Macadamia crunch ice cream + my favorite cookbooks

Every other day I receive emails from the readers asking which are my favorite cookbooks; for each of those emails I reply two more arrive in my inbox – not a very practical thing. That is why you’ll find below the list with my all time favorite cookbooks – the ones I love the most (in no particular order):




This delicious ice cream – if you think I’ve become

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Roasted tomato soup with pesto

I haven’t been to the movies since “Hugo”, but I did watch a fantastic movie at home, “No Country for Old Men”: to me the Coen brothers are an acquired taste – they’re like anchovies, you’ll learn to love them eventually; I don’t like “Fargo” but love “The Man Who Wasn’t There”, “O Brother, Where Art Thou” and “True Grit”, therefore I decided it was about time I watched “No Country for Old Men”

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Tangerine-poppy seed chiffon cake

Up until a couple of weekends ago the only chiffon cakes I’d baked were layer cakes: they were delicious and perfect for birthday celebrations, but I wanted to make one of those tall, elegant chiffon cakes (baked in tube pans) I’d seen on some cookbooks and blogs. I chose this recipe because I love tangerines and the idea of a cake made with them sounded very refreshing, exactly what that very

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Coconut custard bars + the unforgettable "Hugo"

I don’t have kids, but I imagine that if I did I would love to cook and bake for them, because I already do that with lots of joy for the people I love and care about – I guess it’s a way of expressing my feelings. Maybe people like doing things they love for the ones they love. And why am I telling you all this, you might ask? Well, because that crossed my mind when I left the theater a couple

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Cinnamon and cardamom buns

I usually feel the urge to bake yeasted breads when there is no time at all for that – go figure. And this time, to make things even more difficult I felt like baking a very specific type of bread: I wanted it to look good (I’m a complicated human being, my friends, I’ll admit to that). There was an amazing recipe using bananas in one of my current favorite cookbooks, but I would not have the

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Oatmeal biscotti

And the biscotti saga continues: these, packed with oats, pecans and apricots have a healthy feel and taste delicious. A couple more great things: they last a month (not that I think they will, but...), travel well and are wonderful as snacks between meals, but... As much as I hate to admit it, I think it will be really hard to find one biscotti recipe that can top the caramelized-pecan orange

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Peanut butter granola + Woody Allen and Larry David

A couple of nights ago I was on my couch, watching “House M.D.” and being horrified by the fact that a child almost as tall as me was wearing diapers on that episode when the reminder for "Whatever Works" appeared on my screen; after watching the movie I thanked the Universe for putting Woody Allen and Larry David together – the witty text, perfectly performed by the fantastic David and a very

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Salmon with hot, sweet and sour Asian sauce + a new favorite TV show

Joao was watching TV the other day and discovered, completely unintentionally, Martin Dorey’s “One Man and His Campervan” – he rushed me to the living room and I instantly fell in love with the show: not only the places he visits are beautiful but he also cooks delicious recipes in a very small space, using just a few utensils – I wish the people who tell me that they don’t cook because their

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Cinnamon pound cake with macadamia spice ribbon + "A Single Man"

Keeping up with my 2012 film goal, I watched “A Single Man” last night and what a surprise it was for me: I already expected something good – Colin Firth and Julianne Moore can do no wrong – but the movie is so visually striking that I felt like writing Tom Ford an email, asking him to make another movie soon.

*spoilers*

I love the way Ford works with the colors: a friend of mine called it “

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Pecan praliné brownies + "Drive" - one of the best movies I've seen in my entire life

I watched the trailer for “Drive” many, many months ago and after that I just could not stop thinking about it: the movie had an aura similar to some classic movies from the 1970s I deeply love – “The French Connection”, “Taxi Driver”, and “The Godfather” instantly came to my mind – while its pink neon letters and music had a 1980s feel. I had a good feeling about this movie and the award

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Little fig and blackberry pies + "Sid & Nancy"

One of my goals for last year was to use my cookbooks more often and I am very pleased with how it turned out – I did use them a lot and intend to keep doing that. For 2012 I have a new goal: to watch more movies, especially the ones I, for some reason, did not watch in the theater.
I started off with “Sid & Nancy” – because of my Oldman-being-nominated frenzy – and well, one could say I

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Le gibassier

I was just searching for a recipe to use some of the candied orange peel left in my fridge from making the almost mother-in-law cake, but what I found was the most beautiful bread I’d ever seen, a type of bread I’d never heard of before. I adore it when certain things lead to great discoveries, and I felt this way again a week ago, when after watching the fantastic "The Fall" I made my usual

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In the kitchen with: Design*Sponge

Today the lovely and talented Kristina Gill has posted my mother's carrot cake on the fantastic Design*Sponge - it's a Brazilian take on carrot cake, with no raisins or nuts and drizzled with a delicious chocolate glaze - I hope you all like it!

Have a nice weekend, everyone!

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Butterscotch banana cake

And just when I thought that Flo Braker’s banana cake would hold the title of “best banana cake ever baked in my kitchen” forever Mr. Dan Lepard showed up with the idea of caramelizing the bananas before adding them to the cake batter – how great is that? The cake turned out absolutely tender, with a deep, beautiful golden hue and a delicious, strong banana flavor.

Inspired by one of my

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