Pear Pie with Red Wine and Rosemary

It's been a while folks! But we have not forgotten to eat, don't worry. I've tried to give the blog a fresh look for our fresh start, and here is a little something to serve as evidence that we've been cooking: a pie so delicious I made it twice in one month:  Pear Pie with Red Wine and Rosemary - discovered in Bon Appétit this last fall.

The crust technique was a revelation, and the filling was amazing. Seriously let's be honest, reduced red wine is never a bad idea for a dessert, and it's particularly delicious with pears.

This pie helped me survive the winter. 

I love this pie.

xo, ~Shauna

More Campari!

Here is another yummy cocktail made with Campari.  Mix 1.5 ounces of campari with the juice of half a pink grapefruit, stir it over ice, and top with sparkling water.  Ta Da!  The flavor is amazing - bitter yet sweet with a little fizz.  A perfect summer cocktail!  Cin Cin!

Peach Dutch Baby Pancake with Cherry Compote

I've been pretty lazy all summer about posting, so I'm going back and adding some stuff I've made over the last couple months... like this amazing delight we had for breakfast one weekend after I got some lovely peaches from the farmers market:

This yumminess would also be great for dessert. The cherry compote is kind of one of of my new favorite things... we had extra and let me tell you, the tart-sweetness is PERFECT over chocolate and/or vanilla ice cream. So good! 

Here's the recipe, which I found in the August issue of Bon Appétit. 

:)

Passion

One thing I will definitely miss, speaking of food, when I leave St. Barths: the ubiquity of dishes featuring passion fruit. I love me some passion fruit!!! I've had passion fruit yogurt, passion fruit jam for my toast, juice, various desserts, passion flavored rum, and last but not least, savory sauces made with passion fruit. Yesterday, I had a really great lunch at a place called O'Corail (I wish I'd known about it when Mom and Siobhan came to visit). I had the above pictured “Sea“ kebab with chorizo, passion sauce and tamarind, and a really nice Sauvignon Blanc. So yummy!

Green Smoothies!!!

To be honest, I have several things to tell you about, I've just really been lagging with the posting. But I feel the need to follow up that last post about the carbonara with a brief note about my current obsession, which happens to be very healthy. Namely, smoothies! And more specifically, kale smoothies!

I've been making different concoctions involving kale almost every day for a week or so, and I'm hooked. Kale is great in a smoothie because it really just turns it green and packs it full of vitamins, without overpowering the yummy fruits and juices you might use. I've been doing various combos of frozen fruit (strawberries, raspberries, mangos etc.), coconut water or passion fruit juice, banana or avocado, kale leaves, sometimes parsley, a little ground flax seed... etc. So refreshing and energizing in the morning!

Apple Cider Cream Pie

For Thanksgiving I volunteered to make a pie after I saw this recipe in the November Food & Wine.  I couldn't resist!  It is really quite easy to make as far as pies go.  The only trouble I had was with stretching the dough to fit my pie dish.  So it shrank a little while cooking.  But the combination of the buttery dough, with the slightly tart apple cider custard, and the sweet cinnamon-y whipped cream on top was a nice combination.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Mango Frosting

For these cupcakes I made a standard vanilla cupcake, and for the frosting I decided to make a simple Mango Buttercream.  I had a mango that we didn't eat, so I pureed that in a food processor.  Meanwhile I beat together 1 stick of butter with a dash of salt, then added about a teaspoon of vanilla, powdered sugar and spoonfuls of the mango puree until the right taste and consistency was reached. 

Banana Cupcakes with Honey-Cinnamon Frosting

Everyone loves a cupcake for dessert!  But what about a cupcake for breakfast?!?!  Hell yeah!!!!  This banana cupcake with honey cinnamon frosting recipe could totally be eaten for breakfast.  It's basically just banana bread (which people eat for breakfast all the time!), and then some butter, honey and cinnamon on top...(with a little sugar).  Yum! Yum! and Yum!

Holy Mango!

These mangoes are being sold at Trader Joes right now and they are sooooooooo good!  So sweet and perfect!  This type of mango stays green even when ripe so don't be fooled!  I just ate it when it was a little soft and smelling sweet.  Carlinhos and I were bent over the kitchen sink eating it because it was so juicy!  Better go buy some before they're gone!!!

Summer Fruit Salad...and a little Lyla bean

Saturday was Cynthia's birthday and I went over to her house Sunday to celebrate and also to meet the new edition to her family.  Since her baby daughter has an allergy to dairy and soy it was difficult for me to figure something to bring as a dessert, so I decided to make a nice fruit salad since so many fruits are in season and super yummy right now.  I used peaches, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, oranges, and grapes.

And I have to post a picture of little Ligaya aka Lyla beans...

Happy birthday Cyn!!!  And congratulations on this beautiful little baby!!!!!!!

Chocolate Chip Pancakes!!!!

If you recall, I recently had some amazing pancakes out at one of our neighborhood brunch places. Well, I've been dreaming about them ever since. And I don't even really dream about pancakes! Anyways, I MADE THEM. Oh man they were sooooooo good too! I made them without bourbon banana, and with many more berries, b/c I generally can't get enough strawbs and bloobs. I made the batter less sweet than your average pancake batter, with a touch more salt. I poured it into egg rings on the skillet to make them set up thicker, and added the chocolate chips after a few seconds. Yumm!!!!!

A Couple Things I Love

The first  gem I have loved for a long time...our love runs deep.  It is dried mango from Trader Joes that is unsweetened but it is so naturally sweet!  I eat some when I want dessert but don't want to eat anything bad, and it satisfies that craving!

The other gem is one that I just discovered.  They were giving samples at Trader Joes and I had to buy it.  It is called Toscana Cheese with Black Pepper.  It reminds me of a cheese that mom gets at Whole Foods that is a Parmesan/Gouda mix, but this one has black pepper on the edge that adds a nice element to the cheese.  Try it!

Nutella and Banana Crepe

I think a lot of people are intimidated by the thought of making crepes.  But they are actually quite easy!!  All it takes is flour, milk and eggs; and then sugar or salt depending on if you want a sweet or savory basic crepe.  I wanted sweet, so I sliced up a banana, smeared on some nutella, and then topped it with a dusting of powdered sugar.  Easy as pie! (but better! if you ask me!)

Good Morning!

One of the many things I love about Mexico is that breakfast there always involves an abundance of fresh fruit, including my favorite, papaya. From Leticia's kitchen in San Luis Potosí, to hotel breakfast in San Miguel de Allende... or breakfast brought right to our towel on a beach in Tulum, and every single morning at Hacienda Las Trancas... desayuno isn't desayuno without papaya and lime. I can eat this stuff every day.

Blue Passion Flower

Yesterday Carlinhos and I came back to our apartment and discovered this amazing flower blooming in our backyard. I have never seen this flower before and was in awe of its beauty and uniqueness - it didn't seem like it should be growing in the middle of Los Angeles.

At first we just saw one flower, but then when we looked up and saw that this flower is a vine and it had kind of taken over the back wall and the electric wires that are running up there. There were multiple blooms, and after more examination of the plant, we could see that it had little orange egg-shaped fruits.

So as I said, I wasn't sure what kind of flower it was until Mom informed me that it is a Passion Flower. And after some google-ing, I found out that this one in particular is a Blue Passion Flower and that the fruit is edible! And the kicker is that it is a native of South America, and more specifically BRASIL!
One of my favorite things to eat EVER IN THE WORLD is Mousse de Maracuja (Passion Fruit Mousse), which is basically like an ice cream made from passion fruit. I am so excited to try to make this with our new little edible discoveries! It will be interesting to see if the flavor of this type of passion fruit is as tasty as what I'm used to...I will update you as soon as I find out! :)