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

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

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.

Brazilian Corn Cake with Guava Paste / Bolo de Fuba com Goiabada

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
(printable version)

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

1. preheat oven to 350* and butter bundt pan.
   
2. 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.
3. Gently mix the goiabada pieces into the batter.
4. Pour the batter into a bundt pan.
5. bake for 40-50 minutes.
6. Let it cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack before you flip it.
7. 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

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

1. put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Butter bundt pan generously, then dust with flour, knocking out excess.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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. 
5. Drizzle with your favorite frosting.
   

Pumpkin-Fried Apple Soup with Leeks and Bacon

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

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. 

Good times.

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt Made with Fage Yogurt

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

1. Place your sliced strawberries in a small saucepan with sugar and bring to a boil.
2. Let it cool down completely.
3. Once it is cool place the strawberries in a blender and puree on high for 30 seconds.
4. In a mixing bowl fold the puree into the yogurt.
5. 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

(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.