February Cook Off Reading/Writers/Winner

Today I'm feeling lucky. I just bought bought the KitchenAid for my friend, and I could not have done it without you. So thank you to the moon and back. Somewhere in Hawaii a mom, my friend, will be mixing and baking up a storm with her new toy, I just know it will make her smile.


Speaking of mixing and baking Christian has been bugging me about my Birthday cake. He's an incredible and elaborate baker, no joke. Every year he gets more and more daring with his cake skills. I was supposed to put in a request a couple days ago but could not come up with anything. Today I figured out exactly what I wanted and it's a Dr. Seuss theme cake. The Seuss and I share a birthday. Had I been born a day earlier the Bieber and I would of shared a birthday and I would certainly have requested a Justin Bieber life sized cake. Instead  Thankfully I'm getting a Seuss inspired cake. I can't wait to see what Christian comes up with. We will also be doing live readings of our favorite Dr. Seuss books. If you're around you should totally come. Cake and ice-cream (frozen yogurt for me) plus a bunch of adults pretending not to be excited but actually totally stoked on reading Dr. Seuss plus tons of kids running around minus space that we actually need to host this equals a guaranteed good time.


Now on to the February Cook Off Reading/Writers/Winner


Favorite Passages...


Confessions of a Kitchen Witch: "After it was all made, I was handed a slice of their fresh mozzarella cheese and I can still remember the expression on my face as if it was yesterday. You would think I died, went to heaven to have it be Christmas morning everyday til eternity! The smooth texture, the freshness, everything just seemed to come together in a dance of culinary euphoria for this girl! After that, I was completely hooked and I only cook with the freshest mozzarella cheese." Read more about  her experience working in an authentic Italian Deli here.


Bright Morning Star: "I was sad I halved the recipe and I shared them with none , except with family (am safe there coz they aren't high on sweets ).  To read more about her first experience baking whoopie pies and how enthusiastic she is here.


Full Circle: "We were finishing off a lovely Mother's Day brunch and all agreed that a special lady deserved a special dessert. Thanks to my wonderful mother, my life would be forever changed after that meal. It was love at first bite and I've arguably been a foodie ever since." To find out what food Kimmie is talking about go here. 


The Little Foodie: "My list of food memory associations in books I had read was longer than the number of foods I had eaten in real life. Even now, the stroke of taste from a book is never as good as the ones in real life, however incredible the chef" Read more about Mariko's love for food in literature here. 


A Girl Who Craves: "Seafood has always been a family experience, tied very much to my mom and her parents. We'd have fish frys in the summers and spend hours out on the boat hoping to catch something. The truth is, I never really liked fishing. But I appreciated the results. And those dishes -- the casserole, fried catfish, parmesan shrimp, flounder -- have always been the ultimate comfort food to me" To read more of Amanda's beautiful prose  go here.


I really appreciated reading these stories. I'm glad this wasn't a competition. I'm glad Baby Maria randomly picked the winner. 

Delegating these kinds of responsibilities is my favorite. So Mariko from The Little Foodie you have Baby Maria to thank when you get your killer Kerrygold basket full of creamy butter and wonderful cheese in the mail. I'm jealous but excited to see what you cook up. 


Happy Monday everyone.

Chocolate Chip Pancakes Mount Holyoke Style

On Saturday morning I woke up craving chocolate chip pancakes. I had a nice cozy dream wherein I was having breakfast at Mount Holyoke, my alma mater. Mount Holyoke was the bomb. Not only did I learn a thing or two but I also got to eat chocolate chip pancakes almost on a daily basis for 4 years, at my leisure, without having to worry about feeding them to anyone else. On Saturday I made my own version of the pancakes. It took a couple tries and way too much time to get it just the way I wanted it to be and so here is the successful recipe. And here is a disclaimer: this post will not be about babies wearing Christmas pajamas in February playing with toasters. Mostly this post will be me. And chocolate chip pancakes.

Wanna go in on a present with me?

post-edit: As of Friday 2/25 we have raised $225. Just so you know.
pos-post-edit: on Monday 2/28 the KitchenAid fund was met (don't you just love that, a KitchenAid fund?!).  Thanks everyone to the moon and back.


Today is sunny, super sunny, almost hot. Christian just came back from kayaking with his buddy. I'm soaking up the sun in the safety of my bedroom, sitting on my desk working on a post about chocolate chip pancakes and another post about how to do giveaways, a question I get almost on a daily basis. I'm happily working and thinking about something, an idea that I hope you can help me out with.

A good friend of mine just had her 5th baby and I want to give her a present. Will you go in on it with me? Her baby is beautiful and healthy, with 4 older siblings and a plethora of cousins and aunties and uncles to love on him (he was born into a Tongan family, lucky boy). He doesn't really need anything I'm sure. So I want to give my friend a present to celebrate her, her awesomeness, her dedication to her family, and her love for cooking. I want to give my friend a KitchenAid. I know it's huge and expensive. This is why she doesn't already own one. It's not that she can't afford it, her husband is one of the most hard working guys I know, it's just that she lives in Hawaii where everything costs a million dollars and my friend would never spend the money to buy herself a kitchenAid because there are a bunch of other things that takes priority. She'll continue to use her wooden spoons and whisk which is fine expect that a KitchenAid is so dang awesome and would make her life so much easier. Plus it's fun to get a shinny new toy, specially when you're sleep deprived with a newborn to feed every hour on the hour. So will you go in on a KitchenAid for my friend? I can't buy it solo it's too much money but together we can totally give her an unexpected gift. From strangers. A KitchenAid. FUN!

O.K, here is what I'm thinking. Coscto sells them for $299 and they can ship easily to her house. I'll put in what I can and  you put in what you can. I'll leave the paypal button active until we reach $299. I wish I knew how to add that thingy where it shows your progress and how much money you've raised and how much money you need but I don't know how and I don't want to complicate this to much, it's a present for goodness sakes it shouldn't be complicated it should just be fun. If we don't raise the $299 I'll just send her the money and tell her she must use it for something fun for her! Moms have a tendency to only buy things for their kids. 

O.K give me a second while I figure this paypal button out...

there it is (what's up with all the white space? Whatever) Yay...group presents are my fave!

My friend is going to love her KitchenAid I just know it! Thank you so so so much for being you. Always so kind. Always so generous. I love you.

I wish I could show you pics of my friend's new baby Ma'umo'ale Jeffrey you would totally fall in love with him. But it's not my baby to show. So you'll just have to settle for pictures of my baby instead. This is from our last trip to Hawaii, where I last saw my friend, pregnant, beautiful, with a plate full of homemade chocolate candy in her hands just for me.

Congratulations my sweet friend.
Your baby boy is perfect just like you.
I can't wait to meet him.
xoxo, Da

Quick Frittata using Kerrygold Cheddar and Sun Dried Tomatoes

The first time I had frittata I was on the plane to Hawaii. It was this past Christmas and all four of us were packed into three seats and we were lucky enough to be on Hawaiian airlines, the only airlines I know that still serves food on domestic flights. Surprisingly, the frittata was edible, almost good. I figured that anything that could still taste good on an airplane had to be totally delicious on the ground. Once I started researching frittatas I found out that it is basically a quiche without the crust. We are huge quiche fans so I figured the frittata would go over well with the entire family. Also, since most of the work for making a quiche is making the crust it would be a quicker recipe.

Once I made the frittata, I realized that the texture is something of a cross between a quiche and an omelet. And like both of those you can add all sorts of veggies, cheeses, or meats laying around in your fridge. I made it with Kerrygold cheddar, palm hearts, and sun-dried tomatoes. Most of the flavors were mild which brought out the nice rich taste of the Kerrygold cheese. Feel free to mix and match fillings based on your own preferences. Next time I make it I will try it with some spinach, mushrooms, and sausage. 

Kerrygold is the sponsor for this month's cook off and I'm grateful for them for their willingness to sponsor and for the quality products they make. Hawaiian airlines should use Kerrygold cheese and butter in their airplane food, don't you think?

Frittata

(printable version)
6 eggs
½ cup heavy cream
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
½ cup sun-dried tomatoes, drained
1 jar palm hearts, drained and diced
1 ½ cup grated cheddar cheese

1. Preheat the oven to broil.
2. In a large bowl whisk the eggs, heavy cream, salt and pepper.
3. Add the grated cheese and sun-dried tomatoes and mix.
4. Heat the olive oil in a 10 inch cast-iron skillet over medium heat and add garlic cloves and palm hearts and cook for 1-2 minutes.
5. Pour in the egg mixture and cover and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. Put it in the broiler and cook for 3-5 minutes until the center is firm. Be careful with broilers because they can burn things quickly. 
7. Once you remove it, it will set a little more as it cools down. Serve for breakfast or as an entree for lunch or dinner with a side of green salad.

Recipe for Health

Ha! As if.

Tuesday was the only day this week I felt human. That night Chris made us a romantic dinner after the babies were asleep to celebrate our Valentine's day. We had lamb chops, asparagus, and baby potatoes, and white chocolate honey mousse, my fave. It was a fun night except at 3:00amish when I started feeling ill. Then on Wednesday I felt super ill, I barely managed to keep Maria's doctor's appointment or pick up Enzo from school. Good thing Christian is a graduate student with a very flexible schedule. As soon as he got home  I was all like, "remember how I've been in bed for the last 4 days doing nothing while you were totally single parenting? Well here are your children. Good-bye!" I was miserable. I felt like I was in the middle of the first trimester of pregnancy.

The good news is that  I'm not pregnant and that I have now eliminated one of two phobias in my life. Phobia number one, is driving alone at night only to discover that I'm not alone. The few times I've actually driven alone at night I've almost lost it. I keep looking back convinced that some stranger is going to be sitting in the passenger seat and will scare me to death. Literally, to death. My mother in law said that one time she got in her car early in the morning, sat in the driver's seat, and all of a sudden Christian's friend Lehi sits up on the passenger seat, it totally freaked her out. Apparently Lehi got in a fight with his parents so he decided to sleep in the passenger seat of Pammy's car. If this had happened to me I would of died. My second phobia is vomiting. I have mastered the technique to get mysel to not throw up even when my body really wants to. I am, or better put I was, deathly afraid of vomiting. What if I choke? What it I can't breath. What if I can't stop throwing up? All real fears. But on Wednesday I surrendered and after vomiting my guts out more times than I should mention I am proud to say that I am no longer afraid of throwing up. Yay.

Apparently having a kidney infection was not enough to get me down. I also needed to get the stomach flu and two other things I won't mention because it's just too disgusting. The Tomato Tart tweeted me a message "When it rains it pours" and boy did it pour. Truth is, it could have been worse. I mean, what if the kids had gotten sick? They never make it to the sink or the toilet in time to not make a mess, at I least have good aim.

Yesterday I go a killer homemade chicken soup from a good friend which I ate when I could finally keep more than just water down. It actually made me feel better. I read a compelling article last month about chicken soup and the science behind why it is actually good for you. I saw the link in someone's blog. Was it yours? If it was can you send me the link again please?

Today I feel better. It might have something to do with the fact that I slept 12 hours straight and/or the adrenaline I need to be a real parent again. Christian leaves today for a conference and won't be back until late Sunday night. I'll miss him so much and not just because he's been so good at taking care of me  and the kids but because I really enjoy his company. Now that I can laugh without throwing up who's going to watch this week's Modern Family  episode with me?

Here is a picture of us (pre-sick week) that my friend Katrine took at the Valentine's dance.  Look at us all happy and giddy not knowing what was going to hit me. I hope Christian has a fun time at his conference this weekend. He deserves it big time. I hope I continue to get better and not worse. I really want to spend some quality time with Enzo and Baby Maria, doing more than just reading books to them from my bed.

Poached Eggs with Asparagus and Brie Cheese

Today I woke up and felt like Liz from Eat, Pray, Love, minus the trip to Rome and the bad divorce.

There's a scene in the movie where she finally becomes mindful of herself and takes a moment to enjoy the moment. She makes herself asparagus and poached eggs, sits in the middle of a sunbeam in her living room and allows herself to savor life.

I know I told you I would rest but frankly if I lay in bed another second I will die. Besides, I woke up today feeling so much better and with an appetite and desire to fill my body with good things. I also wanted to cook and I really wanted to write.

So here I am. My belly is full from, not one, but two poached eggs on top of asparagus with slices of brie cheese. And my heart, oh my heart, it is full with love for Christian whom I met exactly 8 years ago on a cold night in Connecticut.

We make good food together, we make good children together, and we make an overall good life together. In spite  of my unhealthy kidneys, today I'm feeling super lucky.

I also have my friends to thank for watching my kids, making me dinners, taking me to the doctor, and even buying me eggs. It's the effort and love, the unselfishness of people around me that fostered a moment like today where I could be mindful of my blessings and simply enjoy.

This is not a post about eating bittersweet chocolate mousse on Valentine's Day. This is a post about Health Care.

Bittersweet chocolate mousse should take center stage today, with it's fluffy and airy quality that fills your mouth with instant happiness. Maybe that's why I've had 3 remikins of chocolate mousse in the last 48 hours. That's not excessive is it? Feeling as crappy as I do I'm going to say it's not excessive.

We love Valentine's Day around here, even more so when it's extended throughout the weekend which gives us more time to celebrate our love in the cheesiest, over the top, tackiest ways we can come up with. Christian and I met on February 15th 2003 at a a Mormon Single Adults Valentine's dance. Because the dance was held a day after Valentine's day there was a big banner outside of the dance hall that read "Welcome to the Last Chance." Yup that's how we met, at the Last Chance Mormon Single Adults Valentine's Dance.

Keeping with tradition Christian and I continue to go to Valentine's dances, held at our church. I particularly enjoy it because every year I feel like it's a full immersion lesson on 80's American pop music, which apparently I really enjoy. I spend the 80's in Brazil listening to this and this, which is nothing like the electric slide.

On Saturday we went to our congregation's annual Valentine's dance. A nice surprise about Christian is that he really likes to dance, so we danced a lot. This whole past week I've been dealing with a UTI and self medicating through the ever so nasty 100% cranberry juice. On Friday I over extended myself on the dance floor and came home with my back achey right where my kidney's are. We ended our Date Night sitting on our bedroom floor watching episodes of Modern Family, while I drank big glasses of cranberry juice. I was hoping that I could laugh the back ache away since the cranberry juice was obviously not working.

However, the next morning I knew I had a kidney infection.

DIY- Turning a picture into a Valentine

Because I like food and because I like pictures I thought this idea of combining both to create a Valentine was absolutely charming. I saw it first on Design Mom, and she saw it somewhere else, and that person saw it on another blog and so the vicious cycle of copying good ideas continue.

This is a really easy project and I'll walk you through the process of editing your pictures on Picnik, a free online photo editing service I swear by, so that you can make your own picture perfect Valentine.

gluten free alfajore pops for valentine's day, dulce de leche in my pressure cooker, and a whole lot of time

Making alfajore pops took me 11 hours from start to finish. Ridiculous isn't it? On Sunday we had a great lesson in Relief Society about appreciating our time. Andrea who gave the lesson, is a mother, a wife, and a really hard worker. She's the designer behind Down East and often travels to China, Indonesia, Bolivia and around the US because of her work obligations. Yet, when Andrea is around and I get to talk to her and observe her with her family I can see that she lives by the quote that she shared in her lesson.

"Strength comes not from the frantic activity but from being settled on a firm foundation of truth and light. It comes from placing our attention and efforts on the basics of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It comes from paying attention to the divine things that matter most" - Dieter F. Uchdorf

Andrea encouraged us to log how we spend our time this week. Last night when the kids were finally asleep, Christian was working on his research, and I had settled down in front of my computer to edit pictures, I saw the log and put it aside. There was no way I was documenting the embarrassing fact that it had taken me 11 hours to make some Valentine's Day treats. Somehow alfajores, even though I think they're glorious, just doesn't seem like something Uchdorf had in mind when he was talking about paying attention to the divine thing that matter most.

So I started going through the pictures I had taken of the day and right there on my screen was little Maria staring back at me. We had been up since 6:30 am, reading books on my bed, browsing different Pandora stations, taking silly pictures, and making dulce de leche in preparation for the alfajores I wanted to make. Suddenly I felt so grateful for the full day I just had, for the fact that I was able to parent my kids even through their crazies (and my crazies), and for my friends who kept coming by and helping me stay grounded throughout the laborious task of making alfajore pops.

February Cook Off

Baby Maria loves food and anything related to food. Sitting in my dutch oven is her favorite. Playing with the lids from my pans is her favorite. Being in the kitchen is her favorite. And eating, well eating is definitely her favorite.

Enzo is more practical about his food. For him it's fuel, something he can calculate to figure out how much he'll grow and how strong he'll get, or if it's sugar how bad of a stomach ache he'll have and then decide if it's worth putting in his mouth.

I have early memories of being like Baby Maria, where I enjoyed food and quite often obsessed about it. I remember biting into a hot pastel at the weekly farmer's market on our street in Santo Andre. The steam from the pastel burnt the tip of my nose, but didn't deter me from continue eating it. I must have been 3 years old at the time.

February is the month of love and I've been in love with food since I can remember. So for this month I want to celebrate our love for all things food.

February Cook Off Theme: My love for food started when...
Do you remember the first time you took a bite of something and you couldn't hold back the words "I love this." For the February cook off I want to hear all about how you fell in love with food. Tell me the story of when you first had a pain au chocolat or when you had your first street food in NYC. Tell me about the first time you baked cookies for a boy or the first time you nursed your baby. Tell me about the taste, and the smells, and tell me about how you felt because feelings are my favorite things to read about.

Guidelines: (slash rules)
Write a post on your blog using My love for food started when...  as a prompt. You don't have to have a recipe, you don't have to have pictures, and you certainly don't have to be a food blogger. This is open to anyone who wants to share their memories about food with others.

Somewhere in your post please mention that you are writing this as a part of the Kitchen Corners Cook Off and link back to this url (http://www.kitchencorners.com/2011/02/february-cook-off.html). The cook off button on the sidebar will link to this post so anyone who visits Kitchen Corners and clicks on that button will be directed to the February Cook Off.

How to share: (slash participate)
Leave a comment with your post url and I will add it to the cook off list on the bottom. I promise to read everyone's entry and I encourage you to also read other people's enteries so that we can make new friends along the way.

Prize: (because everyone needs an incentive):
Everyone who participates in the cook off will have their name written on a piece of paper, put in a hat (or my dutch oven) and randomly drawn by Baby Maria herself (we'll see how that goes). The lucky winner will walk away with a Kerrygold gift basket, because Kerrygold is sponsoring this event (thank you Kerrygold, I could write love notes to your Irish butter all day long). The gift basket includes Kerrygold butter, Kerrygold cheese, and a a copy of The Country Cooking of Ireland by Colman  Andrews, the prize package is worth $350. Kerrygold will only ship to the US, so if you win and you're in another country you can pick another person to send it to, or send it to your friend...

When to enter:
You can leave a comment with the url of your post anytime from now until February 21st. The title of your post and the title of your blog will be added to the February Cook Off list below, linking back to you. On February 28th I'll post a roundup of my favorite quotes from all of your posts and announce the winner.

1. My *OMG!* I *Love* This Food Experience ~ by Confessions of a Kitchen Witch
2. Madagascar Vanilla Bean Red Velvet Linzer Hearts Whoopie Pies @Baked Sunday Morning by Bright Morning Stars
3. Ginger creme brulee by Full Circle
4. A Readerly Interest in Food by The Little Foodie
5. First Food Love by The Girl Who Craves

Green Smoothie {because Enzo thought it would be a good idea}

Recently I've been noticing a theme going on in my life. Has that ever happened to you, like when you discover something and then that thing keeps emerging in different forms over, and over, and over again? Chances are it was probably there all along but now your eyes just sees it in a different light and Bam(!), it's right there in your face.

It's not like a light bulb that goes off in your head and you realize that you need to act fast. It's more like a stream of Christmas lights, totally unassuming and if you're in the mood it can bring you some cheer.

Lately I've been getting the vibe that I need to feed my family healthier meals. It started happening when I was re-writing my about page and thinking about the type of food that I cook. It was also the visit to the doctor last week where I asked Maria's pediatrician why her nose has been runny non-stop since March of last year. We're thinking she might have a food allergy, we just need to know what. Then I saw these movies, and then I got this book to review, and then my good friend, Ana Paula, told me about the benefits of eating raw foods, and now I want to change the way we eat. Not in a preachy way, I mean I'm not even sure it's realistic considering our student income budget, but I do want my family to eat more organic produce, whole grains, and less sugar.

Is that totally unrealistic?

cooking underwater and blogging about everything

When I was in Hawaii, this past Christmas, I had the opportunity to cook for mermaids. They were very kind and didn't mind that I served them green things, even though they weren't impressed with my seaweed pie.

Actually, what really happened was that one of my favorite photographers of all time, Mark Lee from Holladay Photo, and I got together to do some underwater cooking pictures. Why? Because mermaids need to eat and because it was ridiculously fun. Please pop over to Mark's blog to see the full shoot.

Things I loved about this shoot:
-Hanging out with Mark.
-Seeing Enzo play so well with Mark's kids Ruby and Atticus.
-Seeing Ruby take care of Maria so that Chris and I could smooch underwater.
-Seeing Christian and Mark work diligently setting up the table underwater reminded me that Christian puts up with my craziness and is even encouraging. I love him.

Things that were hard:
-Holding my breath for more than one shot. I'm a wimp.
-Swimming with bricks in my apron.
-Deciding it was time to stop. I could have done it all day.

Mark thank you.

You're the man!

I loved doing this

and I loved seeing the pictures.

I appreciate being reminded of fun times.

xoxo, Da

ps. send my love to your lovely Patria, Ruby and Atticus.

Baby Maria 1. Kitchen Safety 0.