I love the exploratory process of creating new recipes, getting to travel through so many unknowns as I connect ideas and ingredients. Exploring new and unfamiliar possibilities with my creativity fills me with incredible joy. This new recipe brought a lot of joy in the creation process and in the enjoyment of the drink, which I’m currently sipping on whilst I type.
Summer: the warmest season of the year, in the northern hemisphere from June to August
Mango: a tropical oval or oblong fruit with succulent and juicy aromatic pulp and firm varying color blush toned skin and a hard central pit
Mania: an excessive enthusiasm or desire; an obsession
The mango’s popularity is soaring to new heights amongst Americans as they learn what the rest of the world already knew about the most widely consumed fruit globally. It is versatile and delicious and, thanks to the proximity of Mexico and Crespo Organic, priced perfectly at the peak of summertime.
Here is the perfect early spring easter dessert, really we can’t stop eating it
I adore strawberries. One of my long-standing fantasies is that I will retire in Italy as an organic strawberry farmer. I also fantasize of retiring in Sicily as a mango farmer (believe it or not mangoes grow decently there). This recipe fuses my two fantasies together and I can’t help but feel joy at the heart of this dessert. The combination is sweet and interesting with an ease of complexity.
I love pairing mangoes with strawberries in my recipes because of this flavor camaraderie. This new lemon bar-ish recipe began as a cranberry mango bar in the original idea phase. I am so glad I procrastinated because this spring strawberry version feels more natural and lighter with less sugar use than the cranberries would have called for, thanks to the natural sweetness in mangoes and oranges and my strength in using fruits to sweeten deserts.
Added sunlight time after the end of a workday is amazing especially for those who work a 9 to 5 job. Try these delicious and easy to make mango-centric recipes for “more light”. These recipes from the #CrespoOrganicKitchen are inspired by Daylights Saving time and with an added hour of sunlight you can enjoy these recipes while watching the sunset and add more #MangoJoy to your light.
My father watched a lot of football when I was a little girl. He used to gamble on games and have 7-8 TV’s playing all the games at once. I knew everything about football from a very young age. I never loved it, but I did know more than most young girls and women about the sport and to some extent still do. Football, from my vantage point, has the unique ability to excite people (men) like not much else. For me football is more nostalgic, reminding me of my father and I think for a lot of Americans the Super Bowl in particular is a time to gather, eat, drink and merrily intermingle, maybe even get a little rowdy in their brightest colored football gear and if they are lucky, their team is in the big game. No one can argue that the Super Bowl is often a joyous time and #MangoJoy is real so the point here is to bring more joy to the football experience and add mangoes to your football food. The Crespo Organic Kitchen- located in southern Missouri these days and so we are clearly all rooting for KC but our tasty and easy to pull together ideas ware also available to Eagles fans!
Egypt has long been on my list of places to visit and recently I was lucky enough to spend fifteen days traveling around the country. Not just to see and feel the ancient history but to experience the rich culture and food that I have grown to love with so many of my travels to the middle east for agricultural work.
On this trip I was lucky enough to see almost all parts of Egypt, from Cairo all the way to the southern border near Sudan. I of course got to see the great pyramids in Giza and ride a camel, and visit the tombs and temples of Pharaohs, queens and goddess’. I also got to sail down the Nile for four days – I guess technically I sailed up since the Nile, the longest river in the world, flows from south to North. I met with women in small villages and got to eat some wonderful food in a Nubian village near Sudan and cook with the chef on the ancient Egyptian sailboat. lI earned a lot about Egypt; the greatest take away is how much and how long the country (its people) have been suffering and how little we westerners hear about that and how important mangoes are there.
This is the second season for our Mexican grown Indian Mallika mangoes and The Crespo Organic Kitchen has been buzzing with excitement. It’s so rare for us to have completely fiberless mangoes and these silky creamy delights are proving fun to create recipes with!
I have long had in my head the idea to make mango French toast, using mango puree in the batter but haven’t gotten around to doing it. Years ago I came up with a great recipe for a food magazine using up leftover eggnog and combining it with blackberries. I loved the taste of the fruit in the toast, much better than too much fruit on top of the French toast.
This year when the Mallika’s made their way into the Crespo Organic Kitchen they just felt perfect for this recipe, and they were and are! While it’s true you can make this recipe with any mango, the fiberless ones are way better.
Instead of the usual sugary whipped cream found on fruit French toast, I opted for fresh strawberry butter, which you can make just by smashing strawberries and mixing them with softened butter!
My father watched a lot of football when I was a little girl. He used to gamble on games and have 7-8 TV’s playing all the games at once. I knew everything about football from a very young age. I never loved it, but I did know more than most young girls and women about the sport and to some extent still do. Football, from my vantage point, has the unique ability to excite people (men) like not much else. For me football is more nostalgic, reminding me of my father and I think for a lot of Americans the Superbowl in particular is a time to gather, eat, drink and merrily intermingle, maybe even get a little rowdy in their brightest colored football gear and if they are lucky, their team is in the big game.
Mangoes are one of the biggest agricultural products from Mexico. In the U.S., mango consumption begins to peak in spring and explodes in the summertime, which coincides with the peak production of mangoes from Mexico. America’s massive mango demand makes them one of the most important products in Mexico. Mexico is also the worlds largest exporter of chili peppers. The idea to merry these two Mexican staples in a beautiful silky sauce was always meant to be. Crespo Sinaloa Sauce was born from connection (a staple in the doings of El Grupo Crespo) and the family’s hometown of El Rosario where you’ll find Empaque Don Jorge I , the first of El Grupo Crespo’s proprietary packinghouses and largest hydrothermal mango packhouse in Latin American (home of Crespo Organic Mangoes). It’s also located in one of the most important habanero production zones. Habaneros were also one of the first crops and exports for El Grupo early on, originally a chili pepper business started in 1960 for the local market. Crespo, Ataulfos and Habanero’s were always meant to be together.
It’s been a heck of a few years and it’s looking like the year ahead isn’t going to give us too much of a COVID break. But if we have learned anything in these past COVID years, it’s how to find and feel the joy regardless of our circumstances. How to move past the difficulties and support each other and our communities, which is for us on both sides of the border.
We anticipate another difficult season with climate change, COVID and the general problems of the world that seem to keep coming at full force! We are hunkered down with our families, resting and celebrating for the next few weeks feeling gratitude and love and preparing for the 2022 season which will begin at the end of January. Whatever will happen in 2022, we promise that we are here to bring much more #MangoJoy than ever before and are always prepared to do so…
So regardless of if you are traveling this holiday season, or staying put, be kind and loving to each other. And seek and feel joy!
Here are a few of our favorite holiday recipes from the Crespo Organic Kitchen that are certain to bring more cheer into these years ending!
