WITHIN THE CORNERS OF MY KITCHEN

Foodbuzz 24,24,24: Farewell Farmer's Market

damarispalmer@gmail.com (Damaris) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 08:14:18 PST

Yesterday I had a pineapple-guava for the first time at Twin Girls farm stand at the Farmer's market on the West Side of Santa Cruz. Vendors were busy protecting their stands from the strong Autumn winds that was knocking down produce and costumers were picking up things here and there.

Meet Josh and Benjamin

Josh is a regular and Benjamin tags along to help his dad buy produce. Listen to Josh talk about his favorite farm stand and why he's going to miss them.

Josh.mp3

One of my favorite stands is Happy Girl Kitchen Company.

Even when the season is over I can still remember summer and the abundance of vegetables and fruits with Happy Girl Kitchen Company's yummy preserved products. Here is what they have to say about their products.

farm stand.mp3

My farewell lunch was at Conscious Creations stand. Joshua Server is an organic chef who has traveled all over the world. He had an awesome job working for the Surf Travel Company cooking for surfers on a yacht. Today I had one of his special breakfast frittata and a breakfast burrito with bacon and avocado.

Good Times.

I love me

some

Farmer's market

to check out some more 24,24,24 meals visit Foodbuzz for an eye candy culinary experience. Thanks Foodbuzz for making my event possible as always I {heart} you!

Grateful Heart

damarispalmer@gmail.com (Damaris) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:25:29 PST

Today I am thankful for food. Really good food made at Christian's aunts house. Christian's 93 year old grandma woke up at 4:00am to make bread. Christian already made 4 pies (it's only 9:17am). These guys are hard core.

I am thankful for the pleasure of eating with family and friends but even more so I am simply grateful FOR family and friends, whether we are eating or not.

I am thankful for my healthy pregnancy that started in January and for having given birth to a beautiful baby Maria. I am thankful for my 3 year old son who brings so much joy and energy into our home. I am thankful that my mom is living with us. She gave up so much just so that she could come and help me raise my children. I am thankful for my husband. Oh Christian....words will never be able to express the love and admiration I have for this man.

I am thankful for this blog. Yes I am! I am thankful that I have an outlet to express my creativity and share my recipes with you. From the bottom of my heart thanks for your comments and e-mails and for reading my blog.

Bolo de Fuba com Goiabada [Brazilian Corn Bread with Guava Paste]

damarispalmer@gmail.com (Damaris) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:43:54 PST

Goiabada is one of Brazil's pride and joy. It's a thick paste made from cooked guavas, sugar, and water and it is used in various dishes. One of the simplest and most delicate desserts we serve is called Romeo e Julieta (guava paste with soft white cheese. Heaven.)

This cake is a simple corn bread recipe, Brazilian style because it has more sugar and more flour than American corn bread. The corn bread in itself is good but so much better with the added goiabada. You can find goiabada in Mexican super markets, and if you're lucky you can even find it in some grocerie stores. Ask for guava paste or guava cheese. Make sure you are getting the rich red kind. The green kind has a weird bitter after taste. The red kind is rich in texture and taste.

This is a family recipe that I love because it's so easy. I call it my #1 cake recipe because all measurements are in 1 so it's easy to remember.

Bolo de Fuba com Goiabada

1 cup oil
1 cup milk
1 egg
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup cornmeal
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup goiabada pieces

preheat oven to 350* and butter bundt pan.
In a large bowl mix all the ingredients together except the goiabada. You can use a mixer or you can even do it by hand. Brazilians like to use blenders instead of mixers but only use a blender if you have a good one, other wise I recommend a mixer.
Gently mix the goiabada pieces into the batter.
Pour the batter into a bundt pan.
bake for 40-50 minutes.
Let it cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack before you flip it.
Sprinkle some powdered sugar on top if you wish.

If you like this recipe you will also like
Goiabinhas

Sweet Potato Yogurt Bundt Cake- National Bundt

damarispalmer@gmail.com (Damaris) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:05:18 PST

Today is National Bundt day and I've been enjoying this past month reading The Food Librarian and her 30 day of 30 bundt recipes. I was inspired to develop my own recipe with some left over sweet potatoes that I had. I really liked the results because I like moist cakes and this cake is more like a pudding than a cake. I also liked the results because I can't get my son to eat sweet potatoes but he ate this cake. It doesn't really count as healthy when there is so much sugar involved. But, alas, better eat sugar with sweet potatoes than just sugar, right?!

Sweet Potato Yogurt Bundt Cake

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sweet potato
3/4 cup yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs

put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Butter bundt pan generously, then dust with flour, knocking out excess.
Whisk together flour (2 1/4 cups), baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, and salt in a bowl. Whisk together sweet potatoes, 3/4 cup yogurt, and vanilla in another bowl.
Beat butter (1 1/2 sticks) and granulated sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes, then add eggs and beat 1 minute. Reduce speed to low and add flour and pumpkin mixtures alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture and mixing until batter is just smooth.
Spoon batter into pan, smoothing top, then bake until a wooden pick or skewer inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool cake in pan on a rack 15 minutes, then invert rack over cake and reinvert cake onto rack. Cool 10 minutes more.
Drizzle with your favorite frosting.

Pumpkin-Fried Apple Soup with Leeks and Bacon

damarispalmer@gmail.com (Damaris) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:50:11 PST

Pumpkin soup is perfect for Fall. Apples are perfect for Fall. Leeks and bacon are perfect with anything. This soup is perfect. I don't usually brag but what can I say, I fried apples in bacon grease and discovered a flavor I never knew could exist. If bragging pisses you off be of comfort because at this rate (eating ridiculous amount of fat) I'll probably be dead by the time I turn 30.

until then...
bring on the bacon.
and the [fried] apples.

Pumpkin-Fried Apple Soup with Leeks and Bacon

2 cups pumpkin puree
2 apples (cut in small cubes)
16 slices of bacon
1 large leek
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup chopped onions
salt and pepper to taste.
1 cup water

Fry the bacon in a frying pan and remove the slices when it is crispy and set aside.
chop the apples, leek, garlic and onion and add to the bacon grease. Fry on medium heat until crispy.
In a medium sized pan bring the pumpkin puree and water to a boil. Add the fried apples, leeks, garlic, and onion and simmer on low for 15 minutes. season with salt an pepper to taste.
Crumble the bacon and add to the soup right before serving.

enjoy!

I {HEART} FOODBUZZ

damarispalmer@gmail.com (Damaris) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:05:05 PST

The First Annual Foodbuzz Blogger Festival was this past weekend in THE city (San Fran.) and it rocked my world. If all conferences were this good and this tasty I would go to them more often. Conference about car parts with good food? Sure, I'm there. Conference about insects with a million legs and good food? There again!

The Foodbuzz conference/festival was about food blogging AND good food, hands down the best blogger conference I've been to and it was free for featured publishers (I love foodbuzz to the moon and back).

I want to tell you all about it. I want to describe every single taste that I experienced, the cheese, oh the cheese and the silky butter and the different varieties of passion fruit chocolate. All this deliciousness while being surrounded by hundreds of other food bloggers, who like yourself, loves to eat and talk about food.

Best Moments

Being introduced to Foodzie (HELL-O Christmas shopping!)
Watching the cute couple, The Duo Dishes cook their winning Bertolli recipe
Participate in an Outstanding in the Field dinner (total dream come true) in the Green Leaf warehouse.
Hanging out with fellow food bloggers like La Fuji Mama and meeting new bloggers like Diana from A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa.

Good times.

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt Made with Fage Yogurt

damarispalmer@gmail.com (Damaris) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:03:29 PST

Frozen Yogurt in November? Am I serious? Yes and yes, but only because it's SERIOUSLY hot right now. So, if you're experiencing the West coast heat wave this is for you. If you're experiencing cold temperatures this strawberry frozen yogurt recipe is also for you in case you're forgetting what summer feels like.

I am a frozen yogurt fanatic. I can't digest ice-cream so I have to go wih substitutes and in my opinion the best is frozen yogurt, strawberry frozen yogurt to be exact, thick, thick, thick, frozen yogurt. Recently I posted a creamy blackberry frozen yogurt that I made using yogurt cheese. And for a September Foodbuzz 24,24,24 I made vanilla frozen yogurt, also from yogurt cheese. This week I didn't have time to make yogurt cheese so I used the Fage yogurt, which by the way is on my top ten most delicious foods out there, high-five to Fage yogurt. If you don't have access to Fage get a substitute Greek style yogurt or better yet make your own yogurt.

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt with Fage

3 cup strawberries sliced
1 cups sugar
3 cups Fage yogurt

Place your sliced strawberries in a small saucepan with sugar and bring to a boil.
Let it cool down completely.
Once it is cool place the strawberries in a blender and puree on high for 30 seconds.
In a mixing bowl fold the puree into the yogurt.
Place the yogurt mixture in your ice cream maker and follow the directions found in your ice cream maker manual. Every ice cream maker is different.

Enjoy!

I usually make Strawberry frozen yogurt with sweetened condensed milk. If you want to use sweetened condensed milk instead, then substitute the sugar for the sweetened condensed milk and skip the boiling part. Just puree the milk with the strawberries in a blender.

Emile Henry Tarte Tatin Pan- Product Review and a Giveaway

damarispalmer@gmail.com (Damaris) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:08:23 PST

(picture released by Emile Henry)

Have you ever had a Tarte Tatin? This upside down apple tarte, where the apples are caramelized in butter and sugar before it is baked, is seriously decadent.

Emile Henry released their Tarte Tatin pan this year and since I have more apples than I know what to do with I was eager to try out this recipe and this pan.

(Do you love the red? I love it!)

This pan is so practical. Emile Henry Flame-Top dish can go on the stove top, which allows you to make the caramel right on the stove and in the oven. You can prepare the entire dish with just one pan. So, we prepared the dish.

I had never made a Tarte Tatin before but I followed the simple recipe that comes with the pan and voila!

(This is right before we flipped it. Christian wanted me to get a picture of the pretty crust.)

Do I love the pan?

yes!

I love it!

Is it expensive?

yes, it's $120 so if you're on a student budget it's expensive.

However, I've owned my Emile Henry quiche pan for over a year and it's still in perfect condition even though I use it all the time. The thing that I love about Emile Henry products is that it doesn't scratch. It's very high quality, so much so that I can microwave it and just wash it with my other dishes and not really have to worry about it.

In keeping with FTC regulations I have to disclose that Emile Henry sent me this pan for free. However, they did not pay me for the post and the opinions expressed in this post are my own.

GIVEAWAY- I'm hosting a giveaway of this pan on The Little Foodie blog. Make sure to enter the giveaway for a chance to win.

Lamb Stew with Green Onions

damarispalmer@gmail.com (Damaris) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:18:05 PDT

I've been loving lamb specially lamb stews because they're easy to make and they make my entire house smell good.

I am chronically anemic. It's a real drag and I've been taking iron supplements for years now. I eat meat but for some reason my body just doesn't absorb all the iron that I need. Any suggestion?

Anyway, I've been trying to eat healthier meats and I think lamb has become my new favorite. The thing about lamb is that they (the huge-o food indurty folks) haven't figured out a way to feed lamb grains and plump them up in inhumane ways so for now all lambs are grass fed. I get my lamb at Costco because it's inexpensive, compared to other places, and the quality is just as good.

If you haven't tried lamb yet or if you're unsure how to cook it I suggest making this stew because all you need to do is throw everything in the crock-pot and it's easy to make variations to this recipe adding ingredients that you like. I made this a couple nights ago after taking care of 2 kids solo all day. So I just added 2 of everything that I had in my fridge. This is what happens when I'm exhausted and can't think complicated things like measurements beyond 2. This is also when I bust out my crock-pot.

Lamb Stew with Green Onions

2lbs lamb chopped into cubes
2 cups diced butternut squash
2 large potatoes
2 large green onions
2 tablespoons butter
1 large onion chopped
seasonings (use what you like. I used salt, pepper, and ground sumac)

throw everything in the crock-pot and cook on low for 6 hours. Stir after 3 hours just to get some of the juices from the bottom to the top. Serve warm with rice.

Enjoy!

Holiday food ideas and a winner

damarispalmer@gmail.com (Damaris) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:17:24 PDT

Thanks everyone for your comments on the Uprinting Postcard Giveaway
Pecan Pie was a winner for most favorite Holiday food.
Mary was also a winner based on random.org.

The Little Foodie

damarispalmer@gmail.com (Damaris) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:33:38 PDT

After a year of brainstorming and slacking and then brainstorming again my friend and I are launching a new food blog that focuses on kids.

Click on the image below to visit us

today I posted these spooky sandwiches

I have lots of Halloween treats to share with you (no tricks I promise)

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

damarispalmer@gmail.com (Damaris) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:17:34 PDT

It's that wonderful time of year when we have more pumpkins than we know what to do with. This week I tried adding some pumpkin puree to a classic snickerdoodle recipe and the end result was a success. Earlier in the week it was cold so we had warm pumpkin snickerdoodles with hot apple cider. Yesterday and today was super hot and we had popsicles. Go figure!

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
yield 2 dozen cookies

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Cream the butter, sugar, and pumpkin puree
Add the egg to the creamed mixture and beat it all together
Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl
Dump half of the sifted ingredients into the egg mixture. Stir with a mixing spoon. Then add the rest of the sifted ingredients and stir some more
Cover the mixing bowl and put it in the refrigerator for one hour
preheat oven to 400*
mix one tablespoon of sugar and one tablespoon of cinnamon on a small plate
Break off a bit of cold dough, about the size of a walnut, and roll it into a ball
Roll the ball around in the dish of cinnamon-sugar.
Put it in the cookie sheet and make more balls the same way.
Leave a lot of room around each one on the cookie sheet.
bake for 10 minutes. These cookies are really soft when you take them off the cookie sheet. lift them up carefully with a spatula and set them on a wire rack to cool.

Giveaway! 100 Personalized Postcards

damarispalmer@gmail.com (Damaris) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:49:13 PDT

Giveaway Prize: 100 Postcards for One Reader
Size: 4x6; Paper: 14pt Cardstock Gloss; Printing: Full color both sides
Shipping: FREE UPS Ground Shipping in the US (Canadian residents pay shipping and taxes. Offer not available to residents outside of the US and Canada)

I'm thinking these postcards would be great as invitations for Holiday dinner parties. Because I get to host this giveaway I will also be receiving 100 postcards and I will definitely use it as invitations. I love the Holidays and I love hosting parties so these will be great.

For more information about these postcards check out the uprinting site. Uprinting also makes great business cards, as I've already mentioned, and have a series of products. Check out their website to see what they have to offer.

To enter the giveaway

Leave a comment on this post by October 28th telling me what your favorite Holiday food is. For additional enteries you can

follow this blog
folow me on twitter
tweet this giveaway
subscribe to this blog

just make sure you you leave me ectra comments for the extra things that you do!

winner will be announced on October 29th. Make sure you leave a way for me to contact you.
good luck

Eggplant Parmigiana (Brazilian Style)

damarispalmer@gmail.com (Damaris) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:04:16 PDT

On Friday I opened my fridge and found these lovelies and knew I had to make some eggplant parmigiana. Ever since Maria was born I've been feeling lazy (mostly sleep deprived) and haven't had to cook at all since we received so many meals (over 30, actually). Christian's aunt and uncle came for the week and left our fridge full of fresh veggies and other treats.

On Saturday Enzo helped me in the kitchen. We cooked together and listened to Car Talk. He's only 3 so he doesn't really get all the jokes but he laughs when I laugh, so basically he's the perfect company.

This is a variation of a Brazilian recipe found in the Dona Benta cookbook (Brazilian equivalent of The Joy of Cooking)

Eggplant Parmigiana

10 small eggplants
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon garlic salt
oil
tomato sauce
3 ripe tomatoes
2 cups mozzarella cheese
Italian seasoning

Preheat oven to 350*
Rinse the eggplants and cut them 1/4 inch
On a plate mix the flour and garlic salt
Cover the cut eggplants with the flour mixture and deep fry them in 3 separate batches.
Layer the bottom of a casserole pan with tomato sauce and place one layer of the fried eggplants over the tomatoe sauce.
Cut the tomatoes into thin slices and layer over the eggplant. Add another layer of tomato sauce and eggplants and top with cheese.
Sprinkle Italian seasoning and salt and pepper to taste.
Bake for 30 minutes

Enjoy!

Roasted Tomato Sauce

damarispalmer@gmail.com (Damaris) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:23:14 PDT

Our garden just gave us the last fruits of summer this past week. Sometimes you can have too many tomatoes lying around and then you feel all bad because you're not eating them quick enough. Tomato sauce is easy to freeze and roasted tomato sauce is easy to make.

Roasted Tomato Sauce

ripe tomatoes
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
Italian seasoning
salt and pepper to taste

preheat oven to 250*
Wash the tomatoes and cut them in half.
Place them on top of a cookie sheet
drizzle with live oil and vinegar
season with Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper
bake for 2 hours
remove the tomatoes from cookie sheet and puree them in a blender or food processor.
This refrigerates well for up to a week. What ever you don't use freeze for a cold winter day when you're dreaming of summer tomatoes.

Enjoy!

From the Archives: Pao de Mel (Brazilian Honey Bread)

damarispalmer@gmail.com (Damaris) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:05:43 PDT

A friend on facebook asked me for a Pao de Mel recipe. So here it is. The original post is pretty hilarious if you want a good laugh.

Pão de Mel (Honey bread)

1 cup white sugar
3 cups flour
1/2 tablespoon baking soda
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoon butter
1 egg
1 cup honey
1 cup milk
1 cup dark or milk chocolate (for topping)

preheat oven to 350
mix all the dry ingredients first (not the chocolate)
add the butter, egg, honey, and milk.
mix until smooth
place mixture in cupcake pans. We filled it up 3/4 full and I think it was too much. I had 2 full pans (24 total). I would only fill it up 1/2 way
bake for about 15-20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean
when it's ready take out and cool in a wire rack.
Cool completely before you put the chocolate.
melt chocolate and cover the Pão de Mel (traditionally you're supposed to cover the entire Pão de Mel in chocolate. Because they were so big and hard to manage I only did the top).
Let the chocolate harden before you put the Pão de Mel away. I made sure to save it in an air tight container or else it gets rock hard.

From The Archives: Pomegranate Mousse

damarispalmer@gmail.com (Damaris) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 16:31:53 PDT

Sorry for the lack of posts. I could easily blame my 2 week old and toddler for the lack of time but the truth is that my friends have been taking good care of me and my family by bringing us meals. I haven't cooked since I had the baby. As much as I love cooking I definitely love eating more and I'm so thankful that I have one less thing to worry about. Anyway, I do miss posting so I decided to re-post some recipes from the archives. This is a mousse I made last year and am currently craving. Enjoy!

I first learned about pomegranates from my husband's family. His grandpa brought some pomegranate cuttings from the family farm in Nevada when he moved to California over 50 years ago. His grandpa lived to be 99 years old and his Grandmother is now in her 90s and still takes good care of the pomegranates that grow strong in her backyard. His family has many good pomegranate recipes and to add to the tradition I decided to create one of my own using fresh pomegranates and POM juice.

POMEGRANATE MOUSSE

1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 ounces)
1 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cup POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice
1 packet unflavored gelatin
Enough pomegranate arils for garnish

Using a stand-up mixer whip the heavy cream on medium speed for 3 minutes.
Add the sweetened condensed milk and 1 cup of POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice and mix for an additional minute.
Dissolve 1 packet of unflavored gelatin in 1/4 cup POM Juice
Bring to a boil the remaining 1/4 POM Juice. Once the juice begins to boil add it to the dissolved gelatin and stir for 30 seconds.
Pour the dissolved gelatin in to the cream mixture and mix on medium speed for 1 minute
Refigerate for 1 hour and garnish with pomegranate arils.
Serve chilled.

Announcements

damarispalmer@gmail.com (Damaris) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:01:50 PDT

My friend, Gail, did a wonderful photo shoot with my baby last week. This was my favorite picture. I used it to make Thank You cards for all the folks who have brought and continue to bring us meals. The cards will arrive in the mail this week. I'm stoked.

I also wanted to announce the winner of last week's giveaway...
Karla S. is the lucky gal who will get a 18x24" poster from DigitalRoom

Foodbuzz 24,24,24: Happy BIRTHday Meal

damarispalmer@gmail.com (Damaris) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:47:10 PDT

Today is our son's half birthday. He thinks he's 4 but he's not, he's 3 and 1/2. Ten days ago I gave birth to our second child, Maria Aurea. We wanted to celebrate our daughter's birth without leaving our son out of the festivities. The Foodbuzz 24,24,24 inspired me to do a BIRTHday dinner celebration where we could celebrate Enzo's half birthday and the birth of our daughter with some friends. Enzo got to introduce his new little sister to our old neighbors. Litle 2 year old Via was just delighted with the baby and with the food.

The company was great and the food was great. What more could we ask for? (a little sleep would be nice but I'm not counting on that for a while...)

Like any good Birthday party the cake took center stage. Christian and I tried very hard to make a cake that looked good and tasted good. I think we finally succeeded.

To accompany the chocolate cake we made Vanilla Frozen yogurt.

And for dinner we had individual pizzas, Ina Garten style.

I wanted the menu to be good but easy(ish) to make. I'm resigned to the fact that for a while I won't have as much time as I used to, to cook as much as I want.

Below are the recipes for the Chocolate Cake, Vanilla Frozen Yogurt, and Ina Garten Pizza dough. Enjoy!

Chocolate Cake

2 1/4 cups flour
1 2/3 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter
2/3 cup good quality baking cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 large eggs

Heat oven to 350* and grease bottom and sides of pan
Beat all ingredients with electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly.
Bear on high speed for 3 minutes.
Pour batter into pan
Bake for 30-35 minutes
Cool for ten minutes and then remove from pan and cool on wire rack.

We put whip cream in the middle and frosted with with Chocolate ganash. If you do the whip cream make sure it's almost to the point where it turns into butter. You don't want it to melt so it needs to be hard. The ganash should be poured on the cake when it's still warm that way you won't have to work so hard to make it smooth.

Vanilla Frozen Yogurt
a couple weeks ago designmom wrote a post about frozen yogurt. I'm a huge fan of frozen yogurt so I checked out the original recipe a frozen yogurt recipe to rival pinkberry's recipe creamy blackberry frozen yogurt and became inspired to use yogurt cheese to make create my recipe. Yesterday I decided to stick with the original vanilla frozen yogurt recipe. So good. So creamy and rich. So delish! Here is how I made the recipe using yogurt cheese

6 cups plain yogurt
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place 6 cups of yogurt on a cheese cloth. Gather the ends and fold them over the yogurt and hang it over a bowl in the fridge over night. This will make 2 cups of yogurt cheese
Mix together the yogurt cheese, sugar, and vanilla.
Refrigerate for 1 hour.
Freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions

Ina Garten Pizza Dough (California Pizza)
a couple weeks ago I tried this recipe and fell in love. If you like thin crust pizza you will love this dough.

1 1/4 cups warm water
2 packages dry yeast
1 tablespoon honey
3 tablespoons good olive oil
4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for kneading
2 teaspoons kosher salt

combine the water, yeast, honey, and olive oil in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook.
Add 3 cups flour, then the salt, and mix.
While mixing, add 1 more cup of flour.
Knead the dough on low speed for about 10 minutes until smooth, sprinkling it with flour, if necessary, to keep it from sticking to the bowl.
When the dough is ready, turn it out onto a floured board and knead by hand a dozen times. It should be smooth and elastic.
Place the dough in a well-oiled bowl and turn it several times to cover it lightly with oil.
Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel. Allow the dough to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Divide the dough into 6 equal parts and roll each one into a smooth ball. Place the balls on a baking sheet and cover them with a damp towel. Allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes. Use immediately
Preheat oven to 500*
Roll and stretch each ball into a rough 8-inch circle and place them all on baking sheets sprinkled with cornmeal. You will be able to fit 2 pizzas on each baking sheet.
Brush the dough with olive oil and add any toppings you wish.
drizzle olive oil over the pizzas and bake for 10-15 minutes

Post-Partum Food

damarispalmer@gmail.com (Damaris) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:57:22 PDT

On Monday night our friend Seth dropped by and asked if he could bring us a meal sometime this week. I said "yes" and requested his chow mein. On Monday my friend Melissa brought me dinner and I reminded her to please make her famous rice-krispies treats. My friends are wonderful. They are so patient with me and have brought us wonderful meals all week. Our fridge is full, our freezer is full, and my heart is full.

Thanks friends for all the wonderful post-partum meals.

Would it be too much to ask for recipes too?

Giveaway! 18x24" poster print

damarispalmer@gmail.com (Damaris) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:06:06 PDT

I'm so excited for Food BlogHer this weekend in SF. I'm hoping to give this blog of mine a little bit more TLC and start doing some giveaways again. I'm excited to announce that I have a new sponsor, Uprinting. I've been wanting good quality prints of my food photography and I'm happy to start working with them. I ordered some business cards to take to BlogHer and they arrived yesterday and they look awesome. They're tiny little things and the quality is so good. I bet their big sized posters are just as good. You'll have to tell me.

This giveaway is sponsored by DigitalRoom.com

and what do you get? (1) 18x24" rolled poster print
you can check some samples out here and here

I'd love a poster size print of this picture to remind me of summer.

To enter the giveaway leave a comment telling me how you would use the Poster Print if you won.

This giveaway is open for U.S residents only. Make sure I have a way to contact you via e-mail. On the 29th of September I'll pick a winner using random.org and if you won I'll send you an e-mail. You will then get a code to redeem your prize and receive your poster free via via UPS shipping.

Can't wait to see what you'd want a poster of.

Hospital Food Never Tasted This Good

damarispalmer@gmail.com (Damaris) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 16:04:31 PDT

On Thursday we welcomed our second child, Maria Aurea, into our family. I was lucky enough to give birth at a WONDERFUL birthing center. The whole experience was amazing, including the food. It was a little over the top but we took full advantage of their menu. None of this jell-o none sense. None of this"you eat what we bring you when we bring you" food. At this place I had an awesome menu to choose from and could order any time of day as much food as I wanted.

Having fillet Mignon and NY style cheese cake right after giving birth is the way to go!

The most delicious part of the experience was holding our new girl. I put up some more pictures of her on my other blog.

I'm participating in the Foodbuzz 24,24,24 meal for this month so visit me again on Sunday when I post our BIRTHday celebration meal. I'm also planning on going to Food BlogHer on Saturday. I have my ticket, now I need to get my energy back. If you're attending the conference look for me and baby Maria and come say hi.

Brazilian Dessert on a Very Brazilian Holiday!

damarispalmer@gmail.com (Damaris) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 10:27:10 PDT

Today is a very important Holiday for Americans but it is THE most important Holiday (except for Carnaval, or course) for Brazilians. It's our Independence day. So in honor of this special day I'm re-posting the recipe for Bem Casado, my favorite Brazilian dessert.
enjoy!

BEM CASADO

mini cakes dough

3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup white flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon corn starch
1 teaspoon backing powder

filling

1 can sweetened condensed milk

syrup

2 cups sugar
3/4 cup water

Directions
mini cakes

Preheat the oven to 420
Separate the eggs
Whisk the egg whites in a stand up mixer with the sugar until it is firm*
Add the egg yolks one at a time without their skin (use a metal stainer for this) and add the vanilla. Fold into the egg whites.
Slowly add the flour, corn starch, and baking powder and fold into the egg mixture.
Drop spoon fulls of the mixture on a cookie sheet and bake for 5 minutes.
Remove from cookie sheet while it is still hot and place in a cooling rack.
When the cakes have completely cooled down spread dulce de leche on them and form a sandwich with a second cake.
Dunk the sandwiched cakes in the sugar syrup.
Refrigerate for 2 hours before serving.
Place a chocolate leaf on top to garnish (optional)

* Egg whites can be tricky. For detailed instructions on how to whisk egg whites visit this post at 101 Cook Books.

filling

To make dulce de leche pour the sweetened condensed milk in a glass bowl and microwave on medium for 10 minutes. Stop and stir every 2 minutes.

Syrup

Place the water and sugar in a small sauce pan.
Stir constantly until it begins to boil.
Cool down completely before submerging the cakes.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

damarispalmer@gmail.com (Damaris) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:21:39 PDT

The picture isn't great (neither is the presentation) but I guarantee that the cake is good. 'Tis the season for zucchini and I was stoked when I read this post. The original recipe can be found here.

I used round pans and made a double layer cake with whip cream in the middle and rich chocolate ganache as icing.

Confession: I hate making cakes. I want them to look beautiful and I want beautiful cake stands to hold them up. You know like the colorful vintage ones...ohhh lala. I can't get myself to invest in beautiful cake stands because my cakes never turn out beautiful. If you have any tips on how to make pretty cakes please let me know I'm in need of inspiration for my next cake project.

Creamy Blackberry Frozen Yogurt

damarispalmer@gmail.com (Damaris) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:48:28 PDT

Summer has been so good to us this year. I'm trying desperately to hold on to any remainders of this wonderful season. I've already frozen tons of slices of peaches for a cold winter afternoon when I need a juicy peach cobbler. I'm now making my way through all the blackberries we have close to our house. Jam will be made, don't you worry. For now, because we've been enduring the craziest heat wave, the blackberries are turned into smoothies and other cold treats. So far my favorite has been the frozen yogurt. We used yogurt cheese instead of plain yogurt and this thing came out insanely creamy.

Creamy Blackberry Frozen Yogurt

3 cups fresh blackberries
3 cups yogurt cheese
1 can sweetened condensed milk

In a blender, puree the blackberries with the sweetened condensed milk
In a medium bowl mix the puree with the yogurt cheese.
Pour the mixture in to your ice-cream maker and follow the manufacturer's directions.