More muffins, with some experimentation!

Hey everyone! Man, this going back to school thing has been a lot more work than I thought it would be... I guess I was really out of rhythm with all this, because the school + family thing doesn't scary me much - I have done it already before.

School talk aside, remember the amazingly delicious Almond Butter Banana Muffins? Well, I really loved that recipe and have been having some fun in the kitchen by experimenting with it, so I came to report a couple of variations I tried.

First, I tried the same recipe but using Peanut Butter, and we found out that the peanut butter really competes with the banana flavors. While we could quite not taste the almond butter on the original recipe, the peanut butter flavor really came through in this variation. I still used bananas and everything the same, but one bite and you could easily tell there was PB in there - as opposed to the muffins made with almond butter that left Matheus and the Husband guessing what the "secret ingredient" was. The final verdict was that the we liked much more and preferred the muffins made with almond butter!

Another experiment I made was transforming the flavor and using Pumpkin in place of the bananas to create Almond Butter Pumpkin Muffins! This ones turned out really good and we all liked it. It was moist and with the same deliciously fluffy texture that the original banana recipe had. Only thing I did was use pumpkin instead of bananas and omit nuts, only adding chocolate chips; also added a bit of water as I thought the wet ingredient mixture was a little too thick, feel free to add a little more water if needed.
We liked these muffins, but in terms of Pumpkin Muffins the Vegan Pumpkin Muffins are still our favorite one. Matheus and I even baked a batch of them today as he wanted these particular pumpkin muffins for breakfast, it really is the best!

Now, back to this recipe that I have been tweaking around, even though we liked and ate all of the muffins, the very favorite of these were the original Heather's Almond Butter Banana Muffins, they were the absolute winner and I am sure will be repeated many times in my kitchen as I just can't get over the awesome flavor and texture these muffins have.
Really, if you want to try some great banana muffins then try this recipe, it is really good!
And here is the pumpkin variation I tried. If you guys try any of these variations let me know, I am curious to see if more people will like these so much as I did!
Enjoy!
Ana










Almond Butter Pumpkin Muffins

1 cup Pumpkin Puree
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup almond butter (I would NOT use PB on this one...)
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup oat flour (simply process oats in your blender or food processor until it becomes flour if you don't have this)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour (or whole wheat pastry flour - I am going to try that next time)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (omit if you use salted nut butter)
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F and line or spray muffin tins.
In a bowl stir together water, pumpkin puree, almond butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla until smooth. Add dry ingredients and mix everything together just until combined. Gently stir in chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared muffin tins and bake for about 18 minutes.

Yields 10 muffins

For those who celebrate it today:

Happy Valentine's Day!!

We started the day with heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast, so yummy and cute, aren't they?! Matheus loves pancakes for breakfast on weekends so it was a good excuse to make some today!

If you are still looking for an easy and quick chocolate fix for the day take a look at this chocolate mousse recipe that I posted a while ago: Dark Chocolate Mousse.
It is delicious and super easy to make, plus you don't need more than 1 hour in the fridge for this dessert to set. It is one of Matheus' favorite dessert!
We had some friends over yesterday for a night of appetizers, pizza, and games - and some wine, (a delicious Riesling I want to post about soon) - I made chocolate mousse for dessert and everyone loved it! (and we still have one for each of us today, perfect valentine's dessert, yum!)
Hope you all have an awesome Sunday with your loved ones!
Ana

Here is a pic of the way I served the mousse yesterday, cute and fun!









Note: using agave nectar in place of sugar to sweeten the mousse works great (be sure to add and taste, adjusting the amount to your preference for sweetness), I love agave!!

Heather's Almond Butter Banana Muffins

My love for almond butter had me trying new things with it lately - besides having it on top of my oats, graham crackers, or straight from the jar out of a spoon!
The first thing I wanted to use if for was Muffins!! Of course! Those of you who have been following me for a while already know my love for making muffins (just check the side bar for our favorite recipes!). It is one of my favorite things to make and experiment with, and almond butter was on my list to try for these.
Where else could I look for some delish recipes with almond butter than Heather's blog? A blog called "Heather Eats Almond Butter" could only lead me to something good, right? And it sure did!
I tried her Almond Butter Banana Nut Muffins and they were a huuuuuge hit at our house! Simply put, they were perfect! The muffins have 3 mashed bananas in the batter so they were banana-y and delicious, you can't actually taste the almond butter in these but it gives the muffins such an interesting flavor and awesome texture. My muffins came out super fluffy and sort of tender and soft inside. It was really such a different texture, and that is what drew our attention so much to these muffins, they were different and so good!
I already experimented with a variation and will be posting that tomorrow, but right now I will post the original Banana Muffin recipe that I got from Heather, with just a couple of minor changes I made. Her original recipe you can see by clicking here!
Try it, I am positive you are going to like! And if almond butter is not available I believe peanut butter would be really great in this too! (Matheus even asked about that!!)
And of course, check out Heather's blog, she has lots of yummy recipes and ideas there!
Gotta love Almond Butter!!!
Ana

Ps: as you can see, Matheus really enjoyed the muffins for breakfast, that's his picture and the only one I got of the muffins, so I hope you can see the goodness through that!


Almond Butter and Banana Muffins
(adapted from Heather's Blog: HEAB)

3 bananas, mashed
1/4 cup almond butter (or another nut butter of choice)
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup oat flour (simply process oats in your blender or food processor until it becomes flour if you don't have this)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour (or whole wheat pastry flour - I am going to try that next time)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (omit if you use salted nut butter)
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans)

Preheat oven to 350F and line or spray muffin tins.
In a bowl stir together the bananas, almond butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla until smooth. Add dry ingredients and mix everything together just until combined. Gently stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Pour batter into prepared muffin tins and bake for about 18 to 20 minutes (check at 18, mine were done by then)

I got 11 muffins out of this batter.

Woke up to this out of my window this morning... Yep, more snow. There was only snow (no ice, sleet) this time so it was really pretty, especially after the sun came up (I took the pics kinda early...), it is bright and white outside today.
At least this time it didn't accumulate in the streets! phew!
Ana

Comfort in a Bowl...

Oatmeal, I just absolutely love oatmeal!
Had this for dinner tonight, yep, dinner. Got the news this afternoon that, for the second time, some moles I had removed came back with pre-cancerous results from the biopsy. With another appointment scheduled so they can dig deeper this time, all I needed was something to warm up my soul, and to me no other food can do that job better than oats.
In my bowl I had 1/2 cup oats (old-fashioned rolled oats, not instant/quick) + 2 tablespoons oat bran, all cooked in a cup of soymilk. Stirred during cooking were 1/2 tablespoons chia seeds and 1/2 tablespoon flaxseeds (should have ground them but wasn't in the mood, so whole they went), plus a little agave to sweeten and 1 tablespoon of the amazingly delicious almond butter plopped on top in the end (yes, the blob you see is almond butter!).
So delicious, I could not wish for anything different today. Just perfect, as oatmeal always is!
Ana

Easy chocolate cake!

Another day without school... still lots of ice/snow outside on the roads, and to get things a little worse it was raining, the whole day, sigh.
At least we were able to get out of the house and went to the YMCA, mom gets an workout and kid can play with friends, and we both come back home happy!
But what one do when there is another afternoon of nothing ahead and it is so cold out that it makes you want to have tea and hot cocoa for breakfast, lunch and dinner? Make chocolate cake, of course!
And that's what we did! You can't beat a slice of warm chocolate cake, it warms you up from the inside out - chocolate does put a smile on my face! (and wrecks my morning workout, but that's another story... we gotta live a little, right?!)
After a few days staying home I got the urge to bake, and after a batch of muffins (I made Morning Glory Muffins this time!) and a frittata for lunch I was left with no eggs... "no problemo", I can find a chocolate cake recipe without eggs, right? Sure, and to be true I even have one like that in my archives already (this one), but still I wanted to see if there was something different out there and got me some google action! (What can't you find on google, tell me?!!)
A minute on the search engine led me to some very similar recipes to the one I had previously made, and after adapting my recipe and and combining it with a slightly different one I came up with a new egg-free chocolate cake recipe, and guess what? It was way better than the one I made before!!
People, if you don't have eggs, or milk, or if you can eat any of those ingredients, do not fret, you can still have some awesome chocolate cake! Some call this a whacky cake, but you can call it whatever you want and I don't care, just don't shy away from making this cake, it is really yummy!
Plus you will only dirty up one bowl, that's all - and the baking pan. Super easy and so fluffy and chocolaty, we really enjoyed it!
The combination of vinegar and baking soda is the key to this cake, it is what gives the leavening action and make this type of cake rise, pretty cool, huh?
The cake was delicious warm just by itself, and that's how we ate it right after it came out of the oven. Then, a little later, we decided that a chocolate sauce would only improve the goodness. I quickly whipped some of our favorite chocolate syrup and we went to town, it was heavenly!
This recipe yields a small, 8-inch round cake, which was just perfect for the three of us. It is a fluffy, very tender cake, chocolaty and delicious, just perfect for another snow day!
Enjoy!
Ana

Easy no-egg chocolate cake

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 or 3 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon white vinegar (I used champagne vinegar, it was what I had)
3/4 cups sugar (feel free to add more if you want it sweeter)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup water (cold)

Preheat oven to 350F and spray an 8-inch round cake pan with oil.
In a bowl mix up dry ingredients, make a well in the center, add wet ingredients and stir all together until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes.

My notes: start checking at around 20 minutes. Turn on the oven light and see how it looks, if risen then open and check with a toothpick, mine was done at 22 minutes.

Apple Muffins

2010 started and January is gone already, Gee, seems like time is really flying out of my hands lately!
However, we had a good start around here, and after a few weeks getting used to having classes again I am ready to come back and post more on my little space, I so miss this blog, I truly do and don't know why sometimes I can't get myself to post. Life happens and we get mixed up into other things I guess.
Anyways, I am loving my classes!! I am taking a Nutrition and a Food Science class this semester. Still just as a post-grad, but I certainly want to figure out which one I like best and decide what I want to do for the semesters that follow. Haven't made my mind yet. All I can say is that I am loving this idea of going to school to learn and talk about food, it is awesome!
On another subject, I have been cooking a lot lately too, and taking pics whenever I remember. Sometimes I get home from school and am so hungry that I just devour my food without thinking much about blogging it. Then as I eat and find it good the "oh, I should have taken a pic for the blog" thought comes to mind but it is usually a little late. I am working on paying more attention to that though!
Today I am posting an Apple Muffin recipe, one that come from Ellie Krieger and that is very yummy! It is my adaptation to one of her recipes. The original called for pecans but I did not used on mine. We do like pecans but seems like whenever I made these I am out of them so the recipe I am posting doesn't have them. Still, these are good anyway you make it, with or without nuts.
We are snowed in since Saturday... it might sound fun for some but I am tired of being trapped home. Our town is not well prepared for snow storms and with the bunch of inches of snow we got this weekend we ended up not being able to leave the house since then. Only today they started plowing the streets so it is safer to drive, but we still didn't have school or any other activity we might normally have. I am just hoping that tomorrow Cary (the city I live) will go back to normal life.
Ok, too much snow talk. I'll go ahead and present you with some good eats, which is all we have been doing these past days while trapped home!
Enjoy!
Ana










Apple Muffins
(adapted from Ellie Krieger)

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar (add more if you like)
1/4 cup canola oil
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk (or 1/2 cup yogurt plus 1/4 cup milk)
1 apple peeled, cored and diced (or grated if you prefer)

Preheat oven to 350F and grease, or line with paper cups, 12 muffin cups.
In a bowl add flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, sugar and diced apples, stir and mix all dry ingredients. Make a well in the center and add the buttermilk, the eggs, the applesauce, the vanilla and buttermilk, mix all together just until everything is incorporated. Pour batter into prepared muffin tins and bake for about 18 to 20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

My notes: my batter was on the liquid-y side, I filled up my muffin cups to the top and got nice rounded muffins!

A new year, and news for 2010!

This is how I entered the new year, with a smile and sound asleep in my bed. 2009 was an ok year and I have hopes that 2010 will be a better one. And I know it will be, not "just because", but because I decided that I will make it better!
I read a phrase the other day that I loved and which woke me up for many things: "Everything is a once-in-a-lifetime experience", and is it not? (the phrase came from the book "Life is good: simple words from Jake and Rocket")
Every minute is different than the next, what happens now won't happen the same a few seconds from now. So from now on I will try my best to make every minute count (more so than before).
I have been "rehearsing" a comeback to studying for a while and decided that now was the time, so I will be starting the new year with a new backpack and college classes to keep me young, yep blogfriends, I am back to school.
With my love for food, science, healthy eating, and all colorful fruits and veggies alike I decided to try a future in one my favorites subjects: nutrition!
I will take some basic nutrition and food science classes this semester, just so I can get myself back in the college rhythm (after 6 years out of school it seemed to be a good idea to take my time), and then apply for a masters later on.
I am totally psyched and excited to start my classes in a couple of weeks, so wish me luck and come visit me because I do plan to post more this year too, especially with the new cookbooks I have on hand!
I hope your 2010 is beginning as happy as mine is and that we will have lots of exciting news to share.
My wishes are for a more than Happy New Year to all my friends and family!
Love you all,
Ana

Ps: I just wanted to keep a little retrospect of 2009 here with two things I discovered and loved in my kitchen in the year that just ended, so here goes:
- My favorite find: almond butter!
- And my favorite recipe of the year: Roasted Squash Salad with Warm Cider Vinaigrette (the dressing of this salad is out-of-this-world good!)
That's it, 2009 is over and so am I with it. 2010 here I go!!

A couple more cookbooks to my stash...

This was "My Christmas Present to Myself"!! I have been wanting this cookbook since it came out and I thought that now was a good time to make myself happy!
I couldn't be more merry than with new cookbooks around, and omg, this book is amazing, I LOVE it!!! (Have you seen the amount of recipes with chickpeas in the index? Awesome!)
As an unconditional fruit and vegetable lover, I eat lots of vegetarian meals and with this book on hand I have a feeling that 2010 is going to be a great veggie cooking year!
Recipes and pics will follow, for sure!
Hope you all had a great holiday and treated yourselves with something you like, just like I did!
I absolutely adore cookbooks, they are one of my favorite things to buy and read on my free time!
Ana

I also got this one as a Christmas present from Matheus - I did raise him right, didn't I? He sure knows how to make mommy happy!

Merry Christmas!
Feliz Natal!
To all my friends and family, and to those who never gave up on my blog and kept coming back to check up on me, a Very Happy Christmas and a Wonderful 2010 full of cooking and fun!
May Santa bring all you have wished and more!
Love all,
Ana

Something I have been eating, and loving, lately!

Almond butter... have you tried? If you like almonds you have got to try this! Roasted almonds, are not only super healthy and good for you but they are , nutty and delicious. Now, picture your almond in creamy form and you have almond butter!
I am not much of a peanut or peanut butter person, but I am totally hooked on this almond butter thing.
It is absolutely delicious, the roasted almond flavor and the creaminess of it is just awesome!
I have been eating it on top of graham crackers (these are the ones I like, they are not too sweet) and adding blobs of almond butter to my oatmeal (if you have been following the blog you might know I am an oatmeal lover!). It sorts of melts inside the warm oats and make it all taste sooo good that I have been eating oats every day for more than a month, just so I can have my almond butter goodness in it.
Then, the almond butter and oats combo brings me to another thing: oats in a jar. Have you seen that yet? I first saw it on Caroline's blog, and then on some other spaces through the "blogsphere", then I stopped and starting thinking about it: so you have an almost empty jar of almond butter (or another nut butter you like), and you usually put some of that on your oatmeal every day. What is the best thing to do in order to get the most of that scrumptious almond butter from that little jar? Of course, put your oatmeal in the jar - Genius!













As soon as my first jar of almond butter was getting close to emptiness I poured my oats in there, and it was awesome! I like to eat my oats in mugs sometimes (instead of a bowl), so the jar acted just like that, plus the warm oats got infused by the the flavor and last bits of almond butter left in the jar, not to mention the last teaspoon or two of it that were in the bottom, ohhh, it is pure bliss when you reach that part!
I just wanted to share here something I discovered recently and have been eating and loving for the past months. It is not only delicious but also very healthy stuff!
If you haven't had almond butter yet do give it a try! Hope you like it as much as I do!
Ana

Ps: This is not a brand commercial, and I didn't got paid to talk about this specific product here. I just discovered and really feel in love with almond butter and wanted to share. The trader joe's brand was my choice due to it deliciousness and affordability!

Pumpkin Pasta!

I bet you are wondering what I have been making with all that amazing pumpkin I got, right? Well, with work and school out of the way and two weeks of winter break ahead of us I am back to post all recipes I have been making and saving pics on the last few months. My goal is to post something everyday, and hey, you can come back and bug me until I do!
I also have some interesting and unusual product reviews I want to post.
But first, onto the recipe of the pasta pictured above. It is an easy and delicious pasta combination that fitted the bill perfectly with the mounds of pumpkin puree we had on hand.
It is actually and older Rachel Ray recipe that I had made before and was repeated a few times. Easy and tasty, truly worth of trying!
The original recipe had hot sauce added to it but I didn't think that it would go with the pumpkin and the spices used in this recipe, so I omitted that - with great success I might add, I cannot imagine this with hot sauce, really.
Don't be intimidated by that pinch of cinnamon in the recipe, it will add a touch of warmness that will complement the pumpkin beautifully, even though you won't taste it or know it was there.
Also, note that I forgot to add the sage before I took the picture, but don't forget to add it there (even though you can make it without it), because sage + pumpkin is a wonderful combo too!
So, here goes my adaptation of Pumpkin Pasta, hope you all enjoy and I will come back with more!
And how's getting ready for Christmas going? I need to wrap presents, and think about the food, can you believe I haven't done that yet? Well, still got plenty of time!
Ana










Pumpkin Pasta

1 pound of penne pasta
1 tablespoon Olive oil (more if needed)
2 shallots or half onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 cups vegetable broth
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree (1 1/2 cups puree)
1/2 cup heavy cream
A pinch of cinnamon (optional)
Pepper
Salt
Fresh sage leaves (about 4 of them), chopped
Grated Parmesan Cheese

Cook pasta in boiling water until all dente.
While pasta cook saute garlic and onions (or shallots) in olive oil until softened, about 4 minutes. Add the chicken broth and pumpkin and whisk together to incorporate. Add the cinnamon and the heavy cream, mix together and add salt and pepper to taste. Turn heat to low and let it cook for a few minutes to thicken the sauce to your desired consistency, add the chopped sage and the cooked penne. Toss all together and serve with lots of grated Parmesan on top!

A recipe you must try and get ready for pumpkin recipes!

One of my dearest friends here from the US gave us a huge pumpkin the other day. An organic, healthy and plump gigantic pumpkin that she grows on her backyard (she has lots of space for growing stuff!). She first said it was a big guy she had on the back of her car, but I never expected it to be as huge as it really was. Don't believe me? Take a look for yourself:

The big baby sitting on my kitchen chair












Told ya! It was truly ginormous, as Matheus said when he first saw it!
Took me a while to tackle it, open and get the whole thing roasted and pureed for storage, but it was worth every second and effort spent. The pumpkin was amazingly delicious, the flesh was bright orange and sweet. Look at this beauty on the inside, is it pretty or what?













When I first brought it to the house we all got super excited not just because it was so fun to have a pumpkin that size but also because we LOVE pumpkin around here! And I mean really love it!
Ideas could not stop coming out of our mouths, pumpkin muffins was the first request, followed by pumpkin pie and for me it meant lots of my winter favorite: pumpkin soup!
From the humongous orange friend I got 10 cups of deliciousness in form of puree that I stashed right into the freezer plus about 8 more cups that I left in the fridge and started using right away.
I first made some of the frequently requested by the boys Pumpkin Muffins, next was my favorite Pumpkin Leek Soup, followed by a Savory Pumpkin Pie (which I didn't take pics but you can find the recipe in Portuguese here, and be warned, it is the best and easiest "Torta de Abobora" you will ever come across, I have made it many times here and we love it, Thanks Lica! Torta de Abobora da Eliana), and this weekend we had some of the most tasty Pumpkin Pies we ever made.
Seriously, this pumpkin is so tasty that every single item I made with it was amazing, oh and the puree warmed up with salt, pepper, and butter.... oh my, it was di-vi-ne!
But all the talk about the pumpkin brings me to the recipe I want to post today, and this truly is a "must try recipe". I saw Ina Garten make this on TV and immediately said to myself "have to try that", it looked and sounded so delicious, and how could roasted butternut squash + greens + cider vinaigrette not sound wonderfull?
The Roasted Squash Salad with Warm Cider Vinaigrette is AMAZING! (pardon my shouting, but this is just too good....) It is fall on a plate, in salad form!
The best part of this? The Cider Vinaigrette. If you don't want to make everything then don't worry, but definitely try this vinaigrette at some point, it is to die for, it is the quintessential "fall-ish" vinaigrette, so delicious, and extremely flavorful.
The sweetness of the reduced apple cider is balanced beautifully by the acidity of the vinegar, the onioness of the shallots and the bite of the dijon mustard. Salt, pepper, and olive oil just round all the flavors out tying them together in one wonderful salad dressing. Believe me, you won't be sorry if you try this.
But so much for talking, let me post this recipe here so you can make it too!
Note that I made this salad multiple times already and the picture on the top of this post was actually made with roasted acorn squash, which was equally delicious as when I made with butternut or the pumpkin I got from my friend, which is the picture bellow:

This was the salad made with the bright orange pumpkin. On this one though the Parmesan was sprinkled on the spinach and it just disappeared when I drizzled the warm dressing, plus I didn't have the walnuts when I made this one.









However, if you do have walnuts at home make sure you use them, the salad was definitely tastier with those crunchy roasted walnut bits in contrast to the slightly wilted leaves, the warm dressing and the soft squash chunks... yum, just writing about it makes my mouth water!

I have been having fun at the kitchen making lots of pumpkin recipes and there are some that are just too good to be kept only for us and I must share, so be prepared for some more pumpkin goodness to show up here soon. Oh if you see a girl with a slightly orange skin walking around NC... there's a good chance it is me, I am afraid I will soon be looking like a walking carrot with the copious amount of wonderful beta-carotene I have been eating lately!
Ana

Here is my version of the salad, if you want to see the original one, click here

Roasted Squash Salad with Warm Cider Vinaigrette
(adapted by an Ina Garten's recipe)

1 butternut or acorn squash, peeled and diced
Salt, pepper and olive oil to roast the squash
1/3 cup toasted walnut pieces
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (the good stuff!)
4 cups baby spinach leaves, or arugula, or a mix of the two
1 cup apple cider - or apple juice
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons minced shallots
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to season the dressing

Preheat your oven to 400F.
Place squash on a sheet pan lined with foil (easy clean up!), season with salt, pepper and a good dose of olive oil (it adds amazing flavor and prevent stickiness), toss all together, spread the squash cubes in one layer and roast for about 20 minutes, turning them around the 10 minutes mark to make sure they cook and brown evenly.
While the squash roast combine the apple cider, shallots, and the cider vinegar in a small pan, bring to a boil and cook until the cider is reduced to about 1/4 cup. Remove from heat and whisk in the mustard and olive oil, season with salt and pepper to taste.
(My observation: after tasting refrain from eating the vinaigrette by teaspoons... it taste that good!)
Place the spinach (or arugula) in a big plate or salad bowl, add the walnuts and Parmesan, drizzle the vinaigrette over the leaves, place the roasted squash on top of everything and serve. (you can also put the squash to the bowl with everything else then add the vinaigrette and toss it all together, I like to keep the squash on top as mine were soft and delicate, an oh so good...)

Happy Halloween!!!!

Off to see what Matheus got in his trick or treat bag!
The "twix" is evil, I already downed 3 of those fun size ones (it's the only junky chocolate/candy bar I like) and we still have some leftover candy... I said that if another kid stops by he or she will get a bonus of a whole bowl of candy!
Hope you had just as much fun as we are having here!
Ana

Notes on Cooking

The title caught my attention on the new books' section of the library so I got this book home to peruse. It was such an easy, simple, and quite educational, read that I decided to share here in the blog.
Notes on Cooking is a basically a collection of cooking tips that the chef Lauren Braun Costello put together from her experience in the kitchen over the years. It is comprised by 217 short tips divided into chapters with themes that range from equipments, how to understand the recipe, how to prepare yourself and your ingredients, to tips on how to work with meat, pork or seafood.
They are all basic tips, ideas, and comments from the chef, and the vast majority I already follow in my daily cooking life - such as "read the entire recipe before making it, then read it again", "always wash your produce", "add fresh herbs at the end", "always taste before you serve the food", and so on.
However, there are many other notes that I really enjoyed reading and that was nice to have reinforced in my culinary mind.
My favorite chapter was the one about "Temperature", which had some interesting notes which I haven't realized were all that crucial. This was a great tip in my opinion:

" Never jump food more than one temperature state at a time: there are four functional temperature states 1)frozen, 2)cold, 3)room temperature, 4)warm or hot.
When you move food from one state to another, don't skip over a temperature state... only one state change at a time. Jumping a state disrupts or destroys the vital process of moisture concentration and reintegration within the ingredients as its temperatures changes. Place a sealed, warm lasagna in a cold fridge, and where does all that heat and moisture go? It collects on the top of your lovely lasagna, now no longer so lovely."

Two others I liked were:

"Use a cold pan for butter: heat the pan and butter simultaneously. Butter added to a hot pan burns on contact due to its dairy content"
"Use a hot pan for oil: add oil directly to an already hot pan; in a matter of seconds, it becomes hot enough to cook your food, but not yet hot enough to smoke."

I am not getting anything from reviewing this book, I just thought it was a good read and decided to pass it along. Very informational book, filled with culinary notes, something that we as everyday cooks can never get enough!
Ana

Pomegranates!!
I love those little seeds, they look like little jewels and are so intensely flavored. My grandma had a pomegranate tree on her backyard so every time I crack one of these open I am taken back to my childhood when we used to open the pomegranate and sit on the backyard sucking the juice and spiting seeds on the grass. Oh, and yes, mom would make me change into an old shirt when I wanted to eat pomegranates, she always said that pomegranate stains never came out of out clothes.
I don't have a particular recipe for using this fruit though. Since my early years my favorite thing is to eat the seeds by themselves. Today I also enjoy them sprinkled on spinach salad, it is quite yummy too.
Now, if you get pomegranate juice then it's another thing. My favorite thing to do with that? Pomegranate Sangria - red wine, pomegranate juice, triple sec, agave nectar to taste, sliced oranges, and crushed min leaves - delicious summer drink!
But since it is getting cold around here I will stick with the fresh pomegranate seeds for this time of the year.
Excuse me but I have to find a old shirt I don't mind staining now! ;o)
Ana

Cakes...

I have been making decorated cakes as a hobby this past couple years. Some I have posted here already and today while trying to organize my food pictures I found these and decided to share here too.
I love working with fondant, it is sort of therapeutic and lots of fun to me. Hope you enjoy looking at the cakes as much as I enjoyed making them!
Ana

Purse Cake I made for my sister 21st birthday this year when she came to visit us!









Monkey and Frog Cake, for a friend's 1 year old boy












Cake I made as a gift for my friend Jeanne on her 4oth birthday









Elmo Cake, for a 2-year old boy









Dora Cake, for my friend's Andrea daughter









This one I made with my friend Barbara, we wanted to try making a whimsical cake... took us some good hours but it was fun!!












Cars cake, for another friend's child

The "blogversary" cake!

After the 4 year celebration post I knew I had to come back here and share the recipe for the cake pictured there as soon as I could. Then Brisa asked me about it... how could I say no?!!
I am most happy to do so as this was a cake that we liked a lot. It is a Flourless Honey Almond Cake, and it came from the Eating Well magazine.
I made this a while back and found it to be special in a way so I wanted to post about it when something came up. Nothing better than the "blogversary"!
When you are not used to baking with almond flour a recipe like this can turn out to be an edible experience by itself. This is a light and airy cake, very flavorful and with a delicious texture. It is so different than your usual concept of how "cake" should feel like that I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of both making and eating it.
The secret here, as noted in the magazine, is not to overbeat the egg whites. You don't need your beaten whites to be stiff or hold a peak here, just beat them enough to get them foamy. The whites is what ensures good part of the structure of the cake, as there is no flour here to help the eggs in support.
It is easy to make and a perfect cake to eat in the afternoon with some tea, which we did. And then had leftovers for breakfast the next day... yum!
Ana

Ps: notice that there should have been a lot more toasted almonds on the top of the cake but Matheus and I got carried away and munched on too many of them while I made the cake... oops! By the way, I didn't have sliced almonds and used the slivered ones, and they worked out well (roasted almonds sooooo good, aren't they?!?!?!)










Flourless Honey-Almond Cake
(Adapted from Eating Well)

1 3/4 cups almond flour
4 large eggs, at room temperature, separated
1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Topping:
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted

Preheat oven and lightly grease (or use cooking spray) an 9-inch springform pan (the one with removable sides), line the bottom with parchment paper and lightly grease the top of the paper as well.
Using an electric mixer beat 4 egg yolks, 1/2 cup honey, vanilla, baking soda and salt until well mixed. Add the almond meal and beat on low until all combined.
In another bowl beat the 4 egg whites on medium speed until they are foamy and doubled in volume (for about 2 minutes).
Using a spatula, gently fold the whites on the almond batter just until combined. Pour batter on prepared pan and bake until cake is golden and toothpick inserted on center comes out clean, about 25-28 minutes.
Let cool in pan about 10 minutes, run a knife around the edges, remove side ring and cool completely.
Serve drizzled with honey and sprikled with the toasted almonds.

Notes:
1) If you don't have the almond meal but have whole almonds you can do the following: measure 1 1/2 cups almonds, spread them on a baking sheet and roast at 350F for about 7 to 9 nine minutes, stirring once halfway. Let them cool completely, then process in the food processor or blender until finely ground - this should yield about the 1 3/4 cups almond meal asked for the recipe.

2) The sliced almonds for the top are toasted on a dry skillet over medium heat. Stir them constantly and toast until golden, about 2 to 4 minutes at most.

4 Years of Kitchenspace!!!

I have not been good with the blog this past year but I simply could not let this date go by without notice, I had to come here and post about these 4 years of my lovely kitchen space, as this blog means much more than any of you that follow me can ever imagine.
Through this blog I was able to share my passion for food and cooking/baking, and to express myself like in no other place. It was also here that I got to know many wonderful and fun people, some who I even got to meet in person, and created friendships that I want to keep forever, and as long as possibly can.
I started this blog, four years ago, when I was going through the worse phase of my life. A period when I was feeling very lonely and left apart.
The one thing that kept me up and going on those days was my son, Matheus (who is the sunshine of my life and until today motivates me to be who I am), and cooking. Sometimes, when you feel like you cannot handle things, taking a small break is all you need. So you go to the kitchen, bake a cake see it rise and come up to life, then you take it out of the oven and share a slice with your child... once you see the smile on his face the feeling you get is amazing, it shows you instantly that just like that cake you too can be great no matter what is to come, and the best moments are always there, around the corner, just waiting for you to help create them.
With all that was going on with my life the kitchen was my favorite place to be, and there was no point in being here if I could not share my happiness in this space with those who wanted to be my friend.
It ended up that writing this blog made me feel special, made me feel worthy and loved, and that I indeed had some talents that some of those close to me never stopped to pay attention to. Coming here, sharing my food and reading all those comments was, and still is today, a wonderful feeling to me. It feels great to know that there are people out there that share your interests, that get excited about something that you are doing and that are super nice to you even though they have never met you in person.
This blog helped me overcome a lot, in silence, through my cooking, in my favorite place of all, the kitchen.
Today I am definitely having one of the best phases of my life, I am happy with most aspects of it all (even being 30!), and am learning to work on those areas I am not completely satisfied with.
I figured that life is like a recipe, as you grow up you collect the ingredients, but it takes a little time and patience to put everything together in order to get the best of it.
This blog helped me a lot in figuring myself out (which I am still working on), and I know it will keep me company on the years to come, in my journey to create from the life recipe my perfect personal dish!
Thanks everyone for coming and checking on me even when I was not posting frequently. I love all my readers and friends, and this blog (and myself) would be nothing without you all!
Happy Blogversary Kitchen Space!
Ana

Farm fresh eggs....

The BEST!!! I am loving my CSA!