Lime poppy seed muffins

If my blog were a soccer championship, the Lemon Team would be on their way to grab the Cup. But I felt that would not be fair to the other citrus I love so much – poor limes and oranges haven’t been around here in a while. :(In order to balance the score, I used limes instead of lemons in these muffins – the recipe comes from the lovely and dear Lynne, who was also kind enough to ship me a box

Paper-baked spiced pastries

There’s something I need to share: I’m not into Twitter. Honestly, I don’t see what the fuss is all about...
I’ve used it a few times, but it just doesn’t appeal to me. But what do I know, anyway? I’m a silly girl who laughs her heart out at velcro jumpsuits. :D

I’ll stick to cooking, baking and blogging. The wonderful smell of these pastries is a great reason to do so. :D



Paper-baked

Puff pastry cheese twists

Do you know anyone who doesn’t like puff pastry? I don’t – it is so good that even my picky hubby loves it. :DHe had some cheese twists in Ottolenghi and absolutely loved them. I’ve been making these for him ever since, but usually at night – no good light for taking pictures. Luckily this time there were some twists left, but they were devoured right after I turned off my camera. :DPuff pastry

Cherry, cashew and white chocolate chunk cookies

“I’m not sure this is gonna work, but I’ll try it anyway” – my thoughts exactly when I came across this recipe. The ingredients were very appealing to me, but would they go well mixed up in a cookie? There was only one way to find out. :D

Even though I wasn’t completely happy about the texture – the cookies turned out really thin and delicate, difficult to carry around without breaking – the

White chocolate lime cookies

Remember when I told you I’d watched “Zodiac”? After returning it to the video store, I decided to get two more movies. I was in a hurry and did not think much – sort of grabbed whatever was in front of me, because those were movies I’d been dying to see for ages. Do you know what I got? “Blindness” and “Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind”. Yes, my friends - three movies with Mark Ruffalo in

Rice fritters with nigella seeds

The same way one doesn’t need a velvety voice to sing fantastic songs - Dave Faulkner is there to prove it – food doesn’t have to be all fancy and complicated to be good. A simple salad, made with fresh ingredients, can be a wonderful meal. And these fritters, made of leftovers, are delicious snacks.The original recipe calls for poppy seeds, but since I don’t have them here I used nigella seeds

Yogurt and passion fruit syrup mini cakes

Certain actors have a very special place in my heart –they are so talented that I’m always interested in watching their movies.
Christian Bale, for example - I have seen him in several different movies and he continues to make me curious about what’s coming.

It’s like baking with yogurt – the more I do it (like last month’s lime cake), the more I enjoy it.



Yogurt and passion fruit syrup

Banana-oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

I started listening to Smiths at the age of 9 and even though I understood nothing Morrissey said those songs made a strange kind of sense to me – I ended up learning why later on in life. Music became a huge part of my days and brought me comfort in several bad moments.Besides listening to the songs, I loved checking out the LP covers – some were absolutely fantastic. I became obsessed about one

Mozzarella in carrozza

Saturday is my favorite day of the week and one thing I love doing is watching some of Nigella’s shows. They are basically reruns and I have already seen many episodes, but that’s fine – it’s a joy to see her cook, even though I’m not always crazy about the dishes she prepares. :)

One can certainly turn to Nigella when looking for delicious food that can be made in almost no time. And that’s

Chewy strawberry almond bars

You know that feeling? When something is so good we don’t want it to get ruined?I was watching “August Rush” on the weekend and, besides crying my eyes out, I kept thinking “Oh, please don’t let this adorable boy get lost. Don’t let him grow up and become an idiot, a crackhead, a wife beater, or anything like that”I’d cried and laughed with Freddie Highmore before, but this time I felt like

Sweetened condensed milk cake

Wow, almost a week without a new recipe around here... You guys must be bored to tears with my crepe photo. :)

A stomach flu kept me away from cooking, posting and reading my favorite blogs. But now I’m feeling well again – thanks to tons of medicine and rest – and eager to go to the kitchen.

This is something I baked before I got sick; you know I can’t resist recipes with sweetened condensed

Dark chocolate oatmeal cookies

Eating fibers and grains is a key element for one’s good health – I have no problem there, but know that many people can’t stand them, especially kids. And my husband. :SOne alternative is tricking the kids into eating oats by adding them to baked goods - I have already done that with my nieces, without much success.It’s like Brad Pitt’s “rich” acting skills - they only become tolerable with

Waiter, there's something in my... picnic! Olive, herb and parmesan sticks

I haven’t taken part in blog events lately – I never seem to keep the deadlines in mind – but picnics are something I hold very dear and they are the theme for this “Waiter, there’s something in my...”, hosted by Johanna, Jeanne and Andrew.

When I was little, my parents used to take me and my brother to parks on the weekends, and we had wonderful picnics there (I once wrote about it here). To

Passion fruit, almond and poppy seed cake

Besides the music I listen to, there’s something else on repeat mode around here - yes, another recipe with almonds. :)It would take 1 ½ hours for the coffee cake to double in volume and there was nothing good on TV - that happens quite often. I like things most people consider weird and they are not aired very frequently.“I’ll bake cookies. No, I’ll need the oven soon - I’ll bake a cake”The

Cheese Stuffed Crusty Rolls

Choosing something doesn’t always have to be a difficult task – and that coming from the one who can take forever to decide which recipe to prepare is quite an improvement. Sometimes, we just know where to find it.If you have a twisted, weird, crazy-looking role, you get Gary Oldman. Very simple. And if you want beautiful, delicious, out of this world desserts, you just go to Helen’s blog. But

Jam slice

My good friend C. gave me a very special gift last week – “The English Patient” DVD. It’s one of my all time favorite movies and Ralph Fiennes would be my #1 name if I had a laminated list like Ross’. :)

Back in 1996, I read the book before watching the movie and loved it too. Book, movie and actor – 3 fantastic things combined. Like the flavors in these bars.
The book would be the cookie base

Marbled pound cake

When I was younger, many of my friends at school had nieces and nephews – I thought it was so cool! Being older than my brother (back then, Jessica hadn’t been born yet) I knew that it would take me a while to be called an “auntie”.

My brother is single and still don’t have kids, but my problem has been solved – Joao already had 1 niece and 1 nephew when we started dating and 1 girl and 2 more

Ranger cookies

According to Allen, I am a cookie monster. I think he’s right – I absolutely love baking cookies!Not only they taste delicious and are great for those times when the urge for something sweet hits us, they’re also easy to share. Pop a few into a plastic bag, close with a beautiful ribbon and you’ll make someone’s day extra special.I have hundreds of cookie recipes just waiting to be baked, but

Orange and lemon cake

I was going through the huge pile of recipe print outs I have at home and was stunned by the amount of paper there. It made me feel really guilty. So I chose some of those recipes to make on the weekend. And will try to cut the pile down a bit before adding more paper to it.I picked 2 savory recipes and 2 sweet. To kick things off in a great way, I baked this out of this world cake, which I got

Sfiha

Besides the cake, I made savory snacks for the boys’ birthday get together at my house last month. Simple yet good food, easy and quick to put together, because they’d arrive at lunch time and I would not have much time to cook. So I went for mini carne louca sandwiches and sfihas.As much as it sounds like a big cliché, Brazil is a melting pot and we have been influenced by many different