Free cone day

Unfortunately I don't live by a Ben and Jerry's ice cream shop. If you do then make sure to get yourself a free cone. When we lived in MA we used to go and they were super generous with heir portions, plus they have frozen yogurt! Check out the nearest location to you here.

wearing food

My friend that came over for dinner yesterday designed this awesome skirt. She is the fashion designer for Down East Outfitters and has amazing taste. I love their clothes and periodically check out their website for new releases. To my surprise they came out with a line of Tankinis that are so cute and so modest, what else could you ask for?

when life gives you limes...make mousse!

The weekend was F.U.N. It was filled with goodness all around. Good weather, good friends, and good food what else could I ask for? Yesterday we had some friends and the missionaries over for dinner and in a bind I made some lime mousse that took a total of 5 minutes to make and turned out AWESOME. Not trying to brag, but I wasn't sure if it would even work due to a certain ingredient that I will soon disclose. Luckily it turned out perfect and I even got some good pictures.

Lime-Dulce de leite Mousse

I usually make a variation of this recipe for tarts but I neither had time to make a crust or the Maria cookies that I usually use to make the crust. So I made a mousse instead. There are only three ingredients for this Mousse; limes, sweetened condensed milk, and heavy cream. The sweetened condensed milk was old and turned into dulce de leite. I'm usually stoked when this happens and just dig in and open a new can. I however did not have a new can so I had to make do with the dulce de leite. You can make this recipe with either dulce de leite or the sweetened condensed milk. If you want to make dulce de leite you just have to put a can of sweetened condensed milk in a pan with boiling water. The water has to cover the can. you boil for about an hour and then you MUST wait till it is totally cooled to open the can. This is super dangerous and I have had cans explode before, so I don't really recommend it, but it does work. I think the dulce de leite made it richer.

Mousse

• juice of 4 limes
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 cups heavy cream

1. whip the heavy cream until it peaks
2. in a medium sized bowl mix the sweetened condensed milk and the lime juice
3. add the lime juice mixture to the heavy cream and mix on medium spead for about 2 minutes
4. put in a glass bowl and let chill for a couple hours. I garnished with caramelized lemon zest.

Saturday night feast
On Saturday we had a feast. It was amazing. Lost of good food and good company provided thanks to John the cook. I tried getting some recipes but when he started telling me to glaze the garlic bulbs and then place 20 garlic bulbs stretigically on the goat meat without making the holes too big, he totally lost me. I decided to not bug with with questions and just enjoy my meal.

goat meat

falafel and tabbouleh with yogurt sauce


fresh strawberries from his garden



cheese sticks
salami and mustrad pin wheels

apple gallet

cheese cake on a stick

this wonderful picture and wonderful idea is from culinary concoctions. Go check it out, make the recipe, and let me know if it works. I really want to make it but only if it works.

getting out of your kitchen and building solidarity with undocumented workers!

May 1st is international worker's day. In Brazil it is a national holiday and I think it's a national holiday is most Latin American countries. On May first there will be a rally from 12:00-2:00pm at the UCSC campus quarry and from 2:00-4:00 a March from the quarry to San Lorenzo Park. I am organizing families to March with the workers leaving from family student housing at the UCSC campus at 12:30 to meet up with fellow demonstraters at the quarry. If you live in the Santa Cruz area and would like to March with us please contact me at dsantosp@ucsc.edu. This March is especially significant to undocumented workers who make this campus run, our agricultural system work and so many other aspects of our lives come together. Below is an excerpt from the M.I.R.A Movement for Immigrant Rights Alliance.

On the significance of May 1st

Since the Haymarket Massacre of 1886, May 1st has represented a day of international worker solidarity. With the unprecedented mass mobilizations of 2006 in defense of immigrant rights, May 1st has been re-conceptualized to include the struggles of workers deemed “undocumented.” In recent years the veritable war on immigrants has only been escalated with the inception of the war on terror, as demonstrated with the increasing militarization of the Southern border, the proliferation of new deportation detention centers, and the unconstitutional raids perpetrated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE. These intensifications are directly attributed to the
neoliberal agenda of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which seeks to maintain the fluidity of the physical geopolitical border for transnational capital but not for people. All of which is in violation of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, made after the Mexican-American War, where it was agreed that the freedom of movement of peoples between these two nation states would be protected and that the property of those already established in the newly conquered territories (including California, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Nevada…) would also remain respected.
In response to the aforementioned realities, the need for another mass mobilization is urgent. It is important that this day, in a community of academics, be a day of education; learning and sharing experiences, a day of raising consciousness and spreading awareness. And indeed, while the struggles exist largely within the realm of ideas, there exists the need to get out of the classroom and into the community to demonstrate a humanist dissatisfaction with global, federal, state, and municipal policies of exploitation (paying poverty/slave wages to all workers, the free trade policies and privatization), manipulation (via the popular media), and domination via fragmentation (the perpetuation of grouping, degrouping, and inter-racial antagonisms in the popular media, COINTELPRO counter intelligence programs of FBI).
To demonstrate our insistence on the respect for all humans and our fear of a future in which scapegoat politics continues, we must unite across ethnic/class/racial/gender

/sexuality lines in order to best counter policies of structural dehumanization and institutionalized criminalization, reminiscent of any totalitarian regime. We feel it is eminent to demand for the right to not emigrate, but also for the right to universal amnesty for those who have been and continue to be economically displaced from all nations, particularly Mexico and Latin America. We believe that many student organizations and faculty share these sentiments and recognize the importance of honoring this day as it is representative of the struggles of fellow community members, fellow humans, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers; by not holding class on May 1st, coming to the rally at 12pm in the Quarry near the Baytree Plaza, marching peacefully and in solidarity to the San Lorenzo park, where at 4pm there will be a celebration. We welcome you to take an active role in this coalition and to distribute this message to all UCSC and community members.

[un]happily tagged

My sweet friend Wendy from Massachusetts tagged me to make a list of 10 things that made me happy today. I've been having a very unhappy week with a car that broke down on Monday and is not yet fixed, an overwhelming feeling of being totally behind in all my school work, a Teaching Assistant position that gets worse and worse, nostalgia for Brazil since my cousin got married today and I am not there to celebrate, a husband that injured his ankle, my ankle that still hurts all the time, a very depressing conversation I had with a student who scheduled an abortion and wanted my advice, good friends that moved away to Colombia, my neighbor who is packing her stuff and getting ready to move even though I'm trying to convince them that they can't because I depend on them so much....

It's been a rough week and today was a rough day but it's good to think about the positives so I'm taking on the challenge. Thanks Wendy!

Happy list

1. Enzo and Avi played beautifully today even though they were totally exhausted for the 4 hours we watched Avi and little sis Via
2. Via drank from a bottle happily even though bottles are the bane of her existence. This meant that I didn't have to pill up all 3 kids in the car and drive her to her mommy who was taking a test
3. two wonderful undergraduate students came over and made posters with Enzo and Avi to take to the May 1st worker's march
4. After thinking things over and talking to a rally organizer I feel more confident in my skills to be able to organize families to march on May 1st
5. I am SO EXCITED for May 1st!
   
6. I found 2 really cute shirts and an awesome black gap shorts in the free bin
7. I had two teenage girls tell me "like, oh my gosh you are like, the coolest ever" today at church after doing a primary activity about Brazil and giving each kid a coconut ring
8. I was so happy to get rid of all the coconut rings I've been lugging around
9. Enzo feel asleep super fast tonight (he didn't take a nap so don't think I'm that lucky)
10. After bugging this guy who lives at family student housing for cooking tips (he's a cook) for the last couple months we finally had dinner with him and it was literally a FEAST. This was by far the highlight of my day and I'm not just saying that because this blog is dedicated to food, it literally rocked my world and my stomach today. Photos coming soon!

Thanks Wendy for helping me think about the positive things that happened today. I am tagging Melinda, Mariko, and Melissa because M is the letter of the day

frriends with cooking benefits

Thank you Melissa for making me insane amounts of rice krispies treats that has lasted me and comforted me through a very bad week. I love you more than sugar!

Melissa Baker's rice krispies treats

• 1/2 cup butter
• 50 regular size marshmallows
• 4 cups rice krispies cereal
• peanut butter m&ms about 1/2 cup

1. melt butter in medium sauce pan
2. add the marshmallows and stir constantly until melted and without lumps. (This is where I ALWAYS mess up)
3. remove from heat and add the rice krispies and stir
4. add the peanut butter m&ms which makes it colorful and so delicious
5. spread it out in a casserole pan that is lined with foil using a metal spoon, this will help keep it from sticking.
6. eat until you feel sick and then try really hard to convince yourself that you really should save some for later.

Hawaiian flavor

Today I came home to find a lovely package with a print of this picture. I am so stoked! Mark happens to be a very good photographer and a good friend from Hawaii. When I saw this on his blog I wanted it for my kitchen immediately. I think I've eaten at every single one of these places and have definitely bought fruit from the tropical fruit stand. It made me miss Hawaii. I'm convincing him that he should sell these because the collage is perfect for kitchen decoration. Check out his work on his website and his blog.

Earth day decor

I wanted to try decorating plates for my wedding reception with pressed flowers, using only red rose petals. It didn't happen and ever since I've convinced myself that I would do it on earth day to decorate. It's earth day today and again it's not going to happen. Oh well, at least you get a picture of my intentions.

good looking and delicious what do you think about that?!

So what is good looking and delicious? My husband of course, oh and the Cinnamon rolls he made too. On Friday I was convinced that I needed to make something beautiful, remember? It just so happened that I started my Friday at 6:45 getting Enzo ready before I had to leave to teach my 8:00am class. I g0t done teaching at 9:10 and was met outside by a crying baby (my son) and my husband who was happy to drop Enzo off with me and go on with his child free day. The crying continued for most of the day and when he finally went to sleep at 9:00pm my neighbor knocks on my door and informs me that his wife's water bag broke and they were off to the hospital and asked if I could watch their son. Yes, I replied and spent the next 3 hours listening to another toddler cry. Crying is the wrong word he was hysterically screaming because his mommy was having a baby and he had never been away from her. I felt really bad for him but after walking around with him in my arms for about 2 hours outside in the cold I was READY to have Christian home. On Fridays Christian is gone all day and it just so happened that he also had to go and pick up some friends at the San Franscisco Airport, an hour and a half from us each way. At midnight be arrived to a very exhausted wife. Out minimal conversation was about how I had wanted to cook something beautiful and sweet all day and had no chance to even eat something ugly and tasteless. On Saturday I woke up at 9:30 to a very yummy smell. My husband baked scrumptious cinnamon rolls that looked beautiful and tasted delicious. I love you husband and I love you Betty Crocker for coming up with this recipe!

Christian/Betty's Cinnamon Rolls

• 3 1/2 to 4 cups all-purpose flour or bread flour
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2packages regular or quick active dry yeast
• 1 cup very warm milk, (120°F to 130°F)
• 1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1egg
• 1cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1/4 cup dark corn syrup
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans or raisins, if desired
• 1/4 cup granulated or packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  
  Mix 2 cups of the flour, 1/3 cup granulated sugar, the salt and yeast in large bowl. Add warm milk, 1/3 cup butter and the egg. Beat with electric mixer on low speed 1 minute, scraping bowl frequently. Beat on medium speed 1 minute, scraping the bowl frequently. Stir in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle.
  
  Turn dough onto lightly floured surface. Knead about 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Place in greased bowl and turn greased side up. Cover and let rise in warm place about 1 hour 30 minutes or until double. Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched.
  
  Heat 1 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup butter to boiling in 2-quart saucepan, stirring constantly; remove from heat. Stir in corn syrup. Pour into ungreased rectangular pan, 13x9x2 inches. Sprinkle with pecan halves. (optional)
  
  Punch down dough. Flatten with hands or rolling pin into rectangular, 15x10 inches, on lightly floured surface. Spread with 2 tablespoons butter. Mix chopped pecans, 1/4 cup granulated sugar and the cinnamon; sprinkle evenly over butter. Roll rectangle up tightly, beginning at 15-inch side. Pinch edge of dough into roll to seal. Stretch and shape until even. Cut roll into fifteen 1-inch slices. Place slightly apart in pan. Cover and let rise in warm place about 30 minutes or until double.
  
  Heat oven 350°F.
  
  Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately turn upside down onto heatproof tray or serving plate. Let stand 1 minute so caramel will drizzle over rolls; remove pan.

Guilt trip

I decided that food blogs are the ultimate guilt trip. First because you are once again wasting time on the Internet instead of doing something productive such as cooking. Second, you are looking at food and wanting to eat delicious fatty things every time you open the Internet and your RSS feeds pop up. Third, you feel guilty because everyone is cooking these beautiful things and you are not. I am convinced that today I will cook something beautiful even if it tastes like crap. By looking at so many food blogs and their incredible pictures I am convinced that aesthetics in food needs to be a priority. I guess learning how to take pictures would also help. gulp!

Here are my favorite food blogs that I check daily. Indulge!

bake or break
Culinary Concoctions
In the Kitchen and on the road with Dorie
Smitten Kitchen
The Wednesday Chef
A taste in heaven (This is in Portuguese)

don't forget the bacon

I haven't fufilled my food challenge yet. Actually, yesterday I did make a new recipe that had bacon in it but it was a total dissapointment so I'm convinced there is a better bacon recipe out there for me. If you made a new recipe that involves bacon e-mail it to me by tomorrow night at damarispalmer@gmail.com and I'll post it here.

meet me tomorrow at 4:00pm my time!

KZSC Santa Cruz 88.1 FM

Tomorrow at 4:00pm I will be on air at KZSC 88.1FM. I will play a short excerpt on my recent piece "Now I Lay you Down to sleep" and talk a bit about the process and challenges of producing this piece. I will go on air with some other colleagues and with Nikki Silva, yes Nikki Silva my idol from the Kitchen Sisters. So, if I sound nervous forgive me it's because it's a dream come true to go on air with her. If you are in the Monterey and Santa Cruz area you can listen at 88.1 Fm and if you are out and about in the rest of the world you can listen on line at http://www.kzsc.org/ and just click on the bottom right where it says Listen online. I'm stoked. I haven't been on air since graduating from Mount Holyoke. Oh, how I love college radio!

That Simple

Yesterday I had wanted to get dinner ready before heading out to the doctor with Enzo and before the afternoon because I had school in the afternoon. So, I had some talapia and decided to try something new. It took me 15 minutes total prep and cooking time. I love simple recipes and need to be reminded to use them more. I was inspired by the COSTCO cookbook but made modifications so here is my recipe.

TILAPIA IN PESTO SAUCE

• 4 talapia fillets
• 1/2 cup white grape juice
• 3 tablespoons pesto
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon butter
• salt and pepper to taste

1. pour the juice on a frying pan and bring to a boil.
2. Add the talapia fillets and cook in medium heat for about 4 minutes on each side
3. when the fish is done cooking bring it down to a simmer
4. mix the pesto, heavy cream and butter to make a sauce
5. add the sauce to the fish fillets and let simmer for 2 minutes.
6. add salt and pepper to taste and serve warm
   

I made it at 9:00 am and only had it at 6:00pm. All that time I had my house smelling like pesto. I love pesto so this is a good thing. I had a friend come over and comment that it was amazing I took Enzo to the doctor in the morning, was in school all afternoon, and had an elaborate dinner ready. I felt sneaky and didn't tell her that it actually was super easy and only took me 15 minutes. he, he, he

why? (part 2)

Why is Enzo so amazingly cute?

Brazilian Food System

On Mondays my mom has a special visitor, the mandioca man (a.k.a Manioc, Yucca). What's more efficient than having someone come to your house once a week sell you fresh yucca, peal it for you, and give you an amazing deal? Not to mention the apple bananas he also sells? It's Monday why can't someone come sell me some yucca at my house?

NEW RECIPE CHALLENGE: BACON

On Sunday's I plan my week and create an enormous list of things to do. One of those lists where maybe half of the things will get crossed off and the other half will make it to the next week's list, and the next, and the next. Totally discouraging. One thing I always put and make it a priority to cross off is a new recipe challenge. I pretty much make the same boring stuff over and over again but I try at least once a week to cook a new recipe. So for this week I am inspired to find a new recipe or create a new recipe that involves my favorite ingredient; BACON. I've been inspired by this recipe, and this other recipe, but mostly by this one to try and make a creative bacon dish. When I cook a new bacon dish I'll post the recipe here by next Sunday. If you want to go in on this challenge just cook something you've never done before using bacon and send me the recipe and a picture of the dish at damarispalmer@gmail.com by Friday and I'll post it on my blog. If not then just check back next weekend to get a hopefully new bacon recipe.

all decked out while you cook

Do you LOVE to cook looking like the perfect 50's housewife? I don't. But if you want to look slightly decked out, my friend who finds amazing deals online just send me an e-mail about this.

E.LF has been bought by Nordstrome and so they need to sell all their products with the E.L.F logo on it. Everything is $1! It's true I just checked their website. Apparently if you use the code CAROLINA you save $7.50 off your first purchase of $15 or more. I Haven't tried it but if you do let me know if the code really works. You pay shipping of course but still, their lip gloss is so yummy that for $1 I might be inspired to cook looking a little less shabby.

sin vergunsas (without shame)

It's late. Really late and I am working on my thesis proposal, which has changed once again. This is o.k but nerve wreaking. I decided to produce a piece about how undocumented immigrants access health care. This is a personal issue for me and now that I am applying for citizenship I am even more committed to understanding and advocating for undocumented immigrants. Right now it's late and I want to go to sleep but I just listened to this piece about students on my campus that are undocumented and I am inspired to stay awake and work a little more on my proposal.
You can here this awesome and inspiring piece by Ayda Julieta Cifuente here

Using HEART OF PALM in your cooking

Have you ever tried heart of palm? This is what grows inside certain types of palm trees like the açaí palm. You know, açaí the little red fruit that's all the rage in the U.S right now in energy drinks? Well the palm tree that produces the yummy little red fruit also produces this white delicious soft heart of palm. It tastes a bit like artichoke. I like using it in my cooking but don't get the chance to as much as I would like because it's fairly expensive and hard to find. So why am I encouraging you to use it in your cooking? well basically because whenever I do I realize that it's worth the price and the effort to find it so I think you should try it out.


Spinach and heart of palm crepe with brie cheese
I'm usually too chicken to make up my own recipes but this one I am proud of.



crepe (my grandma's recipe)

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs

1. blend everything in the blender until there are no lumps
2. Heat a lightly oiled frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the pan, using approximately 1/4 cup for each crepe. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly.

spinach and heart of palm filling with brie

• 5 cups spinach
• 1 can or jar heart of palm (rinse it out and dice it before you use)
• 1 small onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• mushrooms (optional)
• 1/2 cup dices brie cheese
  

1. sautée the diced onion and minced garlic
2. add the spinach and stir occasionally
3. when the spinach is cooked add about 1 cup dices mushrooms and the diced heart of palm
4. take off the heat and stir in the brie cheese

White sauce
(this is also my own creation. someone complained once that it's too cheesey. Modify it as you like or use your own favorite white sauce recipe)

• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 tablespoon corn starch
• 1 cube chicken bouillon
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

1. heat 1/2 cup milk and the butter until the butter is completely melted
2. in a cup mix the other 1/2 cup of milk and the corn starch until it is totally smooth. Corn starch lumps are nasty, trust me!
3. add the corn starch mixture to the butter mixture and the chicken bouillon. Stir constantly on LOW until it begins to thicken.
4. take off the heat and add the Parmesan cheese
   

assembling the crepe

1. put about 1-2 heaping spoonfuls of spinach filling inside each crepe and roll it up.
2. assemble it in a casserole pan.
3. after all the crepes are rolled pour the white sauce over the crepes
4. I added fresh Romano cheese on top
5. bake on medium heat for about 10-15 minutes.
   

my BFF foodie

This is my favorite foodie in the whole world! I wish I had a picture of her cooking but instead I have this picture of her and my future daughter-in-law, so that is o.k too.

Yesterday I got a package in the mail with lots of fun things including shrimp chips and good milk chocolate (all things she doesn't like but sent them anyway because I love!)


The best part of the package was a cook book she made with some of her favorite recipes. I am impressed at the time she put into this and mostly how each recipe starts our with a description of why the recipe works for her and some tips on what kinds of sauces to buy, etc. She also sent along a bunch of Sesame Street DVDs so Enzo can be entertained for hours while I neglect him and cook. Now that is friendship!



Apart from the awesome package, Mariko totally qualifies as a foodie because she can and does spend hours making meals. She was always willing to take a foodland, or costco, or tamuras, or the small food markets in Honolulu, trip with me. She's fun to cook with and I mostly hate cooking with other people. She took me to cool restaurants when we lived by each other. Whenever we were out and about and I would mention that I was starting to get hungry she would stop right away and we would get food instead of convincing me to wait till we got home. This is something that's taken my husband a couple years to learn. She also wrote a very good post on her blog for fellow foodies. If you qualify as such you should read it here.

TEST KITCHEN

Two things to share. First a twist on the pulled pork recipe that I obviously can't get enough of because it's the third time I'm sharing it. Second a revised version of the petit gateau recipe I shared on food tag.

Cafe Rio Pork
I shared this recipe a while ago in a post where I talked about getting my crock pot from freecycle. you can get the recipe here
I made it again yesterday and instead of using red salsa I used mango salsa. I also just cut down the brown sugar to 1/2 cup instead of 1 cup. mango salsa is awesome and it really modified the taste. It's super good, try it.

Petit gateu
So I don't believe in posting recipes that I haven't tested and since I hadn't tested the petit gateau recipe I shared on my food tag I decided to test it out yesterday and here are some modifications.

(I made this late last night and we ate it so fast that no pictures were taken. this picture is from maisvoce.globo.com which is a Brazilian recipe site)

I cut the original recipe in half because I was only making it for Christian and I. If you can eat more than one of these babies in one sitting you deserve a prize. It's incredibly rich. So here is exactly how I made it last night and it turned out perfect if I can say so myself.
Ingredients

60 g dark chocolate chips
50 g butter (this equals to one small stick of butter)
1 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
1/8 cup sugar
3 teaspoons flour (I kept the 3 teaspoons of flour but I think next time I'll just try using 2 teaspoons)

directions

1. Melt the chocolate using bain marie method. use a wooden spoon to mix the chocolate so it will melt faster.
   
2. After the chocolate is completely melted add the butter and turn the heat off. Mix until it is well integrated.
3. beat the eggs, the yolks, and sugar until it is well mixed.
4. slowly add the melted chocolate mixture to the egg sugar mixture.
5. mix until all the ingredients are integrated.
6. Add and mix the flour slowly.
7. coat a muffin pan (5 muffins) with butter and flour and add gently pour the mixture so that it is a little more than 3/4 full. bake for 7-10 minutes at 450 degrees
8. serve with ice cream. I served with raspberry sorbet and I think the sour taste of raspberry was perfect because the petit gateau is so sweet it was the perfect combination.

good tips for cooking with your kids

Design Mom has an awesome blog with delicious yet mostly expensive artsy fartsy design things that you would love to buy your kids but nothing they really need. Don't get me wrong I like looking at her blog, but I'm just saying. Maybe I'm just bitter because her giveaways are so cool but there seems to be thousands of people trying to win the one prize and I don't know how I've never won anything, I mean the odds are totally in my favor.

Today her blog redeemed itself for me by having this very cool post about cooking with your kids. It is very thorough with lots of good ideas to make cooking with kids enjoyable. You can check it out at www.designmom.com it's called Kids in the kitchen- by guest mom Lindsey Rose Johnson

reaping the food tag benefits

So I did a food tag a while back and today I tracked down the recipe's that people shared from my food tag. The three I could find were from Kristen, Mariko (private blog), and the LATU-VAKI FAMILY

here are the recipe's that they posted. Yum and thanks for sharing.

Mighty’s Bi Bim Bap
Makes 2
This is my current obsession. I was wanting to eat out a lot so that I could get this dish. It’s Korean, so I can’t really claim it, but this is what I realized I could make on hand at my house. I went to the Korean market to get the kolchugang sauce, but I think it can be found pretty easily. And if you don't like hot sauce anyway, you don't need it. I think it adds good flavor, though.

½ lb Teriyaki sliced beef (or other thin-sliced meat--sukiyaki or shabu shabu style)
½ C Bulgogi marinade
OR-- if none is available--
Soy sauce, sugar, apple/pear/or other sweet fruit juice, sesame oil, garlic
1 carrot cut into matchsticks
½ zucchini cut into matchsticks
Sesame oil
Sesame seeds
½ cucumber cut into matchsticks
2 eggs
Kolchugang sauce to taste (Korean red hot sauce--this is optional, but gives it a good texture and flavor)
Hot white rice

1. Marinate meat for about 1-2 hours beforehand
2. Cut meat up into small pieces and fry in a pan quickly (so that the meat cooks fast without losing a lot of water).
3. Saute carrot and zucchini in a little sesame oil-- add sesame seeds during the last minute. Season with a little salt. Cook until just barely done.
4. Fry eggs, leave yolks uncooked.
5. Put rice in bowls for serving
6. Arrange carrot/zucchini/sesame seed mix on 1/3 of the top, 1/3 beef pieces, 1/3 cucumber. Place egg on top. Put desired amount of hot sauce and stir the whole mixture together before eating.
*You can also put in some cooked, chopped up spinach or other vegetables.
*if you have Korean seaweed, cut into strips and add on top

Oreo cake.

Just prepare a regular white cake mix from a box. The ones that say extra pudding in the mix or extra moist of course are the yummiest.
Then crush up some oreo cookies in a bag and then mix them in the cake mix. Bake as directed on box.
Frost with homemade butter cream frosting or heck, even the stuff in the jar at the supper market is good stuff.
Decorate top with cookies!
Enjoy! Simple, Fun, and of course very tasty. Great for kids birthday parties!

Cilantro Lime Dressing and Pulled Pork
(I shared this before but Kristen explains it in much simpler ways.)

This is sooooo yummy!
Throw a pork butt (yes, I said pork butt, rump roast, whatever here in Hawaii they actually tag it pork butt :) into the crock pot. I just rub it down with salt/pepper and fresh crushed garlic, but you can also do salsa and some brown sugar. Crock it 3-4 hours on high or 8-10 hours on low.

Cafe Rio Cilantro Lime Dressing
1 1/3 cups sour cream
3/4 cup mayo
1 bunch of cilantro (I put stems in also)
1 pkg ranch dressing mix (dry)
4 tbsp salsa verde (green salsa)
2 cloves of garlic
1/8 tsp. Tabasco sauce
juice of one lime (I also add the zest of that lime)
Mix together in blender and that's it!
Eat with the pork on a salad or taco style on a tortilla, it's sooooooo yummy!

A proud people

Brazil is popular for soccer, carnaval, and beaches. We are proud of those things but that's not all. We are also VERY proud of our vitaminas or as you would call it our smoothies. Avacado smoothies are my favorite and I want one right now.

Avacado Smoothie

• 1/2 of a small very ripe avacado or 1/4 or a large ripe avacado
• 1 cup milk (I use soy)
• 1/2 lime (just the juice)
  
• 3 spoons of sugar. I sometimes use honey

1. Blend everything for about 30 seconds and enjoy!
   

Enzo's Feijoada Birthday Bash

Last Saturday we celebrated Enzo's second birthday in Brazil with a traditional feijoda. We fed close to 100 people. It was very labor intensive but totally worth it. It was nice to celebrate my son's life with family and friends. Here are pictures of the preparations and the actual party.

meet passion fruit/ lilikoi/ maracuja/ sweet cup

Passion fruit is one of the many names for this delicious sour fruit. It comes in so many varieties and also size. This picture is one that I took of a large yellow passion fruit, perfect for juice and mousse. Hawaii is full of smaller passion fruit so if you are in that side of the country or at any location where you can find this delight then try this passion fruit mousse that I am requested to make by my husband any time the fruit is in our home.

passion fruit mousse
This is a very simple recipe. Below is a picture of the recipe. The consistency is not very firm, that is because I omitted tasteless gelatin. The taste is the same it just takes about 2 minutes to make instead of 15.



Ingredients

• 1/4 cup passion fruit concentrate (1/2 of a large fruit or 2 small passion fruits)
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• table cream or heavy cream

Directions

1. Scoop out the pulp of the fruit and put it in the blender. Blend it up and then drain it so that you can get all the little black seeds out.
2. after you drain the pulp put it back in the blender and add 1 can of sweetened condensed milk and the same amount of of table cream, just measure the table cream inside the can of sweetened condensed milk. Note that table cream is thicker so it is much better for this dessert. But if you can't find table cream then add heavy cream.
3. Blend everything on high for 1 minute.
   
4. Put in a medium size glass or metal bowl and let refrigerate over night.
   

I'M BACK

Brazil was wonderful. We ate so much and hung out with family and friends, my idea of a good time. I have lots of simple recipes to share. For now I'll leave you with a teaser.