The Daring Baker's May Challenge: Strudel

The Daring Baker's May Challenge: Strudel

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

He he I guess I added to much toasted ground almonds, it was something between a baklava and a strudel. I used green apples, ground and coarsely chopped almonds because I could not find raisins in the super market also I forgot how to properly fill the strudel and spread the filling all over the stretched dough, the dough was so elastic that I began to play with it like a child and I think it was to thin, I could see the pattern of the cloth under it.

Tank you so much Courtney of Coco Cooks and Linda of make life sweeter! for this challenge it was so much fun, I learn new things and It was delicious.

The recipe for this Strudel here and here

Also it is my birthday today and my sister made a cake WHAT??? Gina cooking??? no way she bought a delicious cake at a bakery, it was a chocolate cake filled with white chocolate mousse and dark chocolate mousse the kitchen was flooded with delicious scent of chocolate yummm :9

Fast Food

Fast Food.

Hello! After so many days out of the blogosphere I’m back again. I had so many things to do that my back began to hurt then I had to take a while to heal, the pain was so bad that it was hard to walk, or sit or lay on my bed, I could not move very well. we had to reinforce the walls around our house and find the best security system, we had two options an electric fence over the walls or a very Venezuelan system… we chose the second one because we have little animals and a little boy who is very curious besides I’m not the tree of awareness so we better use something less harmful but that will discourage the thieves that abound in this area (and country) now, many of which come from other nations…but you know, they vote … and always for the bad guy, we are plentiful of thieves but we lack all purpose flour, cream cheese, skim milk powder and so many other items that are necessary for people. Also my cousin and I were working on my daddy’s pick up truck a Chevy 69, everybody wants to buy it but I say sorry it belonged to my daddy so it is priceless .
Back to the kitchen too, I prepare something easy that did not demand physical effort, I cannot knead …Mua Ha Ha we’ll see dear Doctors*… kneading is my hobby.
*The doctors are my brother and sister.
The first day in the kitchen: I prepare hamburgers with Milanese, when my nephew saw them he shouted “Pambomaaaa” it means McDonaaaalds but when he bite the hamburger he said “no e pamboma chia dada” it means it’s not McDonalds aunty dada and he put it away he was very disappointed. Well I only ate half of my hamburger because it was too big for me.

Spread ketchup on the one part of the hamburger bread and Dijon mustard on the other, place as much Milanese as you like cover it with some slices of cheese and ham, over the ham place some strips of tomato and roasted bell pepper add some onion rings and mayonnaise sprinkle dried oregano and black pepper then 30 second in the microwave on high and you are done.

Today:, I prepare rolled chicken steaks filled with roasted bell pepper, basil leaves, crushed almonds and cheese and then seasoned with light soya sauce and grated garlic then I pad each roll with a mix made with dried oregano, salt and bead crumbs cover each roll with a strip of bacon and finally cooked them , also I made cachapas a traditional Venezuelan dish, using a cachapa mix, only add water and you are ready to cook cachapas… my opinion: I prefer the real cachapa made with real corn but this is easy to make so it’s one option if you don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen.

The Cachapa mix

Roasted bell pepper

Another use for electric grill

Cover the steak with cheese, ok, this was to show the fillin

I forgot the bacon , but I added it later hi hi hi

Happy Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day

The Sad Mother
By Gabriela Mistral

Sleep, sleep, my beloved,
without worry, without fear,
although my soul does not sleep,
although I do not rest.

Sleep, sleep, and in the night
may your whispers be softer
than a leaf of grass,
or the silken fleece of lambs.

May my flesh slumber in you,
my worry, my trembling.
In you, may my eyes close
and my heart sleep.

This is true, I remember how I feel when my nephew Michele is sick; a few days ago he was very sick with fever and pharyngitis. I just wanted to take his place.

This morning, my sister and I went to the store to buy my mom a present she wanted : a black and Decker electric grill, so for mom’s day celebration lunch, the food was very healthy and I made an apple sponge cake without sugar and without butter just for her, for those who prefer not so healthy cake I made and Italian cake very sweet and tasty. My mom is very special (I guess every body says the same thing ) but she loves hand made gifts, so I made a crystal bracelet that kept me awake until 2 am fishing beads and these beads are so clear that I didn’t know where they were or where the hole was, Gosh it was a pain… but she was so happy to see such a “big” gift that it was worth it the effort :) (good girl, god girl)

This is mother’s day celebration at Michele's school last Friday. We had Mariachis too, by the way, when they entered in the school, I almost dropped dead, they scared me to death with that fist loud sound of the trumpet, I was NOT expecting that .... GOSH

My negrito, perfectly suntanned due to looooong playing at his pool.

Michele and his teachers
I LOVE my new muuuug

Apple Sponge Cake

3 eggs.
½ cup corn starch.
¼ cup all purpose flour.
¼ teaspoon baking powder.
½ teaspoon vanilla extract.
4 packages of splenda.
3 apples (peeled, seeded and cut in slices)
Cinnamon to taste.

1- Whisk the eggs until they are pale and foamy, then add the splenda and the vanilla and whisk until the mixture gets a thicker consistency.
2- Sieve the corn starch, flour and baking powder. Add to the eggs with folding movements.
3- Pour the mixture in a greased and floured spring cake pan .
4- Place the apple slices over the mixture and dust with cinnamon.
5- Bake until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

The "big" gift

Almidoncitos Or Venezuelan Starch Cookies

Almidoncitos Or Venezuelan Starch Cookies

These past two weeks were so difficult, we started on Thursday with an explosion of the electrical transformers on the electric pole in front of my house, the explosion was huge and my mom and nephew were really scared but I said “gooooool” somehow I knew…the one that got damaged was the one that feeds four blocks…yes, including ours J we spend two and a half days without electric power, on Saturday they “fix” it, Sunday I was with my nephew at home, and a burglar tried to broke into our house but I faced that son..#&$ , he ran away scared (I guess I am too ugly)but in the afternoon he broke into my grandma ’s house, that is next door. Plus every evening we have a power cut of about 4 hours sometimes more, specially at night (guess what, the new transformers the nation bough with our money are now in Nicaragua as a gift from the president of a bunch of people of this country to his friend the president of that country). Last Wednesday my five year old nephew Michele got sick with 40 degrees of fever, chills and he was vomiting too, he denied eating or drinking something different from water, I did not know what to do and was so nervous to see my “Negrito” feeling so bad, we spend 5 hours with him in the clinic, one thing I can not stand is to hold him while the nurse injects him. Thanks God he is fine now, only he does not like to take his medicine…*sigh* ok , to my business: cooking :D
These cookies are traditional in my country they are called Almidoncitos, they can be made of (mandioca )Yuca starch or corn starch. They are delicious, crunchy and they melt in your mouth, this is one of those recipes you want to make every time because they are easy to make and they are really delicious. Also these cookies are good for celiac people.

Michele my nephew with his friend and neighbor Isabel, he says she is his girlfriend

Ingredients.
500 gr mandioca starch. *
100 gr corn stach.
250 gr white sugar.
250 gr margarine.
2 large eggs.
½ teaspoon cinnamon powder.
¼ teaspoon clove, ground.
2 tablespoons azahar water (orange blossom )

1- Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, until they are well blended, the dough should be soft but will hold the shape.
2- Form a log and cut every 5 cm and make some desins with a knife on each one.
3- Place in a greased and floured cookie tray and bake until they are ligh brown and feel dry and a bit hard.
4- Let them cool before eating.
5- * Note: you can use corn starch instead of mandioca starch, so you will use 600 gr of corn starch, always add the last 100 gr little by little so you do not end up with a very dry dough