Chocomangrous is our way of combining chocolate and mango together. Since we love the taste of the final product so much, we want the name of our new sweet discovery to be massive, so we added the suffix ‘rous’ – like the word monstrous. In other words, we wanted the name to sound a bit unique. There you go — Chocomangrous!

Alright, on to the recipe.

Part 1: Mango Pastillas

Ingredients

* 1 cup fresh milk – (we used 1% fat)
* 2 tbsps. sugar
* 1/2 tsp. butter
* 4 tbsps. full-cream powdered milk
* sweet mango cut into small cubes

Bring to boil the fresh milk and the sugar. Stir it constantly until it thickens. Once you reach that thick consistency, add the butter and the powdered milk. Mix and mix and mix. Take it out from the heat and let it rest until it is warm enough to handle. Divide the mixture into small chunks and flatten each chunk. Roll each flatten pastilla with 2 to 3 pieces of sweet mango inside. You can have as many mango pieces inside each roll, depending on the width of the pastillas when flattened. Set aside the rolls.

Part 2: Chocolate Mixture

Ingredients

* 2 cups of fresh milk
* 2 big bars of Hershey’s Milk Chocolate
* 4 tbsps of Mango puree
* 1/2 cup of almonds

Boil the milk and stir. Once it is boiling, add the chocolate bars and wait until the bars are perfectly melted and mixed with the milk. Add the mango puree and the almonds, stir and mix well. Continue stirring until it becomes a thick paste.

Part 3: Combining the parts

Get those containers you use for cupcakes. Arrange 2 rolls of mango pastillas in the bottom. Pour the chocolate mixture on top using a spoon. Make sure you put enough mixture to cover the mango pastillas.

Set aside for an hour inside the fridge to harden the chocomangrous a bit. You can sprinkle ground almonds on top upon serving.

Enjoy chocomangrous! If you want to try the recipe at home or copy the recipe, please give credit to this blog. Thanks.

It never ceases to amaze us how many dedicated fans there are of Whataburger. Well, here’s a great chance for you to prove yourself as part of that crowd.

On Tuesday, November 10th from 5-8 pm, we invite you to get decked out in orange from head to toe for an Orange Night Out. So dress up, dine in, show us how much orange spirit you have and get a Free Whataburger.

Enjoy your free burger!

Valerie Bertinelli is busy promoting her new book “Finding It.”

Video: Valerie Bertinelli Bikini Commercial

Speaking of pico de gallo, it is my favorite salsa in Taco John’s. Shhh, I could finish scoops of those in a flash. LOL. It is not so spicy nor salty. The combination of chopped tomato, onion, lime juice, fresh cilantro, cucumber, radish and (I don’t know the rest) are amazing that it goes well with my Potato Olé.

Since I am thinking of preparing my own pico de gallo, I found this pico de gallo salsa recipe provided by The Spice House.

Ingredients:
* 2 cups (about 4 medium) plum tomatoes, diced
* 3 tablespoons red onion, finely chopped
* 1 tablespoon fresh cilantro, minced
* 2 teaspoons jalapeno, seeded and minced
* 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper

Preparation Instructions: Combine the salsa ingredients in a small bowl, cover, and refrigerate until needed for up to 3 days.

That’s it! I might have my first pico de gallo salsa at home this weekend.

Thanksgiving with Friends

I promised to spare myself of the same fate here in Brookings and to avoid every enticement of buying the salted fish. Each time I passed that section of the Oriental store in Sioux Falls where it is displayed like it is calling my name, I think of my four male housemates: the tall Ukrainian, the fierce-looking Ethiopian and the chubby Bolivian and the likelihood of me turned into bits and pieces by them. So far, the evasion strategy is working flawlessly.

The smell caused by frying and using native spices in food can be viewed from two contrasting perspectives. From the familiar side (our side), the smell is the product of love and devotion to cuisines we grew up eating and smelling. From the unfamiliar side (not among us), it is smoke from a belching car, or worse, the putrid odor of a cow’s dung.

Those living alone in isolated houses, lucky you. Nobody ever cares what you cook. Those in the Family Student Housing are fortunate lifeforms too as they can always contain the smell of their food to the periphery of their apartments alone. There is one advice, however, that I would like all international students, whose passions revolve in frying and using strong spices, to know. Keep your clothes away from where you are cooking. Store them somewhere that is tightly sealed. The smell of food could easily get stuck on clothes if you are not careful enough. The only way to know whether your clothes smell bad or not is to ask someone not from your household. You will only realize that you are a walking advertisement of a “cow’s dung” when people around you start covering their noses or begin frowning at the mere smell of you.

This is reality. We, Asians, or foreign students in general, have to come to grips that no matter how we worship the smell of our fried food or spices, there are “others” whose nostrils are trained only to smell sandwiches, pastries and green leafy vegetables. Respect their smell. My clothes smell good. Start smelling yours.