Azoresgal~Life on an Island

These drop biscuits are super easy to make, with only 3 ingredients!  You simply mix everything together in a bowl, scoop it out, and drop on a cookie sheet, and bake! Perfect to have with  soups or as a sandwich or just on there own,warm straight out of the oven, with butter and jam. Drop Biscuits ½ cup Mayonnaise 1 cup milk 2 cups self-rising flour Preparation 1. Preheat oven to 200 C/400°F. 2. Combine mayonnaise and milk in a medium bowl, then add flour and stir until incorporated. 3. Divide dough into 12 biscuits and place on a greased or lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart. 4. Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.  VARIATIONS *Cracked Pepper Biscuits: Before baking, sprinkle the tops of the biscuits with fresh cracked pepper. *Garlic Butter Biscuits: Add a half teaspoon of garlic powder to the dough, then brush the tops of the biscuits with a mixture of 2 Tablespoons butter and 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder. *Cheesy Drop Biscuits: ...

Panna cotta is Italian for “cooked cream.” It is exactly that, a cooked mixture of cream, sugar and gelatin and it's a very easy dessert to make. The flavors for panna cotta are endless, spices,tea even herbs can be steeped in the cream to infuse flavor. Panna cotta is velvety sweet, creamy, decadent  and is great on its own, but even better topped with fresh fruits or a sauce.  I hope you give it a try, it's perfect for any occasion, and your family and friends will love it! 4 cups (1-quart) heavy cream 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, seeds scraped* 2 1/4 teaspoons unflavored powdered gelatin 3 tablespoons water Strawberry Coulis for serving (recipe below) Instructions In a medium saucepan, combine the cream, sugar, vanilla bean and seeds. Bring the mixture just to a simmer over medium heat. (when it starts to steam) Simmer for 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and steep for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small b...

We are so very lucky to have our own lemon tree, or at least I think we are. I can´t really explain to you how much joy it brings me, to just be able to wander of into the orchard, and pick an apron full of lemons! Such a simple thing,but really quite joyous for me. Perhaps I am just silly, but it does make me smile. The tree is young, buy has blessed us with so many lemons during the last three years, and once again it is exploding with fruit. So this weekend I decided to make some old-fashioned lemonade. This easy homemade recipe only needs three ingrdients and it's the perfect combination of sweet and tart. Around here the days are getting longer, and warmer,  so summer can't be far now. It will be nice to cool off this summer with a chilled pitcher of freshly squeezed lemonade. 1 3/4 cups white sugar 8 cups water 2 cups lemon juice (8 lemons, depends on the size of them) Directions In a small saucepan, combine sugar and 1 cup water. Bring to boil and s...

This is one of my favorite desserts, a classic my mother and my aunts always made. At all of our celebrations, this lovely coconut custard with its billowy meringue topping and chocolate sauce, always made an appearance! Every spoonful is a bite of nostalgia from my childhood! 500 grams sugar 200 grams unsweetened coconut (fine) 5 tablespoons of flour (heaping) 8 eggs (yolks and whites separated) 500 mL milk for the meringue 8 tablespoons of sugar + the 8 egg whites Preheat oven 180/350 In a large bowl, mix the sugar and the egg yolks with a  hand mixer. Next add the coconut, the flour and the milk, mix well. Pour the mixture into a butter greased glass baking dish (13x9). Bake 30 minutes or just until almost set, (it will continue to cook after you add the meringue) For the meringue, beat the egg whites and the 8 tablespoons of sugar, until stiff peaks form. Remove the custard from the oven, and top with the meringue, swirl it with a spoon to form peaks. ...

What are lapas you ask? They are limpets, a shellfish, think clams, but  with only one shell and so much better, they taste of the sea when eaten raw, right out of the shell. Perhaps eating a raw limpet is not your thing, then lapas grelhadas is sure to be! Easy to prepare, the lapas are grilled and served in their own shells; resulting in a savory, and divine dish. Great as a starter or as a lazy summer afternoon meal. I promise that you will enjoy this  Azorean delicacy. Fresh Lapas Butter, soft, I like salted Garlic, minced Massa de Malagueta or Piri Piri/Tabasco/Sriracha Lemon Wedges -Clean the lapas, removing any debris, sand etc. -Next decide how you want to grill them, on the stove top, use a griddle or large frying pan, in the oven or BBQ use a large cookie sheet. They all work, and taste great! -Carefully, arrange the lapas, shell down (cupped side down, this means the juices won’t spill out), on the pan, cookie sheet or griddle you will be...

These are definitely a favorite at our house. Packed with tons of chocolate chips and super-moist! Really easy to make and everything is whipped up in one large bowl! Perfect for the kiddos after school snack, but also great with a cup of coffee mid afternoon, after folding copious amounts of laundry! Everytime I make them, the vanish quickly, a sure sign it's a keeper of a recipe ! 3 eggs 1/2 cup canola oil 1/2 cup milk 1/4 cup water 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 Devil’s food cake mix 1 (3.9 oz) package instant chocolate pudding 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1 cup sour cream ( greek yogurt works too!) 2 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips, Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line muffins tins with paper liners. In a large bowl, lightly beat eggs. Mix in oil, milk, water, vanilla. Stir in the sour cream, cake mix, pudding mix and cinnamon. Mix well. Stir in 2 cups of the chocolate chips. Fill muffin tins 3/4 full. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup chocolate chips over the batter...

Hiraeth: (n) Welsh - A deep, wistful, nostalgic sense of longing for a home; a home that is no longer or perhaps never was. A yearning and wistful grief for people and things long gone. Hiraeth ... this Welsh word, for some odd reason has stuck with me for quite some time. It has been saved on my phone, and on my laptop countless times.  I think it reminds me of the portuguese word Saudade . The first time I came across this word  and read it´s meaning, it stopped me in my tracks...I instantly thought of  my maternal grandparents house, here in the Azores.  It's the place I am most nostalgic about and find myself missing. From as early as the age of one, it´s where all of my childhood vacations took place, where I met my grandfather and grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins who instantly became childhood friends.  A magical little house by the sea, where I was fortunate enough to spend Christmas, Easter, and summers more than once. There were trips we sp...

 Tis' the season to invite family and friends over for a Christmas lunch or dinner to enjoy good food and wonderful company. This weekend Mr.G and I did exactly that, we hosted our Christmas lunch, and it was fantastic! Lots of story telling, lots of laughter, the kids giggling, the youngest baby peacefully sleeping, oh and lots of glorious food ! I tried to keep the menu simple, while having enough food for 25...yup you read that right, 25 and growing! The mains where turkey and ham, both roasted in our brick oven. I also made a potato and leek soup , and for side dishes, I made, portuguese stuffing, mac & cheese, brown sugar glazed carrots, roasted brussel sprouts , gravy, mashed potatoes, for dessert a Black Forest Pavlova .... and a partridge in a pear tree! Now I know you must be thinking... I thought you said simple...  and it was , the hardest thing, heating the brick oven early, to be able to roast the turkey and the ham, and have them done for our 1pm lunch...

It's Carnaval time, here on the island, and that means four fun-filled days of eating ,drinking and living it up before, Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. There are several, traditional desserts made at this time of the year, all of which, are very rich,in eggs and sugar. One of these desserts, is the "Filhós do Forno", a pastry baked in the oven, and then filled with a rich lemony pastry filling. I have for some reason avoided making these, because I had convinced myself they where difficult to make. This year I decided to give them a try....I was pleasantly surprised, when I realized, they are in fact like cream puffs. The dough is made in the exact same manner, the only thing that changes, is they are not baked free form, but instead in little muffin tins. These were wonderful, I only regret not taking, the usually step by step photos, but you see, I really was trying them for the first time, and was convinced they would "flop". My family loved them, and I ha...

I was 8 years old, when  Diana Spencer, married Prince Charles. I remember waking up real early to watch the event on TV. Today 30 years later, her son , Prince William married the lovely Kate Middleton. They are stunning together, and hopefully they will live happily ever after. I thought it fitting to celebrate, with tea and scones. These scones come together wonderfully, they seem very scary when you first put them together, the dough seems very wet. With a little gentle kneading , the dough becomes nice and firm.  I used my English Red Transferware Teapot and Sugar Bowl and Milk jug (I love Ebay)  serve with jam and whip cream, ours was homemade plum jam 2 cups flour 3 Tablespoons sugar 5 teaspoons baking powder pinch of salt 1/3 cup very cold butter (cubed) 1 cup milk Sift flour, salt and sugar and baking powder into medium bowl; rub in butt...

I almost did not bake any sweet bread this year for Easter, I had so many things to do, preparing for our daughter's communion, which was celebrated also on Easter  Sunday. I kept talking my self out of it, but in my heart I knew that I would kick myself for not baking any. My kids had asked all week, when are you making the "massa sovada", to which I kept responding, "one of these days". I made it Good Friday, which I must confess, did not sit well with me, because that day, is a day of  reflection and quiet, surely the Good Lord will not be to upset with me. I grew up with my mom, making "massa sovada", she would even let us help out (sometimes) and I now know why only sometimes, little hands sometimes get in the way of speeding things up. The thing is,she never used a written recipe, it all came magically from her head. This  led me on a search for a recipe for sweet bread, and I finally found one, that I can follow, but make my own way "magica...