Spiced almonds

The year is almost over (and I am hoping that 2016 is better than 2015, please Universe, make it happen!) so instead of writing a very long post complaining about the weather or anything else I will give you a recipe that is very quick to make, tastes great with drinks and will be a nice addition to your New Year’s Eve party – or any other party, actually. :)
I used almonds because it was what

Cheese and poppy seed bread sticks

It has been incredibly hot here in Sao Paulo lately, so turning on the oven is a matter of courage – as much as I love baking, and I do, you know, if possible I stay away from the kitchen while the oven does all the work. And sometimes I also try to make things to nibble with a cold beer or a glass of Prosecco instead of actually cooking – I feel like a complete loser in the summer, for the

Eggnog marshmallows

This year’s Christmas series was not as complete as I would have liked it to be, but it was a lot of fun making it just as the previous years: my house smelling of spices, delicious baked goods cooling down over the counter… It is, indeed, my favorite time of the year, and it would not have felt complete without cookies and gingerbread cake.

I hadn’t made marshmallows in a long time, so when I

Chocolate gingerbread bites

The Internet can be a great source of inspiration, I am sure you all agree with me – not only for food, obviously, but let’s focus on that now: there are so many great recipes out there it is hard to choose which one to make, but depending on what we see it gets easier to take our pick.

I saw these bars on Rebecca’s blog and immediately felt like baking them: chocolate, spices, and molasses

Eggnog biscotti

It might have taken me a while to get started with the Christmas series, but once I did I was perfuming my house with spices for hours on end – my husband took a look at the kitchen counter and said: “wow, you are really inspired!” :)

These biscotti are super simple to make and might even receive other flavors if you are not that crazy for nutmeg, maybe some citrus zest? I guess they would be

Almond gingerbread puffs

I work for a Swiss company, and some of my coworkers have discovered how much I love sweets – every now and then I get Lindt chocolates, which make my days a lot sweeter. :)

I have to say that I love getting food as gifts – I believe that food = love, and I love giving food as gifts, too, especially at this time of the year. Cookies are easy to make and to package, most people like them

Gingerbread and peanut caramel bars

Having rediscovered the pleasure I used to feel in the kitchen I keep having ideas and imagining things to cook and bake – I can’t wait for the weekends, not only to get some rest but also to prepare something tasty. I made a broccolini pesto the other day that turned out wonderful – even my not-so-into-pesto husband liked it a lot. But right now we are in Christmas mode around here, therefore

Gingerbread pepper cookies

So you know that I decided to bake for the Christmas series, got carried away and made cookies beside this cake – I have to tell you, without false modesty, that the cookies turned out wonderful! Soft, packed with oats and perfumed with spices, they were a hit with my family and also my coworkers.

I used to take my baked goods to work all the time in the past, but this was the first time I

Gingerbread honey cake because Christmas is coming

I was sitting home the other day, thinking about Christmas and how it is my favorite time of the year. I thought about my Christmas tree, and how I would be decorating it in a few days and felt miserable because this year I would not be able to prepare the Christmas recipes for the blog like I’d done in previous years.

I decided that there would be at least one recipe for the Christmas series

Yogurt lime cheesecake bars

Every time I discover something nice I like to share it with you, being related to food or not – and what makes me happy is that many of you feel the same, and I can ask you about something as far from the kitchen subject as a good product suggestion for frizzy hair that I get many answers – so, thank you. <3

Frizzy hair crisis almost averted – with the help of my Brazilian readers over on

Melted butter banana cake for busy days

It is very clear that I haven’t had time to write for the blog – well, I haven’t had time to cook or bake, really (and all that makes me really sad).

For days like these, when there is barely any time to play around in the kitchen or to write a blog post (type recipes, edit photos and translate them for my other blog), I bring you this banana cake: it is delicious, the recipe is put together

Rita's stroganoff to celebrate good things

I was thinking about 2015 these days and about everything that has happened so far, of how my feelings and emotions fluctuated from one side to another, back and forth all the time. I was sad in the beginning of the year because I’d lost a job I liked and could not find another – the whole country is going through a bad phase and many people are out of jobs.

Then my nephew was born and

Almond, coconut and lime cake

Hello, is there anyone here? :)

It has been a while since I last published a recipe on this blog, and it has been a while since cooked anything new or interesting – I no longer know what baking is, but I’ve told you that already.

Nothing has changed in nearly a month: I’m still working like crazy (and on top of that I have resumed my Spanish classes), I rarely feel like cooking or baking and

Cinnamon Cointreau brownies

My days have been very busy – a lot busier than I would like them to be, honestly – and I haven’t baked anything in weeks – I don’t even remember when I last turned on the oven for something sweet. Many weekends have gone by without cakes cooling down on racks around here. :(

I’m glad that I made a few baked goods before going back to work and I can share them with you here, like these

Pasta with crispy sardine and oregano breadcrumbs

When I was a kid, my mom was always making something with canned sardines: they were cheap and a good staple for a family with a limited budget. One of the things she made the most was a sardine salad to be eaten in a sandwich – the same thing as a tuna salad, but made with sardines instead, it was delicious! I loved it.

Because of that, it is impossible not to think of mom whenever I see

Orange Marsala pound cake

Many, many years ago, without much thought, I started baking a cake every weekend, and it has become a tradition here in my house: if I don’t see a cake cooling over a wire rack on a Saturday it just doesn’t feel like the weekend.

Sometimes I struggle with choosing which cake to make, either because I have too many ideas at once or because I don’t have any. :) Weeks ago I was cooking lunch

Waffles for crazy, hectic days

My days have been pretty hectic lately, too much to learn in a short period of time – I haven’t cooked much and I don’t remember the last time I actually baked something (I made chocolate mousse last weekend for Sunday’s lunch, let’s pretend that counts). :) The crazy routine is not supposed to last forever, and while it does I’ll try not to let it get in the way of my posts here, but I won’t

Garibaldi slice

The first time I ever heard of Garibaldi cookies was many, many years ago, on my dear friend Valentina’s blog – I wasn’t very fond of raisins then, I thought the cookies looked good but I never considered the idea of actually making them.

Through the years I learned to like raisins, then I tried dried currants for the first time eating scones in London (with loads of clotted cream – the

Olive oil buns and great news

There hasn’t been a new post around here in a good while but there is a good reason for that: my job hunt has come to an end! Days ago I started working in a new company (for those of you who don’t know, I work as an executive assistant) and it was a very busy week – it was all about meeting lots of new people, getting to know how the company works and the details of my job description. I feel

Madeira cake

Every time I tell people that my husband doesn’t like sweets I usually get a “I can’t believe it!!!” in return: for the amount of baking I do it must be really hard to believe he doesn’t eat all the cakes, cookies and brownies – well, he doesn’t, so the rest of the family enjoys them with me, no problem. :)

Even though I love sharing my baked goods, there are times I like having something

Saffron lemon cookies and Claire Danes

Those of you around here for a while know how much I enjoy movies and TV awards – I root for my favorites, hate it when the ones I find untalented and undeserving win and usually go to sleep at 2 in the morning. :)

For a couple of years I saw Claire Danes take home lots of awards for her role in Homeland and I did not quite understand why: I like her, I find her a talented actress and very

Stripy courgette, tomato and polenta tart

New cookbooks can be a lovely surprise, a big disappointment or something in between – even with the “Search Inside” feature at Amazon I’ve had my share of regret buying some of them.

My latest purchase, however, was an epic win: I got Annie Rigg’s beautiful cookbook on fruit and Georgina Fuggle’s Take One Veg, and they’re both insanely beautiful – I feel like making each and every recipe on

Butterscotch blondies

The first time I ever heard of anything butterscotch was after I started blogging – I used to make caramel all the time for this dessert, but it was always the simple kind, the one made with sugar and water only: the caramel made with sugar, butter and cream was a revelation to me.

After that, I saw many recipes with butterscotch in their names, but it meant that they called for butterscotch

Orange and rosemary cake and hoping for the best

Much is said about small joys in life, but today I got myself thinking also about small hopes: things we do hoping for the day (or the week, or the month) to be better.

I entered a shop earlier on today searching for a product that would make my hair shinier and softer without making it greasy (those of you who have oily hair like I do know what I’m talking about). I know it might sound silly

Oat, orange and ginger cookies and Saul Goodman

I know no one likes being sick and I am no exception: I’m still not sure if it is a very strong cold or the flu, but I have been in bed for the last two days – I had many plans for the weekend that had to be dropped, unfortunately (like making burgers for lunch again, including the bread), and those got replaced by watching TV in bed between naps (all the medicine I’ve taken makes me quite

Caramelized onion and gruyere focaccia and the excellent "Bloodline"

Now that I have brought my husband to the dark side – the side of the addicted to TV series – he keeps asking me what we’ll watch next: I find it both funny and lovely and I hope he stays this way for good. :)

We finished watching the first season of The Americans and while Netflix doesn’t bring us more episodes – I cannot wait! – I suggested we watched Bloodline, for its great cast and

Almond syrup cake and more bad TV news

I apparently spoke too soon, guys – days ago I found out that another one of my favorite TV series has been cancelled. :(

The good thing is I’m not the only one disappointed by the news about Hannibal and like me many others are hoping that the show gets saved by Netflix or some other network – let's hope it works, right, boys? ;)

I’ve loved Hannibal ever since its beginning – how could I not

Dulce de leche swirl congo bars

Sometimes I buy cookbooks and wait anxiously for them to arrive by mail only to go through them back and forth countless times without any idea of which recipe to start using them from – I know it sounds stupid, but that is exactly what happens around here.

Then it takes me forever to go back to that cookbook, not because I did not like it but because there were lots of other recipes grabbing

Peanut and white chocolate brownies and the amazing Viola

Back in January I watched the Golden Globes and many of my favorites took awards home – among them was Ruth Wilson, who is absolutely amazing in The Affair, but she was competing head to head with another actress I deeply admire, the über talented Viola Davis. Back then I hadn’t watched How to Get Away with Murder yet but got immediately interested in it.

The show is really that good and each

Poppy seed cake and a certain horror movie

I am a coward when it comes to watching horror movies – I usually spend 2/3 of them with my eyes closed – but I am a kid from the 70s and therefore was more than curious to watch the remake of one of the movies that scared the bejeesus out of me back in the day.

I would never do such thing alone, so my husband was in charge of holding my hands whenever necessary – he also had memories of Carol