Last minute help

[Night Elf]

Dd is going to Costa Rica in June for a mission trip. She has a meeting tomorrow and has been asked to bring a Costa Rican dish or snack to share. I am assuming they will have plates and forks, but something to eat with the hands would be our preferance. Does anyone have a simple dish that two non-cooks can't mess up?

[jenn-]

It can't be eaten with your hands, but rice and beans were the traditional items at every.single.meal I ate at in Costa Rica on a trip in high school.  They also had a mixed rice dish that resembled fried rice.  I ordered enough "arroz con pollo" that trip that I never wanted to see rice or chicken again.

[ThisIsTheDay]

Yes.  I googled. While I do not know "Costa Rican" food, I do know easy. 

 

What about guacamole?  (And yes, it's eaten in Costa Rica, apparently, as you can verify by googling too!)  Here's a simple recipe.  I would advise that you just use the flesh of the tomato, not the juice or seeds.  Here's another from CostaRica.com. You can see that they are very similar.  If you make guacamole, make it as close to the time of the meeting as possible. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, placing it directly on top of, as in touching, the guacamole. Avocado turns brown when exposed to air for a period of time, just like cut apples.  Serve with tortilla chips.

 

Because you say you are a "non-cook," I don't know how familiar you are with avocados.  Do you know how to pick ripe ones?  ASK us for advice if you need it! We eat more avocados at our house than any other fruit.  Also:  I find it best to mash them with a potato masher if you have one.  The texture always turns out perfect. But it's okay if you don't have one!

[Amira]

Empanadas might be good if you want something easy to eat. You'd have a choice of different fillings, you could bake or fry them, and for Costa Rican empanadas, you'd just use masa harina and water for the dough which is pretty simple (unless you can get fresh masa where you live, which is easier to work with).  Rolling them out and shaping them can be tricky though.

 

Honestly though, I think food that's eaten with a fork is often easier to cook than traditional snack foods, unless you go with a simple dip like ThisIsTheDay suggested.  Beans and rice dishes are so easy to make.

[Night Elf]

Yeah, my dd is going to be in trouble with food. She doesn't like beans. I told her she might like to learn them after being there for a week. She found a recipe for orange pudding that she'd like to try. I think we'll make it today to see how it turns out. If we don't like it, we'll probably make chicken and rice. That's something I've made in the past. I'll just need to find a recipe to see what kind of seasoning I need. Surely I can't mess up chicken and rice, right? What's the best way to make the chicken to make it soft to pull?

 

I love avacadoes but making guacomole is a little scary. When I buy them, they aren't really soft. I don't think my grocery store keeps soft ones.