[Foodbuzz 24x24] Celebrating the New Year in Brazil

There is no other place I would rather be than in Brazil on December 31st. If I could, every year I would fly down to Brazil and ring in the New Year Brazilian style.

Wearing white.

Surrounded by family.

Dancing.

On the Beach.

Eating good Food.

// Menu //

Foodbuzz 24x24: Food Writing Workshop

For lunch I'm having leftovers from yesterday's dinner.

I'm having my asparagus tart, the one that's really Martha's Stewart's Asparagus-Gruyere Tart but I like to claim as my own. It's a special tart I make for friends (I'll tell you more about that in a minute) and since yesterday I was going to have dinner with 12 new friends I figured I would make my special tart.

Every month Foodbuzz hosts an online event called 24x24 which showcases 24 meals in 24 hours. This month I was one of the featured publishers chosen to document a special meal, and yesterday's dinner sure was special. 

Last night my tummy and my soul were fed. As I stood around the table with 12 other women, in a house I had never been before, some shared stories about growing up in the 60s to women who are just now growing up, I felt right at home. Sharing food and sharing stories about food, true life stories, is the definition of nourishment in my world. 

Yesterday I was nourished by the hands and hearts of 12 strangers and it was delicious.

Foodbuzz Festival 2010

Dear Enzo and baby Maria,
I left home yesterday morning without saying bye. It's against my mommy religion to wake up sleeping babies. However, if you had been awake I would of kissed you silly and then some more.

This time last year we all made our way to San Francisco so that I could come to the Foodbuzz Festival. Baby Maria you were 6 weeks old and being away from you was not a possibility, physically and emotionally. I stayed in the back of the room listening to the panelists up front. I nursed you and then I sprayed a famous chef and blogger on the face with breast milk. I walked out and sat by the doorway trying to keep you quiet as I made out every other third word that the panelists were saying. I didn't feel resentful, not one bit. I felt grateful that well, this is my life. It consists of cooking and blogging while raising the two of you.

Yesterday as I thought about you two and how much I enjoy feeding you, I ate an escargot lollipop and some yummy pizza. I know baby Maria would of loved the lollipop, specially playing with the stick. Enzo, you would of loved the pizza. It was yummy, almost as yummy as the one you make.

Today I was asked to present on a panel about what successful blogging is. My greatest success has always been and will always be you two and I'm so thankful that I get to blog about cooking for and with you and that throughout this process we have so much fun. After 3 years of doing what I do I feel like I have successfully learned how to balance, or at least accept the time constraints that I have to work with in order to be a good mommy and a descent blogger.

You two make my foodie world go round
and sometimes upside down.

xoxo.
Mama

picture perfect

Mariko made an island fresh fruit tart using fruits that she foraged in Hawaii with her husband and kids. Genius! And because she is a genius and takes beautiful food pictures I think we should vote for her to advance to the next stage of Project Food Blog.

I'm getting completely sucked in reading all the posts that are advancing. There have been some incredible posts out there and I stand amazed.

If you're participating in Project Food blog leave your post url in the comment section. I want to make sure I support my readers!

Foodbuzz 24x24: The ABC of food

(brownie points for you if you can identify all the letters. Hint: X stands for cheese in Brazilian menus. So if you go to Brazil and see "x-burger" you will get a cheese burger and not a x shaped burger, promise. Other than the X everything else is in English)

My 4 year old, Enzo, is learning how to read and to celebrate this huge achievement we hosted a ABC party for him. He helped me re-create the alphabet using food and then serve it up as brunch for his friends.

There is something magical about seeing your child sound out words. I just know that a whole world will open up before him as he begins to read on his own. I'm really looking forward to having him read out recipes to me while I cook with one hand and hold his little sister with the other. I've been needing an extra pair of eyes for a while now. The words "cup" and "tablespoon" were one of the first words I taught him. Next up is "creme fraiche" but maybe we'll work on "flour" first.

When I moved to the United States for the first time I was 7 years old. I learned how to read and write in a languge that I did not speak very well (English). The first word I learned how to read was "cook." It took me a couple more months to realize that "cook" was not what I thought it was. The whole time I had thought that "cook" was "cookie," a new dessert introduced to me when my family immigrated to the United States. Do you have any idea what it's like to eat your first cookie at the age of 7?  I had never tasted anything so sweet and magnificent. It did take me a while to learn how to spell it the correct way, though.

Listening to Enzo read reminds me of when I learned how to read. Since his first language is Portuguese he sounds out words with a cute accent and many times doesn't really know what words mean. This is a double adventure and I'm so glad we were able to celebrate just the right way, with good food and good dancing. Nothing beats the song "E eats Everything," a total foodie classic.

Good times indeed!

The other fun part about this party is that it helped raise money for Make Time for Change, an organization that is helping children have access to nutritious food during the upcoming Holidays. Foodbuzz, being the seriously awesome website that they are donated $250 for each post that was hosted under this month's 24x24 event (24 bloggers create a total of 24 meals in 24 hours). I was honored to be one of the bloggers.

Double good times!!

To see all the kid friendly meals that were created for the 24x24 event visit Foodbuzz.

For a print out of more ABC food ideas go here.

If you were hosting a ABC party what food would you make for the letters of the alphabet?

lactose free pomegranate mousse

What happens when lactaid milk meets pomegranate, other than realize that they both look good in red? They join together to create something awesome and lactose free, something tangy and exotic.

They join forces to create the ultimate pomegranate mousse.

Lactose free, baby! As someone who is lactose intolerant I can't help but be excited. I can't. Specially because I love the heavy cream, and the sweetened condensed milk, and the whole milk, and oh how my stomach suffers. So I eat in moderation, or I take some medications, or I tough it out. But I don't want to tough it out and I really don't want to eat in moderation. So big smiles all around for lactaid milk.

Lactaid selected 4 bloggers to create lactose free recipes to kick off their Lactaid Gourmoo Food Challenge. I'm so excited to be one of the bloggers. I even made a video of my pomegranate mousse during baby Maria's nap this past week. Christian took the footage. He was very serious and director like throughout the whole process. It was a little bit hilarious. If I look like my mood is fluctuating between belly-laughing-on-the-ground to I'm-to-serious-for-my-own-good, it's because I was almost belly laughing on the ground and the only way I could stop the urge to do so was by trying very hard to keep a straight face. Fun times. No really, it was super fun. You should do it too. You should totally submit a video to the gourmoo challenge. I'll give you more details soon. For now you can watch me make lactose free pomegranate mousse.




Lactose Free Pomegranate Mousse
(Printable Version)

• 1cup lactaid milk
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup pomegranate juice
• 1 packet of unflavored gelatin
• pomegranate seeds for garnish

1. Using an electric mixer, whisk eggs on high for 3 minutes.
2. After 3 minutes add the sugar to the eggs and whisk for an additional minute.
3. While the eggs and sugar are mixing warm up the milk until hot.
4. Once the milk is hot add half of the milk to the egg and sugar mixture and continue mixing on high for an additional minute.
5. While it's mixing pour the unflavored gelatin on top of the pomegranate juice and let it stand for at least a minute.
6. Then pour the remaining milk in the pomegranate juice and gelatin mixture and mix together until well incorporated. 
7. Add the milk and juice mixture to the rest of the milk, eggs, and sugar mixture and mix.
8. Pour in individual dessert dishes and refrigerate over night.
9. Garnish with pomegranate seeds.

disclaimer: As compensation for my video I received a free Flip video MinoHD from Foodbuzz. Watch me go all video crazy on you now. 

Chinese chicken salad {project food blog challenge number 2}

Or should I say Er? Is that how you even say the number two in Chinese? If you're Chinese and you're rolling your eyes I'll take that as a no. If you're Chinese and you read the recipe below developed by Ina Garten (something tells me she's not Chinese) and you roll your eyes again I'll take that as a hint that this recipe is not authentic. I get it.

It's just that I love the taste and texture of Chinese food but have never made it before. I don't use sesame seed and soy sauce much in my cooking.

But I should.
Because it gives such a nice flavor
And it's not so exotic that my picky Enzo won't touch it.

Challenge number two for Project Food Blog is to make a classic dish from another culture. I had to find something new but also something that my family would eat. Ina Garten's Chinese chicken salad did the job.

Project Food Blog {challenge numero uno}

Foodbuzz is having a fun online competition called project food blog with close to 2,000 contestants. Isn´t that crazy to the core? Did you even know there were so many food bloggers out there? I find it absolutley delightful that there are so many of us cooking and writing and licking our fingers as we go.

For challenge numero uno I need to tell you why I have what it takes to be the next food blog star.

Easy.

Does blogging while stiring a pot of beans and changing a diaper count? Gross, I know but that is the story of my life. I fell in love with food blogging close to three years ago, when my son was still a baby and my current baby wasn´t even a thought. I fell in love with the refuge it gave me while completing a demanding MA thesis and the joy it brought me as I documented my son´s life through food and cooking.

I am a mother first and a blogger second.

Now I am a mother of two and my cooking happens with my kids in the forefront. Literally. My 4 year old helps me cook and my 1 year old helps me have more things to clean up when I´m done cooking. I am constanly thinking about what meals I can make that will accomodate everyone´s needs and what cooking techniques I will use that will keep eveyone safe (I only deep fry when my baby is asleep) and will free me up quickly to get back to my kids.

My blog is an account of the recipes I create: tasty does not equal time consuming.

My cooking is a fusion of Brazilian and American food and my writing reflects my roots and my quest to learn more about new cultures and pass that knowledge and taste to my children. I didn´t marry someone from Hawaii for nothing. My husband and I travel a lot between the paradise beaches of the pacific and the incredible beaches of the Atlantic and we eat our way through both with our small kids in two.

I´m a foodie-mom-bogger. Feeding my kids is my source of inspiration and watching them grow in health is my reward. That´s why I enjoy sharing my recipes, documenting our eats through photography, posting about smart kitchen products, and kitchen toys, and holding weekly giveaways because you can never have enough reusable lunch bags.

I blog with my mouth full while taking care of my kids
and I love it.

Brazilian pastel {and other news}

is absolutely

without a doubt

my favorite food.

I know I've posted about pastel before. It's just that I can't get enough of this crispy fried dough with super salty filling. 

Pastel is  a savory dish usually sold at the farmers market. It's a thin pastry that envelopes some kind of savory (typically savory, sometimes there are sweet pastels too) filling. Most common fillings consist of cheese, ground sausage, ground beef, and Christian's favorite the Especial, which is the everything pastel

The Especial is a meal, my favorite meal. The deep friedness falls into the category of automatic deliciousness

My mama took us to her new favorite pastel joint. It took forever to get there and was super crowded but totally worth it. I loved spending time with my mom and sisters in Sao Paulo. It was 6 days too short! Now I'm in the Northeastern part of Brazil in the beautiful state of Bahia. We arrived yesterday and will stay till the end of the month. Today I had fried fish right on the beach. Heaven.

Speaking of fish did you see my post about Alaska Seafood in which I share a cod recipe via video? VIDEO! What was I thinking? I blush every time I watch it. Anyway... my post along with 11 other posts about Alaska Seafood is being featured on Foodbuzz.  There are some great fish recipes for you to check out. Please visit the page and vote for your favorite post. The winner gets to go to the Foodbuzz festival for free (yup. yup)! Of course I want you to vote for me, of course! But...don't feel too bad for me if I don't win. The process was fun regardless, and the cod was excellent.

Hope all is well in your side of the world.
Hope you're having fun and eating some delicious food
and if you're in Brazil lets get together for some pastel.

Testing out Alaska Seafood Cod {and a cooking video, oh my}

It's not everyday we get to eat

sustainable seafood from Alaska.

But this week we did! I was so fortunate to have Alaska Seafood ship frozen cod right to my doorstep along with a beautiful seafood recipe book, recipe cards, and material on their work. I was so excited about the recipe cards and even more stoked that it was cold. It had come in the same cooler as the frozen fish so the recipe cards felt like paper thin ice cubes. It made me grin big.

Alaska Seafood represents all of Alaska's sustainable seafood industry. Their work is incredible and their fish is pure quality. 

Alaska teamed up with Foodbuzz to send food bloggers frozen fish so that we could test out the COOK IT FROZEN! technique. We received the fish for free (who's your lucky gal?!) and then proceded to cook the fish using our own recipes along with the COOK IT FROZEN! technique.

It was a great combo. 

My tried and true fish recipe is tilapia with pesto cooked in grape juice. It's so easy and so fast. Let's be honest, though, cod is a better fish but I'm usually scared to saute it in a pan because of it's thickness it would just take too long. So whenever I make cod I usually just bake it.

But the folks at Alaska Seafood coached me through the process of making my favorite fish recipe with my favorite fish; pan seared cod in pesto sauce. Their printed material and pan searing video was key to making this dish a success.

And it was!

Want to see?

and a special thanks to Foodbuzz, Alaska Seafood, and my friend Drew for his videography skills.
Go team go!

Top 10 moments at Pebble Beach Food and Wine Grand Tasting Event

Thank you Foodbuzz,

I love you guys to the moon and back.

xoxo

Pebble Beach Food and Wine

I’m attending this year’s Pebble Beach Food & Wine Lexus Grand Tasting Tent.  I’m so excited to enjoy great food, and meet some truly talented chefs.  And I want to share the experience with you!  Check out the Pebble Beach Food and Wine Grand Tasting Tent schedule and tell me what chefs you’d like me to meet and  what food you’d like me to try.

I promise to take lost of pictures and to stuff my face, in elegance of course, and report back next week. In the meantime I'd highly recommend following the event on twitter or facebook
Pebble Beach Food & Wine 
Foodbuzz  on Facebook 
@foodbuzz on Twitter. 

have a lovely weekend.

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!

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.

Foodbuzz 24,24,24: Happy BIRTHday Meal

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

1. Heat oven to 350* and grease bottom and sides of pan
2. Beat all ingredients with electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly.
3. Bear on high speed for 3 minutes.
4. Pour batter into pan
5. Bake for 30-35 minutes
6. 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 recipecreamy 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
  

1. 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
2. Mix together the yogurt cheese, sugar, and vanilla.
3. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
4. 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

1. combine the water, yeast, honey, and olive oil in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook.
   
2. Add 3 cups flour, then the salt, and mix.
   
3. While mixing, add 1 more cup of flour.
4. 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.
5. 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.
   
6. Place the dough in a well-oiled bowl and turn it several times to cover it lightly with oil.
   
7. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel. Allow the dough to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
8. 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
9. Preheat oven to 500*
   
10. 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.
11. Brush the dough with olive oil and add any toppings you wish.
12. drizzle olive oil over the pizzas and bake for 10-15 minutes