Weekend Wrap-Up

How charming is this house? Pilar is the the Martha Stewart Living editor in chief. I love her name and I love her house. I love her fruit prints by designer Enzo Mari, the classy kitchen island, and the leather couch in the dinning room area. The house is perfect and it's located, wait for it, in Brooklyn of course. Sometimes it's fun looking at pretty things. Thank you Pinterest.

Here are some other things that caught my attention this week
// Alt Summit
// DIY Project: Homemade Cutting Boards.
// DIY: Party Animal Candles
// What to wear, hosting a Fall cookout
// Wedding fever pie time
// A circular lighthouse kitchen
// Immigrating to the US on Halloween

And in case you missed it here's what went down on Kitchen Corners this week
// Beach Food
// Waverly Roaring Tabletop Giveaway
// Du Cerrado Popsicles
// A Guide to Whisks
// Polar Ice Cube
// The Cooking Light Gluten-Free Cookbook giveaway
// Holiday in Itacare
// Moqueca Baiana de Peixe, the traditional fish stew of Bahia

Have a fun weekend my friends.
I can't believe tomorrow is already October. Craziness.
See you on Monday.
xoxo

Moqueca Baiana de Peixe // Traditional Fish Stew of Bahia

Fish. The reason why we moved to Itacare Bahia was because of fish. You see, my husband is researching how Itacare went from an economy that survived on fishing to an economy that now survives on tourism. Itacare is a beautiful beach town where it's not uncommon to meet someone who tells you that they came on vacation and then never left. The good thing (and I guess the bad thing too) about tourism is that tourists often want to consume culture. They want a taste of the local and the traditional and here the local and traditional often tastes like fish. Moqueca Baiana, a traditional fish stew in Bahia, is served in almost every single restaurant you walk into. I'm glad because that means that there is still a demand for fish and so fishermen still have jobs.

When the sun starts to set the fishermen are usually coming in from a hard days work, bringing in the catch of the day. That's when Christian returns from his fieldwork and when I grab my iPod and head to the beach for a quick run. I like to run on the Orla, which is where all the colonial houses are, where the fishing boats dock, and where there is always soccer games and volleyball games and children playing in the sand. It's a mighty good place to be at, with an unbeatable energy.

Holiday in Itacare

Today started out with freshly squeezed orange juice and ended with a religious procession. It was Saint Miguel's birthday, the parton saint of Itacare. Tomorrow is also a Holiday because that's how Brazil rolls. Enzo didn't have school, Christian went to Mass, and I got a sunburn. Going to the beach never gets old but I do need to be better about putting on sunscreen.

I'm not catholic but I do love a catholic procession, maybe it's because I just like walking with a big group of people.

Other Facts From the Day
// The kids were perfect. I don't know if the kids actually were perfect or if it was me who finally got enough sleep, maybe a combination of the two. Regardless, I had a really good day with the kids and they had a really good day with each other.
// I had my little sister Iris go to our neighborhood shop to buy oranges so I could make juice for breakfast. She asked the shop owner to choose the best oranges for her and he did. Today's oranges were heaven sent. It was the best orange juice I've ever made and it only cost me $2.00 to make a gallon.
// The little boy in the bottom picture slept throughout the entire procession on his daddy's shoulders, even when the band was playing super loud next to him he never woke up. I hope my next child is a good sleeper.
// The pretty lady in the bottom picture is Enzo's teacher. Her name is Idineide. Enzo can never remember her name. When she saw him at the procession she gave him a big hug and a kiss. She is so kind to my son that I think I can honestly say I love her. I was happy that her daughter won the church's beauty pageant this year, I could tell Idineide was really happy.

I'll be back tomorrow.

The Cooking Light Gluten-Free Cookbook Giveaway

I remember the first time I heard the term gluten-free. It was five years ago and Christian and I were having lunch with new friends. The wife has celiac disease and she was telling us about cooking gluten-free. Since then I've become more informed on gluten-intolerance through the wonderful blog, Gluten Free Girl and the Chef.

Lately I've realized that following a gluten-free diet is not only for folks with gluten-intolerance. My wonderful friends at Green Kitchen Stories, for example, do not have celiac but strongly believe that a gluten-free diet is best.

If you follow a gluten-free diet or even if you don't I think you'll enjoy this cookbook. I'm a huge fan of Cooking Light, my friend Melissa turned me on to them by saying that every time she received her issue of Cooking Light she felt like she was getting a mini cookbook and that all the recipes she ever tried from Cooking Light worked. I bought myself a couple magazines and since then I've become a total fan.

I'm thrilled that Cooking Light came out with a Gluten-Free cookbook this Fall and I'm thrilled that I get to give a copy away to you.

The Prize: A copy of The Cooking Light Gluten-Free Cookbook delivered to a US mailing address only. 1 winner.To Enter: Leave a comment. Any comment will due.+1 more comment: You can get more entries by becoming a Kitchen Corners' Follower using Google Friend Connect on the sidebar. 

+1 more comment: By subscribing via RSS or email to Kitchen Corners' feeds. 

+1 more comment: Follow me on Facebook and/or Twitter.

+1 more comment: Share this giveaway! Sharing buttons are right below this post. Just leave a comment telling me how you shared.

Giveaway closes: Midnight Tuesday PST October 4. The winner will be randomly selected, contacted via email, and announced next Wednesday.

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This giveaway is now closed. Dana is the winner.

What to serve at your next climate change conference -Polar Ice Cube

Here is a perfect example of how design and food can come together to create a political statement. Monos Polar Ice are two simple ice molds, one makes a polar bear on a glacier and the other makes two penguins on a glacier. Once the ice is put on your drink the mini glacier starts to quickly melt away, depicting the sad reality that many Arctic animals are facing right now. Bravo to the designer Atsuhiro Hayashi.  

Anyone putting on a climate change conference any time soon? These would be perfect to serve at an event like that.

{Spotted on Spoon and Tamago via Notcot}

A Guide to Whisks

1. Whisk Hanging Lamp
2. Personalized Stainless Steel Whisk
3. Egg Whisk
4. Kuhn Ricon Silicon Rainbow Whisk
5. Ici Batter Whisk
6. Curved Tong Cherry Whisking Fork
7. Silicon Ball Whisk

I'm a whisk gal. I have two in my kitchen and that's saying a lot since I had to stuff whatever I could in my suitcase to bring to Brazil. Most things got left behind, my whisks did not. My favorite whisk is Mr. number seven, the silicon ball whisk. I use it for everything. I love the nonstick little balls at the end, it makes my batter so much better (sorry I had to).

I've heard number five, the ici batter whisk, is the bomb. Have you ever used one like that before? It's supposedly great for delicate batters and whips up beautifully fluffy pancakes. I want one. In fact I would gladly have all of these starting with number one hanging from my kitchen ceiling.

Here is a glossary of different types of whisks. Makes me wish I had one of each kind.

Are you a whisk person or do you just use a wooden spoon for everything? If you're a whisk person do tell me what your favorite whisk is.

Du Cerrado Popsicles

We have well over 20 eateries on our tiny street. There are fancy restaurants, and bakeries, there are pizzerias, and people with carts selling goodies on the street. Can you believe that one of the most popular hand cart is a porridge cart? I'm not joking, people love porridge they'll bring their metal cups and have the porridge boy fill it up for them. I haven't tried it yet but I always smile when I see it.

Last week we tried the popsicle shop, Du Cerrado, and it did not disappoint.
Just don't ask the bebe for a lick.

For our first visit I had a pumpkin with coconut popsicle . All the popsicles are made with fruit from the Cerrado region of Brazil, which is the savanna area of our country. To be honest with you most of the flavors are from fruits I have never heard of. Next time I need to be more adventurous and try a flavor I'm not familiar with.

The popsicles are not too sweet. Baby Maria's watermelon popsicle, for example, was made entirely by watermelon and tamarind with no sugar added.

I know you can't come over and try one with me but I wanted to share some of their flavors with you, none the less, so that if you're a popsicle lover like me you can try and make some of the flavors at home.

Which flavor would you try?

p.s. I wish you were here so we could eat popsicles together.

Waverly Roaring Table Top Giveaway

Today Waverly is launching their new animal print disposable tableware collection. So cute. Baby Maria is an animal lover, this party table is her baby dream come true. If you have an animal lover in your family this giveaway is for you. Waverly and I teamed up to give 4 of my readers an animal print tableware set. A fun little giveaway to welcome the new week.

Also, Make sure to check out Waverly's Facebook Page to see the cute D.I.Y on how to make these paper chandelier and get tips on decorating.

Anyone out there planning any parties any time soon?

The Prize: A Waverly Animal Print Disposable Tableware Collection Set to 4 winners. Open to US residents only.To Enter: Leave a comment. Any comment will due. 

+1 more comment: You can get more entries by subscribing via RSS or email to Kitchen Corner's feeds. 

+1 more comment: Follow me on Facebook and/or Twitter.

+1 more comment: Share this giveaway! Sharing buttons are right below this post. Just leave a comment telling me how you shared.

Giveaway closes: Midnight Monday PST October 2. The winner will be contacted via email and announced next Friday.
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This giveaway is now closed. The winners have been announced in the comment section.

Beach Food

Hi friends how was your weekend? We took a little excursion to Jeribucacu, a beautiful little beach you hike in to. Christian wanted to go for the surf and I wanted to go for the food. Jeribucacu is known for both. Rumor has it that the best tapioca in town is right there on that little beach. Unfortunately the tapioca lady was gone for the day so I had to wait to come back home to eat from the tapioca stand near our house. Don't get me wrong, tapioca is good anywhere but I bet tapioca on the beach is even better. Nothing like eating food with the taste of sea salt in the air.




I didn't eat Tapioca on the beach but I did eat a grilled cheese stick, which has to be my favorite beach food of all times.

Now I'm dreaming about globetrotting my way through beaches and writing a book about beach food because I know Brazil isn't the only place with fun and interesting food. What do you think? Could beach food be the new street food?

Want to see Enzo hiking and my cute little sister? Here are more pictures of our day trip.

Weekly Wrap-Up

This has been a very full week and I'm not going to lie, I am exhausted. Re-designing a blog is no small task and I am so grateful for Ana, my trusty blog designer, who has worked triple overtime to make everything come together. She really is the best. Ana, You. Are. The. Best!

In fact I am thankful for a lot of folks who have come to my aid this past week,

// Enoch, my brother-in-law, and his friend Travis are some of the kindest souls I have the pleasure of knowing. They own a rad design firm in NYC called Studio Case. They are busy doing really big work yet somehow they find the time to give me real feedback and are always super nice about it.
// Ms. Erin Jane from the wonderful blog Jane Reaction did my header for this blog. The first time I worked with Erin she did the header for The Little Foodie, which till this day is one of my favorite headers ever. Erin helped me a bunch, a whole bunch with this new redesign. If you need a header she is your gal! She's wonderful at figuring out a brand for your blog.
// Sabrina from The Tomato Tart  quickly came to my aid when I needed her html expertise. In fact she took her lunch break to help me out and believe it or not we've never even met.
// Kimmie from Full Circle is one of the best things that ever came out of blogging. Through blogging we became friends. She is a great friend, always supportive right when I need her to be.
// Juliana is also a good friend. She also happens to be a full time student busy with her work, with writing a travel blog and a an opinion blog, and busy having fun in Rio de Janeiro. At one point when I was majorly freaking out about some blog hiccups she quickly came to my aid. She kindda comes to my aid a lot.
// Gail Pomare is my trusty photographer. Not only did she take the picture of me eating cotton candy (see my twitter avatar, facebook profile, etc) that I love, she also took a bunch of pictures for me this week mainly of screen shots to show me what the template looked like in different browsers. Super helpful.

And here is what I put up on the blog this week,

// Birthday platters because they can really brighten up a little party
// A classic Enzo shot captured a couple months ago by Ben from You Fed a Baby Chili
// Who gives away water on their blog? I do! This is no ordinary water and yes you can still enter the giveaway
// A recipe for basic dinner rolls
// A kitchen bull I would gladly own
// A Spice Islands giveaway which I just posted today

Also, a lot of people have been emailing me to see pictures of our house in Bahia. Today I uploaded some on my Facebook page. As you can see the house is full of big windows. We've caught some people staring at our house and yesterday we finally figured out why, prior to this place being our home it used to be a nude hostel. I know!

Have a fun weekend my friends.

{images adapted from here}

Spice Islands Giveaway

Hi friends. I'm thrilled about today's giveaway because I am a huge fan of the brand Spice Islands, I think their cinnamon is exceptional! I'm also a fan of their website, with it's super user friendly interface and great recipes. Some of my favorite food bloggers, Todd and Dianne the duo from White on Rice Couple, Matt Armendariz from Matt Bites, and David Lebovitz,  have contributed recipes to the Spice Islands' blog. My all time favorite recipe on the blog is the Acaraje with Spicy Shrimp Filling written by Matt Armendariz. Acaraje originated from this little place where I'm living now. Within walking distance from my house I can go to at least 5 Acaraje stands. So if you don't have the opportunity to visit me in Bahia you can at least make Matt's Acaraje recipe so you can get a taste of what I've been eating. And if shrimp isn't your thing than check out this Puerto Rican French Toast with Pineapple Puree recipe by Todd and Dianne 'cuz it looks mighty good.

Today I get to partner with my favorite spice company to host a giveaway. Can you see why I'm thrilled? One lucky reader will get to pick 5 spices from the Spice Island website and will have the products delivered to your house. You can browse their list of spices, it's a cool interactive feature of the site, and then leave a comment on this post to enter the giveaway. Then if you win you have to pick cream of tartar as one of your spices and have it shipped all the way to Brazil for me. Ha! I'm kidding you can keep all your spices and make wonderful creations with them and then when I come back to the Sates in a year you can bake me some snickerdoodles.

The Prize: Five spices of your choice from Spice Island Trading Company Shipped to a US or Canada mailing address only. 1 winner.To Enter: Leave a comment. Any comment will due. 

+1 more comment: You can get more entries by subscribing via RSS or email to Kitchen Corner's feeds. 

+1 more comment: Follow me on Facebook and/or Twitter.

+1 more comment: Share this giveaway! Sharing buttons are right below this post. Just leave a comment telling me how you shared.

Giveaway closes: Midnight Thursday PST September 29. The winner will be contacted via email and announced next Friday.

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This giveaway is now closed. Annet is the winner..

Kitchen Bull

The Kitchen Bull is a combination of a knife board, bookshelf, and cheese board all in one classy carved bull. I spotted the Kitchen Bull on Outblush blog a while back and am now in a phase where simple organization is really appealing to me.

How would you like to have a bull in your kitchen?

Basic Dinner Rolls

I've been going through my archive of posts. It's not necessarily a fun task. I have over 600 posts all wildly labeled, formated, and so on. Through this organizational process I've encountered some posts I'd like to re-post, give it a new life. About 3 years ago I posted my bread recipe, the picture was pretty awful and the recipe needed to be tighten up so I decided to give you a new and improved recipe for basic dinner rolls.

Dinner Rolls
(printable version)
2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon yeast
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup oil
1 tablespoon salt
4 1/2 cups flour

1. Mix the yeast and water and let stand for 5 minutes
2. Add sugar, oil, salt and 2 cups flour and mix until gooey,you can either do this by hand or with an electric mixer
3. Continue adding flour one cup at a time and and knit dough, also something you can do by hand or with an electric mixer that has the hook attachment
4. Let the dough rise for 2 hours
5. Cook at a pre-heated oven of 400* F for 15-20 minutes

Ferrarelle Sparkling Water Giveaway

Let's start the day with something pretty shall? I think these glass bottles are really pretty don't you? Ferrarelle is a unique Italian company that's been around since 1893, famous for their naturally sparkling mineral water.

The Ferrarelle spring is located near the extinct Roccamonfina volcano where rain falls and percolates underground through layers of rock. The rainwater starts a 9,3 miles journey lasting 10 years, during which time it is purified and enriched with precious healthy minerals including calcium, potassium and bicarbonates. At a depth of 9 miles underground, the water encounters carbon dioxide and begins to rise through the strata, reaches the Riardo plain and springs forth naturally into the light of day, creating the renowned and unique Ferrarelle naturally sparkling mineral water. How cool is that?

Ferrarelle is launching a new campaign in the US and will soon have their sparkling mineral water distributed nationwide. Here is your chance to have a bootle of Ferrarelle and a bottle of Natia, plain mineral water, delivered to your house for you to sample. 

Thanks Ferrarelle for sponsoring this giveaway. I would be tickled to receive such pretties at my house. 

The Prize: A bottle of Ferrarelle Sparkling Mineral water and a bottle of Natia Mineral Water  Shipped to a US mailing address only. To Enter: Leave a comment. Any comment will due. 

+1 more comment: You can get more entries by subscribing via RSS or email to Kitchen Corner's feeds. 

+1 more comment: Follow me on Facebook and/or Twitter.

+1 more comment: Share this giveaway! Sharing buttons are right below this post. Just leave a comment telling me how you shared.

Giveaway closes: Midnight PST September 27. The winner will be contacted via email and announced next Wednesday.

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This giveaway is now closed. The winner is Skyxsky.

Excuse us for a while

We're installing the new template.

Working through some hiccups.

Be back soon.

xoxo

Da

Birthday Platters

Baby Maria's birthday was great. I made a bolo gelado which translates to cold cake. I've never seen cold cake in the US before so maybe you're not familiar with it. When I was little bolo gelado was the trend for birthday parties. I have to say I felt kind of old making it for my daughter but I enjoyed eating it just as much as when I was 5 years old. Basically, it's a great cake to serve at parties because it minimizes messes. It's a very moist cake that you drench in milk and coconut milk and then you cut it into squares and wrap it in tin foil. When it's time to eat you just unwrap the foil and use the foil to hold your piece of cake, basically mess free.

The whole time I was making the cake I was wishing I had a pretty platter to serve the wrapped slices on. Particularly I wish I had these pretty platters from the cute esty shop Ampersand. How cute is that bunting platter?

Ampersand is a two women shop based out of Kansas. Carrie and Morgan are graphic designers and good friends, what a great combo. I not only love their platters I also love their prints. Their shop is filled with nostalgia and color and the best part is that they have a killer blog.

What would you serve on top of that bike platter? I'm thinking mini sandwiches, what about you?

Weekly Wrap Up

{image adapted from Inspiring the Everyday}

This has been a busy week. We're finally all moved in, though we still need benches for our big table, right now we only have two chairs for a table that is 7 feet long. Comical! I'm also doing some housekeeping stuff on my template. I've been working with Ana and Erin and I'm excited to launch the new and improved Kitchen Corners. Coming soon, I promise. Have I told you how slow our internet connection is? I haven't because by the time I'm done typing the connection has dropped. No joke. O.K fine it's not that bad, and when it is I just close the computer and head to the beach. So really, it's not that bad.

And when the internet connection is good I do this; I write and I read. Here are some posts I read this week that I loved.

// Coconut Panna Cotta
// Pretzel Rolls
// Back To School Dinner
// Apple Tarte
// Fig, Coconut, and Blackberry Ice Cream

and here are some things I wrote this week that I hope you enjoyed.

// A birthday post for my baby girl
// A pulled pork fried rice recipe that I finally got around to posting and now I'm craving
// Southern Living just came out with a home decorating book which I'm giving away and which you can still enter to win.
// My dream garden.
// A list of LEIF products I want.
// And another giveaway which you can still enter, perfect for parents interested in the topic of school lunch.

Anything you've read or published this week that you'd like to share? Feel free to put links in the comment section and I'll be happy to check it out.

Have a lovely weekend my friends.

Baby girl's Birthday

Tomorrow Baby Maria turns 2. Yesterday I told her how we got a fancy dinner when she was born. For some reason she thinks the whole story telling is funny and she just laughs and laughs. I wonder how much she actually understands. Probably not much at all but the fun part is that she enjoys the process none-the-less and at the end of my story she said  "thank you mommy."

I can go on and on about my Baby Maria and how having her as a daughter has made me happy in ways I didn't even knew were possible. I love her. I love her so much sometimes I wake her up in the middle of the night and put her in my bed just so I can snuggle her and the best part is that she always snuggles back.

Tomorrow is her birthday and we're having a very low key gathering with cake and pop, that's it. I was feeling a little guilty because I have always thrown elaborate parties for her brother, but haven't done anything elaborate for her. But I think it's o.k because Baby Maria is a simple girl with simple tastes.

Last year we were also in Bahia for her birthday. We were vacationing here for 3 weeks. We didn't know anyone except the owner of the vacation rental and her family so we invited them and her maid over for some cake. Before having cake Christian, Enzo, Maria and I went out to dinner and right there at the restaurant she made a new friend. That's the thing I love about my daughter, she makes friends. She loves people and people love her, in an instant she has friends left and right. So the little girl, and the parents, and the grandma came to our tiny vacation rental and we had cake and pop, sang her a song, and played with balloons. It was actually pretty perfect.

Two weeks ago, before we left Sao Paulo, my mom's maid threw Baby Maria a surprise party. She made Maria a beautiful strawberry shortcake themed cake, with passion fruit mousse as the filling. She also made tons of salgadinhos and before we knew it we had a full on party. Baby Maria spent most of her party playing with the kids outside and when it was time to go sing Happy Birthday she had already made three new friends which we invited up for some cake.

Can I just say that the little boy on the left always has a soccer shirt on and he always has these cute little soccer shorts on that are a couple sizes too small for him.

Ok, here he is again.

Today I'm making a cake and tomorrow we'll share it with some new friends. There is a boy who rides his bike at night and makes litte birds out of banana tree leaves to sell to tourists. When ever he sees Baby Maria he makes her a little gift. And whenever she sees him she opens up a great big smile. We invited him over tomorrow for some cake. He said as a gift he'll bring some of his friends over to meet Baby Maria. Honestly, I don't think there is anything else she could ask for.

Pulled Pork Fried Rice

I've been craving fried rice. More specifically I've been craving that fried rice above, the one I made way back when I had a cast iron skillet and a crock pot. The fried rice is made with left over pulled pork. In my world pulled pork is made in a crock pot. I have no crock pot in Brazil but if you have a crock pot in your side of the world then you should make this recipe. It's a really good recipe and I'm not just saying that because I made it, believe it or not I'm kind of shy about the food I cook.

But I did make this! And I wrote the recipe down! And now I want to make it again but first I need to figure out how to make pulled pork via another method that does not require a crock pot. Any suggestions? If you tell me I should make it Hawaiian style in an imu I'll just have to roll my eyes because that is seriously more work than I can dream of though I would have enough left over pulled pork to make fried rice for a very long time, no doubt. Oh well, at least the recipe is now documented and when I return to the land of kitchen-appliances-a-plenty I'll make this again, unless of couse you have a pressure cooker recipe for pulled pork. If that's the case I may end up loving you forever.

Pulled Pork Fried Rice

(printable version)

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3 eggs
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 3 garlic cloves minced
• 1 tablespoons minced fresh ginger, peeled
• 2 bunches green onions, white and green parts separated and thinly sliced
• ½ lbs cooked pulled pork
• 2 carrots, shredded
• ½ cup frozen peas
• 2 cups cooked white rice
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar

1. In a wok or large nonstick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over high heat.
2. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, lightly beat eggs with 1/4 teaspoon soy sauce to combine.
3. Add eggs to wok and swirl to coat bottom of pan. Cook, without stirring, until almost set, 1 minute, then fold in thirds with a spatula. Transfer cooked eggs to a work surface and cut into 1/2-inch pieces.
4. Add 1 tablespoon oil to wok and swirl to coat. Add garlic, ginger, and scallion whites and cook, stirring constantly for about 30 seconds, until fragrant.
5. Add pulled pork,carrots, peas, and rice and stir to combine. Add cooked egg, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, and vinegar and cook, stirring constantly, until rice is coated, about 1 minute. Let cook, undisturbed, until warm, about 1 minute.
6. Top with scallion greens and serve.