Starving Marvins

When Georgia and I are hungry, we like to call ourselves "Starving Marvins." And breastfeeding has given me a trucker's appetite. So my Mom and I made a batch of my favorite cookies this afternoon. They may not be the prettiest cookie around but this recipe renders them nice and chewy. You won't be able to eat just one.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup softened butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 cups flour
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups whole rolled oats
1 1/2 cups raisins
(add nuts if you like)

Put the baking soda, flour, cinnamon and salt in a bowl and stir with a fork until well mixed. Set aside. With mixer, cream together flour, butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth. Add in the dry mixture. Stir in (by hand) the oats and raisins. Form the cookies into small balls and bake at 180 C/350 for 10 - 15 minutes. They should be golden around the edges but still rather undercooked in the middle.

This recipe comes out best if you make the dough and refrigerate it overnight. The cookies are thicker and denser. But I couldn't wait today and just popped the balls on a cookie sheet and into the freezer for 15 minutes before baking. (I also made each ball 20 grams...yes I weighed each one. I like my cookies the same size...neurotic.) They were still great...but the shape was a little flatter than I like.

Let me know if you were able to eat just one!

Angel Food

We awoke this holiday morning (Independence Day in Brazil) to the sound of much needed rain. Aside from the newspapers reminding us of the dangerous conditions and poor air quality (50 days without a drop), I realized just how long it had been when confusion registered on my daughter's face as she looked out the window. Thereafter we spent the morning talking about umbrellas and thirsty trees whilst singing all the rain songs we hadn't sang in, well more than 50 days. G was really pleased with mother nature.

I, however, tend to resort to melancholy when the sky is gray. My motivation levels plummet drastically and for fear of a holiday locked indoors withToy Story II on continuous play, I decided we better have a project or we'd wilt like the parched flowers. With all the talk of skies and magic, Angel Food Cake seemed appropriate--mini versions with blueberries. Plus they are low in sugar content (after the brownies) and as light and airy as a cloud.

I won't tell you how many eggs we cracked to get the dozen whites we needed. We made a sticky, sticky mess in the kitchen. But the morning passed pleasantly and we had dessert to take to Grandma and Grandpa's....and lots of stories to tell. If we would have just remembered to leave the house with our umbrella...

Hope you enjoyed the holiday weekend. Happy Wednesday...it is going to be a short week. xo

It took me a while

My Aunt Cindy's pastries are always delicious. I think it is the antique bottle of homemade vanilla extract she keeps in the darkest corner of her pantry. I used to ask her about it at every family bake-off. She always marveled that I didn't make my own because it was so easy. But it always seemed so intimidating to me. Maybe it was just the dark closet or the distilled spirits involved.

Like all sweet aunties she encouraged me and sent a sealed bag of numerous vanilla pods from Madagascar. The beans sat fragrantly in my cupboard for a year or more. (Naturally she stopped asking me.) But this morning when I was adding vanilla to my grocery list, I suddenly wanted to make my own extract today.

I don't know what took me so long. Because really it was the absolute easiest thing I have ever done in my culinary ventures. Are you ready?

Homemade Vanilla

1. Cut 3 vanilla beans down the center leaving a bit of room on either end
2. Split them apart a little to let the beans "see out"
3. Twist them into a glass jar
4. Pour a cup of vodka over them
5. Hide the jar in a dark nook in your home

I think the hardest part is yet to come: wait for two months. That is it. You don't need a sorcerer's cap to concoct. It seems so impressive, lasts for years, and your homemade gets even more homemade.

Thank you Aunt Cindy xo!

Blueberry Bounty

I haven't been the best blogger this vacation. And I have barely touched a pot or pan. But my guilt got the best of me as I worried about wasting all those blueberries from the farmer's market.

So here is the recipe for the blueberry scones my mom and I baked.

They freeze well, too.

I'm feeling less guilty.

A Bucket full of Tangerines

"Mexerica! 3 Reias O Balde! Tangerines! 3 Reais ($1.70) a bucket."

São Paulo is full of impromptu "farmer's markets." And today, in the middle of a busy street, a man in a straw hat stood in the bed of his pickup swooping bucket after bucket of tangerines whilst singing (into a megaphone) about their sweetness and cheapness. Convinced me pretty easily.

What to do with a bucket full of tangerines? I contemplated scones and jelly. But since I have been rather generously making up for my first trimester of morning sickness, I decided it might be a good idea to incorporate them into a salad. Loving the combination of salty and sweet, I decided to marry the tangerines and olives today.

The recipe:
4-6 tangerines, pith ed, peeled and sliced
1 cup of pitted kalamata style olives
1/2 cup of olive oil
1 tablespoon wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon of cumin
1/2 teaspoon of fine herbs
Salt, Pepper

Mix together. Toss on top of some arugula. I am planning on serving this salad with steaks tonight.

I still have 3/4 of a bucket of tangerines to go....

Still cooking: Morrocan Chicken

There are many reasons why I am posting another food shot.

1. My own cooking no longer makes me nauseous.
2. I am starting to eat things other than tomatoes (although I made the third batch of salsa alongside this Moroccan Chicken dish.)
3. I am pregnant and I am hungry.

So sorry if I am boring you. But if you are looking for something new to do with chicken, try this. It is my own recipe and I lack strict measuring units. But I am going to try my best here. It really is an easy recipe.

How to do it: Take a large chicken breast or two (I always prefer breasts with bones because the flavor is just better.) and brown it in a large pot with a diced onion and about a tablespoon of minced garlic. Once browned, add water and two bouillon cubes until the chicken is covered. Let simmer until chicken is cooked through. Once cooked, remove chicken breast and save your (now) broth for later.

While the chicken is cooling, slice about 3/4 cup of raw almonds. If you are able grind a bit of the almonds so you can have "almond flour" to add to the sliced pieces, it is a nice touch (but don't worry if you don't). Sauté the sliced almonds (and almond flour) in a generous pat of butter until toasted. Go back to your cooled chicken and shred it.

Take out another large skillet and saute another small onion half and a bit more garlic. Add the shredded chicken. Add your broth. Add your almonds. Add a generous teaspoon or more of cinnamon. Add sliced dry dates or raisins (3/4 cup or so). And if you have some "Zathar" spice add that (but don't worry if you don't). Let simmer. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve over rice or couscous. And to make the meal really perfect, accompany this main dish with hummus and coalhada seca (sour cream) or even plain yogurt.

Friends and Bread

One of my very first posts was about homemade bread and the kindness of my Japanese neighbor Emi. She donated her fifteen year old yeast and time to teach me how to make this fantastic loaf. It was a month before Georgia was born and I vowed to take care of my own pot of yeast together with my eagerly awaited baby.

So for the last two years, the bread has been served every day at our breakfast table. It has contributed to the growth of my girl. And she helps me prepare it weekly. It is a part of our lives.

Only recently, I split my yeast and am now taking care of two (foreshadowing?). But two loaves is a lot of bread. So we started giving them away...and a new ritual was born. We like to wrap them in pretty remnants. And if I could only deliver it fresh out of the oven, I'd love to fill the homes of others with the scent of warm bread kneaded by hand and baked with love.

The Easiest Recipe Ever

I often get asked by Brazilians to explain the difference between a cupcake and a muffin. I usually start by saying that it is more common to eat muffins at breakfast. But then I remember that Brazilians often eat cake for breakfast. And aren't cupcakes little cakes? So then I go the fruit and nuts route. Until I remember my strawberry and hazelnut cupcake recipes. So I have decided to sum it up by saying that I wouldn't frost a muffin. And I would never let a sprinkle touch one either. And I feel so much better...no matter the eggs, sugar, and flour in the recipe. A muffin is a muffin and a cupcake is a cupcake.

And a banana muffin made from the easiest one bowl recipe ever? Delicious. I never throw away my blackening bunch. Because this recipe is so fast. You can usually start and finish it before your toddler notices you aren't paying attention to her/him.

Ingredients:
3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

Preheat your oven to 350F/180C. Pour the hot butter over your mashed bananas. Mash some more. Add the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Keep on mashing. Spread the baking soda and salt across the the mixture. Stir well. Add the flour. Pour the mixture into a greased cake pan or a muffin pan. Bake until your house starts to smell scrumptious. Today it was 35 minutes. But when you see they are golden around the edge and your knife comes clean, they are ready. If you want to get fancy put some dehydrated banana slices on top (before baking). And if you want and even lovelier smelling home, sprinkle some cinnamon on top (before baking).

And, by the way, mine are happily perched atop some new cupcake--err muffin--pedestals. These ceramic gems came out of the kiln yesterday. They are beautiful Heloisa!

It (still) wiggles and jiggles. But it's gourmet!

I lied when I said that I only ate cheese buns and cake this weekend. I had some jello, too. And, trust me, this is not the kid's cafeteria variety. It is, well, gourmet jello. So leave the Cool Whip in the fridge and, please, skip those floating pineapple slices and/or mini marshmallows. Do try this recipe. Serve it to your guests and don't tell them a thing. The flavor will be a pleasant surprise. They'll want the recipe (like me). So thank you to the multi-talented Daniela for sharing her Auntie's recipe and history (plus a post in Portuguese--oba!). English translation follows...

Gelatina da Tia Marilu

Tenho uma Tia Avó Marilu , irmã mais nova da minha avó Dirce, sempre que tinha almoço na casa dela, na sobremesa era servida esta gelatina, uma mistura de especiarias. Este gosto ficou gravado no meu paladar. Quando meu primeiro filho nasceu e fui fazer seu primeiro aniversário, aprendi, frequentando outras festinhas, que gelatina era uma das coisa que se fazia para as crianças. No meu primeiro filho, eu estava muito naquela onda "não vou dar nada industrializado / corante artificial para ele". Então, lembrei da gelatina da Tia Lu, que era feita em casa com geletina sem sabor, misturando vários ingredientes. Na verdade, gelatina é isso: vc faz um belo chá de coisas que vc gosta e depois acrescenta as folhas de gelatina sem sabor, com ou sem corante, e pronto, vc faz delícias! Aqui vai a receita:

1 e 1/2 litro de água
gelatina suficiente para 1 e 1/2 litro de água - depende da marca, sempre vem escrito na embalagem
um punhado pequeno de cravo
3 paus de canela
4 colheres de sopa de erva doce
1 limão
casca de 1 laranja
açúcar a gosto (eu coloco 1 ch)
1 copo pequeno de vinho branco (mais ou menos isso)

modo de fazer
ponha a água para ferver. Quando estiver fervendo, separe 1/2 litro de água, misture a gelatina e deixe de lado. Com o restante da água ainda no fogo, coloque todos os ingredientes (menos o vinho) para fazer um grande chá. Quando vc perceber que o sabor dos ingredientes se misturou bastante na água, retire do fogo, coe com um pano e misture esse "chá" com gelatina e o vinho. Deixe esfriar e ponha na geladeira. Após aprox. 4 horas está pronto para comer...

Auntie MariLu's Jello (English Translation)

Fortune Cookie?

via

I suppose you looked at the title and thought I was going to post about cookies again. Don't worry. While it is true that my fingers spent another evening and day (and tonight, too) hugging a frosting tip, I figured we could use some sodium in our diet. And what is more salty than Chinese take-out?

The window of my first apartment in NYC had a (neon sign) view of China Fun Restaurant and if I squinted I could see the veggies in the woks and the deep fryer at work 24/7. And, of course, I could smell soy sauce and grease 24/7. Naturally, I ate too much Chinese. As the portions were so big I only needed to eat one meal a day. It was cheap and I was broke. And although I wasn't much of a drinker, my roommate was a bit of a slush. She swore MSG was a great hang-over cure. China Fun loved us. They knew our order by heart. It was always Sesame Chicken and extra fortune cookies (cookies again oops...)

So here's a link to a researched and tested recipe for Sesame Chicken. This is the closest to China Fun I've found. (Tip: I usually don't submerge the chicken in oil á la deep frying--just put a smidge of oil in the pan. It's just as good and way better for you.) The calorie savings allows for some extra cookies (Did I say cookies?) for desert, ya know.

Naturally, I'm working on the fortune ------ (I cannot write that word again) recipe.

Carbohydrates

Pre-Georgia, my freezer had a constant stock of homemade (and NYC authentic) bagels. Post-Georgia, I've made them once. The boiling and baking is a pretty lengthy process. But after eating the doughy bombs every day in the USA, Georgia and I were feeling rather guilty that we weren't able to share our bounty with Felipe in bagel-less Brazil. So now that G has her own apron and I promised to get mine out upon return, we got the sacks of flour out (and all over) today.

Breakfast tomorrow is going to be good.

Iceberg? No thanks...

catsper

I have been eating far too many restaurant salads with iceberg lettuce and shredded cheese these days. I vow to change that as soon as I get my apron back on in Brazil. And I am hoping to try at least a few of the NY Times 101 combinations.

More Magic Beans

parisneto

Since we are on the subject of beans and we routinely eat the healthy Brazilian staple, the guilt factor in, say, cupcakes and ice cream, is significantly less. But why not make these sweets out of the best ingredients and stick to the bean theme? New project: homemade vanilla extract. Another mmmmm.

Sulfur

flourwatersalt

When cutting onions, insert matches (two is better) between lips and bulb side out. You'll never cry again. I promise.

Amateur Chef

It seems that just about every Wednesday afternoon I end up doing a mega cooking session. Today was no exception. I just couldn't seem to commit to just one recipe. We need cookies. We are out of yogurt. There isn't any bread for toast tomorrow. Husband will not be happy to have Monday leftovers again tonight. And so on...But in the middle of all this calamity, Georgia started pointing at the empty cake stand and desperately repeating, "bo, bo, bo" which, in her language, is the nickname for our cat, Bogart, and also for "bolo" (cake in Portuguese). You would think that since I was, at that moment, adding curry to the Moroccan Chicken, letting the Cuisinart beat up the ginger cookie batter, boiling the milk for yogurt and about to take out the flour for the bread, I would forgo the "bolo." Think again. And instead of a simple cake (or better yet one from a mix), a vision of those light and airy angel food cakes my Hungarian grandmother used to make pleasantly came to mind. I remember as a little girl waiting patiently for it to cool, the pan upside down over the neck of a Coca Cola bottle. Decision made. Without further thought to things already simmering, boiling, and mixing, I made a dash for the computer to find a recipe.

And here's where it gets tricky. You see, I have never seen an angel food cake in Brazil. Perhaps it is because I have never seen "cream of tartar" in the supermarket. And what the heck is "cream of tartar" in Portuguese anyway? But, Aries that I am, I wasn't giving up. After a bit of furious "google-ing," I discovered how to substitute the ingredient without requiring a Ph'd in chemistry. After that, the recipe is pretty straightforward--except when you think you are an amateur cook playing solo chef during the dinner rush (and don't forget the toddler clinging to your legs). As I was beating the eggs and slowly adding the sugar, those stiff white peaks never formed. That is when I looked at my tablespoon and saw that I was adding flour instead. Several expletives later and with the contents of the bowl ready for the garbage disposal, I decided to test my kitchen skills and see if I could turn this into something (why throw away TWELVE eggs). So, I dumped in more flour, butter, baking powder, anxiously waiting for it to resemble cake batter and then popped it into the oven.

Forty-five minutes later Georgia got her "bo." Felipe just got home for his Moroccan chicken and there will be yogurt and bread at the morning breakfast table. The ginger cookie dough got tossed in the freezer to be baked NEXT Wednesday. After all, I am just an amateur cook.

Cookie of the week

Since I made peanut butter cookies last week, I decide to do a more grown-up treat today. And what better than a hot cup of tea and some orange almond biscotti? (We are having a "cold front" here in Brazil.)

Cookie Monster

Peanut butter is hard to find in Brazil. And, when you do, a small jar costs about $15. So, a jumbo Sam's Club size jar of Peter Pan Peanut Butter is usually amongst the many "necessities" such as ziploc bags, peppermint tea, magazines, Starbursts, Bubblicious, Tootsie Rolls and so on that my dear Mom smuggles into Brazil every trip. It nearly brings me to tears. And so do these cookies!

Granola?

Like most women in the 70's, my mother-in-law had a trusty yogurt machine amongst her appliances.  Like all good mother-in-laws (especially those that never throw ANYTHING away!), they are kind enough to pass these things along to their daughter-in-laws.  Although it came without instructions, I have figured out the contraption.  It is so easy.  So, I have now added weekly yogurt batches to my bread baking.  

Here's how:  Heat one liter to 205 Fahrenheit (95 Celcius).  Turn off stove and let cool to 110 Fahrenheit (38 Celcius) mix in a half a small store bought plain yogurt.  Fill your containers (don't forget to take the lids off....duh!).  Plug in the machine and go to bed.  In the morning, you shall have yogurt!  

In a hurry homemade...

In a hurry to have something homemade and somewhat presentable on the table for your family? Have some cheese or veggies you need to use?  Without trying to be gourmet or roll out the phyllo dough, here is an easy EASY quiche you can make dirtying few dishes and still serving something delicious and nutritious...

Crust:

1/2 cup oil

1/4 cup milk

1 1/2 cup white flour or 3/4 whole wheat and 3/4 cup white flour

pinch or two of salt

Using a 9-10 inch (25 cm.) round pie pan, simply pour all the ingredients in your pan and stir:

Stir until it becomes ball-like and then press it into the pan:

Bake the crust at 350 (180 celcius) for about 15 minutes or until you see that it is golden. While the crust is cooking, create a filling with eggs and any ingredients you desire.  In the photo, I have added 3 eggs a bit of milk, sauteed spinach, and goats cheese.  

Serve with a green salad and bon appetit!

This yeast is HOW old?

About a month before my due date, I was invited by my super modern Japanese/Brazilian neighbor (yes, she has blue hair and is in her 50's--love it!) to have tea in her apartment.  What a lovely afternoon tea--all the vegetables and fruit perfectly sliced with a mandoline.  But what had me salivating most was the delicious bread she served.  Upon leaving, I casually asked for the bread recipe and she told me that she would come over sometime and teach me how to make it.  Upon leaving, she wrapped half the loaf for me to share with my husband.  Well all it took was one taste and Felipe was hinting that I should get the recipe.  The dilemma for me was knowing wether Emme wanted to share the recipe.  Perhaps, her offering to "come over sometime" and teach me was a gentle way of safeguarding her secret.  I decided to ask again!  Why not? Kindly Emme obliged. When she came over she was holding in her hand a tupperware container of yeast....a gift for me.  She told me the starter yeast was about 15 years old and had begun from an organic fig and now I had my own to take care of and continue the tradition!  The bread had to be made weekly and the starter always fed.  I was a bit overwhelmed considering that I would have my own living human specimen to take care of in a matter of weeks!  But how could I turn down such a kind offering?  Thus begins the story of the natural yeast bread.  I have religiously baked a loaf a week since that March day--taking it with me or leaving it in good hands when I travel.  And the tradition grows along side Georgia.  I keep telling her as she sucks on the bread at breakfast.....this starter yeast is older than you and mommy began making this bread just before your born.  I don't think she gets it....yet.  But as I plan to continue the tradition, I hope, one day, she will be as impressed as I!  Thank you Emme!