In Puerto Rico, where I am from, there is a delicious trend! They make what are called “Sandwiches de Platano”. Basically they put everything, from steak to roast pork between two fried green plantains (tostones), instead of bread and call it a sandwich. And what a sandwich it is! Not only do you get less carbs (we could all use that) but you get more flavor! Here is my twist on the traditional hamburger, I call this one El Hamburger, and I hope this one shows up at your next outdoor shin dig!

El Hamburger
Guacamole Burger Sliders with Tostones & Pepper Jack Cheese

Burger Seasoning
3 tbsp culantro
3 tbsp cilantro
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tsbp onion powder
1 tbsp garlic powder
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp mustard
2 tsp salt
Pepper to taste

Guacamole
1 ½ haas avocados, chopped
½ red onion, chopped
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 lime, juiced
3/4 red pepper
1/2 green pepper
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
Large handful of cilantro, chopped
Large handful of culantro, chopped
½ tsp red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper to taste

1 lb ground beef (40/60 bacon to beef is delicious, but regular beef works too!)
Hot Pepper Cheese, grated
Unripen green plantains

Canola or neutral oil for frying
Hot sauce (optional)

 Directions:

1.    Chop all ingredients for guacamole. Pulse in food processor until diced. Add to avocado. Mash with fork. Add lime juice. Set aside.
2.    Season ground beef with burger seasonings. Set aside in fridge.

3.    Grate cheese. Set aside.

4.    Cut plantains on a bias (1 inch thick.)
5.    Pour enough oil to cover half the thickness of plantains.
6.    Heat oil to 375 degrees.
7.    Fry plantains briefly (under 3 minutes) until lightly golden.
8.    Remove. Flatten with tostonera.
9.    Refry until crisp and golden brown. Set aside on paper towels. Salt to taste.
10.    Portion seasoned ground meat into four patties (1/4 lb each).

11.    Pan fry on high heat first then reduce (do not flatten with spatula!) in 2 tbsp of oil. Cook to desired doneness.
12.    Assemble sliders with tostones, burger, grated cheese, and guacamole. Add (optional) hot sauce for extra heat.

And for those of you who speak Spanish, you can see me make this recipe with Karla Martinez from Univision’s Despierta América, here:

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What is not to love about a grilled cheese? The warm toasty bread, the oozy- gooey cheese, so I figured, why not add a Latin flare to one of my American favorites! So I decided to add some zing with chimichurri sauce, it is one of my favorite sauces around! I first learned about it while living in Miami Beach and since then I can’t touch an Empanada with out it! It’s traditionally served with grilled stead and is an essential part of the Argentinian parilla but it goes great with everything! Chimichurri works well as a marinade, and is also delicious on vegetables. Grilled Cheese + Chimmichurri = YUM

Chimichurri Sauce

1 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 cup cilantro, chopped
½ medium shallot, small diced
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil oil
1 tbsp water
½ tsp red pepper flakes

Bread
Cheese

Jalapenos, sliced thin

To make sauce:

Place ingredients in a bowl. Mix with olive oil.*Best if made early and set aside to marinate.
1.    Grate cheese on bread slices. Add jalapenos. Toast in Panini grill. Garnish with chimichurri sauce.

Or

2.    Grate cheese on bread slices. Add jalapenos. Add sauce inside sandwich. Toast in Panini grill.

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Here is how!

Basil Pesto

2 cups of basil leaves, tightly packed
1/2 cup aged parmesan cheese, freshly grated
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup olive oil, or as needed to make saucy
3-4 stalks of scallions
salt and pepper to taste

1. Thoroughly wash basil leaves, as they tend to carry a lot of sand/soil. Wash in large bowl of cold water. Let stand still for a minute until sand sinks to bottom of bowl. Lift up leaves. Repeat process.

2. Dry basil leaves on clean hand towel. Using a paper towel will not properly absorb all excess water.

3. Pulse basil, pine nuts, scallions in food process until smooth. Slowly pour in olive oil and pulse while doing this. Add salt and pepper*. *Parmesan cheese is already salty so be careful to add salt sparingly. You can always adjust later.

4. Mix in parmesan cheese without pulsing.

5. Reserve sauce.

Basic Salad

Mesclun lettuce
1 Red bell pepper
1/2 Shallot
1 Cucumber

1. Wash and dry mesclun lettuce.
2. Julienne red peppers.
3. Coarsely chop 1/2 shallot.
4. Quarter and salt cucumbers.

5. Reserve in fridge.
6. When ready to serve, toss all ingredients together with very little olive oil* and salt and pepper.
*Alternatively, you can leave salad undressed, as pesto is naturally oily and it may be preferable to have a fresh salad. Your choice.

Roasted Asparagus

1. Cut 1-2 inches off bottom of asparagus.

2. Drizzle olive oil. Add salt and pepper.
3. Roast in oven at 350 degree for 20 minutes or until asparagus is slightly blistered and cooked, but still has a crunch.

Linguine

1. Bring water with a pinch of salt and olive oil to rolling boil. I like to add celery stalks to my water and remove later to make it flavorful and flagrant.
2. Add linguine. Cook as directed on product label. I like pasta al dente, but you can cook to however doneness preferred.
3. When pasta is cooked, toss with pesto sauce. Plate with asparagus and salad. Enjoy!

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The first thing I tackled first was figuring out a theme and a location, in my case they went hand in hand. I am a member of this terrific arts club called the Salmagundi Club  and their parlor floor is just gorgeous, so I immediately thought that doing a retro theme for the shin dig made the most sense.

And since the newest import from the UK that I have recently become obsessed with is the fascinator, I thought that we should make the party’s theme:

“Sunday Best and Facinators Only”

The invites were pulled from a graphic designer we found on Etsy and tweaked a little by her to customize it.

I knew that we wanted to do this shin dig on a budget so my first step was to get with my friend and co-shower planner Tiffany and hit the local Goodwill.

I scheduled the event for a Saturday afternoon and high tea made so much sense, a little classy day for all our lady friends to come together! To get pretty tea cups I scoured shop goodwill.com to find beautiful mismatched tea cups from all over the country!

We created one large centerpiece for the buffet and drink table, a vintage baby scale from Goodwill decorated with vintage kids books, some more Goodwill finds, and flowers. I chose Gerber daisies because they look so joyful and they are my friend Robyn’s favorite flowers

We painted blocks to match the color scheme of the centerpieces and we scanned in printed vintage letters from a children’s book.

For the gift table we found an amazing vintage suitcase which was the perfect place for gift cards and gifts.

For each individual centerpiece for each table. Goodwill sourced Mason jars, were filled in with scanned images from a children’s alphabet book. Each table had a different letter!

We created a Baby playlist, all songs of all sorts of genres that had Baby in the title, even Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby!”

Everyone got into the spirit! We wore vintage coats and dresses

And we waited outside for the proud Mom and Dad to be to arrive!

The mom and dad to be arrived in a vintage car from the husbands company Creative Film Cars

During the shower we played a bunch of games!

Games we Played:

Change the Baby
This one was SUPE fun! We found a baby doll then timed each other taking off a diaper wiping and powdering her down and putting on a new diaper. The fastest time, believe it or not was under 10 seconds!

Even the daddy to be tried his hand at changing baby!

Guess the Bump
Olivia, one of Robyn’s dear friends brought a spool of pink ribbon, we each cut it to the length we thought was the circumference of Robyn’s belly and the closest to the real measurement won!

Trivia
Michelle spoke to both the mom an dad to be’s parents to get the scoop on what they were like as kids. We made paddles using card stock in the printer and tounge depressors, Mommy on one side and Daddy on the other. The person with the most answers correct won!

Baby Bingo
And to make opening baby gifts fun we made bingo boards for each guest!

Favors:

Tea Cup Candles
Tu give guests the incentive to win I wanted to create really great favors! I picked some of the most beautiful tea cups and turned them into candles, you can check out a full tutorial here on my website (http://evetterios.com/?p=6960). You can even decorate a little box of matches to go with them! I made 7 of them!

Rose tea

And for all the guests I found these cool green tea bag holders in the shape of a tea pot. I was able to get 25 for 20 dollars!!

We used rose bud teas and tied them in gauze pouches and added them to each tea tray so that each guest would go home with a fun, tastable and reusable souvenir of the day

A tea-rrific and (ladylike) time was had by all!

Evette Rios is a Puerto Rican lifestyle expert, writer, television host and native New Yorker. She is one of the stars of ABC’s The Chew, where she serves as field correspondent and roving reporter, covering events and dishing on new ways of using ordinary household items. She has also been a contributing design expert on Rachael Ray, where she’s known for hands-on advice, innovative crafts and dramatic room revisions. She is also National Spokesperson for Goodwill International. Learn more about Evette at http://evetterios.com.

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Materials
About a dozen used candle nubs
Tea cup and saucer
Metal bowl
Pot of boiling water
Plastic fork
Bamboo skewer

Find an old tea cup or a small ceramic bowl. This tea cup came from a thrift store and wasn’t in perfect condition, but it had a nice graphic pine cone on it.

Fill a medium-sized sauce pan with an inch or two of water, and place a metal bowl on top to make a double boiler. Use a bowl reserved for craft projects. You probably won’t want to use it for food afterward since it’s really difficult to remove all the wax.

As the candles begin to melt, remove the wicks with a plastic fork.

Save the longer wicks to reuse in the new candle.

Pour the melted wax into the tea cup. Break the burnt end of the wick off and make sure it’s long enough to reach the bottom of the cup. The wick will need to be about an inch above the wax.

Dip the wick’s end into the hot wax and wrap it around the center of a bamboo skewer. Lay the skewer across the top of the cup to keep the wick in place while the wax dries.

Once the wax is dry and hard cut the excess wick.

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Materials
2 glass containers: one thinner than the other
Jellybeans
Fresh cut flowers
Ribbon

Find a container that will fit inside another glass container, but will leave enough space in between for the jellybeans.

If the inside container is shorter than the outside container, prop it up with jellybeans, or do what I did, and tape some squares of foam core together.

I used two types of jellybeans, so to evenly distribute them I mixed them in a bowl first.

Fill the space between the containers with the candy.

Add water and arrange the flowers in the center container. Tie a pretty bow around the vase.

When I first placed the tulips into my arrangement they were dramatically flopped over. The next day they stood up straight and completely transformed the bouquet!

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Check out this video of a recent appearance on the TODAY Show where I show Kathie Lee & Hoda how to blow eggs.

Egg Ornaments

Materials
Blown-out, dyed eggs
Ribbon, beads, glitter and/or paint
Hot glue gun
18 gage galvanized steel wire
Wire cutters
Jewelers or needle nose pliers
String or jewelry wire

Blow out the insides of the eggs, dye them with traditional Easter egg dye, and let them dry completely. Using the carton as a drying rack is a great way to dry the eggs.

Decorate the eggs with ribbon, beads, glitter, paint, or any other way you like. Thread a piece of wire through the holes used for blowing out the insides. It’s easiest to start at the top of the egg where the small hole is, and push the other end through the larger hole in the bottom. Use a wire that is stiff enough to hold its shape, but easy enough to bend with pliers (like 18 gage galvanized steel wire).

Add some beads to the ends of the wire. Snip off excess, and bend the wire ends using jewelers or needle nose pliers into loops to secure.

As each egg is created, place them in a bowl or egg carton, so they don’t roll all over the place.

Attach a string or jewelry wire to the tops, so they can hang.

Hang the eggs in the window, from a chandelier, or a branch to display.

Easter Egg Centerpiece

Materials
Bouquet
18 gage galvanized steel wire
Jewelers or needle nose pliers

To add eggs to your favorite spring blooms, simply thread the wire through the egg the same way as the egg ornaments. Make a loop at one end of the wire, and make a bend in the other end to keep the egg from slipping. Use the excess wire as a stem and insert into the bouquet. I hot glued a little bird to one of the eggs for an extra springtime touch.

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A while back I got to strut my egg dying stuff when I did a segment on Today on NBC , you can check it out here. The segment was so much fun because I was able to work with 6 terrific kid accomplices.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Here I am with Michael, Morgan and Erin (3 of my 6 accomplices)

Here are some easy peasy Easter egg dying ideas that are great to do with kids!

Egg Dye 101

Instead of buying egg dying kits you can make your own dye with store bought food coloring. Here’s how.

Here is what you need:

- Food Coloring

- 4 ounces White vinegar

- Clear mixing bowl

- 2 ounces Water

I combine 4 ounces of white vinegar with 2 ounces of water, I like to warm it up in the microwave for 30 seconds or so, warm dye attaches to eggs better, then add 10-20 drops of food coloring. Make sure your bowl is deep enough to submerge the eggs completely. The more coloring the more intense the color of the eggs and leave your eggs in longer for a deeper color, for a quick color leave your eggs in for about 3 minutes.

Sticker Perfect Eggs

Use store bought stickers to decorate eggs, you could either put them on after you die the eggs to
decorate them quick and easily or put them on BEFORE you die them, then remove them to create a
relief.

Here’s an egg with a sticker, and one with a sticker relief

Herb Decorated Eggs

Create herb decorated eggs using herb sprigs and pantyhose. Cut up nylon panty hose can hold beautiful leaves in place while you stick them in dye. I LOVED little leaves of parsley!

Dinosaur Eggs

Kids LOVE to make these dinosaur eggs because they really turn out so crackled and old looking. All
you need are pieces of cheesecloth and some dye and voila! Pre-dye an egg in a prehistoric color, then wrap your eggs in a piece of cheesecloth then paint on a darker dye with a brush. The dye will get soaked into the cheesecloth and transfer to the surface of the egg.

Rubber Cement Eggs

Who knew that rubber cement could create such beautiful eggs? Just pour some over the top of the pre-dyed eggs, let them dry and then dye them as usual. the results are amazing!

Egg Animals

Create a egg menagerie, try these baby birds and bunnies. All you need to do is cut the pieces from construction paper and glue them on with Elmer’s Glue.

The birds looked super cute in a makeshift nest

The bunnies look cozy in a bed of moss

NO DYE EGGS IDEAS

Glitter Eggs

Who doesn’t love glitter, right? Create beautiful glittery eggs, just by rolling them in glue and then in a tray full of glitter.

Silk Dyed Eggs

Silk ties or pieces of old silk scarves can create these incredible eggs, just cut the tie into squares, wrap
it around the egg and let is boil in a vinegar water mixture. No Dye required!

Here is what you do:

- Cut up SILK neckties or SILK scarves into squares that could wrap around an egg

- Cut up squares of a neutral muslin, white t-shirt material, or even a light colored old bedsheet.

- Wrap an UNCOOKED egg in the silk

- Wrap the neutral fabric OVER the silk

- Twist or zip tie the eggs tight, like this

- Bowl the eggs in a PORCELAIN or GLASS pot, Needs to be NON Metal and therefor Non Reactive (I used my tea kettle!)

- Fill the bowl with enough water to cover your eggs

- Add 3 tablespoons of vinegar

- Bring water to a boil and then let it simmer for 20 mins (especially if you plan to eat the eggs)

- Let your eggs cool then unwrap them!

Tissue Paper Eggs

Tissue paper, the colorful kind that you wrap gift with can make a quick and easy to clean up dying
technique simply wet down the egg, put little bits of tissue paper on the egg, in any pattern, let it sit and
remove it!

Rice Crispy Treat Eggs & Creatures

These are super fun and don’t involve eggs! Shape rice crispy treats into “eggs” or bunnies and have kids decorate them. So fun!

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First, prepare the eggs. I like to boil mine because it’s easier than blowing out the eggs’ insides. Plus, the eggs become an instant snack that can be eaten at any time.

The best way to make hard boiled eggs is to put them in a big pot and cover them with cool water, so the water is about an inch over the eggs. Cover the pot and bring the water to a boil. Once the water is boiling, turn the temperature down to a slow simmer and cook for 15 to 20 minutes covered.

As soon as the eggs are done, submerge them in cold water so the yolks don’t become discolored.

I like to dry the eggs on a towel and place them back into the carton. That way, I can put them in the refrigerator while preparing the dyes.

Use any Easter egg dye you like and prepare the dyes according to the package instructions.

An easy way to embellish the eggs is to draw a design using a wax crayon. Drop the egg in the dye. The wax will displace the dye and reveal the design. This works best when using a light colored crayon and a dark dye.

You can also use melted wax to create designs. Melt a bunch of used candle stumps in a double boiler.

Dip the egg into the wax, or apply the wax with a brush.

Then dye your egg. The wax can be removed by placing the eggs in a 250-degree oven for a few minutes and then wiping the wet wax with a cloth.

Wrap a rubber band around an already dyed egg and then place in another color dye.

This works best when the original dye is lighter than the second dye.

For a multi-colored egg, just dip the ends in dye. Then, dye the whole thing in a lighter color.

If you want to get really fancy, use tissue paper and decoupage glue or acrylic gel medium to decorate your eggs. Just cut or tear the paper into any shape and paint the glue or medium on top. Keep in mind, you may not be able to eat these eggs because the dyes in the paper or glue may be toxic. However, if you make the effort to blow the insides of the egg out, this is a great technique.

While your eggs are drying, make an easy bird’s nest to display them in.

Make a small loop using any wire.

Wrap Spanish moss around the wire using a natural string like jute. The moss clumps together, so you only need to tie it in a few places.

Once the wire is covered, make another wire loop a little bigger than the first one.

Follow the same procedure, but leave the ends of the string long, so the two moss wreaths can be tied together.

Tie the wreaths together, so the smaller one is on the bottom. Then, adjust the moss to hide any exposed wire and fill in the center.

Fill the nest with Easter eggs for a nice centerpiece.

No matter how you decorate them, it’s always fun to make Easter eggs. Have a great holiday!

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