It’s Sunday night and I’m currently listening to a good old American country song by the very, very, very smoochable Luke Bryan that goes “It’s homemade peach ice cream on sunburnt lips, that’s what country is”. I just thought I’d share the wise word with all of you, I mean I’m sure you too were wondering what country music was. Ladies, seriously, click on the link above. Anywho, on to this recipe. Continue reading
I almost never get sick, but this weekend I got hit by the worst case of fatiflusea. What you’ve never heard of it? It’s a weird combination of drop-dead fatigue, intense stomach flu and constant nausea. Fatiflusea. It came down on me yesterday morning and has just put my body on full stop. I could not get up or keep any food down for the life of me. My parents used to say that when I’d get sick as a baby, they would really start to worry when I wouldn’t want to eat anything. Ha! So true, even today as an adult, I really know something’s wrong if I don’t want to eat anything. And I have literally not been able to get off the couch for the entire weekend. The 20-yard walk from the couch to the bathroom takes me over a minute as I drag my Alpaca socks feeling all sorry for myself and taking a break to catch my breath halfway there. Even picking up my computer from the table leaves me out of breath and in need of a nap. This has never happened to me, but it could be my body’s way of saying it just needs a break? The only thing I’ve been able to eat in the past hours has been some banana and these succulent local Incan Berries that are grown in the Andes. They’re shock full of Vitamin C so maybe that’s been doing the trick. Continue reading
My roommate from Sao Paulo, Lea, and I shared a similar love for bright, beautiful, colorful salads. Whenever we’d have potluck dinners or invite people over at our house, you could be sure we were on the salad making crew. We’d let our imaginations run wild and put anything that sparked our tastebuds and eyesight to make them look visually stunning and oh-so-tasty: arugula, cherry tomatoes, mango chunks, toasted almonds, figs, parmesan shavings, thinly sliced radishes and beets, bell pepper strips, sundried tomatoes, sautéed courgettes… And then as we would serve our plates, Lea would go “oh wow, the colors in this salad are amaaaazing” or plainly say “Just beautiful” with a sigh. I miss my salad buddy. Continue reading
I think we food bloggers could all stand to be a little more transparent on the truth of what our lives are actually like (I mean, we don’t actually eat sweet potato fries out of newspaper cones or take a bite from a cookie and put it back on the cookie sheet like the photos say). I don’t actually eat small portions of salad on fancy rectangular restaurant plates like you see here. That’s just for good blogging decorum. I wouldn’t want you to see the actual tupperware I ate this HUGE salad out of. This little confession is coming from an e-mail exchange I had with another food blogger this week (Little Red Bird Kitchen, check her out!) about food photography. I told her I take 80% of my pictures on the floor because it makes it easier to get even lighting, block out background “noise” and get better shots from high up, and even though no one openly says it, I can’t be the only one to do that. Let’s be honest, you can see the wooden floorboards in more than half of the pictures on foodgawker 🙂 And since I’m in a truth-telling moment, I might as well say it flat out, my meals are not nearly as exciting as this blog might have you thinking. I’m a very routine person when it comes to food. On most days, I will eat exactly the same thing for lunch (omelet, avocado and salad), cook dinner twice or three times a week and eat leftovers on the other days. Most of the recipes you see here are recipes that I’ve tested and made for friends or family, for specific occasions, when I’m on vacation and don’t have much going on, almost always when there are other people around to try the food. You can be sure, if you see a muffin recipe on the blog, it’s because other people ate it and approved it. Recipe testing method. Continue reading
This is my new favorite salad. I forgot how Hazelnuts made everything taste Christmassy (or is that just me?), and for the first time in my life, I deseeded a pomegranate. Actually I had given it a go once before but gave up quickly when realizing I was getting roughly ten seeds out per minute. This time I had a plan, thanks to GI 365 and her Pomegranates 101 crash course. We don’t stress this enough, but food blogging is like a constant flow of technology transfers. I have gained so much know-how thanks to the trials and errors of other people. So it’s my turn to give something back to the community, starting with what I have learned NOT TO DO when deseeding a pomegranate… and that is 1) never try to get the seeds out using a fork or a spoon – life WILL go on without you while you pursue this endless and impossible endeavor; 2) never, ever, EVER try to deseed a pomegranate facing a white wall… it will look like you butchered someone in your own kitchen. Continue reading
Hi everyone! I feel like I haven’t posted in forever… well, it’s *only* been 10 days. This is how I know I’m completely hooked on blogging. Life is just not as sweet without it. But I’ve been crazy busy with some very exciting work projects lately, and as a result I have completely and utterly abandoned the kitchen. I barely even know what’s in the fridge these days and have been eating sardines and almond butter for dinner since Sunday. Gasp. It’s completely disorienting. I feel bad, I haven’t even had time to make Freddy a breakfast bread like I usually do every week and he’s one day away from falling back into the comforting arms of gluten.
So I’m here to make amends, with a post I’ve been meaning to write up for a long time now on the quintessential ingredients and foods of Brazil – the Must-tries if you will -, and depending on my inspiration, I might make it a monthly series. So let’s talk about Brazilian gastronomy a little. After a year and a half or so of living here, I have got a pretty good vibe of what the customs around food are here and what the typical ingredients are. Here’s the top 5 of foods and ingredients you just cannot miss on if you are in Brazil or just want to have some fun trying out Brazilian gastronomy. Continue reading
How was everybody’s Halloween and morning-after sugar crash? We had a Halloween party over at our spooky haunted-looking house. Come on now, fess up – what’s your secret number? Mine is 4. As in 2 pieces of delicious carrot cake topped with coconut cream cheese frosting (I promise to share the recipe) and 2 bite-sized coconut chocolate brownies. All gluten-free, all somewhat paleo, all definitely faithful to the traditions of this sweet and sugary holiday. Oh well. Since I’ve never been a candy person, staying away from the lollipops and butter toffees was no problem for me. Staying away from the peanuts on the other hand… peanuts and me are a whole other story. I bought some raw peanuts and roasted, salted and curried them in the oven for our Halloween party that night. How could I resist that? There are a few things in life that I can’t just stop at one. Or fifteen. Peanuts, chocolate covered raisins, cherry tomatoes and episodes of Californication. Continue reading
For the past two days I’ve been travelling in the Minas Gerais region in the Center-South of Brazil as part of the field research for the paper I am writing on the inclusion of Brazilian smallholders in food chains. Minas Gerais is such a lovely region and it was the third time I was there to interview Brazilian milk producers. Aside for making some of the best cheese and coffee in Brazil, it’s also known for having some very very fine meat, so naturally every time I go to there, I have a grilled meat party going on in my plate. My research is soon coming to an end and I will definitely miss these trips to the field. One of my favorite parts of these trips are the long car drives to reach the farms where I get the occasion to study the Brazilian countryside, its agriculture and the people I see on the side of the road. Minas Gerais has these amazing earth roads that look like canvasses of bright red and orange dust, because the soil is so rich in iron and copper. I always feel much more in touch with the country on these trips than when I’m dragging my little foreign self in the monster that is São Paulo. Continue reading
When I was little, there were two things that I loved more than anything compared to most other children and that I could probably eat without ever getting tired of: olives and roasted peppers (can you tell I grew up in a Mediterranean family?). I also liked to eat spoonfuls of plain butter, so yes, if you were wondering, I was probably not like most children in the food department. For one, I was never full, but let’s not get into that. If you get my parents started on this topic, they’ll tell you that I would eat just about anything at the age of 2, including foie gras, snails and other odd delicacies that us French people like to indulge in. Indeed, not a picky eater at all, just give me some foie gras and champagne and I will be on my way now. Continue reading
My roommate and I have this ritual when we’re deciding on something we want to eat, which consists in enumerating all the adjectives we can think of that best describe what we’re in the mood for, each new one outbidding the previous one. Generally these adjectives, which in the spirit of fun often border on saucy, speak for themselves : when we’re talking about making a mouth-watering, juicy, squeezy (“wait what?? that’s not even a food word!”. I know, but this one is our favorites…), plump, marinated, chicken, we’re already mentally tasting it. Kind of like a food foreplay if you will: instead of an appetizer, we like to create salivating mental images. Continue reading
My little jar of spices 
