Manjar {Brazilian Coconut Custard}

One of those easy desserts, you know

unlike cherry pie.

Manjar is a Brazilian coconut custard/pudding. Think flan, now add coconut taste to flan. That is a manjar. Except that it's way easier to make than flan because you don't need to bake it. It's goes from stove top to fridge to mouth in less than an hour.

Manjar

• 3 cups milk
• 4 tablespoons corn starch
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 can coconut milk (not to be confused with coconut water)
• 1 cup coconut flakes, unsweetened.
• prunes.
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons sugar

1. Add all the milk and corn starch to a medium sized pan. 
2. Dissolve the corn starch completely in the milk. This is really the most important step. You want to mix until the corn starch is totally dissolved otherwise you're going to get nasty corn starch lumps.
3. Add the sweetened condensed milk and the coconut milk and mix until everything is well incorporated and dissolved. 
4. Turn the stove top on to medium heat and start stirring. You will probably stir for a good 20 minutes until the mixture starts to thicken. 
5. Mix until the mixture starts pulling away from the bottom of the pan.
6. Remove from heat and mix in the coconut flakes.
7. Put in your favorite serving dish and let cool completely. If the dish is shallow it will cool faster. However, if you put it in the fridge it really should settle and be ready to serve within 1/2 an hour.
8. While the manjar is cooling make your prune sauce. Add the prunes, water, and sugar to a small pan and bring to a boil. Let simmer for 5 minutes and remove from heat. Let cool completely. Serve on top of the manjar.

The reason why I am posting this recipe is because I had every intention of making cherry pie for the 4th of July but Christian told me that it would take me at least 3 hours to pit the cherries. Is he right? I mean, I've never made cherry pie before but 3 hours seems insane. Is it just me or do Brazilian recipes seem so much easier to make than American recipes?

What's your favorite easy American recipe? I need some ideas for this weekend.

Schade Pops {fun with popsicles}

in honor of Karla Schade

who gave me the best idea on what to do with my mismatched ingredients.

I mean, all the ideas were good. Banana bread had already been done and the banofee pie seems great except that it takes more than 10 minutes to make, same as pudding. I needed something quick and easy for dessert and ice-cream was it, especially since I have a Zoku that makes popsicles in less than 10 minutes.  I don't normally suggest getting expsenive kitchen gadgets but I suggest getting a Zoku. We're having so much fun with ours.

Enzo's popsicle was not as pretty as Christian's (I made it, blame me) but still totally delicious

Schade Pops

• 1/2 cup greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup mashed bananas
• 2 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk
• 1/4 cup melted chocolate

1. In a blender mix the yogurt, bananas, and sweetened condensed milk.
2. Pour a little of the melted chocolate in the Zoku. Christian successfully made his chocolate stay in the middle.
3. Pour the banana mixture and let freeze (between 5-7 minutes)

If the Zoku is outside of your budget then consider spending a little bit more on good pop molds. Last year I got mine at the dollar store and after one use I had to throw it away, total junk. Then I spend $5 on one at Target which was better but the handle was pocky and Enzo never wanted to use it.

Here are better ones for less than $20. Click on the individual pictures for prices and descriptions.
 

What I've learned this week about food blogging

I often get e-mails from friends who want to start a food blog asking me for advice. I've been food blogging for 2 1/2 years and I'm still just a beginner so I don't feel very qualified to share my beginner expertise, you know.

In any case I read about food blogging and blogging and social media in general all the time. It fascinates me and inspires me to no end.

I decided to start a weekend column where I share some ideas about food blogging and recap what I've learned in the past week.

• Sarah from Tastespotting tweeted a great article called "Why Food Bloggers Are Here to Stay" Such an insightful article about the food blogging phenomenon.
• If you'd like to make money off your blog raise your hand. Grace from Design*Sponge made a video presentation that talks about how her blog went from being a hobby to now a team of 20 people. Even though her blog is not solely about food her strategies can be applied to any blog, in my opinion. Check out her video presentation here. 

How was your week? Did you get any nice comments on your blog that just made your day? I got so much love from posting pictures of my daughter. Thank you.

from.

the.

bottom.

of.

my.

heart.

Foodie Babies {feeding your child from 0-12 months}

I know that the only people in the world who find food encrusted babies cute are parents.

In particular parents of their own food encrusted baby.

Just give me a second

so I can get this cuteness overdose out of my system.

baby Maria was born in September, about the same time when I started neglecting this blog. Before her arrival I posted a lot about cooking with kids, in particular cooking with my son Enzo. Baby Maria is 9 months old and this is the first post dedicated to babies and food. Sorry it took me so long.

Alas, here are my 2 cents about feeding little tiny humans.

Breastfeeding:

My fave (I wish). I was able to breast feed Enzo no problem for over a year. Baby Maria has been much harder. Early on it was difficult and awkward. Lactation consultants are so great and I highly recommend seeing one or two or three. They helped and they soothed. In Santa Cruz I was able to get help from Sutter Hospital. You can find help by calling your local hospital, they will be able to direct you to a lactation center. Better yet, ask a friend or a mother that you trust for advice. I wish I had done this sooner. If your next door neighbor has kids, chances are that she's had trouble breast feeding. If she hasn't then the next door down from her guaranteed has had trouble. Breast feeding can be really hard and it's good to find a support system. 

Formula:

Enzo never had formula and I'll openly admit that I thought the stuff was made out of poison. I was such a breast milk snob. For the last month I've had crazy nipple infections. It bleeds and cracks and bleeds and cracks and makes it impossible to breast feed. The worst part was the guilt. At first I felt guilty about supplementing with formula and then I felt guiltier for enjoying bottle feeding. Feeding my baby without having blood come out of my nipples is magic called bonding! So, if you're a new mom or a second time mom like me and you need to supplement with formula, oh well, it's o.k. On Monday I went to the doctor again and I am now on 3 different medications to try and heal my nipples. If it happens great if not, oh well, she'll just bottle feed, bottle feed formula not breast milk. I tried pumping but it's impossible. I can't pump and parent two children simultaneously. I started her off with soy-formula  but my doctor recommended not giving her soy so I switched to milk based formula. I buy which ever organic brand is on sale. Do you have a favorite formula brand? I'm new to the formula world.

Solid Foods:

With Enzo I made all of his baby food, daily. It was seriously all I did. I was paranoid about what he ate (still slightly am) and was anal to the core about it. I don't miss that at all. Baby Maria has had store bought baby food. I like Earths Best. However, mostly I just make food for the family and use KidCo Baby Steps Food Mill, with Carrying Case , 1 food mill. If I was planning ahead I would make large batches of puree using the food processor, but no. The Food Mill is cheap, no more than $15, and works great. If you want to go fancy I've heard nothing but good things about Beaba Babycook Baby Food Maker. However be prepared to spend close to $150. It's a big investment.

Sippy Cups:

Baby maria can use a sippy cup all by herself. She's been able to for a couple months now. There is only one sippy cup I recommend it's called Tilty and it's genius. I've looked for it at toys R us and Taget but I've only been able to find it online. You can get it on Amazon Tilty Ergonomic 2 Pack Sippy Cups - Makes Drinking Easier for $11.00. Even my 4 year old loves the Tilty. There is really no better sippy cup. 

Snack Food:

There is more to baby snacks than Cheerios. Don't get me wrong, Cheerios is classic but they get sick of it. If I can sit down and help her eat and If I'm not worried about her making a mess I give her fresh fruit or frozen berries. If we're at church or out and about I like giving her freeze dried yogurt and other easy snacks. Here are a couple of her faves (click on individual pictures for more info).

  

Final Word of Advice:

• If you eat it they will eat it. I tried to shield Enzo from eating sugar and I was successfully able to do it for a while. However, Christian loves to bake (yes blame him) and is always making cookies and pies and other deserts. Enzo wanted in, not only on the cooking part but also on the eating part. I haven't given Maria a brownie, yet, but I know that inevitably she will eat sugar. However, kids can be a good motivator to change your diet.
• Ask for help. Ask moms for recipes, look online, go to the library and check out baby recipe books, ask me for recipes I have tons. There are a million (probably more actually) resources for easy ways to make and store baby purees, rescources for places to buy local baby food, rescources such as WIC to help you purchase organic baby food and charts that help you figure out when it's safe to introduce certain foods. Keep in mind that these charts are very American centered. I say this because I know I have Brazilian readers who give their babies cheese before they turn one or introduce other foods earlier. It's good to be informed, wholesomebabyfood.com is a good place to start, but don't be too uptight about it.
•  Relax and trust yourself. Feeding another human is nerve wrecking. If you are breast feeding you need to trust your body and your baby. Babies will not starve themselves. Sometimes babies eat like a truck driver and sometimes they refuse to eat. Take a deep breath. 
• Bleach=fun. Clorox is my best friend. It removes all stains, even those naughty blueberry stains. Eating is an experience like no other. Let them get dirty, it's so fun.

Torta de Atum {Savory Muffins Style}

Sometimes I go against what I believe in.

Sometimes I have a T.V in my house so that I can watch the Wold Cup.

Sometimes I cook using canned vegetables.

In the end we all turn out just fine, maybe even a little better.

These savory muffins have a story that includes the World Cup and canned vegetables and my affirmation of living a guilt free life.  In short, these muffins came to be because I wanted to make a Brazilian dish to watch one of the soccer games. First ingredient; television. 

My friend offered to give me her old set. I drove up to her home in Scotts Valley and left with a T.V and a dozen eggs from her chicken coop. I came home had the husband install the T.V while I looked for Brazilian recipes that use eggs. I wanted to put my new treasures to good use immediately. 

My mom and grandma are famous for their tuna vegetable pie which is similar to a crust less quiche only more dense. My mom and grandma are so smart. This pie is perfect. I don't know how they would feel if they knew I used muffin tins instead of the pie pan I brought back from Sao Paulo to bake these in. They would probably think I'm becoming too Americanized. 

dough

• 2 cups flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon baking powder

filling

• 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 can of corn
• 1 can of peas
• 2 cans of tuna
• 5 hearts of palm diced

1. preheat oven to 350*
2. Place all the ingredients to make the dough in a blender and mix until smooth.
3. In a large bowl mix all the filling ingredients (I like to rinse the canned corn and peas before I use it just to remove some of the sodium).
4. Mix the dough and filling together in the large bowl.
5. Pour in muffin tins and bake for 15-20 minutes. (makes 30 muffins)
6. Cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes and serve warm.

Enjoy!

p.s. have you been watching the World Cup? Do you want to stay at my house in Sao Paulo in 2014 Yes? Perfect, we can make this pie together and take it to the stadium.

Done!

post-edit: I am submitting this recipe to Get Grillin’ with Family Fresh Cooking and Cookin’ Canuck, sponsored by Ile de France Cheese, Rösle,Emile Henry, Rouxbe and ManPans.

today I am at...

just cook already doing a guest post,

sharing one of my favorite summer recipes.

Do you have a favorite recipe you'd like to share?

If so send me an e-mail and you can be my guest here at Kitchen Corners.

Simple Snack

because nothing tastes as good as simplicity.

Nothing.

Today I ran into a good preschool-mama-friend in the midst of chaos and the quick hug we exchanged made me crave simplicity. Much like the yogurt snack above. A simple concoction of fresh fruit, vanilla yogurt, and granola.

You know, preschool snack. 

Yeah, that's right, I guess I'm craving a preschool kind of snack.

Because preschoolers can make anything look delicious

and they can also make delicious things look disgusting, they're so tricky.

Don't get me wrong I'm enjoying summer very much but I'm also missing the structure of school days.

Happy Father's/Men Food Blogger Day

In honor of Father's day I thought I would present you my favorite male food bloggers.

I could be wrong, but I think that only one of them is an actual dad.

That's cool, maybe one day the other guys will become dads or maybe they'll read this post and start sweating just at the thought of such a task.

Regardless, these guys are kick butt bloggers and I appreciate the time and energy they put into their blogs because I sure like reading it.   

1) Matt Bites

I went to one of his photography workshops and I instantaneously wanted to become his best friend. His humor is contagious in writing and in person and his photography is killer.

2) David Lebovitz

Is an older version of my high school best friend. Every time I read his blog I laugh and then I cry because I don't live in Europe.

3) Chubby Hubby

I love reading this blog because Aun says beautiful thing about his wife all the time. Long live men who love their wives and know how to cook and know how to write.

4) the bitten word

This blog is written by Clay and Zach, two guys who make good use of their food magazines. I'm addicted to food mags and Clay and Zach compliment my addiction perfectly.

 5) Jim's Pancakes

Jim is a dad. His whole blog is dedicated to making fun pancakes for his daughter. Happy Father's day Jim.

Mindful Eating

Yesterday's Yoga session was amazing.

It really helped me throughout the entire day.

I noticed myself choosing to eat certain things with a greater awareness of what I wanted to put in my body.

Pre-babies I would chew slow, slow, slow. Then I would swallow, breath, and chew slow, slow, slow. I was always last at every single meal. Looking back, the aspect of pre-parenthood that I miss most is the ability to sit down, have a meal, and enjoy my meal. Now if I even get to sit I call it success. I notice that because of this change I end up choosing quick fixes, like a bar of chocolate (yes please), rather than a piece of melon. I love melon but cutting fruit sometimes seems like an insurmountable task.

The article The Art of Truly Joyful Eating by the Lunaticmonk expresses exactly the kind of eating style I would like for myself and my family. Such a great perspective, it's hard not to feel inspired.

::With You Everything is Possible::

6 years ago today
on a beautiful Friday afternoon in Hawaii

Christian and I were eating our wedding cake.

A couple weeks later we were back in Massachusetts. I needed to finish college and he needed to find a job. He found a part time gig at a local organic farm. Every day he would come home with buckets of fresh juicy produce for me to use.

I barely knew how to cook.

Even though the picture is totally low res and my hand writing is nothing to rave about I'm glad I documented the first cake we've ever made together.

Since then we've moved from the East Coast to Hawaii to California,
made 2 children,
got 2 more MA degrees,
and baked innumerable cakes together.
Not all turned out successful, but just as sweet

Ham and Cheese Quiche

For Father's Day.

Just a thought.

We love quiche around here, ok, let me rephrase that....

Christian and I love quiche around here. I am always trying to get Enzo to eat it but he won't eat anything that has vegetables in it (I swear I'm working on it) so spinach quiche, or quiche with mushrooms, or better yet spinach and mushroom quiche will just make him throw up. Appetizing thought, no?

So I made a quiche that has ham and cheese, That's it. Just creamy gouda and smoked ham. No onions. No green thing. No soft mushrooms. And I think it was the best quiche I have ever made. Don't tell Enzo I'm disclousing this info, he'll throw it in my face the next time we argue about his food choices.

Anyway, I'm thinking of making this quiche again for Father's Day. The only problem is that we're already doing a huge BBQ for lunch. Maybe eating ham, eggs, and cheese pre-BBQ is a little over the top. 

Or maybe it's just perfect.

Ham and Cheese Quiche

Pastry

• 1 cup flour
• 1/3 cup salted butter
• 4 tablespoons cold water

Filling

• 1/2 cup sliced ham
• 1 cup shredded Gouda
• 4 large eggs
• 2 cups heavy cream
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat 425*
2. Make Pastry. Mix all ingredients in a food processor and blend until a firm ball of dough forms. Let chill  in the fridge for 30 minutes.
3. While the pastry dough is in the fridge make the filling. Beat eggs slightly in a large bowl with whisk. Beat in heavy cream. Add the ham, cheese, salt, and pepper and mix lightly.
4. Press the pastry dough on a 11 inch round pan.
5. Pour the filling into the pan.
6. Bake for 15 minutes.
7. Reduce oven temperature to 300* and bake for 30 minutes longer.
8. Let stand for 15 minutes before serving.

Observations:

I finally figured out how to get the texture I wanted with quiche once I realized that I needed to turn down the heat after 15 minutes. It really makes a huge difference. This recipe is very creamy, but firm. The gouda gives a smooth touch. You could substitute the gouda for another kind of cheese like swiss or a mexican blend.

Enjoy!

Father's day foodie gifts

are the best.

It's so fun to give dads something delicious on their special day.

That's why I love this DIY project created by Jordan Ferney found via  alphamom

Jordan explains step by step how to create this Superhero box for dad complete with free printables. Go check it out and help your kids make some for their dad. I know my son would love making this. He would pick the treats and do the stickers and then convince Christian to share every single treat with him.

For something easier (like clicking "buy now") here is another list of gifts for the Foodie dads

Under $50 that I think are rad.
Pork Lunch Bag
Built Tortuga Lunch Tote, Ski Patrol Red
Eastman Outdoors 90414 BBQ ZaGrill's Pizza Pan
Style Asia HW4110 Chefs Basics Select 7-Piece BBQ Set with Apron
Black "Real Men Don't Use Recipies" Embroidered Apron
Cuisinart Simply Grilling Nonstick Grilling Platter
The Foodie Handbook: The (Almost) Definitive Guide to Gastronomy
Cooking Journal with 100 Cooking Words to Impress Your Foodie Friends
Magnetic Poetry - Foodie
Foodie Fight: A Trivia Game for Serious Food Lovers

If you had all the money in the world or all the creativity in the world to give the perfect foodie gift for your dad or husband what would it be? I'm so curious. I'm still not certain what to give Christian.