Baked carbonara

I’m a walking contradiction. Although I don’t eat red meat and can’t stand pork, I love bacon... :D
I’d been meaning to prepare this recipe for quite some time but João (my husband) doesn’t like cream so I always decided to prepare pasta with other types of sauce.That day I decided to give it a try. After cooking the pasta, I prepared some for him with different ingredients and made the recipe

Cherry chocolate truffles

There’s only one word good enough to describe these truffles: perfect!!!The amounts of cream and chocolate are exact and you’ll get a firm mixture, great to be molded.Haalo, from Cook (almost) anything at least once – stop whatever you’re doing and go check her blog now – made these truffles using poached cherries. She even teaches us how to poach

Snickerdoodles

I sent these snickerdoodles with the chocottones, as part of the same gift. You'll think I'm shallow but when I saw these cookies' name I knew I had to bake them!Reading the recipe I found out that the dough had to be rolled in sugar and cinnamon before going to the oven - perfect for me, a cinnamon lover.Full of flavor and quick to prepare - you just make balls of dough, roll them in the

Vanilla sable biscuit

I wanted a good cookie recipe to make for Christmas gifts. I read so many recipes, searched so many websites... I even sent Valentina and Cinara e-mails asking for help. I needed cookies that would stay crunchy longer - and that would also look cute.I found this recipe - in case you don't know this blog, you should go there now. It's full of good recipes and beautiful photographs.Jenjen filled

Chocottone

I wanted to make a gift for a friend who has 3 children. So I decided to bake a big chocottone and 3 mini-chocottones, all of them decorated with rolled fondant.Chocottone is a panettone that has chocolate chips instead of glacéed fruits. I love it. But my dear friend Valentina says that "chocottone" is a word that makes her laugh... :DI used cellophane bags, because the minicake boxes I had at

Berry ice cream pudding

I tried to bake a cake using artificial sweetener instead of sugar - a total DISASTER! It was the ugliest cake I'd ever seen in my entire life...
It would be impossible to prepare another sugarfree dessert in time - I had made Eton mess - and I started panicking; some of my readers know I'm a bit of a drama queen sometimes. :D
I suddenly remembered a Donna Hay magazine I received as a gift and

Gremolata crusted lamb racks

My dear readers, believe me: although not very nice looking, the lamb was very good - I don't eat red meat but tasted it out of curiosity. It was tender and juicy.
I was very disappointed with my butcher - and told him that - because the piece of meat he sent me wasn't what I was expecting. I had to bone it in order to serve it - I couldn't separate the cutlets

It was easier to get over the faux

Filled tomatoes

I love having people over for dinner/lunch. There's nothing better than preparing a special meal and then seeing empty plates and smiling faces - not to mention receiving compliments!

Our friends Thiago and Ludmila visited us again, this time to have lunch with us. It was a wonderful Sunday!

I chose this salad not only because of its flavor combinations, but also because of its looks. The

Pane alla cioccolata

I'd had an eye on this recipe for quite a while - every time I searched my del.icio.us, I thought of making this bread.My food processor is really tiny, so I prepared the dough by hand.It turned out to be an adventurous task! The dough was kind of liquid, like cake batter - therefore, impossible to be kneaded by hand.Against my will, I added more flour and then kneaded the dough. I was so mad I

Bread boats

I've made this recipe over and over again for almost two years now (since I got married, actually). It's a delicious and quick to prepare snack - something good for weekends or those days when we don't feel like cooking "real food".I got a recipe from a Brazilian cook, who is specialized in light food and food for diabetics, and changed it a little bit. She uses leeks instead of hearts of palm