week TwentY: Chocolate-mousse cake

'the' chocolate cake. I love chocolate cake. I have been always looking for the best chocolate cake. Some years ago I started a quest of baking the best chocolate cake. I tried different recipes - some successfully others not really. Some cakes were ok. others were not enough 'chocolaty'. too crumbly. too dry. too sweet.
... until I got this recipe! This is just perfect! dense. not too sweet. rich chocolate flavor. great consistency. easy to bake!
.... goes really well with strawberries... and is great to bake for someone you love!

week NineteeN: Bolo de Bolacha - Portuguese Cookie Cake

This is one of those Portuguese desserts that everyone has at one point or another tried. It is, probably, the dessert that kids loved most. I remember that my mother baked it for special occasions, when she wanted to surprised us… It really ensured moments of delightful, sharing and love!
It is a cake made of Maria Biscuits and a cream made of butter, sugar and eggs. Before using the biscuits for the cake they are dipped into some strong coffee. The crunching feeling, the mix between the sweetness of the cream and the sour flavor from coffee makes it irresistible. The problem, is that it's so good it never last more than one day!
I learn how to do it, and recently arrived to San Francisco It was my time to surprise two (not that little) boys with this Bolo de Bolacha (Cookie Cake) and I could see in their expressions, the happiness and enchantment that only childhood memories can bring to you. I finally understood the big smile in my mother's face when she observed me and my brother eating wildly a "Bolo de Bolacha" just like this one…

week EighteeN: cinnamon cookies

These little cookies were baked and tasted by the three dream makers for the first time in SF.
Their baking was a nostalic request from a recently immigrant from Portugal.
Our friend is an expert in Portuguese baking, as she has been tasting that for her entire life. On top of that, our friend has traveled all around the globe and tried all sorts of sweet treats. We took the opportunity of having our friend staying briefly in SF and had her trying all our baked goods. We really trust in her wise and informed opinion. After many days of intense tasting our friend realized that she really missed having cinnamon cookies (Bolinhos de canela) bought in favorite coffee shop in Lisbon. And of course, after such an important request we did our best to baked them specially for her.

So duirng thanks giving week we want to say thank you to our Portuguese friend for this request and for so many more suggestion she has made to improve our project.

week seventeen: Almond Tart

Almonds once again. It seems that every time we open a portuguese cooking book a great number of recipes will require almonds as an ingredient. Even if almonds are not easily distinguished among more intense flavors.
However, in almond tart the almonds are predominant. This treat is about almonds, about their sweet flavor and about their crunchiness.
Expect to have Almond Tart quite often in every single Portuguese household. Moreover, expect it to taste quite similar all the time.  Undoubted, this is a classic home-made Portuguese treat.

week SixteeN: Albert & Eve home-delivery

And at week sixteen something completing dfferent.
We're super-busy this weekend preparing all the complimentary samples of areias and amêndoas to  be delivered with the Albert & Eve, CSA organic vegetables boxes.
It was hard work, but when you are among friends everything turns out fun.
It is an important day to us.
Many many thanks to all our friends for the support and help.

week FifteeN: Roasted Quince

Usually all the quince available is processed into marmelada, or as people say in english Quince Paste.
I was never very keen on marmelada. However, I always loved eating roasted quince with sugar on top. It is the perfect dessert for a chilly Fall day.
As sister said today: "maybe being happy is to harvest quince from your backyard and spend the entire afternoon peeling them and preparing marmelada with your family".

week FourteeN: Grandmother's cake

All child memories come with smell and flavors. Smiles and tears. Chocolate and caramels. Running and falling. Adults and boredom. Friends and freedom. Brothers mean annoyance. or knowledge. or distance. Holidays mean sun and beach. Grandparents are wise. And grandmothers spoil us and bake delicious chocolate cakes!

week ThirteeN: Popovers

probably the least Portuguese treat! but there are a couple of reasons for them to be present among Portuguese sweets!
1. I tried them in woods hole and they bring me unforgettable memories of the only lazy week day - between science, sun and big friends,
2. baking them is great fun,
3. maybe they have a Portuguese soul,
4. and last but not the least - I once shared a popover with a person that soon after I fall for! and I believe that this small gesture made all the difference. my eyes secretly expecting that those sweet green-caramel eyes would land on mine!!!
obrigada popovers!

week TwelvE: Carrot roly-poly

I always loved this cake.
It is covered with sugar, making it crunchy in the outside. Once we slice it, we see the most amazing bright orange color. When we taste it is soft and moisty.
But for me the most awsome thing with the carrot roly-poly is that its characteristics are due to carrots.
How can vegetables make so amazing treats?

week EleveN: Olive oil cookies

Back home we use olive oil every time we cook. I guess it never crosses our minds to use any different source of fat. However, using olive oil to bake still seems a bit unusual.
These olive oil cookies are a typical recipe from my grandparents little village, right in the boarder with Spain. People use to make them as a gift for guests in weedings. They taste like countryside! The olive oil bitterness and sweet smell blends perfectly with sugar. The cookies are crunchy outside and they crumble in our mouth as we taste them.