Grilled Salmon with Bacon Pumpkin and Broccoli

Oh well, new year is knocking on our door! 2009 was such a nice year, I really hope 2010 will be as good!

And I really wish you, my dear readers, a really good new year, and that we can evolve even more, day by day, in our lives. Today I will post an easy but really good recipe. Good for new year's eve, a light and healthy dish!

Thanks a lot and see you next year!

Grilled Samon with Bacon, Pumpkin and Broccoli

Ingredients:

500g salmon
3 tbsp olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
500g pumpkin, unpeeled and diced
2 straps of bacon
1 broccoli

Directions:

Season the fish with the lemon juice, olive oil and sat to taste. Boil the pumpkin dices in salty water until they're soft, but not overcooked. In a baking sheet, put togehter the pumpkin and the bacon, cut in small pieces. Take to the preheat oven for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. Wash the broccoli well and cook it in boiling salty water. Grill the fish for about 15 minutes, turning over in the halftime. And now, enjoy!!!!

Lemon Pie

This pie is just sooo easy to make that you just won't believe it!  My brother came for lunch last weekend and, as it was right after a holiday, I woke up too late. I came back from the market at 11.30 and started making it. By half past noon, it was already ready to be devoured. This pie is among the hall of fame in my house! There's no way to go wrong in this recipe!

Lemon Pie

Ingredients:

Pie Crust:

250g flour
125g softened butter
100g sugar
1 egg

A pinch of salt

Filling:

1 can sweetened condensed milk

200 ml cream

3/4 cup freshly squeezed cup lemon juice

Directions:

Pie Crust - In a bowl, add the butter, sugar and salt and mix them with the palm of your hand for a  while. Stir in the eggs and mix. Add the flour, previously strained, and mix until you get an even dough. If the douhg is sticking to your hand or bowl, add some more flour, and knead the dough, delicately. Wrap the dough in a plastic bag and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before using ( I used it at the same time, had no time to wait). Open the dough  3 or 4 mm thick and  line it in the baking sheet. Cover it with aluminum foil, fill it with raw beans (or any other grains) and take it to the preheated oven 200oC for about 35 minutes.

Filling - Blend all the ingredients for about 5 minutes. Pour into the pie crust and refrigerate until serving time. You can grate some lemon zest in the top of the pie.

Fried Chicken Popcorn

What a delighful Christmas we had! Food, chatting, gifts, cookies.. Everything was great! Unfortunately I didn't have the time to take pictures of the things we made for the mealtime, so I'll have to post a recipe I've made a couple of weeks ago. My son's friend was going to have lunch in our place, so I defrosted some small frozen pieces of chicken breast to make some fried chicken. But later I found out I had no breadcrumbs in the house. So I decided to blend some crackers to make it even crispier. And it really worked out great!

Fried Chicken Popcorn

Ingredients:

400g chicken breast, in small pieces
2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp salt
2 eggs, slightly beaten
3 tbsp flour
100g crackers, blended
Oil, enough to fry

Directions:

Season the chicken pieces with the garlic and the salt. Put in three different bowls, the flour, the eggs and the crackers. Heat the oil (about 1 1/2 inch of a deep frying pan). Roll the chicken pieces on the flour, eggs and crackers, respectively. Fry them in boiling oil until crispy and brown. I served them with some honey mustard sauce, in which I use the same quantity of each ingredient.

 

PS: I called them Chicken Popcorns just because they're so small and delicious we cannot stop eating them! It's practical and great, just like popcorn!

Christmas' Dessert

Well, here's my small contribution for Christmas recipes. A slice of panettone covered with some homemade vanilla ice cream and a chocolate syrup. So easy to make that you'll have time to enjoy all the good time with your familya and friends!

But I'm here to wish you, my readers, a Merry Christimas, filled with delicious moments and foods!

Chantal's NY Cheesecake

My hysband loves cheesecakes. Even though I think they're quite disgusting and a little too sour for my taste, he asked me to make some. Last week I tried a recipe. I found on AllRecipes a no-bake cheesecake and thought that would be just great. As a result, I had more of a big whipped cream than anything else. I'll post ti here, it's good but not actually a cheesecake. So this week I decide to make the real one. And it finally worked out! He loved it, and devoured it right after I took it from the oven. I still don't like it, but I surely have some nice feelings when I talk about it! And I cannot end this post without mentioning that we had a great visit today. My friend Marcelo, who lives in France, came to Brazil for a couple of weeks and came for a visit tonight. We loved it!!! I'm just so sorry you couldn't eat the cheesecake!

Chantal's NY Cheesecake
from here

Ingredients:

Crust:

15 graham crackers, crushed
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling

4 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup milk
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9 inch springform pan.
In a medium bowl, mix graham cracker crumbs with melted butter. Press onto bottom of springform pan.
In a large bowl, mix cream cheese with sugar until smooth. Blend in milk, and then mix in the eggs one at a time, mixing just enough to incorporate. Mix in sour cream, vanilla and flour until smooth. Pour filling into prepared crust.
Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour. Turn the oven off, and let cake cool in oven with the door closed for 5 to 6 hours; this prevents cracking. Chill in refrigerator until serving.

PS: He couldn't wait the 4-hours resting and took it half an hour after I turned off the heat. It cracked, but it doesn't change anything when it comes to taste.

PS2: I served mine with blueberry homemade jam, but I had also strawberry and raspberry.

Penne with Vegetable Sauce

Last week I was really into eating some pasta, without all that grease of the canned tomato sauce. Something lighter and more simple. I went to the fridge and noticed that there was only some leftovers from my recipes: carrot, zucchini, tomato, onions and other unimportant ingredients. Then I remembered I still had the rest of the powder onion cream used to make my chicken burgers. Apparently I already had my meal! I searched on the Internet but found nothing really interesting to make with the ingredients I had. So I ended up by inventing a recipe, that went really well with the penne! Delicious!

Penne with Vegetable Sauce

Ingredients:

250g de penne

1 small onion, chopped

2 tomatoes, peeled and chopped

1 big carrot, grated

1 zucchini, grated

1 tbsp powder onion cream

2tbsp olive oil

Salt

Directions:

Cook the pasta. Meanwhile, prepare the sauce. Heat the oil in a saucepan and stir-fry the onion. Add the vegetables and let it fry for a while. Add half a cup water and the powder onion cream and mix it well. Cook the sauce in low heat until the vegetables are soft. Take off the heat and serve with the pasta. I used some of the frozen turkey breast left from the other recipe and grated some parmesan cheese on the top of it.

Fruit Skewers

Today is not about a recipe - it's more like a tip for those who don't know what to do to present fruits in a creative and beautiful way. It's kind of a well-known idea, but worked really well in here. I just got some skewers and filled them with strawberries, seedless grapes, melon and banana. I served them with some yogurt, to dip the fruits in it. The kids really enjoyed it and ate all the almost the 20 fruit skewers we'd made - notice there were only 4 kids! And us, of course! Simple as that, a healthy snack!

Roasted Carrot Soup

On Tuesday I could not prepare lunch for my family, so, following my tradition, I made some soup for dinner. And the chosen one, already for the second time, is Pat Scarpin's carrot soup. It is really easy and good, and everyone around here liked it a lot. I cannot write much today, there is a little person here pulling my leg to take him to bed!

Roasted Carrot Soup
from here

Ingredients:

1kg carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
340g brown onions, roughly chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and cracked black pepper
1.5 liters vegetable stock
1 cup (240ml) pouring (single) cream
parsley leaves, for sprinkling

Directions:

Preheat oven to 180ºC/350ºF. Combine the carrot, onion, oil, salt and pepper in a baking dish. Roast for 30 minutes or until the carrot is tender.
Process, add the stock and blend until smooth. Place in a saucepan over medium heat, add the cream and bring to the boil. Cover, cook for 5 minutes and sprinkle with the parsley.

PS: I'm really glad with the good feedback I've been receiving from the blog. This just gives me more inspiration to keep writing and posting! Thanks a lot!!!!!

Star-Shaped Cookies and Guest Recipe

I've talked a lot about not being on the mood for sweets lately that, at the moment I turned off the computer I felt like eating all the chocolate in the world. So I made these fast and delicious cookies from Tati's blog, and they were just awesome. The recipe reminded me of the Berry Pie pastry. Because some of them got, let's say, a little bit tanned, I decided to cover them with chocolate. Then I finished with some sugar frosting and, voilà, there you go another Christmas treat!

Star-Shaped Cookies

from here

Ingredients:

75g butter

125g flour, strained

50g sugar

1 egg yolk

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

In a bowl, add the butter, sugar and salt and mix them with the palm of your hand for a  while. Stir in the eggs and mix. Add the flour, previously strained, and mix until you get an even dough. If the douhg is sticking to your hand or bowl, add some more flour, and knead the dough, delicately. Wrap the dough in a plastic bag and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before using. Open it, shape them as you wish and take to the preheat oven to 180oC for about 7 minutes. Let it cool thoroughly.

Chocolate Covering:

Ingredients:

170g bittersweet chocolate
40g milk chocolate

Directions:

In the microwave, melt the chocolate (in mine, it takes about 1 minute in maximum heat). Mix it well and delicately lay the cookies in the mixture. Let it dry in a sheet of baking paper.

Frosting - you can use the recipe available in here. Put the mixture in a plastic bag. Cut a tiny piece of the tip of the bag and walk it on the cookies in zigzag. Complete sprinkling some star shaped sprinkles.

Now I'm going to introduce something new in the blog. Whenever I have onther people's recipes, I'm going to post them as Guest Recipes. Today's is from my cousin's husband, who have become my neighbours a couple of months ago. We are always sharing our recipes and foods. And this simple chocolate triffle was devoured in less than 24 hours. Simple and delish!

Easy Chocolate Triffle

Ingredients:

1 package digestive cookies
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 can cream (200g)
8 tbsp powder chocolate

Directions:

Mix well the condensed milk and the powder chocolate. Add the cream. Make layers of the cookies and the cream. Finish with some crushed cookies at the top of the last layer of cream. Cool the triffle for about 5 hours, or until firm.

Homemade Chicken Burgers

Oh well, finally my bad mood is over! What is happening now is that we've been quite away from desserts and sweet recipes. The end of the year is right here and our choco-thermomether is reaching negative degrees. Anyway,  I'm sort of out of all this caloric things. So today I decided to make a homemade chicken burger. I've made it once, but the taste of the onion was too strong, I liked but not that much. I ended up by mixing a couple of internet-found recipes and it turned out soooo much better than the other. Besides being much easier! I promise that, when I'm back with the sweets, I'll bring nice things to share with you!
Homemade Chicken Burgers

Ingredients:

500g chicken breast, boneless and skinless
1/2 envelope powder onion cream/soup
2 cloves of galic
Salt

Directions:

In a food processor, grind all the ingredients until they are homogeneous. Model it, in your hands or in a burger shape and fry them in a tbsp of olive oil. I served them with potatoes and a simple salad.

PS: My husband says I that it's not interesting to post in the blog the recipes that are too easily done. But I think that, sometimes, you have all the ingredients but lack of a good idea to use them. So, I'm just sharing my ideas with you.. And I hope they're worthed!

Turkey Breast With Mashed Sweet Potato

I've been kind of stressed out this week. Well, both stressed and disappointed. And this state of mind ends up by affecting my performance in the kitchen. I didn't cook much this week and some dishes went technically wrong. Well, but I guess it's over! This week I was watching a TV show in the cable TV and saw a cooking program from a guy called G. Garvin I guess. And he made some delicious mashed sweet potato. I love sweet potato, but I have to confess that I'd never made a puree of it. It was really good, and went really good with the turkey breast!

Turkey Breast With Mashed Sweet Potato

Ingredients:

Turkey:

500g turkey breast
5 tbsp seasoning (onion, garlic and parsley, dehidrated)
Salt

Mashed Sweet Potato

2 big sweet potatoes
1 cup milk
1 tbsp butter
Salt

Directions:

Turkey : Season the breasts with the dehidrated seasoning and fry them in a tbsp of butter til completely cooked. Set apart.

Mashed Potato: Cook the potatoes in salty water. When they're soft, take them out of the water and mash. Add the milk, the butter and the salt.

I served the dish with steamed vegetables. Carrots and green beans.

PS: This seasoning already comes in a small package, ready to use. It's onion, garlic and parsley.

Fish Stew

A while ago, we went to have luch with our dear friends Girlane and André. They prepared for us a delicious fish stew, which instigated me to learn how to prepare it too, since I've never quite worked with other fish than salmon. So, I got a basic recipe on the Internet and adapted to what I had in here. It's the third time I make it and the kids really enjoy! It's a light and fast dish, besides being really good!

Fish Stew

Ingredients:

1 kg fresh fish fillet

2 onions

3 tomatoes

1 red pepper

2 cloves of garlic

1 tbsp dendê oil (olive oil is fine)

1 small bottle coconut milk (200ml)

2 tbsp oil

Salt and pepper

Chopped parsley

Directions:

In a bowl, season the fish with lime and, garlic, salt and pepper for at least half an hour to get the taste. Slice the vegetables and set aseide. In a big pan, heat the oil. Put a layer of vegetables, the fish and finish with the rest of the vegetables. Add the coconut milk and a glass of water. Cook in low heat for about 20 minutes. Add the dendê oil on the top of the stew and let it cook for  more 5 minutes, adding more water if necessary. Serve it and decorate with some chopped parsley.

Perfect Chocolate Muffins

When I see the end of the year coming closer, I like to make special things to those people who have walked through the year with us. My oldest son already goes to school, and whenever I have the time and the occasion is proper, I like to bake things for his teachers. So, this year I decided I would make a chocolate muffin for them, as a Christmas little treat. And I would top the muffins with sugar icing. This muffin recipe is the most delicious I have ever made, and I've made it like millions of times. My hubby, who`s not that into chocolate, ate 4 (!) in a day!!

Perfect Chocolate Muffins

Ingredients:

slightly modified from here

340g squares semisweet chocolate

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

4 eggs

1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup plain yogurt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Line 12 muffin cups with papers. In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the semisweet chocolate together with the butter and the yogurt. Let stand until cooled, about 10 minutes. Lightly beat the egg. In a small bowl, stir together the chocolate-butter mixture with the sugar, egg, and vanilla, until blended well. In a large bowl, stir together flour, soda, and salt. Make a hole in the center of the dry ingredients, pour in the chocolate mixture, and stir until just combined. Stir in the mini chocolate chips. Spoon the batter into the lined muffin cups. Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove muffin tin from oven and let stand at least 5 minutes, before removing the muffins and letting them cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or cooled; can be frozen as well.

Sunday Waffles

Since we got married, about four years ago, we have a waffle machine, that also works as a grill. We have used the grill several times, but we have never made waffles. Maybe it was because all the waffles we had eaten were those not sweet or salty, and kind of rubberish too. So, Saturday night and I found out there was no bread in the house. I was wandering about what I could do when it came to me that I could make some waffles. Checked the ingredients.. OK! Kids liked the idea.. OK! And, now I know, a homemade waffle cannot be compared to those cold stuff we used to eat in the lousy restaurants around here> I'll post the two recipes I made this morning!

Chocolate Waffles
from here

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup flour
1 egg (I used 2 small eggs)
1 cup milk
1 1/2 tbsp softened butter
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp sugar

Directions:

Blend all the ingredients and put 1/2 mixture in your waffle machine.

Cheese Waffle

from here

Ingredients:

1 egg
1 cup manioc starch (polvilho doce, in portuguese)
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt
1/2 cup muzzarela cheese

Directions:

Blend all the ingredients and put 1/2 mixture in your waffle machine.

I served the chocolate waffle with banana, honey and oatmeal and the cheese waffle with cream cheese and scallions. In the recipes available on the Internet, it says you can make these on a frying pan as well.. And I really believe you can!

PS: Please vote on my recipe!! It is already available on Trem Bom. It is recipe n. 7, if you can just post your vote I'd really appreciate!!! Don't forget!!!!!

Leek Quiche

 

 

I've always wanted to learn how to make quiches. After all, it's my gradma's milenar tradition to make them for family parties. But I never had the guts to make them, 'til now. I thought it would give me a lot of work to roll out the pastry, or make the filling. But, in an ironic opposition to what I was thinking, the recipe iwa really easy and we made it quite quickly. Bruno and I made and rolled out the pastry. He's a wonderful helper in the kitchen! And, besides that, he helped me slicing the leeks and the scallions. Just a great family program! The recipe comes from a dear friend's lovely blog, who wanted to share this delish with us. Mamá, this is for you!!!

 

Leek Quiche

from here

Ingredients:

Pastry:

2 cups flour
125 g cold butter
1 whole egg
50 ml filtered water
Salt

Filling:

2 leeks, slices only until the light green part
3 whole eggs
1 can cream (aprox. 330ml) - I used heavy cream
Salt,  pepper and mustard
1 or 2 scallions

Directions:

Pastry: In your working table, that can be inside the pie pan, pour the flour and work until crumbly. Mix the salt. In a small bowl, beat the egg and mixture with the water and stir the mixture into the crumble. Roll out the pastry until it easily comes off of your hands. You shouldn't take long to do this. The crust shall be homogeneous. Ball it and refrigerate while you make the filling.

Filling: Slice the leeks as indicated and set apart. In a bowl, beat the eggs with the cream and the seasonings - you'd better use a high-quality mustard, as strong as possible. Add the leaks and scallions and set apart.

Take the pastry out of the fridge and open it in a medium pie pan. Crimp edges. With a fork, puncture the pastry. Pour the filling into the pie shell. Bake it in low-medium heat for about 40 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Brigadeiro with Macadamia Nuts

 

 

Last Monday was my younger brother's birthday and I was responsible for taking the dessert. I decided to make a flan and a brigadeiro. A brigadeiro is a typical brazilian chocolate sweet, made with sweetened condensed milk and cocoa powder, basically. I decided to make mine using some macadamia nuts that I had in here. And the result is just wonderful. You can chew the small pieces of macadamia, and it tastes awesome! The next day, he told me he had eaten all the brigadeiro's leftovers. A nice gift at all!

Brigadeiro with Macadamia Nuts

Ingredients:

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 tbsp butter

4 tbsp cocoa powder

70g crushed macadamia nuts

Directions:

In a saucepan, put the condensed milk, the butter and the cocoa powder. Mix them all together and cook it in high heat. When it comes to boil, lower the heat and stir it until the mixture loosens from the bottom of the pan. Take off the heat and add the macadamia nuts. Let it cool completely and roll in small balls or serve in a spoon. You can use chocolate sprinkles or some crushed macadamia nuts in the top of it.

Super Easy Alfredo Sauce

Everyone who reads my blog knows that I'm a big fan of easy recipes. If it takes a long time to prepare or to cook, it's not good for me. Unfortunately, as much as I wished to have time, I can't spend all my day around the oven. I found this recipe unintentionally and, as I had all the ingredients available at home, I just decided to make it. Total success! I made it to my birthday dinner to serve with a steak and everybody loved it! Of course it's not the real Alfredo, but I'm sure nobody will ever notice that!
 

Super Easy Alfredo Sauce
from here, slightly adapted

Ingredients:

200 ml heavy cream
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 tbsp chopped butter
Milk, if necessary

Directions:

Heat the heavy cream in a saucepan. Stir in the butter and the cheese and mix with a fouet. As it starts to boil, turn off the heat and keep whisking. If the sauce is too thick, add some milk and whisk. Serve the sauce either with pasta or steak