Cupcakes

We are planning our next trip to Brazil soon. My sister in law will get marry and we are going to her wedding.

We will take the opportunity that we are there in Brazil to Baptize Luiza. So, I am already planning her Baptize lunch celebration with a lot of help.

My sister Luana and my sister in law Gra are taking care of the decoration. Fernanda, my sister in law that is getting married will take care of the church; and I… well I am supervising all of them, LOL.

For the sweet table, I decided that I want some cupcake. Cupcakes are now a fever in Brazil, so Luana and Gra are taking care of the cupcake support, cupcakes cup and things like that and I need to make them. Today I decided to try for the first time to bake and decorate some cupcakes. It is not easy as I was thinking, especially with my shaking hands. I will need a lot of practice, but I think I will get there, with some extra pounds and a big mess I will do it.

Olive Cheese Bread Recipe from The Pioneer Women

I very good ex friend of my (yes, she is not my friend anymore after giving me this website, LoL) introduced me to this website and I am getting addicted to it.
Last weekend we went to my friend's house for a BBQ and I made this delicious Olive Cheese Bread. It is so easy to make and so delicious!!!!
I did take some pictures during the preparation of the bread, but I think I got so excited when it was ready that I forgot to take a picture of the actually bread, so here are some pictures from their website just for you to see.

Pudding Cups from Bakerella

You know, I am pregnant, right? So I can not see some thing like this and not have water on my mouth. I really need to try some this weekend.
I think that is a great thing to do with your kids for a Mother's Day lunch. It is easy, fun and looks delicious. What else do you need in a desert??

Just visit Bakerella for the recipe and while you are there take a look at all the great things they do. I am a Fan of Bakerella.

Delicious Yellow Corn Coffee Cake

Well, here is the truth: I am just 13 weeks pregnant, but I look like I am going to have a baby any time ant here is why.

Yellow Corn Coffee Cake, is an every day cake at our table in Brazil. Every day, around 4pm is what we call coffee time in Brazil, but it is not just about coffee. It is about getting together, taking a break, talking, and of course having a coffee with some cake, hot French bread with butter, cheese bread ( I promise to tell you all about it, it is delicious!!)…… Like I said, it starts around 4 pm and sometimes it goes on and on and on.  At my grandmother house every day at 4pm the table will be ready. We never know who is coming and how many are coming for the coffee, and that is the fun of it, but the table is always ready and delicious. I love when we are sitting on the table and the bell rings, someone else came to join us for the coffee, more talking, more laugh, and more good time.

So, I like this tradition and I try to continue it here with my friends and sometimes just me, Lucas and my husband. Actually, next week I will have some friends over for a coffee here in my house and I will try to take some pictures of it.

Here is the recipe of the Traditional Yellow Corn Coffee Cake
4 eggs
3/4 cups oil
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
1 cup yellow corn
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 tbsp salt
1 tbsp of baking powder
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Butter one 8 inch round cake pan.
Mix everything together with a mixer or blender and bake it for 35 min at 350 degree for a soft cake( that is the best for my taste) or for 45 min if you like it well done. 

Enjoy it!!!!

Easter Tradition!!!

We had such a great time this weekend, with great friends. Lucas had a blast. We had some friends that are from Brazil but live in New Orleans that came to spend Easter with us. Lucas and his 3 friends played all day long.
Friday we had a traditional Brazilian dinner. It is a tradition in Brazil to eat Cod Fish on Good Friday. We have in Brazil a salted dried Cod Fish that I could not find here in USA, so I used regular fresh Cod Fish instead.

Here is the recipe:
3 tomatos
Green onion
200gr black olives
1,5kg Cod Fish
Olive Oil
2 Onions
2 Green Peppers
5 Potatoes
Slice the potato, tomato, onion, green pepper and green onions. Boil the potatoes with a little bit of salt for 15 min. Season your Cod Fish with salt. Make some layers starting with your potato, Cod Fish, onion, green onion, green pepper and olives.
Put lots of olive oil on top of it, cover with aluminum foil and bake it for 45 min at 360 degree. Serve with white rice and enjoy it.

Hummm it was delicious. Tasted just like home!!!

Saturday morning we went egg hunting with the kids. We had lots of eggs to hunt all over the place. I loved to see the kids face every time they found an egg. there is nothing better than seeing a smile in a kids face!!!

On Sunday, Mr. Bunny came to visit and left us our Easter Basket and our Brazilian Chocolate Eggs.

Lucas' chocolate egg was almost his size. He loved it. He ate way tooooooooooo much chocolate and we did too. Those big chocolate eggs are our tradition in Brazil. Mr Bunny brings us those chocolates eggs in different sizes, taste, and color. Some will come with small chocolate inside, some with truffle and others with toys.....and they all taste soooo good!!!

How was your Easter? What is your Easter Family tradition?

Easter Delicious Ideas!!!

My friend Regina from Bargain Bombshell Blog and I attempted to make some Easter Bunnies inspired by Bakerella. I've mentioned Bakerella before in another post. I am a number 1 fan of Bakerella. The blog is awesome, she is creative, professional and she is great. If you haven’t visited Bakerella yet, you should do it now and I am sure you will love.

Here is how our Easter Bunnies turned out.  Not so bad for our first time and probably my last time, LOL. I had a hard time covering the oreo balls with chocolate. It is not easy if you do not have much experience (like us) covering it beautifully like they did at Bakerella, but I will get better, I will keep trying. Instead of cake, we used some Chocolate Oreo Balls. Have you tried those Oreo Balls before? No?? How come?? I am addicted to it. It is so easy to make and so delicious. You got to do it.

Here is the recipe:

Chocolate Oreo Balls

1 package of oreo cookie.

8oz of Cream Cheese

Chocolate

Break your cookies in small pieces, (I like to break it before even open the bag). Mix the cream cheese with your cookies and then make some small balls. Put it on your freezer for 20 min just to get harder. Melt some chocolate (black or white) and dip your oreo balls on it. Put it back on the refrigerator for 15 min and enjoy it. Best of all, you can freeze it.Okay, you probably know already that I am the Freezer Queen. I do freeze everything that I can just to make my life easier. I always have some Oreo Balls in my freezer for those crazy days that we crave some sweet, if you know what I am talking about. LOL

You can use your oreo balls instead of the cake  to make a lot of recipes from Bakerella. I love their Cake Pops, cupcakes, cake balls, desserts, .....it is all so pretty!!!!
Are you cooking or baking anything delicious this easter?
Happy Easter to all of you!!!

White Chocolate Popcorn Treats - Valentine's Day

R

Here is a special Valentine's Day treat that you can fix pretty quickly to someone special. I made those for Lucas to give to his teachers with her gifts and I am sure they loved it. Who would not like to get this sweet treat??
It could not go wrong, mixing popcorn, white chocolate and M&Ms together, hummmm.

I do need to tell you that I love to prepare those things for his teachers. That was my first time going out with him to pick a gift for them and then preparing this sweet little treat with lots of love to someone that take such a good care of my baby. They are very special people first for doing what they do everyday and second for loving my baby and caring about him. I love you guys for that!!! Thank you, thank you and thank you!!!
Now, let's go back on how to make those special treats, it is pretty easy.
Pop some popcorn. Melt a bag of white chocolate in the microwave and pour it on top of the popcorn. Add some Valentine M&Ms to it and Mix it. Let it cool and harden so you can package it up pretty and give to someone special!!!
I also want to share this link with you. Here you will find another cute Valentine's Day treat. Let me know if you decided to try it, I may try it too.
Enjoy it!!!

Happy Valentine's Day

Amish Friendship Bread

Amish Friendship Bread

A friend of mine gave me a friendship Bread a few days ago. If you don’t know how it is, I will tell you.

My friend gave me a bag with bread dough inside it. She wrote the date that she made the dough on the bag so I could keep track of the recipe.  Basically we keep the bag for 10 days, following the instructions on the recipe and on the last day  you will need to add all the other ingredients and it will be ready to be baked. Here is the recipe in case you want to make some. I add a bag of chocolate chip to my and it tasted very good. If you want more Amish recipe, here is a good cookbook to buy!

Today was the baking day at my house. I have 2 bags of Friendship bread, which makes 8 cakes. Yes, you read it right, 8 cakes!!!  I decided to make the first cake of the day with Lucas. I knew he would like to help me, he is a very good helper, but I did know that we would have so much fun and such a great time together.

He helped me count the eggs, mix the ingredients, and pour the flour into the bag… He is the best helper ever!!! He is learning how to count; yes I know he is only 16 months old that is why I am saying that he is learning it, so I got the eggs and told him that we need just 3 and asked him to help me to count it. He started looking to his hands and counting his fingers while I was pointing to the eggs, he is so cute!!!

Well, he not just helped me today, but he learned a little about math, new vocabulary words, how to follow instructions and the best of all, had a great time!!!

After all that work he took a well deserved nap. While he was taking his nap I baked all the other 7 cakes and froze it. (My friends will laugh when they read it; I well know for freeze everything!!!)

To finalize our activity we had a picnic at our backyard. The weather was great and the cake even better, but best of all was Lucas face eating his cake!!!