Happy B♥Day my Love!

Yes!! Today is my husband's birthday!..as well as my Mom's {but unfortunately she lives far far away from me}.. We celebrated with a HUGE lunch all cooked by me and served by our children! They had so much fun serving their Dad, pretending to be at a restaurant called "Mami's Kitchen". They were wearing their aprons and napkin folded on their arm.. They even wrote a Menu describing all the courses. Of course I directed this whole thing, I had a lot of fun too..especially cooking! I just love to cook. I'll share with you the dessert... Profiteroles! Et voila'!! The Puffs came out gorgeous!.. I followed a recipe from Martha Stewart's web-site.. then I filled them with pastry cream (= crema pasticcera) and covered them with a delicious chocolate sauce. YUM!!!
I know my husband had a great day and a big smile on his face. :)

Merenda time!!

Merenda is the Italian word for "afternoon snack". Today, under my husband's request, I made Churros for the first time! I found the recipe on the online magazine Bon Appetit, one of my favorite magazines. They are basically fried eggy dough covered with sugar. They didn't come out too bad, the frying oil was probably a little too hot so they came out crunchy on the outside but not completely cooked inside. They were edible though... they are almost all gone! :) I also served, to my husband and children, a delicious hot chocolate. It was great!!
I was curious to know more about this crunchy Spanish snack..I knew it came from Spain and it's very popular all over South America and Mexico, but I found out it was a recipe made by Spanish shepherds, to substitute fresh bakery goods. Churro paste was easy to make and fry in an open fire in the mountains, where shepherds spend most of their time. I think it's interesting...
Here's a picture taken earlier to show you how they came out! Bon Appétit!!