This is a simple dinner to make, as long as your sofrito is ready to go before you attempt to make the rice. Sofrito is a seasoning base that is used in Latin kitchens to flavor soups, meats, stews, rice, etc. It is basically a paste made from herbs and vegetables, and is delicious. After you make a batch, you can freeze if in ice cube trays so that you can pull out a cube whenever you need it! You're also going to need to get some specialty ingredients from the store:

1. GREEN plantains. If you ask the grocer for plantains, and they give you brown, spotty ones, slap them.
2. Sazon. A lot of companies make this, but I like Goya's. It comes in a little orange package which contains little foil packets of reddish orange goodness. It mimics achiote and takes a lot less time to mess with.
3. El Pato Mexican Style Hot Tomato Sauce
4. Gandules or Green Pigeon Peas. Again, Goya makes them. Do yourself a favor and buy them canned.
5. Adobo Seasoning. It's a powdered seasoning blend that you can find with the other Goya items. It's fine, regardless of what anyone may tell you. If you want to bust out a mortar and pestle and grind your oregano, garlic, salt, and pepper by hand, enjoy. I'm just opening a jar and shaking mine on my rice.

To Make the Sofrito:In a blender, put one large bunch of cilantro, chopped, the juice of two limes, 6 peeled cloves of garlic, 1/2 chopped red onion, 1 chopped jalapeno, 1 chopped green bell pepper, 1 large chopped tomato, 2 tbs mexican oregano, salt, and pepper, and blend. If you need to get it going, you can add a little water and then a little more salt and pepper. Voila! Sofrito!

Rice and Gandules

What you need:2 cups of medium grain rice, olive oil, 3 tbs of sofrito, 3 tbs of tomato sauce, 1 packet of Sazon, 2 tbs adobo seasoning, 6 whole GOOD green olives, 1 tsp capers, 1/2 can gandules, 1/4 c chopped cilantro, 3 c water, salt and pepper.

What you do: Get a large saucepan with a tightly fitting lid, and coat the bottom of it with olive oil. Heat the oil over medium flame until it ripples. Add the sofrito, Sazon, olives, capers, tomato sauce, and adobo. Fry it all for about three minutes. Add your rice, gandules, cilantro, salt, and pepper. Stir it all together, and then pour in your water. Raise your heat to high and Cover your rice. Boil it for about ten minutes. Reduce the heat and let it simmer on low for about 20-25 minutes. Remove from the heat and let it sit, covered, for 15 minutes. While the rice is sitting you can prepare your tostones and salad.

Tostones

This is so easy. Peel a plantain and cut it into eight even pieces. Fry the pieces in olive oil on one side for three-four minutes and then on the other side for three-four minutes. Take them out of the pan and put them on a plate with a paper towel. Smush them with a heavy-bottomed glass so that your plantain discs are about 1/4-1/2 inch thick. Return them to the oil and fry them again on both sides for about two minutes on each side. Remove from the oil and let them drain on a fresh paper towel. Salt them while they're hot!

Avocado Salad

What you need:  Two avocados cut into cubes, two medium oranges peeled, segmented, and then cut into pieces, 1/4 red onion, sliced , the juice of 1/2 lime, 1/4 cup of chopped cilantro, salt and pepper to taste.

What you do: Dump all that stuff in a bowl, toss it, and eat it!