Mango Blueberry Pie

The mango part of the recipe is the result of cold weather. Our TWD group choose for today´s recipe the Nectarine Blueberry Pie by contributing baker Leslie Mackie, of Macrina fame.

Since it´s winter, nectarines are nowhere to be found, not even bad ones. But I wanted to keep this pie as close as possible to the original; apples and pears were a boring idea, so mango it was. A great alternative because of similarities in texture and color. I liked this recipe, especially the mango berry combination.

But make no mistake, it´s not ideal to make a summer fruit pie in winter. It´s good but will never be great. You need great fruit for a great fruit pie. Period.

Gruyere Challah

Baking bread can really be a pain if conditions are not good. Right now, I´m having perfect weather for it. Cool, dry days that are still a bit short and invite me into the kitchen.

I have been investigating a few bread with grains or different flours. Most are what I would call healthy.

This is not one of them, ha. This is the traditional challah with a twist that includes some grated cheese. Piquant, holed gruyere cheese that is kneaded into the dough.

I´m following Lora here, from Cake Duchess. She started a monthly bread baking group, Twelve Breads, and so far we´ve made two other great breads, focaccia and corn rolls. I´m loving each recipe, trying to add an interesting ingredient to each.

The Embassy´s Nut Crescents #SundaySupper

As I write this post, I realize what a huge place baking has in my life. I love all things food related, but by far I´d rather be baking than cooking. And yeast doughs are my absolute favorite. There´s something about having to deal with a live organism that changes the dynamic. After all, it has it´s own mind, gets stubborn sometimes and decides not to do what it should without a moment´s notice. 

Apricot Coconut Almond Granola

Granola is one of those things that are easy to make and last a long time. I still can´t get over how expensive it is in the supermarket, considering the above mentioned points.

I´m typing this wearing gloves, the thickest wool sweater ever, and a pashmina as a scarf. You see, the gas company decided that I hadn´t paid a bill from June of last year so they decided to cut off my gas yesterday. I already took care of it, and they considered I was nice enough to send a guy to fix the little problem, considering it´s winter and the lower part of my house is without heating. But don´t feel sorry, it´s not a very cold day.

Brie and Mango Chutney Quesadillas

Today I´m posting over at Brianne´s site. This is my first guest post and I´m excited to be over at Cupcakes and Kale Chips. I´m making golden quesadillas, with some of my favorite ingredients.

Brianne has a very active blog, full of interesting and great recipes. You will see for yourself when you stop over, just don´t forget to take a peak at her Strawberry Cheesecake smoothie. To die for.  

She and I became blogging friends when I joined #SundaySupper. As you will see, she is mom to The Bug, who not only is adorable, but the best eater a mother could want, having no problem to tackle anything from  Mexican food or root beer pulled pork! And he´s a toddler!

She´s also a chemical engineer… who bakes. So talented.

This quesadillas combine the creaminess of brie with some spicy mango chutney and the earthiness of toasted walnuts. A great, easy and fast meal to eat together with a green salad. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Go check the guest post and recipe over at Cupcakes and Kale Chips and say hi to Brianne who is enjoying a well deserved vacation!

Brown Butter Carrot Muffins

If I knew how good gluten-free stuff tasted, I would´ve started sooner. I visited Wash DC in April this year, and one of my mandatory things to do was spend hours in bookstores. Going over cookbooks mainly. The occasional peak at the history section, or maybe see if there was a Ken Follett book I hadn´t yet read. But I´m sure that was all just to appear not so obsessed with the food aisle. Which by the way I am, and since I´ve come to terms with it, next time I won´t even try to deny it.

What I found is an obvious change in styles and ideas of what an appealing cookbook is now. It´s all about the author and his/her lifestyle as much as it is about the recipes. And the photographs of course. Is there a relatively new released book without pics, and great ones at that? I don´t think so. The days of the endless list of recipes with maybe a pencil illustration are probably over.

Chocolate Mousse Cake + Caramel Ice Cream

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Dave Lebovitz or Nigella? Ice cream + cake? Or cake + ice cream? This dessert isn´t one or the other, it´s both generating perfect synergy together, so I don´t know which is the proper blogging etiquette for this. Both recipes are extraordinary on their own and both bakers are extraordinary on their own. And together, well, you decide. I can´t make this decision on my own. Man, I am having a tough day…

Let´s start at the beginning. After I made ice cream without churning (not to be confused with no-churn ice cream), due to my lack of a transformer or let´s face it, procrastination to buy one on my part, I finally went and bought one. And as it usually goes, I couldn´t decide what ice cream to churn first. The answer came naturally when I reached for this precious book. So caramel it was. So good it´s fair to say I´m posting this using the last two scoops left. Before that, it was eaten alone and in the great company of this hot fudge. I could´ve stopped there.

Parmesan Green Onion Mini Scones

I make these scones often, mostly for clients. They want something savory along cakes and bars, so in come these scones, sliders and mini quiches. Guess where the comments usually point to? These scones.

Then the other day, my car had trouble starting up so I called the insurance. They sent two guys who looked here and there, I pretended I knew what they were talking about, even suggested a few ideas as to what it might be, which they graciously paid no attention to, and proceeded to change the battery. When they were leaving I gave them a few of these warm mini scones, fresh out of the oven.

Killer Brownies

When I´m preparing lunch or dinner I usually try new things depending of what I want to eat. Depends on my mood, the weather, if I´m eating alone, you know, things like that.

Baking is a different thing. I hardly bake something that I want to eat. Don´t get me wrong, I end up eating it, but I don´t choose the recipe because of that, I choose it because I want to bake with a particular ingredient or method. It might be that I want to use some fresh seasonal fruit, or share a specific recipe with you, or are just in the mood for lemony things.

I guess it´s fair to say I don´t have many sweet cravings that get me running to the kitchen. But, when I do get a sweet craving it usually has to do with chocolate. And nothing but dark chocolate will do. Like those intensely flourless chocolate cakes, made with the best Belgian chocolate I can find.

Semolina Bread + Pea, Mint and Goat Cheese Bruschetta

I´m in a bit of a dilemma here. Before I joined TWD, I posted the exact semolina bread recipe that we choose for today that was published in another cookbook. That was more than four months ago, two weeks after I started this blog; guess I was getting way ahead of the game. Ha.

So before passing up posting with all of you I decided to do the next best thing. I baked the bread using the food processor method, which by the way I love since I posted a French bread made that way a while ago, and concentrated in putting together a recipe using the bread.

Serrano Ham, Mozzarella, Arugula on Olive Ciabatta #SundaySupper

It´s Sunday again, so we´ll gather around the table to share a recipe and encourage the bonding of families (whatever that might be for you). And we´ll try to Beat The Heat in the process with the fantastic Juanita´s Cocina as our host. That´s our theme for today.

Considering I live in the southern hemisphere and are travelling through winter (a rather mild one, but still), and anticipating what I thought would be lots of ice cream, icy drinks and salad recipes, I decided to go on another direction. 

Ricotta Tangerine Cheesecake

I was supposed to make a blueberry mascarpone roulade for this group. But I really couldn´t. I even have the berries in the fridge. They will become something else, or maybe the roulade some other day. I don´t know. What I do know is that I will miss not being able to bake alongside my blogger friends. Well, since it was one of those weeks, let´s move on to this yummy recipe.

When life gives you tangerines, go and make this cheesecake. It´s a nice change from the traditional, dense cake and a bit more than a simple ricotta pie.

Mango Blueberry Smoothie + A Liebster Award

This is the healthiest I´m eating these days. Or should I say the only somewhat healthy thing I had in the last week. It´s hard to eat right in the winter. I crave stews, hearty soups, chocolate, things that fill up my belly and give me a big hug when I come home, usually cold and hungry.

The smoothie is a great way to use ripe fruit. And to eat fruit. At least better than a daiquiri or such drinks. You also eat fruit that way, ha. 

We are big consumers of fruit smoothies, especially bananas and milk. Are they still smoothies if they don´t have yogurt? I don´t know, but I can´t think of another way to name them. We also drink lots of water based blender drinks, mainly in the summer of course. Peaches or strawberries and orange juice is a very popular one. Never forget some ice. It´s essential. Room temperature smoothies are just not the same. They should have ice. Even in the winter. Like this one. Which also makes you feel good with all those blueberries so full of anti-oxidants. Can you feel the wrinkles refusing to appear? Well, neither do I. 

Sausage and Sun Dried Tomato Strata

This has been one of those weeks, you know, all work and not much fun. And a lot colder. I couldn´t get away with not sleeping with the heat on or grabbing lunch in the terrace with the winter sun as company. Not today.

When nothing else works and I already cooked so much that I can´t start another recipe without overflowing either my fridge or counter space I go for a walk. It can help me turn my whole vision around and find perspective. And boy, did I need that today. It was imperative that I cleared my mind, tried to focus on positive stuff, do some rearranging of priorities and begin to take some extremely tough business decisions. Those that make you breathe deep and trust. Trust in yourself and an uncertain future, which really, is a combination that takes a lot of faith. 

Chocotorta #SundaySupper

I´ve been wanting to post about this recipe forever, which is not much I know, since I started blogging five months ago. It just got, regularly, thrown down to the bottom of the list.

But everything has it´s day, and today, our wonderful Sunday Supper group´s theme is Kids in the Kitchen.

I don´t have kids, but if there ever was a favorite kid´s icebox cake in this country that is Chocotorta (choco for chocolate and torta means cake). The most requested one by far. Everybody´s happy when the b-day cake is this one. And I include adults. It´s gotten to the point where it started being the `it´ dessert at restaurants. For children and their parents. 

Of course it´s easy as cookies and cream, though in this case we use sour cream and dulce de leche. What else, right? That sweet, milk jam appears everywhere around here, and it won´t go away. It´s our national treasure. The original has store bought chocolate cookies. 

Crunchy Ginger Pickled Cucumbers

It takes almost as long to write the title, as it does to put together this pickles. Talk about quick, easy and hot. They are hot, as in fiery not trendy.

Today´s recipe for our FFWD group is about cucumbers. They are not really my thing. There are so many other vegetables to try that I never seem to get to the cucumbers. Though there was a summer  when I was a teenager, while vacationing with my best friend, almost every night, while the barbecue was in full swing, we would prepare cucumber salad. We took the time to thinly slice cucumbers, I mean mandolin thin, by hand with a butcher´s knife. We patiently cut almost see-through slices, tossed them in salt, rinsed them and ate them with olive oil and vinegar. But that´s old history.

Banana Bundt Cake with Bourbon Chocolate Glaze

Does anybody really buy bananas before they decide to make bread? For me it´s always the effect, never the cause. Yet again, my basket was overflowing with too ripe bananas. In an attempt to change the incredibly good but kind of repetitive bread or muffin I started looking for alternatives, and ended with this simple cake. It´s cake you guys. Good, light textured cake. No dense banana bread here. And drizzled with a luscious, dark chocolate glaze livened up with some dashes of bourbon. The texture is perfectly moist with a definite banana flavor. Ideal for tea, a picnic, afterschool snack, nibbling while working, taking to the guys at the office.

Hazelnut Biscotti

I love hazelnuts and I love biscotti. I haven´t made them in years. These Hazelnut Biscotti were right on spot. Especially since the had a bit of Frangelico, the hazelnut liqueur that I absolutely adore. I thought I had used it all up in a cake some months ago, but I barely had the two teaspoons for this recipe.
This is our chosen recipe from Baking with Julia for our Tuesday with Dorie group. The contributing baker is the one and only Alice Medrich, chocolate baker extraordinaire.
Today´s recipe can be found in our lovely hosts´ blogs Jodi from Homemade and Wholesome and Katrina from Baking and Boys. 

White Chocolate Berry Tart #SundaySupper

My second post for Sunday Supper has me excited because I´m making a tart full of fruits that feels like summer. Some days I really don´t know what season it is.

We are having a tropical winter. How´s that possible you might ask? Well, when the weather reaches 22ºC (that´s like 72ºF) in the middle of winter, or when I can very well go get a pedicure and walk out of the salon wearing flip flops at this time of year, or it feels like it´s time to make ice cream, yeah, the word tropical fits perfectly.

Today I went shopping for fruits. And came back with mangoes, strawberries, passion fruit and blueberries. That´s a tropical winter fruit basket.  I´ve never paid much attention to seasonal produce as I´m doing now that I write this blog. I did eat seasonally, but it wasn´t planned. It just happened. I went to the supermarket, saw this and that, bought some and ate it in the simplest way I could find. Now, I do the same but try to find stores that sell good stuff. And the simple ways are getting much more sophisticated. Spices, herbs and flavor combinations I never imagined. And let´s not get into the roasting, caramelizing and braising. So, all in all, I´m eating great food with the same amount of work but twice the fun. It´s great to have a food blog.