Julie and Julia

Hello everyone, guess who is the proud owner of Julie and Julia's DVD + a bonus gift?....yeap... ME and I also got the book. My sweet husband went to the store on release day December 8th and got me a nice present. I have been talking about it (ok, asking , ok nagging about it) ever since I found out the release date. Yeah, I have been a pain in the behind, very annoying, but I really wanted to own it.

Why? you may ask, well not only it's about Julia Child, and I totally think she was the pioneer women that opened the way for lots of creative people in TV. She did not only followed her passion for food, but she also inspired many and got people that felt incompetent in the kitchen to feel comfortable and to trust themselves. Many can relate to that, I know I can.

My husband watched the movie with me and his expression was, "was someone filming us?", at times it really felt like that. The pep talks both Julia and Julie's husbands gave them, felt like what my husband tells me. Plus the scene when Julie's husband sets up the blog for her was hilarious, my husband designed mine. He is still the one that fixes it when I want something done and I am stuck (lets be honest that happens often). He's always telling me that he is the "Icing on my cupcake", and he truly is. So imagine our reaction when we heard Paul Child refer to himself as "the butter on her bread". It was just spooky. Don't you think so? Crazy, ha!

Family is my priority and if you know me you would also know that. But I also love sweets and not being in the workforce for years now has left me with lots of time in my hands. Something that I felt related to Julia Child, I wanted to do something and wanted to do it right. I do bake with love, with passion for my family and friends. Someday, not far away, I will own my own bakeshop and you will be the first to know about that very expected event. Until that day comes by lets enjoy baking together and have fun along the way.

You did guessed it, I loved the movie and felt related, inspired, pumped up with more energy on keeping up with what I love and live up my dreams to the fullest. If you haven't seen it, please do go and see it asap, it's worth it, trust me! But for now, everyone out there keep on blogging and Bon Appétit!

Going Nuts for Bananas (Banana Bread)

When ever my husband wanted to eat Banana Bread we would go to the store and buy it. For some reason even if there were lots of ripe bananas laying around the house I never had the courage to make a banana bread on my own. Maybe the reason that my husband loves it so much made me skeptical on trying it out.

Until one day when I got into my hands a recipe that seemed easy enough to make, even for me. If you know me, you know that I changed it a bit and added my touch to it. It's a fantasy way of changing things around. I want to share the recipe with you so you can all make this bread at home. Hey, this can very nicely make a great homemade Christmas gift. Homemade gifts are always in style and the presentation can go miles. Give to those you love a Banana Bread freshly baked by you.

Banana Bread

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine (softened)
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 to 4 bananas)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup chopped nuts, optional

Note: I added to this recipe 1/2 tsp nutmeg (it made all the difference in the world, it tasted insanely delicious).

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F
Grease bottoms of 2 loaf pans. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl mix sugar and butter in large bowl. Stir in eggs until well blended. Add bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla; beat until smooth. Stir in the flour mixture just until moistened. Finally add the nuts. Pour into pan and bake for about an hour or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool for about 10 minutes. Loosen sides of pan, remove and place top sided up on wire rack. Cool completely, about 2 hours before slicing (I added a sugar glaze after completely cool and before slicing).

Wrap tightly and store at room temperature up to 4 days or refrigerate for up to 10 days. If it lasts that long, not in my house!

Holiday Note: Mini Banana Breads make great gifts. With this recipe you can easily make 10 miniature loaf pans (4 1/2 x 2 3/4 x 1 1/4 in.). About 1/2 cup each loaf. Bake 30 to 35 minutes.

Get Well Soon Dear Doggy

This weekend my family and I went to a dear friends house, her dog was ill and they were very sad. You see this dog is very well part of the family, he has been with them for over 14 years or so. His name is Lucky and he sure is "lucky" to be a part of that great family.

I wanted to give them some comfort and what better way than with cake, right? I molded a round cake in form of a doggy plate, covered it in white fondant, then decorated with dog paws made out of blue fondant (because our doggy friend is a boy) and finally got a batch of shortbread cookie dough and made some doggy biscuit (in form of a bone).

I had no bone shape cookie cutter so I molded them by hand, they look great and taste delicious. We don't have pets neither so there where no doggy treats in the house at the time and since it was an emergency I had to improvise, hope you all like the final result. My friends loved it and that made me happy.

Here it is: Doggy Plate with Treats Cake

What did we do with the rest of the cookie dough?

Well, see for yourself....

Cookies with a big size chocolate chips, they are as delicious as they look.