My Birthday Tale

It’s been two days since my birthday and I’m just now getting around to writing about it. I know, I know, shame on me. But, in my defense, all of my writing energies have been put into applying for freelance writing jobs (which I probably won’t get) and dealing with Portuguese bureaucracy. Long story short, my residence permit was denied because they gave me the wrong answer to a question I specifically asked twice. Don’t worry though, everything can be sorted out with a change of name on my passport (phew).

So, to the birthday stuff. On Wednesday morning, I woke up, like any other day, except my hubby gave me a good morning kiss and sang Happy Birthday to me while I was still half asleep. To pass the morning, I did my usual chores around the house and attempted, with great success, to make no knead bread. “No knead bread?” you ask. Yes. No kneading. For reals.

Rather than me taking up a huge space of this post, get therecipe at The Italian Dish.

Dough all mixed up. This took about one minute.

Dough doubled in size after two hours.

Formed rolls. I slashed them right before baking to make them pretty :).

Fresh bread. The only thing better is fresh GF bread...

 Before you get scared by all of the instructions, it is a process that will take you about 15 minutes of actual work (not including rising time), and after that, you basically just pull off some dough whenever you feel like fresh bread.

The first rolls I made were a little underdone in the middle, so I had to cook them longer. I realized that I did not have quite enough flour in the mixture. But, today when I made more rolls, I simply kneaded in a little flour and, Voila! Perfect rolls. Miguel was raving.

The birthday fun came later in the day when Miguel and I made one of my favorite things in the world- homemade sushi!!!

I am a Japanese chef.

Miguel is a samurai making sushi.

Finished product

 We had so much fun making our dinner together and ate sitting on the floor with bandanas on our heads. The whole experience was such a good time, and we both thoroughly enjoyed it.

Later, we washed down our dinner with gluten-free brownies and ice-cream. Seriously, so good and hardly any flour in them (corn flour). We were both in love. With the brownies…

Gluten-Free Brownies (from David Lebovitz)

Ingredients:

• 6 tablespoons (85g) butter, salted
• 8 ounces (225g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 3/4 cup (150g) sugar
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder 
• 3 tablespoons (30g) corn starch
• optional: 1 cup (135g) nuts, toasted and coarsely chopped

Method:

1. Line the inside of an 8-inch (23 cm) square pan with foil so that it goes up the sides to the rim. Lightly grease the foil with butter or non-stick cooking spray. Preheat the oven to 350º (180ºC).
2. Melt the butter and chocolate in a medium saucepan over very low heat on the stove top, stirring constantly until smooth.
3. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar, then the eggs, one at a time.
4. Sift together the cocoa powder and corn starch in a small bowl then stir them into the chocolate mixture. Beat the batter vigorously for at least one minute, until the batter is no longer grainy and nearly smooth. It will pull away from the sides of the pan a bit.
5. Add the nuts, if using, then scrape the batter into the prepared pan.
6. Bake for thirty minutes, or until the brownies feel just set in the center. Do not overbake. Remove from oven and let cool completely before removing from the pan and slicing.

And so is the tale of my birthday day. We made sushi, we ate sushi, we devoured brownies. It was fun. Super fun.

Fabulous Flowers

Every year in Madeira, there is a four-day flower festival called “Festa da Flor.” It is the second biggest attraction here after the world-record-setting New Year’s Eve firework display.

At this time of the year, the flowers around the island are in full bloom with every gorgeous color imaginable. On top of it, the Madeiran government ships a bunch a flowers in from Holland (Crisis-Schmisis, they say). I have been avoiding town like the plague for the past few days, because I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to be swept into the moving tide of tourists and subsequently feeling like I’m part of a gigantic, sunburned, shorts-, tank-top-, and Jesus-sandal-wearing cattle herd. But yesterday, I attended the final shebang- the Flower Parade.

Unfortunately, I was misdirected as to where would be the best place to sit to watch the parade, so an hour of sitting was wasted. Well, not wasted, because I did quite a lot of interesting people watching.

 However, I did have to move if I had any hope of seeing this thing. I settled on a ledge overlooking the parade and the ocean. It was quite beautiful.

 Once the floats started to arrive, the music was blaring and the dancers were dancing. The Portuguese love to party, that’s for sure. Aunt Elaine, the whole time I watched this, I thought, “Oh my gosh, how my aunt would be loving this right now…” So cultural! Haha.

I realized that this little shindig was not as big as I had anticipated, but, I suppose when you watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade every year, everything else seems a teeeensy bit smaller… Nevertheless, I did get some cool shots and video. I hope you enjoy. 

This girl gave me a free flower. Happy times.

 

A Smile on My Face

Being here in Madeira, I have run into a few obstacles that I had not initially anticipated. One of those is the ability (or lack thereof) to meet people. I am not the type of person to be shy when spoken to or afraid to strike up a conversation with a stranger at the grocery store, but since I don't speak Portuguese, speaking to anyone is a challenge. To compound the issue, Madeirans are- how can I put this- not always eager to talk to people, much less a foreigner, outside their circles.

So, I've been making an attempt over the past few weeks to go do things where I can meet other English speakers and hopefully a friend or two. And yesterday, I did something fun- super fun! At the English Church in town, there are art workshops every Tuesday at 1 PM. There was not much information on the website, so I just showed up and hoped for the best. When I got there, the people were so friendly and genuinely glad I came. And, to make things better, I turned out a pretty awesome piece of art, if I do say so myself.

My watercolor painting

The church also has "social afternoons" on Wednesday where they have tea and coffee and "socialize (I assume)", and I had planned to go. However, instead of looking like I am completely desperate for human contact (I'm not...really...), I figured I should wait to just go back to art class next week. I can't wait! Having a blast, getting my hands full of paint, and chatting away with random strangers never fails to put a smile on my face! 

Snippets of Life

 Hello Folks. I’m currently at home, alone, bored to death. Well, not bored so much as lonely (*tear, tear), but my hubby should be back around 1 AM tomorrow. So goes the weekends of away games.

Yesterday, after my Mr. left, I watched a movie, Manhattan, with Woody Allen and Diane Keaton (love her). I thought it would be good, but instead, it was boring-ville. And, dufus that I am, I had a strong cuppa joe about an hour before bedtime. Sleep hindered.

Then, like a robot, I woke up at 8 AM on the dot (thanks, honey, for creating a routine that now prevents sleeping in). For breakfast, I had some of my delicious homemade yogurt that I would like to share with you. Well, not really, I’ll just share my recipe…

Homemade Yogurt (without a yogurt maker. From French Women Don’t Get Fat)

Yes, this is a pickle jar. Don't judge me.

 Ingredients:

• 1 small tub/125g/3tbsp of plain natural yogurt (with active cultures)
• 1 L or 1/3 gallon milk (I used whole milk, but I think I’ll use 2% next time)
• Small bowl
• Big bowl
• 2 mason jars

Method:

Sanitizing jars.

• Preheat oven to 100F/40C (probably your oven’s lowest temp).
• Heat the milk on med-low until bubbles form around the edge and steam rises from the surface
• Remove from the heat and pour the milk into the big bowl to cool. If you have a thermometer, let it cool to 110-115 degrees F. If you don’t have a thermometer, it is cool enough when you can stick your finger in the milk for 10 seconds.
• Put the yogurt starter into the small bowl. Add a little bit of the warm milk to the yogurt and stir until combined.
• Add the yogurt mixture to the milk a third at a time, stirring as you go.
• Pour into the jars (I covered the jars with aluminum foil for extra insulation because it’s a little chilly here. If your house is warm, no need).
• Turn off the oven and place the jars on the rack standing up. Let stand for 8 hours and then refrigerate.

Yumalicious!

Later, I went to check out an English-speaking church in town, which I liked. Small, but warm and welcoming. Lovely. Next week, I hope to check out another church and then make a decision on which one I will go to. After church, everyone went down to the café around the corner for some coffee, and I had the wonderful opportunity to meet a few nice tourists from the UK. What a shame that they are leaving tomorrow. It seems all the wonderful people I meet are always on their way out. *thumbs down* Oh well.

Another recipe that was successful this week was mayonnaise. Never buying it again. So ridiculously easy if you have a zoom-zoom (immersion blender). 

Homemade Mayo

Ingredients:

• 250ml/1 cup oil of choice. I used regular vegetable for the conventional mayo taste. You can use olive oil, that’s also very yummy.
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp mustard
• 1 tbsp vinegar or lemon juice (or a mixture of both)
• Salt to taste

 Method:

• Make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature, otherwise, it won’t emulsify properly.
• Put all ingredients into a bowl or wide-mouthed cup.
• Put in the zoom-zoom and zoom away!

 That’s it. So easy, tastes like regular mayo, and has no chemicals in it.

So, family and friends, that’s a little snippet to keep you informed on what’s going on over here. Nothing much, sad to say, but a few slivers of interesting here and there. Hopefully, as time goes on, I will have more interesting things to report. Until then, I love you all and miss you dearly.

Simple, for Now

Hi friends! I know it's been a very long time since I've posted last, but honestly, nothing much to report. The most awesome thing that has happened over the past week and a half or so has been that Miguel started his first game and played the entire 90 min! I was so proud of him. Here he is in the starting lineup:

More photos and hopefully the link to the full game coming soon!

Something else super-duper exciting is... I'm getting a visa today! Woo Hoo! With it, I can legally live and work here (Although, most jobs require you speak Portuguese. Go figure). So, we shall see where it takes me.

In health news, I've gone completely sugar-free as of last Tuesday (no added sugar, no fruits, no starchy vegetables). It's been pretty killer, but my body has been crying out for it. I've just been resisting... For those of you who don't know, I have a fairly weak system that has to be kept in check with proper diet. After our wedding, I kind of fell of the super-healthy eating bandwagon, and now I am feeling it. Hence the boring, heart-breaking diet. Gah. How long will this last? It's hard to say. To put it simply, until I feel better. then back to super-balance diet for me. I know it's for the better.

So what does this mean for you? Well, it means that delicious recipes might not pop up as frequently as before. So simple it is for now.