taste but for health as well, natch! Seeing as non-organic red peppers are one of the worst offenders on the list, La Diva found some wonderfully sweet miniature red, orange and yellow peppers for the salads.

What's great about the mini peppers is that you can use one whole pepper per salad without having to use part of a regular red pepper which generally spoil quicker once cut! This allows me to keep fresh peppers longer without waste while also avoiding pesticide ridden produce. Plus there are hardly any seeds in the mini peppers. The box also contains about 10 mini peppers for the price of just one large pepper!

Go on, click on the photo!!! That pork sure tasted succulent, what a refreshing salad!

Roasted sweet potato and black bean salad with cumin and coffee rubbed pork loin*

Pork and rub ingredients:

One small pork loin roast or do what La Diva did and cut a large one into thirds! (about 1.5 lb. piece)

Spice rub:
finely ground coffee (make sure you grind this very finely to a powder or else it will only add a bitter taste and burn)
ground cumin
garlic salt
salt
freshly ground black pepper
chili powder

Combine ingredients to taste and rub over entire loin. Refrigerate and take out about a half an hour before roasting.

Meanwhile...

Oh dear....This photo needs no explaining...or does it? blech! La Diva will never look at lettuce the same way!

Roasted sweet potato black bean salad:

1 large sweet potato, peeled
1/2 can rinsed black beans
1/4 red onion, diced finely
3 T cilantro
juice from one lime
extra virgin olive oil
Salt, pepper and ground cumin to taste

Preheat oven to 450. Dice sweet potato into small cubes, put in roasting pan. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil generously over the sweet potatoes and toss to coat evenly. Add a generous amount of salt. Make sure potatoes are all in one even layer in the pan. Roast on high heat until brown on all sides and cooked through, checking every 5 minutes and turning.

Let cool to room temperature and add all ingredients together, set aside. Salt and pepper to taste. Turn down oven to 350 degrees.

Heat a heavy based skillet with some olive oil and sear all sides of the meat. Pop into oven and roast until just cooked. Don't overcook and remember it will still cook a bit when it's resting out of the oven.

Puttin' it together:

Add a layer of greens and finely sliced cucumbers on a plate. Add a fair amount of organic red or yellow pepper rings. Dress lightly with extra virgin olive oil, white wine vinegar and salt and pepper. Cut rested and cooled pork thinly and fan several slices over greens and veggies. Generously top off with sweet potato black bean salad.

A Southwestern sunrise by David Rothermel

Result: DAMN, I JUST LOVE ROASTED SWEET POTATOES! The caramelized flavor melds so nicely with the cumin and coffee-rubbed pork and mellow black beans. The cilantro and lime gives the salad the nice bright citrus kick along with subtle smokey Southwestern flavors from the rub and potato salad.

This salad is full of color, protein and is low carb to boot! And La Diva is lovin' the crunchy texture of the peppers with the light crunch of the roasted yams.

*This salad is BIG FELLA APPROVED and meets the strict satiety guidelines of DJ Nevah L8!
cooking class, cocktails, parties, cocktail party, Miami, coral gables, events, bartending class, cocktail class, Laura Lafata, Miami Beach, miami cooking classes, bachelorette parties, bachelorette party

La Diabolita's Delight: Mango and chili, a marriage made in HELL!!

Darlings, what is it about mangos that makes it pair SO WELL with chilies? It started out innocently enough for La Diva with mango salsa way back in the '80's and then it just exploded from there. I began to experiment with mango and chilies in a variety of ways, forcing it on people, watching them eat it and sweat and then shamelessly wanting more, needing more, begging me for more....ahem. Now, La Diva can't seem to make mango anything without throwing in a bit of chili into the mix for the added intensity of flavor.

As per usual Sunday custom, La Diva is participating in Karmic Kitchen's Dim Sum Sunday challenge for FUN! SUMMER! DRINKS! And, honeychile, you KNOW that La Diva is all about the cocktail thang! (well, you know a cocktail is LA DIVA'S VERSION of a summer drink!)

La Diva's Mango Jalapeno Black Pepper Vodka

Here's what La Diva Diabolita did! I got a large plastic container with a spigot and added:

1.75 liters of vodka (not Gray Goose but something more economical)

12 mango pits (I just peeled and chopped an entire bag and La Diva thought to herself: Why use the actual mango pieces I worked so hard on when there is still plenty of flesh on the pits? In they went!)

1 large jalapeno, quartered, seeds and all
10 black peppercorns

Now, put it in the fridge and leave it! Or...if you are anything like my sidekick DJ Nevah L8, you'll get out a shot glass and have to try it every few days....just to make sure its ok!

After two weeks, the flavor is EXCELLENT! Wow, the taste is slighty sweet from the mango and the hit from the pepper and chili comes on like a slow burn. Loverly, darlings, almost addictive!

Hot! Hot! Hot!

Ok, besides getting wasted doing shots of this potent stuff, what to make with it? Not to worry, La Diva's got an old standby I'd like to share with you along with a new drinky-poo from DJ Nevah L8!

Diabolita's Delight!

2 oz. mango chili pepper vodka (I've found that Absolut also makes a mango black pepper vodka!)
1/2 fresh lime, squeezed
1/2 oz. chili simple syrup (simple syrup infused with birds eye chilies or jalapenos a few days before!)
1/2 c fresh mango
ice

Blend, baby, blend! Yeah, I know blended drinks are not "in" anymore but I still love to serve these in the summer and have been slurping, er, drinking this particular one very ladylike for years! I usually make it with the chili syrup and tequila though for mango chili margaritas! The peppery mango is so perfect for blended drinks and the flavor is so "more-ish" and then all of a sudden, that chili hits you! BAM! (DAMN that Emeril, I feel I can't say that word anymore without thinking of him!)

La Diva loves the subversive art of L.A. artist Coop. Click on the voluptuous devil girl to get to his site but be warned, it's xxx!

Hey, for your more adventurous types: Wanna make these spicy but refreshing cocktails REALLY HOT and IMPRESS YOUR FRIENDS? Cut the end off a lime off and scrape away any flesh. Float on top of the drink, pour a bit of OP Rum into the lime "bowl" and light on fire!

Now, that's a FLAMIN' HOT LA DIABOLITA DRINK Darlin'!

OH, IT BURNS, IT BURNS!

(drink recipe courtesy of DJ Nevah L8 who was wingin' it)

Fill a Collins glass 3/4 with ice
2 oz. mango chili pepper vodka
1 oz. chili simple syrup
squeeze half a lime
top with soda

I think for something fun La Diva would top it off with ultra thin slices of fresh kaffir lime leaves as well! Light and refreshing and not nearly as filling as a blended drink (full of all that heavy fruit and ice! hehe!) which means YOU CAN HAVE MORE! YAY!

Darlings, DO TELL, what is YOUR FAVE SUMMER COCKTAIL? La Diva wants to hear all about it! Ciao!


THIS POST IS DEDICATED TO LADY FIFI (AKA "CARLOTTA!"), MY LONGTIME BEST GAL PAL, BIG SISTER-THAT-LEADS-ME-ASTRAY-EVERY-TIME, PARTNER IN CRIME AND THE ORIGINAL DEVIL GIRL! cooking class, cocktails, parties, cocktail party, Miami, coral gables, events, bartending class, cocktail class, Laura Lafata, Miami Beach, miami cooking classes, bachelorette parties, bachelorette party

Salad days...Grilled shrimp n bacon n avocado salad with shallot mustard dressing!

Well, darlings, after the lovely and luscious birthday dinner I made for DJ Nevah L8 (for dinnah!) it's time to get back to the salad dinners again!

This salad is easy, light and quick, perfect for a filling weekday dinner, but remember, if you load up your salads with too many fattening ingredients and dressing, you can eat as many calories as if you had a cheeseburger and fries!

Oddly enough, La Diva thinks that avocado coconut ice cream sounds delicious! Click to get the recipe!

La Diva knows there is a fair amount of fat in avocado but it's the "good" fat and has no cholesterol. You can omit the bacon if you like but I like the crunch and saltiness a slice or two adds. If you cook it well, a little will go a long way and you can get a hit of flavor with only one piece each. Not too worried about calories and cholesterol? Have two!

Additionally, shrimp are a great, low-carb and low-fat choice; full of nutrients and the "good" cholesterol!

Here's what La Diva did:

La Diva's grilled shrimp n bacon n avocado salad with shallot mustard dressing!

Season about 6-8 medium shrimp with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and mixed herbs. Heat grill.

Microwave 2-4 slices of bacon on plate lined and covered with paper towel for about 3-4 minutes on high until crisped and completely cooked through. This will produce an extra crispy bacon and the paper towel will absorb the extra fat. Cool and set aside.

Cook shrimp quickly on a hot grill for about three minutes tops. Take off and put on plate, cover with foil and set aside.

For dressing, in a small jar add:

1 small shallot, minced
1 T champagne Dijon mustard (or plain Dijon)
Squeeze 1/2 lemon
1 t honey
3 T quality extra virgin olive oil
To taste: add white wine vinegar

Shake vigorously and add salt and pepper to taste. Adjust vinegar as you need it, don't make it too sour!

Click on the photo...mmm, mmm, nothing like some grilled scrimpy salad n bacon!

On two large dinner plates put:

Layer of greens
Halved grape tomatoes
Slices of red or yellow peppers

Slice one small or 1/2 large avocado and fan over two plates
Add the shrimp
Drizzle mustard shallot dressing
Crumble bacon over top
Season with crystal sea salt and grind some fresh black pepper and serve! EAT!

Result: I just LOVE the crisp bacon texture with the creamy avocado! And then of course, you get that nice POP of shrimp and the crunchy peppers! The mustard shallot dressing is so perfect with all the ingredients and does not overpower but enhances. This salad is very refreshing and light for those hot summer nights! And, this is the kind of meal you can do anytime if you keep a well-stocked pantry and avocados handy.

La Diva will feature a main dinner salad once a week, so keep on reading for more great salad ideas! Ciao, darlings!cooking class, cocktails, parties, cocktail party, Miami, coral gables, events, bartending class, cocktail class, Laura Lafata, Miami Beach, miami cooking classes, bachelorette parties, bachelorette party