By Liliana Moyano for Shine Latina

 

My dad had a friend who worked at a finca (or farm) near my house, and every now and then he'd come by with tons of beautiful vegetables. Sometimes the two of them would cook dinner and drink wine while trying to create new recipes. My sisters and I would just sit around the kitchen and ask questions about every ingredient. One night, they made some incredible stuffed mushrooms. They were so good; the kind of taste and texture combination that stays with you for the rest of your life. The recipe quickly became a family staple. So much so, that even today, I run into the famous mushrooms at all of my sisters' gatherings. My Latin friends love them and request them quite often. They can be paired with a good Malbec wine and enjoyed on a relaxed Friday night with family and friends.

"Baconize" Your Bloody Mary

Ahora, a cocinar! (Let's cook!)...
(3 servings)

Ingredients

9 white mushrooms, stemmed
1/3 cup shredded mozzarella

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Sofia Vergara rang in her 40th birthday with almost 100 loved ones during a weeklong fiesta in Mexico - and a surprise proposal!

The "Modern Family" actress is engaged to longtime, on-off boyfriend Nick Loeb, a 36-year old businessman. Multiple reports confirm that he popped the question yesterday while sightseeing at Chichen Itza, ancient ruins in Riviera Maya.

Related: Celebrity Honeymoons and Destination Weddings

"She was bouncing around and showing everyone the ring," a source told E! News.

The Columbian-born bombshell is staying at the Rosewood Mayakoba resort and celebrated the happy news with her entourage, including "Family" costars Julie Bowen and Jesse Tyler Ferguson. Pal Fernando Fiore hinted on Twitter about a grand surprise he "couldn't tell," and later posted a photo of Vergara debuting her stunning diamond sparkler at a birthday dinner (shown below).

This will be Vergara's second marriage; she wed childhood sweetheart Joe Gonzalez when she was

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By Liliana Moyano for Shine Latina

 

I grew up in a family of foodies starting with my father who was always in the kitchen. Food was always the reason for gatherings, whether we were cooking up carne asada or doing random guacamole nights during the week. However, today, for some weird reason when I say, "Oh, I know how to make that," people look at me with disbelief. They think, "She can't boil an egg for the love of God!" Well, let me tell you, I'm all about cooking and enjoying delicious food whether staying in or eating out. And it's never been about the recipe or the condiments.. It's really about what's in my fridge and how to put it together rápido and without leaving a mess.

Now in the thick of summer, I like to make sure my fridge and I are bikini ready, so I went on a mission to buy healthy food options. Coriander powder was my first item. It's a condiment from a root similar to ginger, and it has a bright yellow color that blends with almost any dish. Besides, its g

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By Liliana Moyano for Shine Latina

During my first year of college, I had the most amazing experience studying abroad in Spain. My four sisters and I (we are only one year apart from each other) stayed in Madrid for a month and took summer courses at the local University of Maria Cristina. One of our first meals was an authentic Gazpacho de Tomate (Tomato Gazpacho soup). I thought it was something like la sopa de la abuela (grandma's soup) and went for it with a big spoon. To my surprise it was a cold tomato soup that tasted like plain salsa but without the chips. I was a little confused and asked the server to heat it up for me thinking they had served it cold by mistake. Later on, he explained that Gazpacho is a typical Spanish summer dish, and it is purposely served cold.

While in Spain, I never acquired the taste for it, and was even reluctant to ever have Gazpacho again, until I saw it in a restaurant menu as "Gazpacho de Aguacate" (Avocado Gazpacho). I ordered it and it

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As the smoke clears from the recent recession, millions of Americans, especially Latinos, are finding themselves with impossible-to-pay credit card debt. Some of it is a result of job losses and foreclosures, but most debt comes from spending beyond means. This begs the question: How do we get out of the hole?

Having a credit card means different things to different people, but for Latinos it has become a status symbol; a visible way to measure success. According to personal finance expert and radio host Andrés Gutiérrez, they tend to max out their cards in order to live above their means, without understanding that this type of debt can lead to poverty. We sat down with Gutiérrez to ask some of the most common questions and find out how to climb out of financial hole.

"When people buy things with money they don't have, it's like opening a window into the future to pull out money into the present; in other words, credit spends the money that should be waiting for you in the future, c

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