Spiced apple turnovers + the end of a brilliant trilogy

After months and months of sheer anxiety – Christopher Nolan did to me what Fincher had done in 2010 and 2011 – the moment I’d waited for had finally arrived : the day I saw the end of a brilliant trilogy.

*spoilers*

I won’t use the word “perfect” to describe “The Dark Knight Rises” – I’ll save the adjective for “The Dark Knight”, which in my opinion is a better movie – but I will say that

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Vanilla cupcakes with blackcurrant preserves icing

Looking for a recipe to use up the jam left in the jar after making this cake, I found an old magazine scrap with a recipe for apple cupcakes with blackcurrant icing; I thought it sounded delicious but did not have any apples around (I’d devoured them in crumble form a couple of hours before, mea culpa). Then I thought that a neutral flavor, like vanilla, would be a good substitute for the

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Ginger and molasses cake + Christian Bale (again)

I know that by telling you again how much I adore Christian Bale I might sound like a broken record, but what can I do? Not only is he an amazing and versatile actor – one of my top favorites – he’s also been making headlines these past few days for all the right reasons – how can one not love the guy? :)
“The Dark Knight Rises” opens tomorrow here in Brazil and my tickets were bought a long,

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Apple and buttermilk fritters - a delicious excuse to fry

It’s no secret how much I love Gourmet Traveller – I have made tons of recipes from the magazine and they turned out delicious. I always have several recipes from the magazine on my radar (me and my never ending list) and now, because of the fall, I’ve been targeting the ones with apples and pears, and I intend to make the doughnuts filled with quince jelly as soon as I get my hands on some

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Chocolate peanut butter cheesecake bars + "Man of Steel"

I've just had a delightful surprise during my daily visit to "Awards Daily": the lovely Sasha Stone posted not one, but two versions of the "Man of Steel" teaser, one voiced over by Kevin Costner (Jonathan Kent) and the other by the always amazing Russel Crowe, who will be playing Jor-El - if that isn't reason enough to anxiously wait for that movie I do not know what is. :)

The beautiful

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Lemon angel food cake with lemon glaze and pistachios

This recipe should come with a warning: besides being delicious - no surprise here since we're talking about a lemon cake - its texture is so light, so feathery, that without noticing you'll be going back to the kitchen for seconds, thirds... (yes, I am writing from experience). :)

If you don't have pistachios on hand I am sure that almonds would work wonderfully here, too.

Lemon angel food

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Spinach casserole with orecchiette and cheeses

Talking to a coworker who has lost several pounds, I found out that the on the diet she’s been on gluten and dairy are forbidden. I must say that as much as I would love to lose a couple of pounds, I would never be able to follow that kind of diet: I cannot survive without bread and cheese; I know there are ways of replacing wheat flour for other kinds of flour – the spelt muffins I made a

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Chocolate chip brownie double-deckers

Being someone who always has trouble choosing what to prepare, these double deckers were the perfect solution to my baking conundrum: two different layers, two delicious baked goods in one. To make things even better, the recipe is easy to put together and yields a lot, being great for sharing – they disappeared from the office quite fast the other day... :)

The recipe comes from a cookbook I

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Lemon and cardamom cake + "50/50"

I am always interested in great performances, especially when they’re delivered by actors and actresses I adore; that is the reason why I wanted to watch "50/50": Joseph Gordon-Levitt is absolutely amazing in this movie and Seth Rogen surprised the hell out of me too, I have to admit it.

*spoilers*

Cancer is not a subject I deal very well with and even though the movie made me cry in several

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Salted chocolate caramel tartlets

Talk about perfect timing: the fall issue of my favorite food magazine arrived one day after I’d opened a jar of dulce de leche just to eat a spoonful of it (just ONE, guys, I swear). :)
Since I could not eat the remaining contents of that jar – wanted to, but couldn’t – I’d already started thinking of something to make with it; that was when, flipping through the beautiful pages of the

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Blackcurrant-sour cream coffee cake

I have just watched "The Amazing Spider-Man" and even though I think that the "amazing" of that title is a bit too presumptuous I liked the movie: it's a really good cast, far better than the first Spider-Man movie directed by Sam Raimi. But Raimi had Willem Dafoe as the villain, and Willem Dafoe as the villain is just perfection; actually, Dafoe as anything is perfection. :)
In a perfect world

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Easy double choc brownies make happy coworkers

My idea was to bring brownies to work but had so much to do I was running out of time to actually bake them – that was when I turned to the cookbook for all things sweet, which I have baked very delicious things from. When I’m pressed for time and can’t go to Eat Your Books or flip through my cookbooks I go straight to Bon Appétit Desserts and up until now I have been extremely happy with that.

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Orange cardamom pound cake with candied orange peel + a question

I made this cake months ago but waited until now to publish it to avoid bothering you with my too-much-candied-orange-peel drama. The recipe was a simple orange cake – which is something I love – spiced with a bit of cardamom – which is something I’ve learned to love – and I just added the bits of candied peel because I no longer wanted to look at them every time I opened my fridge. So it is

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Apple and cinnamon tarte fines

I’m not a very huge fan of animated movies but I do have a few favorites: “Finding Nemo”, “Mulan”, “Spirited Away” and “Kung Fu Panda” – the hubby loves the latter, too, and last night we watched "Kung Fu Panda 2" together. I have to say that choosing Jack Black and Dustin Hoffman as the voices of Po and Shifu was a really bright idea – they’re perfect for the roles. And my favorite actor is so

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