Friday, November 23, 2012

Dinner to remember

Dinner at Chef Nino

Dinner at Chef Nino
Dinner at Chef Nino

As you probably know, last week I made 40.. and that my friend is a great reason to celebrate.
I wanted to have a dinner with people that make part of my daily life, once that are there when needed, with whom I can share good and bed news.
Since the beginning I knew I wanted to make it at Chef Nino, cosy and beautiful place that has a special place in my hart. Anna and Nini said yes immediately and since then they were so cool about making all my wishes come true {*smile}.
Their place is so pretty and I knew I don't need to do some extra decorations, but I wanted just some small personalised touches..and here enters Rita, with her great style and amazing work.
I just loved, loved, loved what she did (go here to see more).

These 3 ladies made my dream come true and I am so thankful for all they did. It was such a great dinner and night to remember!!!!

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Autumn Inspirations

Cold days arrived finally and I just want to spend days in the house baking and cooking.
I crave for a comfort food ,are you the same?
In case you do I wanted to share few of my pinterest inspirations, some of the dishes I am planing to try in following days.
 Hope you find them interested also.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

My friend Maja's Cookies

Maja is a very good friend, one of those people you know almost all the life.
She is a part of lot of my memories..happy and sad ones, a person with whom we can spend hours together without speaking a word. We though the same way, we loved a same things.

Now we live more then 3000km away, and we speak from time to time, exchange mails, see each other when I go back home, but even if we try hard, we are not there for each other, we don't exchange our daily experiences and I must admit by the time we got apart....

Some time ago she sent me a recipe for these beautiful cookies and I though they were great.I wanted to share recipe with you..but what I would like most is to share them with my friend Maja while having a long conversation about all that we could remember, important and unimportant things.

Orange and White Chocolate Cookies
Orange and White Chocolate Cookies
Orange and White Chocolate Cookies

Orange and White Chocolate Cookies

80g butter
1 orange
70g sugar
300g flour
1ts baking powder
100g white chocolate
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Put the butter, sugar, juice and zest of orange and chocolate in a bowl and melt it in a bain-marie.
In the other bowl mix flour and baking powder.
When chocolate mix is ready, gently add an egg and fold in dry ingredients.
If mix is still sticky add a bit more flour.

Make small balls with your hands, place on the baking sheet and gently press them. Bake for 10-12min (they have to stay white, don't let them change the colour).
If you like , sprinkle some icing sugar over the cookies and they are ready!!


 
P.S. These cookies make a great Christmas present. Tie them with twine and place in box, put your imagination working {*smile}

Monday, November 19, 2012

My weekend

Hello there!!
After a week of celebrating {*smile} , I am back... with a bit of hangover from being center of attention .
So...after all of the excitement I just wanted a calm weekend, and what is better then visiting one of my favourite places.

Hope you had a nice one too!!!

Friday, November 16, 2012

Welcome to the circus

There is something special about our partnership with De Alma e Coração.
Besides the happiness and good mood that is always present , Rita always come to me with a challenge. And believe me, I do love challenges.

Latest challenge was a dessert table for a special wedding.. a different one, a 'circus wedding' .
I knew this included a lot of planing and work but I was so crazily happy about it.
Here you can see some of the photos with cookies I made for kids and if you are curious (and I am sure you are), you can see more HERE.
Enjoy!!!

Hanging Cookies
Circus Wedding

Hanging Cookies

Circus Wedding
{Party:  De Alma e Coração}
{Photos: Rodrigo Cardoso - De Alma e Coração}


Thursday, November 8, 2012

In the mood to celebrate

I am entering the last week of my thirties and I am in the mood to celebrate.

I want to celebrate every single success or failure, every happy and sad moment, with all of you who cross my path.
I want to celebrate with M. and kids, want to celebrate with friends, with the ones that have their share in my daily life and I want to celebrate with you, who are always here, supporting me in my life change.

So... there is no celebration without a good chocolate cake. But, since I can't have that, I came up with this crazy good beetroot and carob cake.
Beetroot gives it moist and carob gives it a chocolaty taste, and there is a lot of lemon whose acidity gives that special touch.

My celebration cake!!

*****

Estou a entrar na última semana de meus trintas e estou com vontade de comemorar.

Quero comemorar cada sucesso ou fracasso, cada momento feliz ou triste, com todos os que cruzam o meu caminho.
Quero comemorar com o M. e as crianças, quero comemorar com os amigos, com os que têm a sua parte no meu dia-a-dia e quero comemorar com vocês, que estão sempre aqui, a apoiar-me na minha mudança de vida.

Então... não há celebração sem um bom bolo de chocolate. Mas, como não posso ter isso, criei este bolo incrivelmente bom de beterraba e alfarroba.
A beterraba dá-lhe humidade e a alfarroba dá-lhe um sabor achocolatado, e há bastante limão cuja acidez dá aquele toque especial.

O meu bolo de celebração!


Carob and Beetroot Anniversary Cake

175g spelt flour
1ts baking powder
75g carob flour
250g sugar
250g cooked beetroot
3 eggs
200ml olive oil
1ts vanilla extract
zest and juice of 1 lemon

Preheat your oven to 180ºC. Mix the dry ingredients in a big recipient, spelt flour, baking powder, carob flour and sugar.
Place the beetroot, olive oil, vanilla extract, lemon zest and juice and eggs in a food processor and process until creamy.
Slowly add the dry ingredients to the beetroot mix and mix well.
Place in a prepared tin and bake for 50-60 min.

*****

Bolo de Aniversário de Alfarroba e Beterraba
175g de farinha de espelta
1 colher de chá de fermento em pó
75g de farinha de alfarroba
250g de açúcar
250g de beterraba cozida
3 ovos
200ml de azeite
1 colher de chá de extracto de baunilha
raspa e sumo de 1 limão

Pré-aqueça o forno a 180ºC. Misture os ingredientes secos num recipiente grande, farinha de espelta, fermento em pó, farinha de alfarroba e açúcar.
Coloque a beterraba, azeite, extrato de baunilha, raspas e sumo de limão e os ovos num processador de alimentos e misture até ficar cremoso.
Lentamente, adicione os ingredientes secos à mistura de beterraba e misture bem.
Coloque numa forma preparada e leve ao forno durante 50-60 minutos.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Baked eggs

Baked Eggs

You would be surprised if I say I spent more then 5 minutes trying to decide how to name this post.
It is post about a dish my mum use to make for me.

My mum worked all her life as a teacher, first as a village teacher , at a time when teachers were really respected and kids would get up early in the morning and walk for few km , on the rain snow or sun to come to the school.
A lot of generation passed through 'her hands' and I find it amazing how these kids, now adults with there own families, stop her on the street sometimes and say: 'Do you remember me.. I was in your class in the third row', and she does remember.
Even she educated so many kids, she always had time for us. She was and still is tough mum, with a lot of authority, but she dedicated all her life to us...me and my sister.

There is something I inherited from her...we both show our love through food. I so much enjoy to make favourite food for my family and friends. And she does that always. So..this dish is one of the dishes my mum made to me, I love it so much.

Now I changed it a bit, add some ingredients I didn't like as a kid and I hope you will like it also.

Baked Eggs

Baked Eggs

1/2 pepper, chopped
handful cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 small onion
2 cloves garlic
1tbs olive oil
100g ground beef
2tbs tomato pulp
chopped parsley leaves
2 eggs
pecorino, finely grated
1tbs olive oil salt pepper

Place olive oil in a pan and add garlic and onion. Cook for 1 min and add green pepper and tomato. After 2 minutes add tomato pulp and parsley. Add salt and pepper and 2 tbs water.
Cook for few minutes,add water if needed.

In a meantime heat the oven to 180C, grill. When meat and vegetables are cooked place them in individual oven dishes, and place egg on top of each. Sprinkle with grated pecorino and put in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes or until eggs are cooked.

Sprinkle with some more grated pecorino and serve.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Apple Cake

Yesterday my son made me company. He got some stomach bug and was really bad on Sunday (while I was working on the fair and felt really bad about not being able to be with him), and yesterday he didn't go to school and stood home to recover 100%.

He had to drink a lot of tea during the day, and he was not happy about it...so.. I decided to made a tea party for 2 of us.
We baked a simple apple cake and made a pot of tea ,it was pouring rain outside and we had a cosy tea party watching the rain.

apple cake

Classic Apple Cake
(recipe I discovered on a rice milk pack while I was having breakfast)

200g spelt flour
50g ground almonds
3ts baking powder
200ml rice milk
6tbs honey
1 egg
5tbs olive oil
5 apples
2ts cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 180C.
Put the four, almond and baking powder in a bowl.
Mix the egg along with milk and whisk until smooth. Stir in the honey and oil.
Slowly add dry ingredients to the egg mixture.

Grease and line 22cm cake tin with baking paper. Peel the apples and slice thinly placing them directly into the tin. Pour the cake mixture over apples and bake for 30 min.
Leave to cool.

Friday, October 26, 2012

We are on Instagram!!!


Little Upside Down Cake is finnaly on Instagram!! You can find us under @littleupsidedowncake or here

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Lisboa BIO


Little Upside Down Cake vai estar novamente presente na LisboaBIO, feira de produtos biológicos nacionais.
É já no próximo Domingo, dia 28 de Outubro, entre as 10 e as 19h no Centro de Artes Culinárias - Mercado Santa Clara (à Feira da Ladra).


Ate Domingo!!!