Leaf cookies – Is it too late?

Yesterday, I had a sudden urge to bake cookies. You see? I got some wonderful leaf-shaped cookie cutters a couple of weeks ago. Aren’t they cute?

Nutella Trilogy – Part II and Daring Bakers Challenge: Crostatine alla Nutella

I promised you guys I was going to have part II of my Nutella Trilogy ready by today. When I saw that the Daring Bakers’ Challenge for this month was crostata and, incidentally around that time, I started to have some serious Nutella cravings, I put the two things together: I had to make a Crostata alla Nutella.

Thanksgiving baking with Carla

I have been meeting with Carla, my favorite six-year-old baker, regularly now on Monday afternoon. I haven’t had time to post about our last week baking so I’m catching up now. I have tried to focus the last couple of experiment on the  fall/autumn theme. I think there are many recipes that are a lot of fun for kids to make. Fall flavors are fun, versatile, and often do not require much sugar addition because of the fruit component. This was the case of last week recipe.

Nutella Trilogy – Part I: Bomboloni alla Nutella (Nutella-filled Donuts)

A couple of weeks ago I had a late night conversation with two crazy (read = amazingly crazy) bloggers, Lora (Cake Duchess) and Ethan (Tastes Better with Friends). The topic of conversation, as some of you know, was Nutella. Now, I’m Italian and I couldn’t care less for peanut butter, marshmallows or other American treats. But, please, don’t you ever ever ever mention Nutella to me…above all not at night! The craving kicks in and there is nothing I can do about it. Nothing but to prepare a master plan like this: a Nutella Trilogy.

Pear crisp or pear crumble?

One thing inspired this recipe, actually two. Two simple and beautiful things: a pear and some amazing granola! Oh yes, that’s all it takes to make something beautiful and delicious!

Making vanilla cupcakes with my favorite little girl

No, I don’t have any kid of my own that I have been hiding from you! Back in the Spring I spent a couple of months meeting weekly with one of the sweetest little girls, Carla (of course, not as sweet as your kids…one’s own kids are always the sweetest but I don’t have any, so I am very happy of having her from time to time).  What I used to do with Carla was not a normal babysitting. We were meeting once per week for an hour so that she could have some Italian conversation (she used to go at the school where I teach) and to bake! Yes, to bake. One hour per week I got to speak Italian and bake with Carla. Is there a better job than that? It doesn’t even feel like a job. Needles too say, I always had a lot of fun!

Braided sweet bread with coffee cream filling

It was hard starting this week. The emotions of the Foodbuzz Festival had to be put aside pretty abruptly. Monday started by waking up earlier than usual, having a lot of work and subs to do at the school, and fighting with Wally. I hate fighting but even more I hate fighting on a Monday! It’s not a great way to start the week and we are so busy during weekdays that we don’t even have time to talk and straighten things up.

Foodbuzz Festival's faces

Some of you have spend a couple of days with me at the Foodbuzz Festival. You guys were lucky! Well, not just for spending that time with me (I'm not that presumptuous!) but for being at the Foodbuzz Festival. It was an amazing experience! 

I could go on for days and days talking about the amazing food, the workshops, the recipes, the sponsors...But I'm pretty sure that there will be tons of posts with wonderful pictures about this unique weekend and mine will be one among the tons. The truth is...what I really really really enojoyed the most was to finally meet in person all the bloggers I read daily and to get to know new ones. Despite the great, informative sessions, despite the amazing food, despite the amazing weather (except for Sunday!) what really will stay in my heart and mind are faces...all the faces I was finally able to match with names, blogs, posts, pictures. All those faces that I've seen smiling at each other these days. 

So, whether I got a chance to meet you for a few moments or for entire hours (until you was probably tired of seeing my face!) I just want to say everybody "I loved seeing your faces there, all together! And I hope to see them again soon!". And of course, thank you amazing Foodbuzz people for organizing this amazing festival! 

See you all next year and hopefully sooner!

Awards, tags and caramel filled cookies…just because!

I felt (positively) overwhelmed by the great support I have been receiving lately. If you read this blog more or less regularly, you probably know about my recent photography crisis. I’ve got so many sweet comments and emails that I don’t even know where to start from to thank everybody.