EAT, PRAY, LOVE

After Julie and Julia, Eat, Pray and Love is one of my favorites movies, which I watched firts time with my beloved hostparents in Maryland, it was a such a nice evening!
The book is also so amazing, full of love, friendship, happiness, the search for balance in life, search for God and much spaguetti, margueritta pizza, cappuccino, gelatos and much more from the Italian Cuisine.
I like the way the movie was made, the beautifull Julia Roberts was amazing as always, interesting places around the world and it is also full of comedy.... worth each penny or each real, lol

Fun and cooking with Kids ;)

Everybody knows Im an au pair and I really, really, really like to cook some simple and yummy food with the kids, I started cooking with my little sister, Leticia, in Brazil and now I cook with my little ones in US, and it has been lots of fun.
They learn how to protect themselves in the kitchen, being careful with the knifes, stove..... They learn how to stir the food properly, to hold the mixer, to crack the egg (my boy does it perfectly, without any eggshell in the batter ;), good job Hugo! ), and they also learn that the batter has raw eggs so it should not be eaten and It is just so much fun to cook with the little ones, mainly when I call them to see the cake raising in the oven, they just say: WOW, Its just so worth and cute!

I will frequently post some ideas and recipes about Kid`s food, so You guys can check it out and try at home with them, any doubts just let me know! :)

I will start with Smoothie and Popsicle, nothing better than something refreshing and yummy for this hot summer, also the Smoothies are good for breakfast or snack, it will give the kids plenty of energy for the day and many vitamins.
The Smoothies are in Ryan`s and Kevin`s honor, We made many kinds of Smoothies together, but They really like banana smoothie.... and the popsicles are for Hugo and Theo, They really like them, We made berries popsicle, it was delicious.... :) .

Hope you guys like all the recipes!

Banana and Blueberry Smoothie
4 serves

-3/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
-3 bananas (sliced)
-1 tsb vanilla extract (optional)
-2 cups milk
-1 cup plain yogurt or vanilla ice cream (optional)

How to make

1. Peel the bananas and then roughly chop them into small slices. Put them into the blender and add the blueberries, vanila extract, yogurt and milk.
2. Whiz in the blender until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
3. Pour the smoothie into the glasses and enjoy this simple and nutritious drink.

Berry Popsicles

-1 1/2 cup heavy cream (cold)
-1 1/2 cup berries (frozen or fresh)
-1/4 cup sugar
-1/4 cup water
-1 tsp vanilla extract


How to make

1. If the berries are fresh, wash and cut them coarsely and bring them to boil with the sugar and vanilla for 5 minutes. Cool them off.
2. Whiz the berries in the blender and strain to get just the juice out.
3.Whip the cream with 3 tablespoon of sugar until its thick.
4. Mix the juice of the berries with the whipped cream, stirring gently.
5. Pour the mixture into the popsicle molds or plastic cups and put in the freezer for at least one hour and a half, until they are frozen and getting out of the mold easily.
The amount of serves will depend on the mold you are using.
Also, if you are using plastic cups, dont forget about the popsicle sticks, You should put the sticks in a little bit before the popsicle is totally frozen.
Enjoy! :D

Seafood in Annapolis :) - The Best Thing I ever ate....

Since I started my career in Culinary Arts I have eaten and tried so many foods, ingredients and it is been wonderful, but the best thing I ever ate was last week when my family took me out for dinner in Annapolis...
The restaurant was beautiful, clean, cozy, the food simply delicious, but I need to say... I was expecting a little more from the front service, it could be much better, but thats fine!
So many things on menu and I chose the Pepita Crusted Mahi Mahi with shrimp, crab, sweet potato and corn, It was simply DELICIOUS, the fish was beautifully cooked, the pepita crust was crunchy and full of flavor, the vegetables had a perfect butter taste and perfect texture and the fried bananas on top reminded me the Thai pork chops I used to make in Brazil.
That was a perfect meal with my hostfamily full of joy and amazing flavors.
The presentation of the food was awesome and after all I got to know Chef Kinkead, who certainly finished my dishe, making it beautiful as You can see above.

BISCUITS, COFFEE AND SNOW..PERFECT!

Yesterday was a very nice day, snow in outside and we all inside of the house enjoying the weather, looking at the snow flakes coming down and I thought " I`m going to make biscuits", I made one day for JoAnn on Mothers day, it was good even because she is from Florida, so I tried to make them as best as I could :), after all I was in Arizona and We had a very good cowboy dinner at a little restaurant close to Route 66 and We ate beans, brisket, mashed potatoes and the most beautiful Biscuit I`ve ever seen!

So I decided to make biscuits for my family since Sheila is from Arizona :) (and Olivier from France so I should make croissant, too, haha :).
I could not find Buttermilk at the groceries stores, so I made them with whipped cream and it was very good, a little salty I need to say, so BE CAREFUL with the salt, but it turned out to be a very good savory snack (Sheila said), so Im glad because she liked :), too!
So the simple recipe for those little breads full of flavor is :
1 cup of flour, 1 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 cup of whipped cream (then You can switch for buttermilk, water, milk, broths, whatever you want to mix)
I also used a little bit of butter into the flour, to give more moisture and good flavor of course, some people add instead of the butter vegetable shortening, but I like butter the BEST, for this kind of bread.
Mix the flour, salt and baking powder together, add the butter into the dry ingredients, stir until the butter gets with the other ingredients well and pour the whipped cream, I also like my dough a little wet, so I put a little bit more of whipped cream, so the bread is going to be more moisture and lighter.
Roll the dough on the table, (half inch thick) cut into circles or whatever shape you want (I like cutter,but you can easily cut them out with a cup) , and bake them.
Oven needs to be between 425-50 F ( i like 425, they take a little longer to bake, but they bake nicely, evenly and it doesn`t taste flour undercooked and also the pan can be ungreased.
I like to serve them hot with butter and jam. For breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, its a anytime food, delicious and super easy to make bread :) !
Hope you guys enjoy the recipe!
Big hug to all..

Fondant and Gum paste

I just finished my Fondant and Gum Paste course by Wilton.
I also bought many tools :), now I just need to practice more and more to discover new techniques to make the flowers and borders more beautiful.
By the way, I love flowers very much, I like to make them either with Fondant or Icing. In my opinion icing is more delicious than fondant, however fondant makes the cake smoother.
Now Im making some flowers for my Birthday cake and practicing at the same time. :))

TIP: Fondant and gum paste are the same with just one difference, the gum paste dries off faster than the fondant, so When you need to make flower or borders at the last time, is better to use gum paste, its going to dry super fast. : )