Cocoa-chocolate chip pillows

Last night was a nightmare – there was a huge storm here in Sao Paulo and several places in the city were flooded. I left work at 6pm and got home at 11... It usually takes me 1 hour to do the same thing everyday. I was so tired that after a shower I fell asleep in less than 5 minutes.

Being inside of a practically parked car for 5 hours is no fun, let me tell you, but at least I had some

Vanilla and rosewater madeleines

Thank you for so many great ideas and suggestions on the lavender marshmallows – I knew you would help me out. I’ll keep you posted about my lavender experiments. :D

Once again, flowers – this time, roses paired with a flavor that comes from an orchid... It almost feels like spring.



Vanilla and rosewater madeleines
from Donna Hay magazine

2 eggs
75g caster sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and

Lavender marshmallows

It seemed like a good idea – something delicate, almost ethereal. But it did not turn out as I expected...

Have you tried lavender marshmallows? I remember seeing a photo on a magazine, months ago, but there was no recipe – it was an ad from a bakery or something. I decided to use a vanilla marshmallow recipe from DH mag #36 adding the dried lavender instead of vanilla extract.

The

Banana almond cake

I can’t believe I finally made this cake! The recipe had been in my kitchen forever. I was about to rename it “Fight Club cake”- I have tried to watch that movie hundreds of times but never got around to do it. I’ve rented it over and over again, but for a number of reasons I always had to take it back before getting to the end. I’ve tried watching it on cable, too, with no success. And the funny

Nika’s chocolate coconut hedgie cookies

I had these on my del.icio.us for ages – ever since Nika posted them, more than a year ago. Her cookies looked so good! Every time I took a look at my bookmarks I felt like baking these just to, seconds later, realize that the type of coconut in my pantry was not the one the recipe called for.A quick trip to the grocery store solved that problem and I wish I hadn’t been so lazy: these cookies are

Apricot honey soufflé

Going through my pile of Bon Appétit magazines – I haven’t received the new issue because of the strike on our Mail Service – I found an article on soufflés by Molly, a.k.a. Orangette. After the “How come I did not read this when the magazine arrived?” moment, I felt inspired - I was going to make a soufflé, too. It was sort of like when I wanted to learn how to roller skate because of Olivia

Glazed apple lattice coffee cake

Some ideas are so great that we wish we’d thought of them ourselves. When I read that David Helfgott was the man behind the amazing piano played in Emotion Sickness I was stunned - Silverchair is just genius.

The same thing crossed my mind when I saw this coffee cake on the Oct, 2007 issue of Bon Appétit magazine. A coffee cake filled with apple, brown sugar, zest and spices was something I

Passion fruit marshmallows

I worked as a teacher for 2 ½ years. As I taught in the evening, my students were adults, with very few exceptions. They were sweet, kind and hard working people and teaching them was a wonderful thing.
One day, two Mormon boys stopped by the school and offered to lecture the students, so they would practice their English skills. They told us about their mission in Brazil, the people they’d met

Zuger Kirschtorte

I usually write about myself, my family and friends here. I share info about my favorite food, music and movies with you, my dear readers. But today I am going to tell you a story that happened to someone else – Neusa, a coworker of mine.She was once at her mother-in-law’s and was served a beautiful, delicious cake for tea. The cake was on Neusa’s mind for a while – that was, for sure, a

Spiced madeleines

Ever since creating the blog, I have tried a huge number of new, different ingredients. I can’t even list them anymore – too many for my poor memory to gather up.One of those ingredients is allspice. I’d seen it around in several recipes but it only premiered in my kitchen last week, when I baked these tender and light madeleines. For a spice fan like me, it was about time.Speaking of "premiere"