La Cocina de Leslie: mangos

Happy June, amigos! It's the beginning of a new month, which means that it's time for The Secret Recipe Club big reveal. I don't know about you, but one of my favorite things about blogging is discovering new blogs to follow and making new friends. This month I was assigned a new-to-me blog called Sweet as Sugar Cookies written by Lisa. True to it's title, Lisa's blog is full of sweet and delicious treats. Some of the recipes that caught my attention were the Baked Pears w/ Feta Cheese Lisa made last month for SRC, Honey Yogurt Bread, Spicy Peach BBQ Chicken, Mango Bread, and Peach Pie Bars. I finally decided to go with the Peach Pie Bars, because they just sounded like the perfect summer dessert.

My only problem was that I couldn't find fresh peaches, and I really didn't want to use canned peaches for this dessert nor did I want to make something else. My heart, mind, and stomach were set on having the Peach Pie Bars. So, I turned to one of my favorite summer fruits and made Mango Pie Bars instead.

Oh my goodness! This just might be my new go-to mango dessert. I still can't get over how amazing they were. They tasted like Peach Pie and Peach Cobbler all rolled into one. Thank you so much for this recipe, Lisa! My Hubby & kiddies thank you too.

01 June 2014

Secret Recipe Club: Mango Pie Bars

Last week when we got back from our annual Semana Santa camping trip, we came home with a ton of food because we ended up cutting our trip short by a whole day and a half. We brought home enough food that I didn't have to do my grocery shopping until the end of the week. Among the food we brought home that needed to be used up ASAP, were some very ripe mangos. Like too ripe to enjoy with salt, lime, and chile powder. So, we decided to make mango agua fresca.

It was a Sunday, so Hubby had time to lend me a hand in the kitchen. He peeled and cut the mangos, then pureed them in the blender with some water. All I had to do was add the sugar. But...when it came time to taste the agua fresca, I realized that one of the mangos was on the verge of spoiling. The good thing is that none of the mangos had actually spoiled. That would have been disastrous. To lighten that overly ripe mango taste, which can taste a little medicinal, I added a little fresh lime juice. (Lime juice is a great way to lighten strong flavors be it in an agua fresca or soup.) This resulted in a delicious and refreshing agua fresca, perfect for these it's-so-hot-it-feels-like-summer kind of days. My hubby loved this Mango Lime Agua Fresca so much he asked me to make it again for him this weekend, but with mangos that weren't so ripe.