Old-fashioned, American-style layer cakes, revised

Published by Monday, November 14, 2011 Permalink 0

by Old Fashioned Living

I am not a lover of sweets, in fact most of the time I dislike them, which is quite a handy thing for my figure.

Still, sometimes, nostalgia takes over. I remember my great aunt’s fresh coconut layer cake, with the layers stacked high like a cathedral, and how the white coconut reminded me of angel’s wings. I remember moist chocolate layer cakes from childhood birthday parties. Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, popular when I was in college. As a little girl, how pretty the name “red velvet cake” sounded. Gingerbread with hot butterscotch sauce on a cold winter’s day, made by my best friend’s mother on Saturday afternoons.

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Rosa’s Musings: Sachertorte, The Pride Of Vienna

Published by Friday, November 4, 2011 Permalink 0

by Rosa Mayland

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colors burst in wild explosions
Fiery, flaming shades of fall
All in accord with my pounding heart
Behold the autumn-weaver
In bronze and yellow dying
Colors unfold into dreams
In hordes of a thousand and one
The bleeding
Unwearing their masks to the last notes of summer
Their flutes and horns in nightly swarming
Colors burst within
Spare me those unending fires
Bestowed upon the flaming shades of fall.
Dark Tranquility, With the Flaming Shades of Fall

Each season has a significant impact on our behaviour and spirit. All four seasons impart a special mood as well as a certain rhythm to our existence. The explanation for that is very simple: no plant, animal or human being can break loose from the forceful and capricious powers of the Universe to which they are submitted and depend on. We just have to accept the fact that there is a greater plan (I’m not talking about God, but about the force behind the entirety of the cosmos) and that most of the time it completely escapes our understanding. There is no other choice for us than to cooperate with the elements in order to benefit from them. Fighting against them will get you nowhere. Save your vigor and be in harmony with them…

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Health Challenge: 5 easy ways to make your lasagne healthier

Published by Wednesday, October 19, 2011 Permalink 0

by Tamar Chamlian

Lasagne doesn’t have to be fattening. Here are five easy steps to make your lasagne healthy while keeping it delicious!

  1. Opt for organic lasagne sheets instead of the traditional ones we find at local markets.
  2. Don’t butter the plate you are cooking the lasagne in. Add just a drizzle of olive oil and spread it with a paper towel.
  3. Substitute a traditional Béchamel Sauce for light double cream (there are several versions available such as fat free, low-fat, etc.).
  4. While cooking the meat for a Bolognese, for example, add tomato paste as well as smaller chunks of tomato. Make an even more vitamin-infused version of this by making a ragout of celery, carrot, and other veggies, and add it to the meat while cooking
  5. The lasagne is taking shape and you’re ready to top it with mozzarella, cheddar and Parmesan. Great, well not really! Opt for the fat-free version of the above cheeses, and be careful to sprinkle it on as lightly as possible.

Bon Appetit!

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Papos de anjo: A Portuguese Convent Sweet

Published by Wednesday, October 19, 2011 Permalink 0

by Mónica Pinto

It all started centuries ago in the Portuguese convents. The nuns used to starch the habits with egg whites and, consequently, they ended up with huge quantities of egg yolks, so they started making a variety of rich and delicious sweets, mostly using egg yolks and sugar, in fact lots of both. Sometimes they would add almonds and a small list of other ingredients, but the egg yolks and sugar were always the main ingredients of the Portuguese convent sweets.

Papos de anjo, in English, would be something like, “angels’ stomachs” or “angels’ bellies”, and they  are one of the most traditional of Portuguese sweets. They start as sugar-free, fluffy little egg cakes, round and smooth, just like the nuns imagined an angel’s belly, but then they are covered with a very sweet and aromatic syrup that makes them a melt-in-the-mouth treat, a delicacy for people with a very sweet tooth.

Enjoy!

Recipe

Ingredients

Click here for Metric-Imperial converter.

Pastry:

6 egg yolks
1 egg white

 

Syrup:
300 g caster sugar
3 dl water
1 orange peel
1 cinnamon stick

Preparation

  1. Butter 8 to 10 mini muffin tins (depends on the size). Preheat the oven to 180º, gas mark 4.
  2. Beat the egg yolks until fluffy and thick (3 to 5 minutes).
  3. Beat the egg white until it forms firm peaks and fold it gently into the yolk mixture.
  4. Fill the tins almost to the top with this smooth, velvety batter, then bake for 10 minutes.
  5. When they’re browned, remove small egg cakes from the tins while they’re still warm.
  6. In a saucepan add sugar, water, orange peel and cinnamon stick.
  7. Bring to the boil and let bubble away for exactly 5 minutes.
  8. Remove from the heat and pour the hot and aromatic syrup over the papos de anjo.

Serve at room temperature.

I’m a food photographer and stylist with an Art & Design degree. I live in Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal, near the sea with my husband, my two boys and my dog. I love home cooking from around the world and have a very special interest in traditional Portuguese cuisine. I love to cook with fresh herbs, edible flowers and fresh vegetables. Some I grow organically in my kitchen garden. Others I buy from local farmers markets. I’m the author of Pratos e Travessas a blog about cooking, food photography and food chronicles.

 

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A Brief History of the Oreo Emboss

Published by Friday, October 7, 2011 Permalink 0
Oreo Double Stuff Cookie

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interestingly, when the Oreo was first introduced by Nabisco in 1912, it used a much more organic wreath for its emboss, later augmented with two pairs of turtledoves in a 1924 redesign.

To follow the evolution of the Oreo cookie’s embossing, click here.

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  • Food Art: Giant Oreo cake, food photography by SandeeA

 

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Rosa’s Musings: A Good Old British Dessert With A Modern Flair: Spicy Damson Plum Roly Poly

Published by Tuesday, October 4, 2011 Permalink 0

by Rosa Mayland

 

Summer fades; the first cold, Northern air
Sweeps, like hatred, through still days –
The August heat now gone elsewhere,
To Southern, bird-filled coasts and bays;
Amid constricting vales of cloud,
A pale and liquid Autumn sun
That once beat down on an empty plain
And may again. And may again.
— Trever Howard, Autum

Lately, I’ve been in an unusually nostalgic, and in a rather morose state of mind. No matter how much I love autumn and look forward to cooler weather, seasonal mood swings always hit me hard when the summer ends. I guess it is something natural/biologic which each of us experiences to a certain degree. This time though, the “blahs” hit me a little harder than usual and I guess this is partly because last week, on the 13th of September, my English grandmother would have celebrated her 85th birthday, that is if she had not passed away last March…

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Switzerland: Rosa’s Musings: Butterzopf, The History Of A National Sunday Bread

Published by Saturday, October 1, 2011 Permalink 0

by Rosa Mayland

Switzerland (also known as “Confoederatio Helvetica” or “die Schweiz”, “la Suisse”, “Svizzera”, “Svizra”) is a federal republic composed of 26 cantons and 4 different linguistic and cultural areas (German, French, Italian and Romansch). It’s therefore not surprising if its cuisine reflects its rich heritage and highly diverse cultures. It is rather like an island in the middle of Europe, like a tiny kingdom.

Each region and canton has its very own traditional dishes and specialties as well as produce, and they defend and even protect it fiercely, because there are dishes, cheeses, wines, breads, and many more food items that are now protected by AOCs in Switzerland.

Even if this tiny piece of land stuck between Germany, Austria, France, Italy has its own highly diverse culinary identity, one cannot refute that each part of the Swiss Confederation has, to a certain extent, been influenced by its neighbors, and vice versa. For example, a sausage resembling the anise-flavored Geneva sausage called Longeole can also be found in Chablais (Haute-Savoie); a cheese similar to Valais raclette is made in Savoie too; the Swiss German spätzli seem to be of Swabian (German) origin. Then there is polenta or risotto which evoke the Apennine Penninsula, and are often found in Ticino, and, well, the list goes on. As it is the case with every place that is not in total isolation, the borders are quite permeable, so it is pretty understandable that ideas, information, arts and science cross back and forth across the borders.

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It’s apple season: Matefin à la pomme / apple pancakes/pie

Published by Thursday, September 29, 2011 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

O Délices discovered this recipe on blog de Guillemette.

This is a traditional recipe from the Savoy, so it’s not so far from us in Switzerland.

The original name comes from the French mâte faim. Peasants prepared these potato pancakes in the morning before going to work in the fields. It was meant to keep them going until lunchtime.

This version uses apples instead of potatoes, and is perfect for the apple season, which has just started here in Switzerland.

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Food Art: Petit Ecolier Chocolate Cookies, food photography by SandeeA

Published by Thursday, September 22, 2011 Permalink 0

SandeeA is the author of our Food Play column. She writes in both English and Spanish, but is a woman of many talents, including food photography and styling. She runs a popular food blog in Spain, La Receta de la Felicidad.

Click here for the recipe.

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Food Art: Plum Tartelettes, food photography by SandeeA

Published by Wednesday, September 21, 2011 Permalink 0

SandeeA is the author of our Food Play column. She writes in both English and Spanish, but is a woman of many talents, including food photography and styling. She runs a popular food blog in Spain, La Receta de la Felicidad.

Click here for the recipe.

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