Tangerine Cake and Travel News!

I wasn’t around much at all this weekend and I even missed a links post. However, I return to you bearing dessert and some great news!

First things first, let’s talk dessert. A couple weekends ago I had a craving for a good pound cake, something with a bit of a citrus flavor. I had purchased a whole bag of tangerines at the farmer’s market planning to juice them. However, I haven’t been in the mood for cold juice.

Turns out, cake was their destiny.

I found this recipe for Tangerine Pound Cake from Betty Crocker. It produced a dense cake full of tangerine flavor. The glaze sealed the deal, made of tangerine juice and rum. It is a recipe I will definitely make again and plan to experiment with. I’m thinking lime will be next.

As many of you know, our two years (actually a little over that) in Brazil will soon be coming to an end in October. Since we made the decision to move here, we’ve had on our minds the idea of a long trip to close out the end of this adventure.

South America was the logical choice, but unfortunately the cost of traveling here is expensive. Not so much once you get to a place, but the act of getting there, as in the flight costs. We had big plans to see a lot of Brazil and South America while here.

Boy, were we wrong. Going to other countries from the small town we live in costs about the same as going there from the U.S. There are still a couple places we want to visit and we hope we stumble upon some fare sales, but as far as an around SA trip, well, it became much less appealing. Considering we want to see pretty much every country in this world, however, we were not left without options.

Europe came to mind because we still have so much to see there, but we have been there the past few years. I was actually planning to go back to Ireland with my husband while he worked this year and then both of us go on to Italy this year, but once again, plans changed.

Hmmm…so where else could we go? Maybe an area overflowing with foods made of coconut milk, curries, noodles and seafood where street food and food courts are the place to be. Places with lots of culture, beautiful beaches and some unbelievably inexpensive travel prices.

Yeah, that sounds good.

Ready? We’re going to Southeast Asia and I can hardly stand the excitement!

The month of October, before we settle back into the US and all the reverse culture shock that is sure to go with it, we will be traveling to – Hong Kong, Bangkok-Thailand, Chiang Mai-Thailand, Krabi-Thailand, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur-Malaysia and Bali-Indonesia.

Oh and don’t worry, you are going with me. The blog will, of course, turn into more of a food travel blog for that month, but I plan to share my food adventures with you as much as possible. In fact, I’ll be spending my 31st birthday at a Thai cooking class complete with a trip to the market!

To top off this already fantastic news our flight just happens to come back into San Francisco a few days before the big Foodbuzz event which I am anxiously awaiting details for. I’m planning to stay on a bit longer and attend. If you are going, let me know!

Have you been to the places we’re planning to go? I’ll gladly take any advice you want to share.

Cauliflower & Mandioquinha Soup

I’ve been trying to find a bit of balance lately. I’m talking about the fact that it is winter here. Well, more like a Kentucky October, but they call it winter. Despite the fact that temperatures aren’t plummeting into the 30s, I’m still having overwhelming cravings for cold weather foods. At the same time for many of you, it is summer and a darn hot one from all info I’m getting.

So as you can imagine, staying in-season with cooking and food posts is a bit impossible. Or is it?

This week I’ve been trying to think about my favorite recipes (or ideas for new ones) that may comfort me, but use all that wonderful produce that many people are harvesting from the garden. So yesterday this Golden Potato-Cauliflower Soup came to mind. I’ve been making it often ever since I found it in Health Magazine in 2004.

The good news is that it uses garden favorites, but is suitable for winter-warming. I’ve changed it a bit over the years and yesterday I decided to use it with some mandioquinha I picked up at the market last weekend.

You remember it, right? That golden, sweet root vegetable native to South America also called the Peruvian parsnip, batata baroa or arracacha. I’ve decided I need to overdose on it for the next three months while I’m still here, by the way.

The substitution worked wonderfully. It was the potato version taken up a notch, smooth and creamy, comforting yet still light. While I know most of you don’t have access to it, I started thinking about all the other root veggies that might work well in this recipe. Turnips, red potatoes, parsnips? I don’t know. It may be worth a try.

Cauliflower & Mandioquinha Soup
Adapted from Golden Potato-Cauliflower Soup, Health 2004

1 Tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup onion, diced
1/3 cup celery, diced
2 cups mandioquinha, chopped (or your root veggie substitute)
1 medium cauliflower with broken into small pieces
Salt and pepper to taste
3 cups chicken stock
½ to 1 cup milk
Chives and grated parmesan for garnish

Heat olive oil in a soup pot and saute garlic, onion and celery for 2 to 3 minutes. Add madioquinha and cook for about 3 more minutes. Add in cauliflower and cook and additional 7 minutes. Veggies should be starting to brown a bit at this point, or at least getting tender. Salt and pepper to taste now or you can wait until the soup is combined.

Add three cups of chicken stock. This should almost cover the veggies, but not completely. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for about fifteen minutes or until the vegetables are very tender.

Turn off the heat and use an immersion blender (or transfer to a standard blender) and blend all ingredients well, leaving no lumps. Turn the heat back on and stir in ½ to one cup of milk depending on desired consistency and heat through.

Transfer to bowls and garnish with chives and cheese. Take pictures. Oh, wait. You don’t have to do that one. Silly me.

Serves about 4.

Curious About Coconut Oil

I’ve gladly embraced the coconut since I’ve been living in Brazil. As you can imagine it shows up in a lot of places around here. Those green coconuts with the tops chopped off and a straw inserted which most people seek out on their vacations, I now have access to everyday after my workouts at the park.

It’s a different world for me and while I was not a lover of coconut as a kid, it has grown on me quite rapidly in the past few years. Readily available as it may be, I will admit that it has been with reservation that I’ve generous added all forms of this food into my cooking.

Old habits die hard and when you are in a field where the dangers of saturated fats and all associated foods has been hammered into your head for years, it takes a while to adjust to new things. Then I started to read more and more about coconut oil. It’s nothing new, actually, been around forever, like most other natural, healthy foods, I might add.

I’ve been promising this post a while and I finally feel like I’ve done enough research to present what I’ve found and the views I’ve formed. It is really, really difficult to research topics like this in my opinion. I mean, 75% of the information out there that is understandable is from a company who sells coconut oil so you know they are going to present the positives. Yes, the info may be true, but one must read and believe with caution.

So here’s the breakdown.

Coconut oil has been used for a very long time in many of the cultures who have had easy access to it, India, Thailand, etc. Well, with our “eat low fat” mantra which eventually changed to a “eat healthy fat” mantra which is slowly becoming a “everything is okay except trans fat” mantra, coconut oil got a bit of a bad rap in the US.

Now this isn’t completely unwarranted. Much of what was being analyzed was refined and hydrogenated coconut oil, not good for you. However, the good stuff, the virgin coconut oil got thrown in with it making all coconut oil, no matter the source, bad for your heart, according to health professionals and some researchers.

Well, researchers (and lots of companies selling coconut oil) are now telling us that’s not true. I have to say, at this point, I agree.

Coconut oil has a high concentration of saturated fat, but this particular fat actually has two very positive qualities when it comes to health. One, it contains lauric acid. This gives coconut anti-bacterial, anti-microbial and anti-viral properties. You can find people all over the web swearing how good it works for the immune system and as a topical ointment.

Second, coconut oil is made up of medium chain fatty acids (MCFA) which are metabolized differently by the body than other fatty acids. They are absorbed more efficiently in our gastrointestinal tract and transported directly to the liver where they are utilized for energy. Long chain fatty acids, on the other hand, are converted into chylomicrons (substances that transport fats in the body) and go through the lymph system.

The big buzz around MCFA is that research studies have shown them to be associated with weight loss. Animal and human studies show an increase in energy expenditure after consumption leading researchers to believe they hold potential for promoting weight loss (1). In addition, another study concluded that intake of MCFA oils was more effective for weight loss than olive oil (2). In response to speculation that MCFA are associated with cardiovascular disease when used with weight loss programs, yet another study determined that there was no negative effect on metabolic risk factors (3). It was added in the conclusion that a distinction should be made on fatty acid chain length when discussing the effects of saturated fat on metabolic risk factors.

Okay, take a breather. Just a little more science stuff.

There has been some research linking coconut oil to improved cholesterol, but a lot of this has been in animal studies. Of course, that is where most nutritional research starts so it is worth mentioning. One study showed that the consumption of coconut oil by laboratory rats resulted in a decrease of total cholesterol, triglycerides and LDL (4). From what I have gathered even if some professionals believe coconut oil doesn’t necessarily improve cholesterol, they do recognize that it may not exactly hurt it either. That can be viewed as a positive when it comes to fats considering all the bad publicity they’ve had in the past.

Virgin coconut oil is where it’s at when it comes to health. This name means it has been extracted from young coconuts using little to no heat and is in its most natural from. Refined coconut oils sometimes labeled as RBD (refined, bleached, deodorized) can contain chemicals used in the processing and does not have the same nutrient profile as the virgin variety. Some people go for organic. I did read in my research that this wasn’t of utmost importance because coconuts don’t need a lot of pesticides to grow, but I can’t verify the accuracy of that information. I didn’t find anything else about that in my search.

Now for my minor rant.

I do believe that foods have medicinal, healing and even miracle properties and coconut oil just might be one. However, I dislike it when foods are advertised like this. Why? Well, because that is what we do in the U.S. with fads and most fads are dishonest. The miracle cure, the potential weight loss, etc. may be true, but turning things into fads and quick fixes is where we get ourselves into trouble. I feel by doing this we are buying into the fact that health is about quick fixes and not lifestyle.

I feel that foods should be about nourishment and enjoyment and the miracles a bonus for being healthy.

So you won’t find me taking coconut oil medicinally by the teaspoonful like I have read about. Mostly because, well, that is what we do with medicine. Food can act as medicine, but I prefer to enjoy it as food. I do believe that coconut oil has health benefits and I plan to start incorporating it into my diet more when possible. Although probably not a lot considering the price, but I’m certainly not going to be avoiding it like I used to.

So far I’ve only enjoyed it as a spread on bread and I hope to eventually start cooking and baking with it more. It is only sold in small jars here and while I haven’t searched too hard I haven’t seen it in bulk.

My next step is to determine if coconut milk and grated, unsweetened coconut contain the same benefits as the oil. I’m thinking probably not since they may be processed, but if you have info on that, send it my way. I use these much more in my cooking. So far all I’ve found on it is from the About.com guide for Alternative Medicine. She states that 3 ½ tablespoons of coconut oil is equal to about 10 ounces of coconut milk when it comes to lauric acid and the milk is processed differently so the nutrient and chemical makeup is likely different as well.

Do you use coconut oil?



References
1. Papamandjaris AA, MacDougall DE and Jones PJ. Medium chain fatty acid metabolism and energy expenditure: obesity treatment implications. Life Sci 1998;62(14):1203-15
2. St – Onge MP and Bosarge A. Weight-loss diet that includes consumption of medium-chain triacylglycerol oil leads to a greater rate of weight and fat mass loss than does olive oil. Am J Clin Nutr 2008 Mar;87(3):621-6
3. St – Onge MP et al. Medium chain triglyceride oil consumption as part of a weight loss diet does not lead to an adverse metabolic profile when compared to olive oil. J Am Coll Nutr. 2008 Oct;27(5):547-52
4. The Weston A. Price Foundation: The Latest Studies on Coconut Oil by Mary G. Enig, Ph.D.

Resources
A New Look at Coconut Oil
Coconut Research Center
Health Benefits of Coconut Oil

Blog Posts
Food Renegade
Nourishing Gourmet


This post has been submitted as part of Food Renegade's Fight Back Fridays!

Soba with Spicy Peanut Sauce

So, I’m beginning to think that getting settled back in is an illusion. I can’t seem to get completely organized and feel like I’ve been about two steps behind since returning to Brazil almost three weeks ago.

The research and providing you with any valuable health info has certainly been lacking, but the effort is still ongoing. I’m determined to have a post up about coconut oil this week and I have a few other topics that are begging me to look into them.

I may not have had much time to do research, but I am still cooking so a simple recipe will have to suffice until I get my act together.

I am infatuated with spicy peanut sauce. My husband can’t stand it. My husband was away on business last night. So what do you think I had for dinner? Yep, spicy peanut sauce.

I had never cooked with soba noodles until coming to Brazil. I’m not sure why that is. I guess I wasn’t really familiar with them. Soba noodles are a Japanese noodle made of buckwheat and wheat flours. I think they have more of a unique texture than flavor and I like to cook them until just barely tender.

I should mention that while I have made soba noodles I have yet to do anything culturally accurate with them. I plan to make spicy soba at some point, but haven’t taken on the challenge yet. Two Peas and Their Pod posted a wonderful recipe a few days ago for soba which is what got the noodles on my mind in the first place, but I didn’t have all the ingredients to complete that dish. I went another direction.

Soba with Spicy Peanut Sauce

1 Tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ of a large onion, thinly sliced
½ cup carrot, shredded
1 cup zucchini, shredded
1 cup Napa cabbage, shredded or thinly sliced
Salt and pepper to taste
250 g soba noodles, cooked
2 Tbsp chives or scallions, sliced

Sauce:

2 Tbsp (generous) creamy peanut butter
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1/8 cup water
1 clove garlic, minced
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp crushed red pepper (less or more depending on taste)

Heat oil in a sauce pan and cook garlic, onion, carrots, zucchini and cabbage until tender. Salt and pepper to taste, but remember that the peanut butter will add much salty flavor.

Whisk peanut butter, soy sauce and sesame oil in a small bowl. Gradually pour in water while whisking. It will be thick, but moisture from your cooked veggies will thin it more. Whisk in garlic, ginger and red pepper.

Pour the peanut sauce over the warm veggies in the skillet and toss to coat. Next toss in the soba noodles. Heat if it has cooled. Garnish with chives or scallions and serve.

Makes about 3 servings, depending on how hungry you are. As in if you just got back from a big workout, maybe only 2.

**Season the final dish to taste. You may find it needs more salt, pepper or red pepper once together. Also, an added teaspoon of sugar or a brown sugar will sweeten the peanut sauce if you prefer.

______________

P.S. My Cafe & Cream Shortbread is in the running for a French press coffee maker over at the lovely blog, My Food and Life Encounters. If you liked it, I'd love to have your vote over there via a comment. You should check out the blog if you haven't, voting or not. Lots of great recipes!

Update: I won, I won!!!! Thank you to all who voted - Tangled Noodle, Cinnamon & Spice, Jefferson's Table, 5 Star Foodie, So what are you making for dinner?, Mei and The Yeast I Could Do!
Hope I didn't miss anyone. I owe you all a cafezinho!

Links to a Healthy Weekend

I hope you are enjoying a lovely summer (or winter) weekend wherever you may be. Happy Father’s Day to any dads out there and if you have the fortunate opportunity to be near yours this weekend enjoy every second of it. I hear the garden is going wild back home – green beans, potatoes, peas, squash, raspberries and blackberries – so I’m sure my dad will be spending his weekend outside.

There was a lot of great reading (and watching) out there about real, nourishing foods. It was one of those weeks that I really felt inspired and confident that as a healthy society, we are making changes in the right direction.

I feel I should give a shout out to Food Renegade and Find Your Balance today because they always give me such great links through Twitter. A couple of today’s links I found through their informative re-tweets.

Campaign for Real Health spills the butter in the post Fat 3.0. This will then lead you to an article in Ode Magazine all about how fat is back in the limelight regarding health and this time it has nothing to do with cutting it out.

Agave: A Triumph of Marketing over Truth from Mercola.com shares more information about the agave craze and whether or not it is better, or no better, for you than sugar. I found this to be very informative and went along with much of the information I found when I was researching for my post.

Beware of hypes. Açaí as an example. from the Juice Herald takes on a similar theme. Why, oh why must we, in the US, always turn healthy, real foods into miracle cures, pills and extracts?

Taco Calzones with Avocado Cream was shared by food for living. I was so happy to find the Homemade Taco Seasoning Blend at the end of the post. I want to get away from using the packets, but I’m never quite sure what to put together to add the right flavor. Now I’ve got it.

Make your life more like travel by Gadling was an inspiring post I think most of us can relate to. It definitely gives you something to think about regarding enjoying where you are, positive attitude and everyday life.

Photo of a summery snail at the Botanical Gardens in the Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas

Coconut and Lime Wheat Scones

I think my love of scones has been pretty well established. I just can’t get enough of them. A donut? Eh, maybe. A bagel? Well, okay. Scones? Yes! Bring them on over. It is with these treats that I love to do my breakfast splurging.

I’ve had the coconut and lime combo on my mind lately so I decided I would give it a shot with scones. I found a few recipes online, but not quite what I was looking for. I knew I wanted to utilize the zest of the lime as well as the juice and I really wanted to use some coconut milk. On top of that I did have health on my mind, wanting to play around with a whole wheat version.

Well, this is what I got. I have to say that I taken aback a bit by my husband’s raving praises. He often thinks my food is good, but raving about how good is a new step for him. Maybe I am on to something.

Coconut and Lime Wheat Scones

1 ¾ cup whole wheat flour
2 ¼ tsp baking powder
2 tbsp mascavo sugar (unrefined cane sugar)
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp lime zest (about half from one lime)
¼ cup finely ground unsweetened coconut
¼ cup unsalted butter, cold
1/3 cup coconut milk
¼ to ½ cup milk or heavy cream

¾ cup powdered sugar
Juice of one lime
1 Tbsp lime zest

In a mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, zest and coconut. Add the butter in small pieces. Blend with two knives or a pastry gadget until the pieces of butter are about the size of peas and evenly distributed. Add the coconut milk and combine. It will likely be dry.

Add enough milk or cream so that the dough comes to a manageable consistency, a bit drier than a bread dough, but to a point where it can be kneaded.

Turn the dough out onto a floured countertop. Knead gently to bring the dough together and shape it into a circle about ¼ to ½ inch thick. Cut into eight pieces.

Bake on a lightly greased sheet pan at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes or until the edges are slightly browned. Remove and allow to cool on a rack.

Add ½ cup powdered sugar to a small bowl. Add the juice of one lime and whisk until smooth. Whisk in the lime zest and enough of the remaining powdered sugar to reach desired consistency. It should be slightly thick, but still thin enough to drizzle and glaze.

Pour glaze over each scone and allow it to harden. Enjoy!

***If you prefer not to use powdered sugar and want to omit the glaze I would suggest adding some more sugar to the scone dough as it is not very sweet at all. The glaze is really what brings the sweet, salty, sour flavors together.

Rice and Beans: A Not-Quite-Brazilian Version

I was fond of rice and beans before moving to Brazil, but I must admit that they typically came from a can and a box which often had the term “instant” or “minute” somewhere on it.

I have yet to find someone here to show me the proper way to make Brazilian rice and beans. It seems to be a method and recipe you are born with and few people my age or younger prepare them. Through my own trial and error I’ve got the rice pretty well down, but the beans remain a mystery. I do know many people use pressure cookers, but others don’t. I remain in the camp that doesn’t because they scare me a bit.

The first time I made my own rice and beans here I patterned it off a recipe from the Joy of Cooking Cookbook for Brazilian Black Beans. Funny thing is I’ve never had any beans here that taste anything like that recipe. Maybe they are like that in the north, I’m not sure. I think they were trying to mimic feijoada, but that isn’t it either. Over time I’ve taken that recipe and added my own touches to create rice and beans that I’m happy with.

I made them yesterday and realized I’d never shared it before so here you go. The beans are mildly spicy which I enjoy. A great addition would be some chopped jalapenos or you could use some colored bell peppers as well. Black beans are used for feijoada, but when it comes to plain rice and beans a red/white bean is used. I’ve asked friends here what kind of beans they are and the response I typically get is, “I don’t know, they are beans.”

Rice and Beans (The Not-Quite-Brazilian Version)

4 cups red/white beans, soaked overnight in 8 cups water
8 cups water
1 ½ cups chicken stock
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 small green pepper, chopped
4 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp cumin
¼ tsp crushed red pepper
½ tsp hot paprika
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper
Juice of one lime
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup long grain rice
2 cups water

For the beans:

Drain beans and return to cooking pot. Cover in 8 cups of water, bring to a boil and then simmer for 1 ½ hours.

Meanwhile heat the olive oil in a sauce pan and cook onion, green pepper and garlic until tender. Stir in cumin, red pepper, paprika, salt and pepper. Set aside.

Usually at about 1 hour 15 minutes the liquid is about gone in my beans. At this point I add the chicken stock. At 1 ½ hours I add the onions and peppers, then cook for an additional 30 minutes or until tender.

Once cooked squeeze the juice of one lime over the beans and mix in. This makes a lot of beans likely enough to feed six.

For the rice:

In a deep pan, heat olive oil, add rice and cook for about two minutes. Add water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer covered for 15 minutes. *You may need to double the recipe to have enough for all your beans. I tend to use my beans in soups and wraps too so I don’t need a lot of rice.

Will Learn for Food

As most of you know I just finished reading Food Politics by Marion Nestle not too long ago. While it took me a while to get through the book, I enjoyed it thoroughly and I learned a lot. One specific section that has stuck in my mind was that which addressed food brands and companies in schools.

Aside from my growing issues with the influence food companies have on our children and their health, this topic brought up some things from my time in elementary school - food related incentives.

Candy was a big deal in third grade. We were asked to learn things like our spelling words or memorize bits of info in exchange for taffy or a candy bar. Even as a kid that age, who struggled with weight ( as in a little on the chubby side), I often told the teacher I didn’t want to participate. Then, I blamed it on not wanting the candy, which they thought was weird, but I think it may have been more that I didn’t want to do the homework!

Despite these little candy rewards here and there, looking back I don’t feel that this was quite as powerful as the influence of food brands. According to the book these are growing beyond belief. Isolated schools are making changes, but it still remains a powerful force when it comes to lunches and rewards.

I was a big reader in grade school, I still am. But at that time in my life all my reading paid off in the form of individual pizzas from a popular pizza chain. I loved that program. I would read and read all summer in order to get my pizza.

Then, it all seemed so innocent. My parents didn’t view it as a big deal either. I mean, hey, I was reading and increasing my knowledge and all foods in moderation, right? I try not to overreact to these types of things now days, but it is difficult when you look back as a health conscious adult and realize how much that company was trying to brand me and how my school was letting them do it for money.

There were other food-based programs when I was in school, but for some reason this one really sticks out in my mind. Maybe it was my favorite, I don’t know. It is just another one of those realizations I have that I am fortunate to have become a healthy adult who knows the value of nourishing food. I, of course, had my mom trying to get me to eat healthy and my dad providing fresh foods from the garden, but some kids aren’t so blessed.

If you don’t have kids, what programs do you remember from school and how do you feel about them now?

If you do have kids, I’m really interested in knowing how you handle these food brands and incentives when it comes to your own children.

PS. Much to the likely disappointment of that pizza chain, their branding didn’t seem to work. It is by far my least favorite pizza today. Not sure why that is. Maybe some others had more influence on me.

Photo of one of my favorite pizzas in Lexington, KY from Mellow Mushroom. So many veggies it weighs a ton!

Links to a Healthy Weekend

Wow, this week blew by without many new posts from me. Sorry about that. I guess I’ll chalk it up to getting settled back in. Between work, laundry and catching up on sleep I didn’t do much cooking (of anything new) or research for my own blogs. I’m hoping the ideas start flowing again next week though.

I did have time to do a little reading this week. I also did a recap today about the Corpus Christi holiday here in Maringá on my expat blog if anyone is interested.

Now on to a few great recipes from the past week!

No Meat Athlete’s Sweet Potato and Chickpea Curry sounded so good when I came across it this week. It has been a long time since I’ve had some good curry so I may whip this up soon. I completely agree with him that coconut milk is essential in a great curry.

Whisk: a food blog had some fantastic looking bagels. They are Montreal-style and I have to say that this post did as much to educate me as it did to get my bagel craving going. I’ve never made my own bagels, but these sound great!

The Reluctant Vegetarian’s Sweet Potato and Black Bean Wrap looks wonderful. I love how she shredded the sweet potatoes. Such a great idea!

And this, well it is just plain funny. If you love animals, check it out. It is hilarious how the dog acts only mildly interested in the whole thing.

Café & Cream Shortbread

First I have to say that it wasn’t my intention to bombard you with sugary snacks this week, but there were a couple contests I just had to enter. All I could think of were desserts so it turns out this week is focused heavily on desserts. That’s okay. More reason to get in some good workouts towards the end of the week!

Ever since I saw Chow and Chatter’s contest, I’ve been trying to come up with a coffee inspired creation. I finally got the idea the other night and went to work making Café & Cream Shortbread.

A great thing about Brazilian coffee is that is ground into a fine powder. This makes for a very strong cup of joe, but it also makes it ideal for adding directly to baked goods. It dissolves without leaving a gritty texture and adds a lot of coffee flavor. In addition you don’t have to worry about brewing and cooling it ahead of time and it doesn’t add moisture to the recipe.

I decided to start with a traditional shortbread and this is more like a brown sugar shortbread. The reason being that instead of white sugar, I used mascavo sugar. It is possible to find this in the US at Latin Markets, or so I’ve heard. It is an unrefined sugar which is dried and sifted after the sugar cane is harvested. It acts much like our processed brown sugar in baking, but adds a stronger flavor. Sometimes I like the flavor sometimes I don’t, but on this occasion it worked well.

In half the dough I added cocoa powder and ground coffee. In a perfect world these would have come out as a more defined checker board, but it has been forever since I’ve made checkered cookies and my skills are apparently a little rusty.

That didn’t affect the flavor though. This shortbread is soft and flaky melting in your mouth almost immediately. The sugar gives it just enough sweetness which is slowly overtaken by the strong coffee flavor with each bite.

Café & Cream Shortbread

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temp
½ cup mascavo sugar
½ tsp vanilla
2 cups flour (I used white, but others may work well too)
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp ground coffee (espresso powder would work too)

Cream butter and sugar. Add in vanilla. Slowly mix in flour. Dough will be crumbly. Press dough together and split into two equal parts.

Transfer one half to a sheet of plastic wrap. Press together to form the dough more and wrap in plastic as you shape it into a square log. Refrigerate for about 15 to 30 minutes.

To the remaining dough, mix in cocoa powder and coffee. Repeat the same process forming it into a square log shape. Refrigerate for about 15 to 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Remove dough from fridge. If it is too hard to work with allow to sit at room temp for a bit to soften. Cut each log into four equal strips. Arrange the dark and light strips so that they alternate, make two stacked rows. Wrap in plastic and from into a square log, pressing the dough together slightly. Unwrap and cut cookies about ¼ inch wide.

Place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool for 1 to 2 minutes and carefully transfer from cookie sheet to cooling rack. Makes 12 to 15 cookies.

Raspberry and Rhubarb

Well, I’m back at my laptop in Brazil. A bit groggy and jet-lagged, but settling in okay. Thanks for all the well-wishes regarding my trip!

A few days before I left the US I got the baking bug so I decided to experiment with a few new flavors. I’ve been seeing a lot of rhubarb cupcakes out there and my parent’s still had a ton of it available in the garden. The new raspberries were just starting to come on, but there weren’t enough to do much more with then eating fresh so I turned to some frozen ones from last summer.

Rhubarb and strawberry is such a popular combo, so I thought I probably couldn’t go wrong with raspberry as strawberry substitute. I was right. Rhubarb and raspberry is every bit as good as the old standard.

My experiment started with finding a Rhubarb Cupcake recipe from Coconut & Lime. I wanted mine to be a bit different though. I don’t like chunks of rhubarb so I cooked mine down with just a teaspoon of water and a teaspoon of sugar. The transformation is shown below. Then we had some buttermilk to use as well so I substituted that.

The frosting is a traditional butter cream with some raspberry sauce stirred in. The raspberry sauce came from extra I had left over when making a fresh batch of the Raspberry Oat Bars I posted about a few months ago. I put some of this directly in the frosting and ended up with a vibrant pink cupcake topping that was sweet with an underlying tartness.

Due to the extra moisture from my cooked rhubarb this cupcake has more of a sponge cake consistency. This can be changed by adding more flour if you desire.

I was thrilled with the results and I will make these again. Next time I plan to turn it into a sheet cake. The tartness balances nicely with the sweet flavors and it is a perfect combination of ingredients that represent this time of year well.

Raspberry Rhubarb Cupcakes

Cupcakes

Adapted from a recipe at Coconut & Lime

½ cup rhubarb, chopped
1 tsp water
1 tsp sugar
½ cup sugar
3 tbsp butter, room temperature
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla
½ to ¾ cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ cup buttermilk

Place the rhubarb, sugar and water in a small saucepan. Cook at medium high heat, stirring occasionally until the rhubarb cooks down into a jam-like consistency. Remove from heat and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a cupcake tin with six liners.

Cream the sugar and butter then mix in the egg and vanilla. Add in the flour, baking powder and salt and mix just until combined. Finally mix in buttermilk and then fold in the rhubarb.
Distribute batter evenly into the six muffin liners and bake for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until cupcakes are lightly browned and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool.

Raspberry Frosting

¼ cup butter (1/2 stick), room temperature
2 ½ - 3 cups powdered sugar
½ tsp vanilla
¼ cup raspberry fruit filling (from Raspberry Oat Bars)

Beat the butter and powdered sugar until smooth. Add vanilla and raspberry sauce. Beat until all ingredients are combined and frosting is smooth. If making the frosting on a hot day, you may want to refrigerate it until your cupcakes are ready to decorate.

This recipe will serve as my submission to the Let's Celebrate Event at Ria's Collection!

Links to a Healthy Weekend

Hello, friends!

Even though I had been collecting links all week, I thought I was going to have to skip this installment of links due to my travel. However, here I sit in the airport during an incredibly long layover and I find myself with time to post them.

I hope you are well this weekend. As with most of my comings and goings between the US and Brazil, the feelings are bittersweet. I miss what I am leaving, but excited for what lies ahead (especially my husband!).

I arrive in Brazil in the morning and in our town tomorrow night. I have only four months left of this abroad experience and I have vowed to cook up a storm incorporating all the local ingredients I can so it should be exciting around here in the near future.

Enjoy these great reads and I’ll see you next week!

The Reuben Bread from Food and Life Encounters impressed me greatly. This is actually from last week, but it was just too wonderful to skip over when I found it this week. A Reuben is probably my favorite sandwich variety and this is an incredibly interesting twist.

Creating a Healthier Food Culture for Less Money on Care 2 Make a Difference was a thought provoking post with lots of great tips for how to take the steps to start making your foods from scratch. This one is from last month, but I just discovered it this week and thought it was well worth sharing.

Wheat Berry Salad with Cranberries, Feta and Mint from Not Derby Pie was a recipe and blog I discovered this week when searching out some ideas for how to use my wheat berries.

Eat Local. Die Trying? from Zompaa presents an important question we all have to answer when it comes to where we buy our produce and how it is grown.

Peanut Butter Boy is hosting The Great Peanut Butter Exhibition #6. The theme this time? Barbeque! The deadline is Monday.

Coconut & Lime is hosting a 5 year Blogiversary contest! You need to make one of her recipes or create one using coconut and lime to enter.

Photo of my pug, Macy Mae, taken just a few days ago. One of the things I will miss greatly the next few months.

Savory Wheat Berry Salad

Well, I’ve finally crossed over into the world of wheat berries. You know, I get to experience a lot of new foods due to my living abroad, but at the same time I miss out on some new and upcoming things here in the US. Wheat berries have been all over food blogs the past few months and I have yet to find them where we live in Brazil. So during this visit I picked some up to cook and to take back with me so I can experiment some more.

I tried them for the first time a couple weeks ago. I was in Whole Foods and needed a quick, to-go dinner so I stopped by their deli and decided to get a bit of their wheat berry salad made with curry. The consensus – love them! Not that I had any doubts. I’m a huge fan of grains and grain-based salads.

Because wheat berries are the whole wheat kernel without the hull they provide the nutritional benefit of the bran, germ and endosperm, much of which is missing from the processed variety. Wheat berries are a very good source of fiber and manganese, and a good source of magnesium. The presence of the germ also gives you a boost of B vitamins and vitamin E.

Some other interesting research that has arisen the past few years is that whole grains may hold as much antioxidant power through phytochemicals as fruits and veggies. Phenolics are a group of antioxidants present in whole grains in their bound form, unlike those in fruits and veggies which are free. What may have been overlooked in the past is that the bound phenolics in whole grains are released during digestions so we still benefit from them.

It took me a while to decide what to make with my wheat berries. There is no shortage of recipes on the web and I loved the curry flavor in the salad I had from Whole Foods. What I didn’t like was the added fruit. I’m not a big fan of golden raisins in grain salads. I wanted something that was savory all the way. So using some things from the garden this is what I came up with.

Savory Curry Wheat Berry Salad

1 cup wheat berries
3 ½ cups water
1 cup grape tomatoes, chopped
1 spring onion, sliced
1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp curry powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Place wheat berries in a large sauce pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered for 45 min to one hour. Drain and rinse with cool water.

In a bowl whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, curry powder, salt and pepper. Set aside.

In a serving bowl toss together wheat berries, tomatoes, onion and parsley. Pour dressing over salad, toss to coat and serve. Makes about six servings.

More on the health benefits of whole grains and references for this post - WHFoods: Whole Wheat

Why Eating Real Food Is Important to Me

I went for a family visit today. My mom and I stopped by to see my Great Aunt and two of my Great Uncles. They still live in and near the house of my Great Grandparents and although they are in their 80s we drove up to find them working in the yard and nearby garden.

As we talked about the family and looked through some old pictures I was reminded that much of my roots reside there – the recipes I ate through my childhood and have since learned how to make in my adulthood as well as using the land for food and keeping it plentiful during the winter months through canning. My mom tells me stories about collecting the chicken eggs and watching cows being milked as a child.

While I didn’t have exposure to such extreme farm life during my own childhood, I was exposed to extensive gardening through my Dad and home cooking through my Mom. This visit brought memories of days passed which always bring me to the present and how I currently feel about food.

Getting to the point of supporting the growth, cooking and consumption of real food was a long journey for me, but here I am. Days like today get me thinking about why I’ve evolved into this person, this place. I realize again and again that it really isn’t about health for me. My interest in health made me take the path in my life that I have traveled, but my real reason for supporting natural, sustainable foods is memories.

These memories I have are not all that common anymore and growing rarer by the day, especially for upcoming generations. I know that everyone can’t live on a farm, but everyone from toddlers to adults can take a break from this multi-media reality we live in and experience a portion of this old fashioned life. We just have to make a bit more of an effort. It can be growing your own garden, supporting a local agribusiness through a u-pick adventure or simply walking through a farmer’s market and talking with local producers.

When I think about my family who lived long before I showed up I realize that this wasn’t a choice for them. It was a necessity. In addition, when they were my age those now popular fast food and soda companies were just coming into view. However, as opposed to being known for their greedy efforts to take over the world that now seem so prominent, they were still viewed as entrepreneurial endeavors, part of the American dream.

Oh how things have changed, for the worse of course, but lately I also think they are changing for the better. Why? Just take a look through all the fabulous food blogs out there using natural, nourishing ingredients eliminating our need for processed ingredients.

I’m fortunate to have these memories because they are what keep me wanting to learn more about real food, to make the extra effort to prepare it and to share that with others. I know we can’t go back in time completely, but we can pull those positive things from the past to our present way of living.

Why is eating real food important to you?

This post has been submitted to Food Renegade's Fight Back Friday.

Apples, Carrots and Zucchini in One Tasty Bread

I am a huge fan of zucchini bread. What better way to enjoy a vegetable, right? While I’ve also had apples in bread as well as carrots, I can’t say I’ve combined them all together before. Well, until yesterday.

We came across this recipe for Garden Harvest Cake in the April 2009 issue of Cooking Light. My mom and I (well more my mom than me) decided to give it a try. Since we didn’t change the recipe at all I will leave it as link for you to check out.

Although the recipe says it is a cake it has every characteristic of a quick bread. I always come across recipes that call for applesauce instead of oil and I’m never incredibly impressed with the results. However, as opposed to applesauce, this recipe uses a fresh Granny Smith apple to cut the amount of oil a bit and the results are fantastic! You will end up with a moist, tender bread full of cinnamon flavor with the slight crunch of toasted walnuts. A great breakfast for a hot summer morning.