Hello friends! I’m so excited to have you here!
My name is Camila. I was born and raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I have been living in upstate New York, in the United States since December of 2011.
My husband’s name is Brian and we have a son, Luke! Luke is 2 years old. He is always in the kitchen with me. Since he could sit up, I’ve been getting him involved in my baking adventures.
If you go on my instagram page (@piesandtacos), click on a folder called Luke, located on my Highlights, under my bio. You will be able to see pictures from him baking with me when he was just 1 year old.
Here is Luke sprinkling some flour over pizza dough.
My baking journey
I grew up in a bakery. My grandparents had a bakery located a couple of blocks away from my house in Brazil.
My mom would bring us there everyday to visit my grandma. My sister and I played with bread dough from a huge machine that would knead pounds and pounds of bread dough everyday.
My grandma was the baker. Her clothes were always full of flour, and she was always back there, baking. She woke up before the sun everyday for 50 years to bake bread and pastries. Now that’s my role model of commitment to baking!
You will probably read a lot about my grandparents here because they are the ones who have taught me about love and dedication to cooking. I grew up with all these great cooks around me, that have influenced me a great deal. From my Portuguese grandma making bread at her bakery everyday for 50 years, to my Italian grandma making amazing Sunday lunches for the family to eat together, and to my mom and dad always making everything from scratch at home.
Anyway, I’ve always been a fan of the kitchen but my passion for cooking and baking really became an obsession in 2013. With no family and not a lot of friends in my new town in the US, I turned to my KitchenAid to keep me entertained.
On my days off from work, I would cook these really elaborate 5 course meals for my husband. I would write recipes down, and file them in categorized binders. I also would make notes about what worked and what didn’t. Soon, I was making my own recipes. Now, I am working on curating everything I’ve written down over the past few years, as well as coming up with new ideas and recipes everyday.
Rocking our Cookie Baking Crew shirts!
As a cook and a baker, I’ve always enjoyed long processes. I enjoy recipes that take 5 days and 849 steps to complete, gotta be honest. I like to make all of the elements of a recipe from scratch. I’ll make my own puff pastry, my own bread for sandwiches, my own ricotta cheese, I’ve even made my own burrata! I have ginormous patience in the kitchen. If that’s not you, don’t leave yet! You can always use store-bought and follow the rest of the recipe! I hope I can teach you something and also learn from you! We are all here to harvest inspiration from each other.
My goal with Pies and Tacos
My goal with this blog is to show you how to make recipes that might seem complicated, but actually all they require is persistence and practice.
I am talking about macarons, Swiss meringue buttercream, puff pastry from scratch, sourdough bread, pasta from scratch…
Don’t get intimidated by how difficult a recipe might seem, or how hard you’ve failed in the past. If you want to make something happen, you have to dedicate the time to learn it, fail at it, and then get better. And that’s with most things in life, not just recipes.
Along these same lines, I have another goal. I want my desserts to be over the top, innovative, and creative. Which sometimes I achieve, other times not so much.
Regardless of the results, I always try to go the extra mile. It’s a part of my belief system that anything you do in life, you should always try to go above and beyond. If you can’t go a whole extra mile today, go an extra step. But always strive for more.
That is what moves me to show up everyday and work hard to come up with recipes that will impress, dazzle, enchant, and warm people’s hearts at the same time.
And I want my readers to feel like they can impress, dazzle, and enchant, and serve their guests, friends, family, sweet treats that will be truly a gift.
On a non-cooking note, I have published my first book in 2017. It’s a children’s book called The Little Bird in the Cage (or O Passarinho na Gaiola), with copies in Portuguese and English.
Here’s a picture of when I went to read my book to the 3rd grade at a local school!
Besides that, I really love photographing my food, swimming, fall days, running, oh, and I also really love pies and tacos!
