Olive Oil and Lemon Cookies (no butter)

I hope you do not scare with the "olive" in the title, keep reading because these cookies are really good and easy. Sometimes it happens to me, don´t know about you, that I like a recipe, but it calls for a weird ingredient, and then I don´t do it because of this weirdness. And the recipe keeps witing me in my to-do list.
I have several of those.

Nutella Stuffed Cookies

These cookies could have been called "Anti Jinx Cookies" or "I Love You". They are not everyday cookies, Nutella is not very cheap in these neighborhoods (yes, I know, in my country in general) .
But "occasionally" is something else.

Passion Fruit Cookies

I had plenty passion fruit pulp, or maracuya as we say in Argentina, in my freezer. And I wanted to use it for something never seen.
I checked for cookies with this, and nothing satisfied me. So I made the recipe.

Very Chocolatly Almond Cookies

The first time I´ve tried this cookies was when I was working in famous porteño bakery. After the first bite, I understood why they were so famous and acclaimed. 

Crunchy, buttery. With lots of chocolate and almond bites. Because of the cooking method, they became light and airy, not that they´re low fat and low sugar.

You have to try this.

Chocolate and Prune Cookie Sandwich, a great alfajor

An alfajor, in Argentina, is a cookie sandwich with dulce de leche inside. Is the most common snack for children and adults. You can find them at any kiosk, or vending machine. We are the largest consummer, and the one that wins is the chocolate cookie, with dulce de leche and covered in chocolate.

I made another version, a grown up. I don´t think that there are many kids that enjoy eating dried fruit. Not in my country, unless we cheat them and hid some inside a preparation.

I accept that this wasn´t my choice a few years ago. I din´t eat any dried fruit. I don´t know when I started or why.

Chocolate and Oatmeal Soft Cookie

These are my favorite cookies, I think they are the first I learned to do as a kid. These cookies, recently renamed "avenitas" (avena is oatmeal in spanish) are so good that they do not last very long when out of the oven. Delicious when warm, with the melted chocolate chips.It´s not a crunchy cookie, but comes apart easily in the mouth. And there are excellent to sink into a chocolate milk.

Summer Dessert: Rice Pudding, Jasmine Sauce and Speculoos Cookie

Rice pudding, sweet rice, arroz con leche, arroz doce, including dam niao Khao from Thailand: this all refers to the same preparation: cooking rice + milk = creamy rice that can be flavored with spices, egg and/or sweeteners.
It can be very simple, but the variations are many, here´s one.

I transformed a simple dessert in a flavourful one. It has the soft creaminest of the rice , plus a cardamom fragance, with a silky jasmine tea sauce, and the crunchiness of the multi spiced cookie.

Spicy Jam Cookies

The opportunity to make these cookies can be none, or that I just want to eat some cookies with something else, something moist and tasteful.

Or perhaps, to celebrate an occasion, that can be no occasion for you, but valuable to me, which is my 4 years* in the same company. Of course, these weren´t  years of relaxation, I changed area and position with bigger responsibilities, in an excellent team and I didn´t loose the desire to improve. That's something, right?

Ginger, raisin and oat cookies

The problem I have with the cookie dough is that I'm lazy to make tem with a spoon. Really lazy. 
So, normally, I don´t make it.
I had seen on other blogs that they use an ice cream scoop to make cookies.

Chocolate and prune crescent cookies

These are unlikely to be Valentine's cookies, but for mine, they are. When, my boyfriend and I, weren´t living together, I usually gave him a container of cookies, and he ate them, happily, on his way back home.
Now, he still is my boyfriend, but we live under the same roof, he always claims the container with cookies.

Holidays in Villa General Belgrano and La Cumbrecita, in Cordoba province

A years ago we spent a week in Villa General Belgrano, a quiet village at the foot of the Cordoba´s sierrras, ground roads and asphalt, German-style homes, friendly people, with a view to the mountains and the sound of birds.

There are many stories about the villagers that I don´t want to explore, but the only one I know is about the people I´ve met, that they´re very friendly, warm and they work with the tourists, by that I mean that many of them love what they do and some doesn´t seem to show it.

We met a brewer, that produces very good artisanal beer, and I can tell you that he loves to make it only using traditional methods. He explained many things to us, part of the process, the ingredients of each beer and we returned with a box full of the varieties he performs.Waffe Bier it is


We stayed at Posada Shemak´s, an inn runned by the owners, that were warm people and very helpful. I would recommend this place to anyone who wants to spend a few days there.


The photos are from La cumbrecita, a beautiful place, surrounded by mountains, forests, waterfalls and pools of natural water, with many hiking paths.

The last day I discovered THE BAKERY, in capital letters, with lots of smelling loaves of bread, home-style cakes and simple but goood cookies. The bakery is Risen Rein (as Aline told me) and is in the center of town. They are bakers from the beginning of the past century, that came from Germany during 2nd World War and the bread is made old style way, in a wood-fired oven, with grains and wheat .

 

What we tried there was the black cake, what we know as Welsh cake, dried fruit, moist and very aromatic cake.
And, also, the best cookies I had in a long time, the Pfeffer Kuchen, with flavored honey, spices, almonds, very soft and sweet. Amazing cookies, that I decided to do when we return home. 

Chocotorta: chocolate cookies, dulce de leche and cream cheese cake

Scene: Saturday night, a couple in an appartment
Character 1: man in the kitchen preparing pizza
Character 2: female, resting on the couch, the TV is on
Idea: women, "Maybe I can do something for dessert"
Available ingredients: dulce de leche, cream cheese, chocolate cookies
Answer: "I can do it in 10´!"

That was more or less how this dessert started, because it´s fast, no messy, and I could prepare it at the living room table, the kitchen was busy with the pizza guy.

I grabbed two glasses, two bowls, milk, sweet cocoa and the three essential ingredients.

Chinatown in Buenos Aires

Taking advantage of the summer schedule we have at work, I went to Chinatown. It´s in the neighborhood of Belgrano, in Buenos Aires City, where Taiwanese immigrants settled a years ago.Today there are several Eastern communities present.

From some years to now this place became a must in the tours in B.A. As far as I know it´s not a big Chinatown, I knew the San Pablo´s not as colorful, but bigger as this. This are only 2 or 3 blocks on the street Arribeños, from Juramento St. and Blanco Encalada St. There are at least 4 supermarkets, bazaar shops, food stalls and restaurants of the different communities.

The chinese restaurants some are better than others and not very pricy. Of course, the japanese are pricier and less crowded.

Gingy: Ginger and honey cookies

(Angry Gingy says: Don´t eat me!)


When the holidays arrive and we realize the year is coming to an end, we start to think about what happend during this year and put things in a scale.
My year was very good, I can´t complain. It had its sad side, by the departure of a beloved, had its joys, challenges, hopes and celebrations. The scale leaned to a positive side.


Next year, I expect surprises, as always, generally the´ll be good, so I'm waiting. 
And so in a feeling of celebration, to get into the warmth of the holidays, I made spiced cookies  with a child motif, shaped Gingy the gingerbread man from the movie Shrek.

Pfefferkuchen, spicy german cookies

When I returned from holidays, one of the first things I did, was to find the recipe for cookies that were stuck in my memory, with its aroma and texture.

I found that pepper was not an ingredient of these, but was for the mixture of spices, they call Pfeffer, for the ​​German Christmas cookies. These cookies are sisters of the Lebkuchen´s, which adorn the Christmas tree, and have the same species.