Let's spice it up!

posted on: Monday, February 11, 2008

Valentine's day means good love stories, chocolate, and fun presents. 


I got a little disturbed when I went to Target on Christmas eve to get holiday themed cookie cutters and instead only found heart shaped cookie cutters. It felt like Valentine's day had sabotaged Christmas. The whole store was filled with pink, red and white decorations. There's no Valentine's day in Brazil I guess it's an American Holiday. The U.S does a wonderful job to commercialize love, it's totally disturbing but...oh so fun! During that shopping trip I left Target with this cool apron and some dish towels. I have dish towels that I've never used. My poor little kitchen can't hold anymore. So I decided to give it away. Here's the deal. I met my husband at a Mormon single adults valentine's dance. It's a fun holiday for us. I'll tell you our story on valentine's day. I want to hear your love story. It can be about how you fell in love with your partner or even how you fell in love with a particular food.  E-mail it to me at damarispalmer@gmail.com and I'll post it here on Thursday. We'll then vote on the best story and I'll send you the dishtowels so you can match my apron (I'm totally keeping the apron).


You can get inspired by listening to This American Life's episode about Valentine's day. You can listen for free to this episode by opening this page.  Valentine's Day '98 
On Friday they'll air Valentine's Day 2008. Tune in to your local NPR station!

Recipe:


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)
  1. preheat oven to 350
  2. mix all the dry ingredients first (not the chocolate)
  3. add the butter, egg, honey, and milk.
  4. mix until smooth
  5. 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
  6. bake for about 15-20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean
  7. when it's ready take out and cool in a wire rack.
  8. Cool completely before you put the chocolate.
  9. 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).
  10. 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.


 Enzo was a huge fan. He had way too many. He only wanted to eat the top part that had the chocolate, of course.

FUN PRESENT:

I will have to nominate this cook book. Sorry the picture is so tinny. The title is "Food as Foreplay" and it is hilarious. I got it a couple years ago as a Valentine's day present and I use it to laugh much more than than to cook. The recipe's are o.k but the rest of the text is classic. They talk about good ways to find your soul mate in a super market, how to tell their personality by the food they buy, and lot's of other interesting facts about aphrodisiacs. They pretty much believe that you should be in bed all day eating. Sounds good to me! 

4 comments:

  1. Okay, so I just had to comment and tell you how beautiful Enzo is! The hair and eyes...wow! Lucky you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Damaris. You may have given birth to the cutest baby EVER. The adorable chocolate smudges only add to the adorableness.

    And I'm sure Enzo is smart and hard-working and empathetic and stuff. But you can't really capture that in a photograph.

    Glad you found my blog, and glad I found yours!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Damaris, this recipe is amazing!!!
    These are so good!
    Thanks so much for sharing!
    I actually burnt my first two trays that i put in simultaneously and just spent an hour chipping off the burnt parts. (I even burnt my first attempt at the chocolate... can you believe it?!?) But wow, biting into that scrumptous delight really made all the (extra) work worth it. After that, my face was similar to Enzo's in the photo! ...just as happy, almost as messy, but really not as cute as his... haha!
    By the way... that photo class with Tosh is really improving your skill... those desserts had me captivated at first sight!

    ReplyDelete

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