Rosca de Reyes
It seems like the last part of 2010 went by in a whirlwind of events! I finally got my Turbo Kick certification and started teaching, I’m taking my fitness instructor exam this week and I’ve been running around like a mad woman trying to “study” for my exam and practicing for both my Turbo and Zumba classes. Combine that with overtime at work and all the holiday fun, I hardly had time to think!
Now that it’s January, a new year, I’ve had a chance to cook and bake a couple of times. Seeing as today is the Epiphany, January 6th, I made a traditional “Rosca de Reyes”, which translates as “Spiral of Kings”. When I lived in Mexico as a child I remember very well going to the neighborhood party on January 6th, Dia de Reyes, (Day of the Kings) and having a piece of bread. The tradition is that everyone gets a slice of bread, and whoever gets the little plastic figurine of the baby Jesus (yup, there’s a little figurine baked in each bread) has the honour of having a party and making the tamales for February 2nd which is Dia de la Candelaria. Every kid wanted to get it, I know my parents were not very keen on the idea of making tamales for the whole neighbourhood, and, now that I think about it, in the whole 5 years that we lived in Mexico we never had the honour of getting the little figurine.
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Lots of lava! (Without the guilt!)
I don’t eat dessert too often, but when I do I really love it! After careful consideration I narrowed down my favourite dessert to two. Chocolate Lava Cake and Créme Brûlèe. (I hope I never have to choose between them because I will be torn forever!) 
However, we all know that when you’re trying to either lose weight or keep it off most (if not all) of the trainers, dieticians and fitness pros will tell you to lay off the sweets and to skip dessert altogether, or to have a bite once in a while but never eat the whole thing! Well… that wasn’t good enough for me! I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, but when I do eat dessert I like to make it worthwhile, and then I feel guilty because of all the hard work I put into working out and getting fit… I don’t know about you but I don’t like feeling guilty, do you? So… in my search for delicious dessert that doesn’t affect the waistline, I found this little gem! Read more
Empanada by any other name…
I’ve always loved empanadas as a mid-afternoon snack, as I got older, it was a delicious accompaniment to the afternoon coffee or tea. Of course, I’ve only ever had them in El Salvador and had no idea that many, many other countries had their own “empanadas”. The ones that I have been lucky enough to try have all been delicious but seems like I haven’t even begun to skim the top of the empanda world… In Chile, empanadas are stuffed with a mix of beef and vegetables called pino (similar to the mincemeat filling), chicken or cheese; In Portugal, their empanadas are usually stuffed with tuna, sardines or chorizo; in Costa Rica , they are fried and filled with seasoned meats or cheese, beans or cubed potato stew; in the Philippines, their empanadas are fried as well and are filled with ground beef or chicken, potato, onion and raisins… I can almost guarantee that if you search for an empanada recipe on-line, you will get hundreds of different variations from dozens of different countries! But, for now, let’s talk about the Salvadorean kind… Read more
Best EVER Chocolate Cake
It seems like with me joining Steeped Tea I have gotten off track with interntional recipes. I definitely will continue cooking around the world but lately I have gotten requests from my customers to provide some recipes for either baking with tea or treats for a tea party. In my search to find a chocolate cake that I would enjoy, that is, not too sweet or with a lot of bells and whistles, I came across a blog called Whipped and an AMAZING chocolate cake recipe. Not too difficult and very good! Read more
Tea and more tea!
Having a love of tea makes it difficult for me to control myself arond anything tea related. I guess it’s not a bad addiction to have, tea is, after all, very healthy! And it’s the best thing to have around when company shows up. Like the great quote from Gladstone goes: ”If you are cold, tea will warm you. If you are too heated, it will cool you. If you are depressed, it will cheer you. If you are excited, it will calm you.” So, when I came across the tea review blog’s tea swap (http://www.teareviewblog.com/?page_id=1706) I jumped at the chance to share my tea love with others around the world. This was a great idea! Read more
My Tea Escape
It’s no secret, I love tea! I would be a bonafide TEA NUT if my place (an my funds) weren’t so small. But whenever I get a chance to I like to look up new tea reviews and articles and try new, or old favourite, types of teas. Most of my loose tea comes from on-line or catalogue orders but I do venture out once in a while to one of the only 3 places in this city that have loose tea in bulk. When I lived in Vancouver I had my favourite teas from different stores so now I sometimes have my sisters send me some or I pick some up when I visit. I can never have too much tea! So when I found out about a company that has tea parties (think Tupperware parties) I jumped at the oportunity. I quickly had my own tea party to start and am now waiting for my starter kit, I became a consultant for Steeped Loose Tea and Accesories. I’m very excited to start on this venture and to share my love of tea with others in my area (and around the world of course!), I will try to write about any interesting tea parties that I attend, especially if these parties include global tea traditions or tea treat recipes. 
I have found that tea lovers all have their favourite tea cup, tea pot and other tea accesories that they use and are quick to give their opinions on so I also have a small collection of tea accesories that have moved around with me for years. I’m always interested in how different cultures drink their tea, or what types of tea they drink. Read more
Some Favourite Cookies
I thought I would take a short hiatus in following my international recipe dictionary and instead of going on to Nepal, next on my list of recipes to try, I want to add an entry about cookies. After all, this is the one season of the whole year when the most amount of cookies are consumed, in my opinion anyway. My favourite treat from El Salvador are peperechas, a type of thin sandwich cookie filled with pineapple jam and panela sugar so I searched for the recipe and finally found it! I wanted to make them as gifts for my sisters who love them and some friends who’ve never tried them but have always heard me talk about them… Read more
Iraqi Pastries
Sorry about the big gaps between entries. I’m in the process of moving and it’s difficult to sit down and write when there are a million other things on my mind. What’s funny is that while I am busy doing the other million things I have my blog entries on my mind so it’s a vicious circle! 
Now, on to Iraq. I think all of the world has heard about this country in the last few years and I was always curious to learn a little more about their culture. So here is just a small peek about what they’re all about. Read more
An international staple…Birthday Cake!
A very good friend of mine asked me to make the birthday cake for her eight year old son. I was a bit nervous at first because I haven’t really decorated a cake all by myself before. I have always had some help in that department. Baking? BRING IT ON!!! Decorating? um… I am very critical of my own work even though people have told me that my creations are excellent (I make hand made cards too) so when I she told me that her son would love a Transformers themed cake I thought I had my work cut out for me… Read more
