Of vacations and leftover muffins

This year our family went on vacations to Puerto Vallarta and got the all inclusive so we had buffet breakfast meals and dinners all days. But it wasn't that bad, actually not at all. Everything was delicious and the meals restaurant was right beside the pool so we could go there when we started feeling hungry, from it all I believe that it's what I liked the most. They had everything! Pasta, pizza, salads, sushi, grilled meats and seafood, desserts, you name it. The only problem was that I couldn't eat it all unless I wanted to feel terribly guilty after. One day there was french food buffet for dinner and I thought it was ok, but then at the end of dinner I headed out for the desserts and there they were, profiteroles! Filled with whipped cream or chocolate cream! I had tons of them and couldn't help it, they're just so soft and light and sweet!
I could rant about them all day long but I didn't take a picture of them so I'll stop and rather show what I did take pics of.

This was my favorite breakfast buffet mix, chilaquiles, potatoes, mashed beans and sausages. Add to that fresh fruit with cottage cheese before and a glass of orange or carrot juice and it's the best thing ever. Besides I really, really REALLY love those small buffet sausages, I've never known where they get them from so I've only had them in buffets but if I could get them at the store I definately would.

One night we went to a really nice restaurant, it was great to dine there and the salad was awesome, it had two types of lettuce (though I don't really know their names in english) and portobello mushrooms grated with cheese, the dressing was sweet and delicious.

Although the trip was absolutely great, we went there by car and it was really tiring! Ten whole hours to get there and another ten on the way back. But we had a nice and sweet reward for the effort. They were selling strawberries half the way from there when we came back in cute weaved baskets at 4 bucks by kilo it was a great bargain!
They were truly delicious and we had strawberries the entire week. Alone, with cream and sugar and the last ones, the slightly less sweet ones were done in a milkshake. Yum!

Ok, and here's the leftover pic I had in storage. I've always wondered how cornbread tasted like so I went and had a look at some recipes in search for an easy start at the misterious thing. I found two different recipes and started to bake my own corn muffins.
Basically I did this Honey Cornbread Muffins recipe but instead of adding the cup of milk I added 1/4 and then 1 cup of sour cream which I had bought beforehand since I was planning on doing the Sour Cream and Lemon Corn Muffins instead. Why I changed my mind? Well, the first recipe looked easier (if that is even possible!).
The result is as delicious as it seems. The muffins were soft and sweet as honey (quite literally) and they were not dry at all so they lasted quite a bit. We don't eat much pastries or bread at home so I was afraid some of it would get old and dry. But I kept them in a sealed glass container and they lasted me the entire week! I don't know if they could last longer since that's when we finished the batch but I bet they could last longer.
Next time I'll add the lemon zest and see how it comes out.

My Boyfriend's B-day and Checkered Cookies

Last week was my boyfriend's birthday, he's 22 now.
My cooking adventure started when I realized I didn't have any spare money to buy him a present and then I thought, hey it doesn't have to be expensive in order for it to be a great present.
So I went and searched for my all-times butter cookies recipe. I had been surfing on the net and found a quite easy way to make them look great. Be warned, the next recipe make a large batch of cookies, the original was only half of what I use, but I love cookies so I always double proportions.

The close-up. :3

Ingredients are:
200 gr. butter
100 gr. sugar
300 gr. flour
1 tsp. vanilla essence
25gr. cocoa

Mix the sugar and butter until you have an even mixture, leave the butter ouside the fridge for some hours before. Then add the previously sifted flour and vanilla essence to the mixture and mix.
Now comes the fun part, separate the dough in two and mix one with the cocoa. Flaten each dough until they're 3/4 inch (1.5 cm.) thick and cut square straps, put them toghether and use egg whites as glue, these will make checkered cookies. Wrap them in plastic foil and place them at the fridge for at least 20 minutes, pre-heat the oven to 180 Cº and after the dough is cold, cut them in 1/2 inch (1 cm.) thick slices. These will double their size with the cooking so be sure to leave a fair amount of distance between them.

There was another tray full of these in the oven when I took the picture.

To make the rolled dought flatten both doughs and place the smaller one into the larger, to make the spot in the middle use a long cilinder of chocolate dough and start rolling.
To make cinnamon roll cookies flatten the dought and sprinkle cinnamon all over it, then roll.
All doughs shal be placed into the fridge before cutting.
Leave cookies in the oven for 15-20 minutes.
...Enjoy.

I had to put them in a platic bag as the recipient I used was a gift cardboard bag, in the end some broke during the journey. My boyfriend loved them anyway. <3

Meat Cake Nostalgia

It's been days since I started feeling like I needed something different than the usual. And I definitely knew what it was that I missed.
My godmother used to make this particular meat cake when I was a child and I loved it, it was on my top favorites list, right next to the bread crumbles deep fried chicken (ah, how I yearn youth, not having to worry at all of oversaturated oils...).
I kept talking and talking about the meat cake for a whole week until we went to the market and bought some grounded meat. So I called my godmother and asked her for the recipe. I'm so excited that I'm posting the recipe and the results. By the way, I'm not sure whether it's a real meat cake or has any other name, but that's the way I've know it for my entire life.
With no more a-do, here's the easiest meat cake recipe in the world (or at least I think so):


600 gr. grounded meat.
1 diced carrot (into really small dices)
1 diced potatoe (into really small dices)
1/4 finely chopped onion
1 smashed garlic clove, be sure to have it like a paste or else the taste will be unbearable.
1/4 tsp. cumin (or less if you don't really like cumin)
1 tbsp. concentrated chicken broth
salt
pepper

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and place them in a cake mold (20 cm with or larger). Cook it over boiling water for 40 minutes. To check it's done insert a knife in the middle, if it comes out dry then it's done.

Now, I'll give you some hints for this one, first of all, don't tell your family what the cake's got in until they taste it, my mother hates cumin but as I never told her the cake had cumin she loved it.
Second is... never ever of your life use a 2 pieces cake mold, I used one and after the cooking I realized that a lot of the boiling water had leeked into the cake. It was still very tasty but the water was definately not expected. XP

And here's my meat cake, ready to be eaten.

Bon Appétite!