Iemanja's Birthday

I took these pictures in the beginning of February. It was Iemanja's, the goddess of the sea, birthday and people were celebrating. I went with Christian and the kids to dance a little and shoot some pictures. It was a nice afternoon.

I need to remember that nice afternoons happened.

I've been in the worst funk. Lately I haven't been liking Itacare very much. I just want to leave. It's partly because of the absurd heat but really it's about me feeling so sick. I don't leave the house for days. In fact most days I just lay on my bed or on the hammock.

When you're in a rut it's easy to feel like you've always been in a rut. Right now I'm mad at Itacare because it's so hot, so smelly, and the heat and the smell is driving me insane.

Pregnancy is tricky. You're so excited and so happy about the new addition and at the same time you're so tired and so nauseas and if you're me you're so weak and so dizzy it makes you loose your mind. I know there are women out there who have it worse to the point where they're hospitalized because they throw up so much. If that happened to me I would never have any kids. Good thing God knows how heavy a load we can carry.

We bought our tickets back to California. We leave in August. It's still a ways away and even though I'm thrilled to be leaving I know that once I start feeling better and enjoying myself again I'm going to really miss this place.

Instagram and Food

Instagram is my fave. If I was on a deserted island and I had to choose only one social media platform to use, Instagram would be it. Instagram was created by two dudes. Dude number one was Kevin Systrom who then got together with dude number two, Mike Krieger, and together they brainstormed, hashed out, and coded Instagram. Dude number two went to High School with me. He's two years younger than I am, also a Brazilian, and from what I remember a very nice and creative guy. Thanks Mike and Kevin for creating Instagram!

I love looking at food pictures on magazines and blogs but I kind of love it even more on Instagram. For some reason Instragram gives me the feeling of movement, of the behind-the-scenes which I've always been fascinated with.

Here are 8 Instagramers I follow that have a good eye for capturing food. I'm always thrilled when one of their pictures pops into my feed.

1 // dianecu
2 // glutenfreegirl
3 // withstylegrace
4 // nicolegerulat
5 // whitneyingram
6 // dessertfortwo
7 // mattbites
8 // sweetapolita

You can follow me on Instagram @kitchencorners. If you don't have an Instagram account you can see my pictures here, also I post most of my pictures on my Facebook Page. What about you are you on Instagram? Do you have any Instagramers that you enjoy?

I am Violet

(photo source)

Have you watched the movie, or better yet read the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Do you remember Violet Beauregarde, the girl who chews gum all day? I have become Violet Beauregarde. I think that by the end of this pregnancy I will hate gum so much I will never want to chew it again. But for now, it's helping with my nausea. Enzo thinks it's funny that I've become Violet. I think it's a little depressing. There are other movie characters I'd rather be associated with.

But for now I'm just happy to be feeling a little bit better. Was there anything in your pregnancies that helped with nausea?

Letter Playground

In my quiet time I've been checking out all the creative ways people write letters at Letter Playground. I've been putting in names at the generator to see what it looks like. It always looks cool.

Have you ever played with food to create the alphabet? When Enzo was learning how to read we threw him an ABC party where we re-created the whole alphabet into food the kids could eat. That was fun.

ps. You can also find me today on Jane Reaction where I share what I need, what I read, and what I greed. Have a great weekend. xoxo

Potato Vinaigrette

There is no story to this post. O.K maybe just a little story. I missed going to the beach with the kids and Christian because I just had to eat some potato vinaigrette. I know, it's a totally boring story. I've been very boring these days. All I do is sleep and feel nausea, so much nausea that it's debilitating. I only kind of home school these days, and I definitely only sort of parent, and on a rare occasion when I can tolerate the kitchen I sort of cook. It's scary how fast I go from loving food to loathing food when I am pregnant. Does this happen to you too? Please say yes.

There are small windows where I feel the need to eat something, because I am a rational being and I have to remind myself that eating is necessary. There are also rare moments where I just know what I have to eat to help me feel better. This potato vinaigrette was one of those rare inspirations.

The combination of potatoes, radishes, olives, parsley, vinegar and salt was exactly what I needed.

Potato Vinaigrette
(printable version)
serves 6


1 lb potatoes (it can be any variety you like)
1/2 lb radishes
1/2 cup green olives whole
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
vinegar and salt to taste


Peal and chop the potatoes. Boil them until soft. Drain the potatoes and run under cold water for a couple of minutes. Set the potatoes aside. Wash the radishes and slice them, then toss them with the drained potatoes. Add the olives and chopped parsley and season with vinegar and salt. Serve immediately. 

New to me Blog | THE COZYHUNTER

I think I'm going to do a new series on Mondays where I introduce to you a new blog I've become smitten with over the last week. It's a nice way to start a Monday, don't you think?

Kitchen Corners meets The Cozyhunter.

I met The Cozyhunter through a Pin. In case you were wondering what Enzo would wear if a) I could convince him to wear what I wanted him to wear and b) we lived somewhere cold c) I could convince Christian that suspenders were cool this would be it. When I clicked on the Pin it took me to The Cozyhunter blog. So from one simple Pin I found a world of inspiration. Thank you suspenders!

The Cozyhunter is written by Golriz Lucina, Co-director of Soul Pancake and mama to a new baby boy.

The Cozyhunter is about creative expression. If something food related falls into that category then Golriz will blog about it, so you'll find some food treasures there too like those delicate bowls and those textures spoons pictured above. Definitely check out The Cozyhunter.

On a side-not I'd like to acknowledge Golriz's pretty white nails. This weekend I removed the chipped nail-polish from my toes and Baby Maria screamed "go to the salon right now, go paint your toes!" It was 8:00 in the morning. I was equally shocked/fascinated with my natural toe nail color. I don't think I've seen my toe nails unpainted for at least 6 months. In a nutshell our weekend consisted of unpainted toe-nails, feeling very sick, and seeing a tarantula that was the size of Michel Jordan's right hand. The tarantula should have been in a zoo but it was on the path we hiked on. Juliana almost stepped on it. The other part of the weekend was gathering Juliana's personal information like her parent's phone numbers and insurance information, you know just in case.

How was your weekend, were there any new blogs you discovered or creepy tarantulas?

Burfday!

Hi!

Today I fed my babies cookies with brigadeiro (Brazilian chocolate fudge) on top and threw in some sprinkles for good measure. All this before 9:00am. Let's pretend I was trying to be festive, you know, for my birthday. But really I was just craving cookies with brigadeiro and sprinkles. Yesterday I was so nauseous the only thing that sounded good was store bought cookies with nutella in the middle and brigadeiro in the outside and sprinkles on top. I had about 10 of these homemade overly sweet pretty disgusting (if you think about it) sandwich cookies. And then I felt sooooo good. I eat horribly when I'm pregnant because all I crave are horrible things, though I do force myself to eat a vegetable here and there.

Today I thought about writing 30 things I want to do before I turn 30 but after thinking about it for 5 minutes I changed my mind because the only things I could think of wanting to do is sleep, eat Cheetos,  and watch movies with the kids, like lots and lots of movies. A couple years ago I would of never admitted this to anyone because I wanted to be the perfect parent. But we all know who the real perfect parents are - the Frech. In fact grant me my birthday wish and read this article, because it's just so good, like sprinkles on top of a cookie.

So now you know two things about me. One, I eat junk when I am pregnant. Two, my parenting skills diminish ten-fold when I am pregnant and I don't feel bad about it one bit. I do believe the best thing you can give your kids are siblings and if they don't like it too bad.

I'm not going to post a bucket list. But I will post a list because I love lists.

How about a 29 things you probably didn't know about me list.
(O.K the first two you already know)

1. I crave junk food when I am pregnant
2. I kind of become a mediocre parent when I am pregnant, mostly during the first trimester when I'm too tired to do anything but watch Wonder Pets and Dora.
3. I rarely go to bed before midnight and I usually have a really hard time waking up in the morning, except when I am pregnant. I've been waking up every day at 6:00am and going to bed no later than 10:00pm.
4. I don't share a computer with my husband. We are definitely a two computer family.
5. In the last year I took over 11,000 pictures. Mostly of food. 
6. I haven't read a book in a very long time.
7. I listen to audiobooks like crazy. Right now I'm listening to Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me by Mindy Kaling. F-U-N-N-Y!
8. I'm not good at keeping up with the news. I mostly rely on my mom to tell me what's going on.
9. I used to want to have 10 kids
10. I still really want to adopt.
11. I dream about food all the time but in my dreams the moment I'm about to take a bite I wake up. So frustrating.
12. I'm lactose intolerant.
13. I love white chocolate
14. I ate a Twix bar every day my Senior year of high school.
15. I was captain of my high school's cheerleading squad for 2 years.
16. I listen to a lot of Lady Gaga when I'm running.
17. I run 3 days a week, rain or shine, pregnant or un-pregnant.
18. I believe in friendships.
19. I believe in love.
20. I believe in Jesus Christ.
21. I love roller coasters.
22. Ferris wheels freak me out. 
23. I cry at sappy stuff all the time, like this video. 
24. I am really unsympathetic when my children cry, specially when they get hurt. In fact I kind of get mad at them for not walking straight and tripping, for bumping their heads, falling off the swings, etc...
25. I almost never leave the house without wearing earrings.
26. I probably wear make up once a year, at most. I have nothing against make up I just never think about putting any on.
27. I speak English, Portuguese, and Spanish and after 1 year of studying Japanese in college  I speak zero Japanese.
28. I learned to drive when I was 23. 
29. I love learning new things. Lately I've been obsessed with Khan Academy. In fact I should write a list of things I want to learn before I turn 30. But I'll leave that for another day.

Halfway Mark | Living in Bahia for the Past 6 Months

Today we've hit our 6 month mark of living in Itacare Bahia Brazil. I have mixed feelings about leaving in September. For one thing I despise moving and the thought of packing our stuff and then unpacking our stuff...yeah I'd rather not even think about it. For another thing I'm really going to miss it here. Not everything, but a lot of things.

For the past 6 months I've showed you pictures of the beach and waterfalls and fresh delicious fish that is always so readily available. Mostly though I've showed you a piece of what our life looks like. A life I love.

But the truth is I have a love/hate relationship with living here. I think this is normal of any place you live and has more to do with attitude than with anything else. So instead of focusing on the things that are hard I tend to focus on the things that are great, because not only is life too short to play the role of a Debbie Downer but my time here is too short to even be down at all. When you live some place where you have an expiration date I say enjoy it as much as you can. Even if there are some things that just plain piss you off.

So in all fairness here are the things I love/hate about living in Itacare

|1| I love our big wooden table / I hate the bathroom in our bedroom that is more often stinky than not.
|2| I love that everyone is so friendly / I hate that it's hard to have anyone over for dinner because everyone works in the tourism business and they all work until late at night.
|3| I love our big open kitchen / I hate our wimpy fridge
|4| I love how fresh shrimp is / I hate that good cheese is hard to come by
|5| I love the weather / I hate that sunblock is so expensive
|6| I love Brazilian waxes, manicures, and pedicures / I hate that I can not find a swim suit or a tankini to buy.
|7| I love that we can walk anywhere we need to in the town / I hate that there is no L.D.S church in Itacare and in order for us to attend church we have to rent a car and drive an hour and half each way.
|8| I love that we are surrounded by amazing historial sites / I hate that the local government is so junk that it doesn't care a thing about the historial sites, or anything for that matter.
|9| I love that we found a wonderful, trustworthy, talented person to help us. Yes, I love that we have a maid / I hate that we live next to a dirt road and that as soon as you clean, it just gets dirty all over again.
|10| I love that we have so many vistors/ I hate that our visitors always leave.

On Saturday my once student now turned good friend moved to our house. She and my sister Iris are now roomies. Juliana is here to volunteer at an NGO and to help document Baby Maria's fashion statements. My favorite thing about living here is that I get to share this experience with my family, with friends like Juliana, and with you.

So you have 6 months to come and visit. What do you say?