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Dinner With Woody And Buzz!
Local Business Spotlight with Jennifer DaPonte
I met with a good friend of mine, Jennifer DaPonte of South Coast Home Sales, to shoot a video about my various business interests. The Portuguese American Mom, StacyCakes and SC Events. (If you look up at the top of your screen on your PC you will see a tab for StacyCakes and if you are on a mobile device you can just scroll to the last part of the menu button for an easy way to get there.) Jen is a wonderful realtor. She sold my last house and has sold many homes of people I have referred over to her, but one of her specialties is working with buyers. Jen has a special way of connecting with people and sensing what it is exactly that they are looking for in a property and then guiding them through the whole process. She knows the market in Southeastern MA and RI inside and out, so if you are looking to buy or sell, a full time realtor like Jen is the way to go for sure! If you would like to find out more about her and what she does, please contact her here –> SouthCoast Home Sales with Jennifer DaPonte
In this video we talk about my business interests and Jen did a fast forward video of me decorating this Salted Caramel Drip Cake. Drip cakes are all the rage in cake decorating today and I had a lot of fun with this one adding on caramel pop corn, pretzels and cookies! Check it out!
If you are in the local Southeastern MA and RI area, check out one of my events at Adagio Restaurant and Lounge in Fall River, MA.
StacyCakes and SC Events
Bacon Crack
This recipe may be the absolute easiest recipe in my repertoire and is by far one of my most requested. It is simple, straight forward, different and delicious! Once you place the sweet, savory, salty, chewy, crunchy goodness in your mouth, the name will not be lost on you. Each time this little morsel of goodness is bitten into, it inevitably leads to another and another! It is something of an addiction. I recently brought a tray to a PTO fundraiser for my volunteers and by the end of the day I had been dubbed the PTO crack dealer!
Bacon Crack
Ingredients:
1 16 oz. Pkg regular cut bacon (not thick cut), cut in half
1 cup light brown sugar
2 small sleeves Club crackers
Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 225°F. Place separated bacon slices on parchment lined sheet pan. Place one Club cracker on each piece if bacon. Add 1 tsp. Packed brown sugar to each cracker. Wrap each cracker and sugar with the bacon. Place sheet pan in oven and check at 2 1/2 hours. When bacon looks crisp and cooked through, recipe is done. (If not done, bake an additional 15-30 mins.) Allow to cool, carefully remove from pan and serve. Enjoy!
Corned Beef and Cabbage
You might think it’s kind of funny that a blog called ‘The Portuguese American Mom’ has a recipe for the very Irish Corned Beef & Cabbage. But, it’s something I have always cooked and it’s something we grew up eating each year in my Portuguese household. I suspect, that has something to do with the similarity between the Irish dish and a traditional Portuguese Cozido. Either way, at this stage in my life, my husband is part Irish and therefore my children are as well, so I think it’s nice to keep the tradition going. Besides, we always add in a nice link of chouriço for that Portuguese flare!
When I was 17 we went to St. Michael, Azores as a family and on the “To Buy” list my mother had, was an old-fashioned stove top pressure cooker. A pressure cooker is meant to drastically cut down the cooking time of just about anything using the power of trapped steam. The craftsmen in Portugal made them in such a way that was impossible to find in this country with some sort of fortified heavy-duty steal. And so when she came back she used it for EVERYTHING. However, those stove top pressure cookers can tend to be quite dangerous and anyway, over the years it got lost in the shuffle. So, I was super excited to get this ultra safe electric model for Christmas from my mom. This machine takes meals that otherwise take 3-4 even 5 hours and has them ready to serve in 30 minutes or less! No way you say? How is that possible you ask? Well… let me tell you, this is my first attempt and it surely did work!
If you don’t have a pressure cooker you can surely make this on your stove top or even leave it in your slow cooker on your way to work in the morning. The ingredients are basically the same, but for stove top, you need to triple the liquid (for the slow cooker, the liquid measurements stay the same).
Corned Beef & Cabbage
Serves 4-6[/yieldIngredients:
2-4 lb. Corned Beef, rinsed
6-8 potatoes, with slit cut in
4 carrots, cut into 3″ links
2 onions, peeled
1/2 head cabbage
1 large sweet potato
1/2 lb. hot chouriço link, with 4-5 slits cut into skin
spice packet
1 lite beer
12 oz. water
Pressure cooker directions:
Add everything into pressure cooker, set for 30 minutes, press start. When done, release the pressure using the pressure release valve, open and serve hot.
Stove top directions:
Add everything into pot plus 36 oz more water. Boil for 4 hours until meat is fully cooked and tender. Serve hot.
Slow cooker directions:
Add everything to pot and set to cook for 8 hours. Serve hot.
*** Gluten-free if using a gluten-free beer or omiting the beer altogether.
Witches Fingers Almond Cookies
Halloween is nearly here! But, the week and weekend before are always filled with lots of spooky events! How fun would it be to show up at your next Halloween party with a tray of Witches Fingers? And these almond treats are yummy too!
To start off, you’ll need to measure out some shortening… I put these pics in a little gallery for you because I am using the Pampered Chef Measure All cup, which in my opinion is the only way to measure anything creamy. Take a look.
Now for the dry ingredients:
Now add the flour mixture into the mixer:
Now for the almonds. I don’t have ground almonds so I used one of my new favorite products, the Pampered Chef Manual Food Processor to achieve what I need… take a look:
Add your ground almonds into your mixture… you will need to do this with clean hands.
You will need blanched almonds to make your “finger nails”. You can buy blanched almonds, but I didn’t I just took a few minutes to blanch my own.
Witches Fingers Almond Cookies
Makes 48 cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup Vegetable Shortening
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. almond extract
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup ground almonds
48-50 blanched almonds (see tutorial above)
1/4 tsp. green food coloring
4-5 drops red food coloring (or hot pink)
Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350°F.
Cream shortening and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add egg and extract. Beat until incorporated.
In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add to shortening mixture in 2 additions. Mix well after each addition until smooth and clay like.
Add ground almonds. Knead until incorporated. Divide dough in 2 and set half aside. Divide the remaining dough into 4 parts, then take each of those 4 parts and divide into 6 parts. Shape into roughly a 3″ “finger”. Press a blanched almond into one end of each “finger”.
To the remaining dough, add in green coloring and knead until incorporated. Also, add in red or hot pink coloring to the remaining almonds. Divide dough in 2 and set half aside. Divide the remaining dough into 4 parts, then take each of those 4 parts and divide into 6 parts. Shape into roughly a 3″ “finger”. Press a blanched almond into one end of each “finger”.
Bak on a parchment lined baking sheet for 10-13 minutes. Remove from oven and let cookies sit for a few minutes before placing on a cookie drying rack.
Enjoy!
Saving Money with a Home Energy Assessment
If you are a fan of my blog, you already know what a big fan I am on Farmer’s Markets. Well I was walking along at my local Farmer’s Market a few weeks back and stopped at a booth that looked like it had nothing to do with produce, instead there were a bunch of light bulbs all around. So, I stopped and asked the gentleman what his booth was all about. He told me he was working for the city on a project to help save home owners money and help the environment at the same time. This sparked my interest so I asked some questions.
He explained the Mass Save program to me. Mass Save is an initiative funded by the utility companies geared at making the average home more energy-efficient. Why would utility companies be working to save us energy you might ask? Well, I did ask… Let’s use the electric company for example. If the electric company succeeds in making your home more energy-efficient, it reduces the overall strain on the electric grid. This helps them by leading to less building of electic stations and less building of electric stations leads to less maintenance of said electric stations which leads to less repair and eventual replacement of those electric stations. In every single point of that last sentence, the electric company saves money. But, in order to save them money, they need to make your home and thousands of other homes more efficient by helping you to utilize the power that comes into your home in a more efficient manner. This then leads to the consumer saving money.
Some of the things they will help you with to reduce your electric intake is checking on your appliances and providing information on available rebates if you need to replace them with energy star label appliances. They replace existing light bulbs with energy-efficient bulbs and they may even leave you with a power strip that will reduce the amount of plug-in non-use energy that you are paying for just for having things plugged in even if they aren’t currently in use! But, it’s not just the electricity that they help you out with. An energy assessment on your home also looks at your heating costs and the efficiency of the heat that you are bringing into your home. They do this mainly by looking at the outside insulation of your home and the efficiency of your furnace, they will also supply you with a no cost programmable thermostat. One of the biggest things they provide you with is a 75% instant rebate (that is a rebate you don’t need to pay and then get reimbursed for, this rebate is more like a coupon to use at time of purchase) on the installation of insulation on the outer perimeter of your home. They look at your water intake and can replace shower heads and add-on faucet spouts to reduce the water you use.
So, I all this made me curious… I decided to book an assessment and try it out on a rental unit we own. And they were very accommodating… It took a couple of weeks to find a date and time that worked with everyone’s schedule, but we set it and they called with a reminder the day before.
On the day of the assessment a nice and very knowledgeable young man named Nate showed up ready to work. I’ll take you through what he did…
So, that’s everything… The whole visit took about 45 minutes or so. He explained that he would be checking over all his numbers and making recommendations and sending me out all of that along with a cost analysis of how much everything would be should we choose to follow any of the recommendations along with information on any rebates available to us to defray the cost. Even if we decide not to go with any of the upgrades right now, we still have all the light bulbs (that can be pretty pricey), the new programmable thermostat, a new top of the line energy-saving power strip and a new faucet nozzle to install. Overall, I would say it was well worth my 45 minutes!
I think I’ll have an assessment of my own home done next!
If you or someone you know is looking to have an energy assessment done for your home or business and you live in Massachusetts, just contact Mass Save at the highlighted link. If you live outside of Massachusetts, contact your local utility company and ask if they have a similar program available, most states do!
I would like to thank Lori Medeiros, Senior Loan Officer for RMS for sponsoring today’s post!
Stacy’s Meat Lasagna
One of the first truly big meals I learned to make as a kid was lasagna. My dad just loved the stuff… so he asked me to make it once a week… kind of a funny request for a Portuguese man… but I have always loved making my Daddy happy so weekly lasagna it was! Over time, I started learing to tweak things here and there. I developed my own methods and preferences. It was really one of those repetitive recipes that unknowingly taught me how to cook… After all, I wasn’t following a recipe, I would do it week after week and almost each week something would change, some times I kept the change and sometimes not so much. What better cooking lesson could there be?
Through all this trial and error I learned that meat lasagna is the way to go. Although this recipe has taken me just about 25 years to perfect, it is pretty basic and pretty classic, but has an unbelievable flavor that is both simple and complex at the same time. Homemade meat sauce, hand mixed cheese and mozzarella along with thin flat pasta noodles are what makes up this delicious dinner.
This recipe is a rather large recipe, but you have options. If you have a big family, you can get 12-16 generous portions here, so great… If you would like to use it for a party, even better! But, if you just don’t need a huge lasagna, it’s still worth making and splitting half into a pan for the freezer! You are doing the same work, might as well get two or even three meals out of it!
Here’s how I do it… There will be 4 layers in all.
Let’s start with the sauce…
Now let’s start on the cheese mixture.
Now we just need to gather two more ingredients and we are ready to build our masterpiece!
Now we build!
Stacy’s Meat Lasagna
Serves 12-16
For the sauce:
2 28oz. cans of tomato puree
1 6-8oz.can tomato paste
1 1/2 lbs. ground beef, browned and drained
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup hot water
1 med. onion, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 Tbs. olive oil
1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbs. fresh basil
1/2 tsp. fresh thyme
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 tsp. dry Italian seasoning
1 tsp. kosher salt
Parmesan rind
Directions:
In a large skillet or shallow pot, sautée onion in olive oil over medium heat. When caramelized, add in red pepper flakes, Italian seasoning and garlic, sautée for a couple minutes. Add in ground beef, continue to sautée. Add Worcestershire sauce, continue to sautée.
Next, add in tomato sauce and paste. Rinse tomato cans with white wine and add in to sauce. Add in parmesan rind and cook over low heat for 30 mins. When done add in 1 cup of hot water to loosen if needed.
Check for salt at this point.
For the Cheese Mixture:
1 large container of Whole Milk Ricotta Cheese
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 eggs
1/4 tsp. Italian seasoning
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. fresh cracked black pepper
Directions:
Mix all ingredients together.
Build your lasagna:
Ingredients:
1 box oven-ready lasagna noodles
2 packages sliced mozzarella cheese
meat sauce, prepared
cheese mixture, prepared
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350°F. In a large lasagna pan, start by adding sauce to the bottom of the pan. Next, layer on the noodles. Skim coat the noodles with a bit more sauce. Next, add on a layer of the cheese mixture. Next, add on the mozzarella slices. Repeat until you reach the end of your ingredients. Be sure to think about how large your pan is and how to divvy up the layers. End by covering in sauce and adding on the shredded mozzarella and shredded parmesan.
Bake for 45 minutes or until all the cheese on top has melted and started browning nicely. Enjoy!
Classic Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
My son started pre-school last week. I can hardly believe that children are starting school as little as 3 years old! So we picked out his cool Superman back pack with matching Superman lunch box with a cute little cape. But, I couldn’t let my little super man go in to school without something extra special from Mommy. So, inside that little lunch box was a little pack of homemade Classic Oatmeal Raisin Cookies.
There are lots of varieties of oatmeal cookies. Some people add chocolate chips, some nuts, some nothing extra at all… but there can only really be one Classic Oatmeal Raisin Cookie. A hearty mixture of rolled oats and sweet raisins, this cookie is filling and delicious all at the same time. The Classic Oatmeal Raisin Cookie is time-tested and adored by generation after generation. My children are part of that next generation that have fallen in love with this wholesome treat.
Let me show you how I made these…
Now start on combining your dry ingredients.
Recipe for Classic Oatmeal Raisin Cookies:
(yields 4 dozen)
2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 egg, cracked into a small bowl
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup raisins
1 tsp baking soda, shallow
1/4 tsp kosher salt
Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 340°F.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together butter, sugar and egg. Once done, add in vanilla.
In a medium bowl, combine dry ingredients and wisk together. Add into the creamed butter mixture. Beat until combined. Do not over beat at this stage as you will make the cookie tough.
In the same medium bowl measure out your oats and raisins. Add in to the mixture. Beat for 5-7 seconds.
Using a 1 tsp. cookie scoop, measure out each cookie dough ball and keep them 1 1/2 inches apart on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes.
Allow to cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to completely cool.
Enjoy!
Caprese Salad
I didn’t know about Caprese Salad until I was an adult. Not something very common in the Portuguese household I grew up in. We had tomatoes, sure, but basil, nah… parsley, yes, couves (kale) yes, but no basil. And sure we had cheese, but not motzerella cheese, heck my parents even made their own white cheese in a little ring (which is totally delicious and totally off topic). But, I digress, the point it, this is not something I was ever exposed to… however, later on… sometime in my mid-20’s I think, I experienced this salad… Yes, I said experienced, because in my opinion, it is surely not like any other salad I had ever had… And I have been making this late summer salad ever since!
It’s a simple salad, just three main ingredients. The key to this salad is balance. The medley of flavors is something that can not be created with anything else in the world. Freshly grown tomatoes straight from the garden, hand picked basil leaves and good quality motzerella cheese topped with a simple drizzle of olive oil, aged balsamic vinegar and a dash of salt and pepper… could there possibly be anything better?
I’m not sure if you noticed, but please take note, I made sure that each ingredient was exactly equal. That is to say there are an equal number of tomato pieces to cheese pieces to basil pieces ensuring that each and every bite will incorporate all three ingredients at the same time allowing them to join together in a wonderful burst of flavor in your mouth!
Recipe for Caprese Salad:
(serves 1-4)
12 cherry tomatoes, halved
12 mini motzerella cheese balls, halved
4 fresh basil leaves, torn into thirds
1 pinch kosher salt
4 cracks black pepper
2 Tbs. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Tbs. balsamic vinegar
Directions:
Toss tomatoes, cheese and basil together in a bowl. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and vinegar. Serve.
Enjoy!
*Note: this is a gluten-free recipe.