Lily’s Red Table

Every once in a while a friend asks me to organize their parties at home. I cook all the food, set the table and organize the party. On Sunday, there was a little happy hour at Lily’s. The menu was a mix of Christmas and Appetizers… ham with egg threads, endives with blue cheese and parma ham, slices of filet with capers and mustard sauce, flavoured baked onions, hors d’ouvre of apricot with cream cheese, dips, hummus, seasoned olives, mexican salsa…a menu as diverse and eclectic as the hostess!

Christmas at home

I have inherited from my mom the taste for cooking and parties. I love to set tables, select table cloths, plates, glasses, silverware. The party for me starts way before, and sometimes I have more fun organizing it!

I immensely enjoy Christmas. This time I didn’t have time to organize things beforehand, as I usually do, so I spent the whole day working!

My guests arrive at different times on Christmas Eve, so I prefer to have a "cold menu" and put everything on the table.

We had the traditional pork with apricot jam (I will post the recipes later), turkey breast with grapes sauce, Jamaican Ham (Jamie Oliver’s recipe), 7 grains rice, farofa, half-dried tomatoes, dips, sauces, cheeses and cold cuts. We also had our traditional Christmas cake – it is somewhat like the British Christmas cake, but better! ;-d

This time I decided to set all the glasses in the same place – champagne flutes, wine glasses, whisky, everything. I put some candle in the green antique wine glasses Sergio gave me last year and voilá: it looked great.  I liked the result and I didn’t have to worry about glasses all evening.

Lights and Presents everywhere.

The nativity scene is new; Caio’s great-grandmother gave him to explain Jesus’ story. But the little Jesus I have it since I was born.

I like to add small Christmassy touches everywhere. Those little red ribbons were Eduina’s idea and I quite liked it, even though the photo didn’t come out too well (and not because my mother-in-law is in the picture!!)

The Miraculous Medal Pendant and the Bank Slip

I don’t know about you, all the holy medals I have were lovingly given to me by Grandmother, and they were already blessed by her friend Father Marcos.

My Grandpa Teixeira gave me one of my favourites, which he found during his walks on the beach at dawn. I took it to the US for my sophomore year as an exchange student. With all the wisdom of a 14 year-old, I remember holding it real tight in bed during those chilly New England winter nights. And – ok, you can laugh – I used to sniff Vick Vaporub to remind me of my mother, who was addicted to it then. But I digress. The thing is, those little medals accompany me my whole life: my trips, hospitals, at the maternity waiting for Caio, the door of my house, when I said good-bye to Grandpa Teixeira… good times and some not so good, but the medals were always there with me.

Well then, and can you believe I got one in the mail last week? Yes, that is correct. I received a miraculous medal by post! Together with it, there was a bank slip, to be paid at Banco de Brasil: “a contribution in the amount of 15, 20 or even 25 Reais,” and it goes on… “the invoice is only to make your donation easier, as it is accepted in all banks, lotterys and even the postal bank.” That is it?! C’mon guys, I thought it was so weird I had to say something… do you think it counts?
Direct-mailing Religious medals?

Cuak!

Caio, Sofia and the Jurassic Era

To cheer you up a bit…

Time and fantasy inside a child’s mind is something more than fascinating (particularly to a mother of an only child…) I was just on the phone with my friend Luciana who told me that Sofia, her 4 year-old, was playing with her Polly – and her dinosaurs. They lived peacefully together, and the dino’s back was being used as the catwalk to her well dressed and very fashionable doll’s show.

And Caio, my son, got from his Aunt Lore, a motorcycle, and from his Godmother, a giant dinosaur with remote control – what happened? Not two seconds passed by and the dinosaur had already eaten the motorcycle guy in a “Jurassic battle, mummy”…

Well, the worlds of Caio and Sofia will collide tonight when they meet to play together.

Let’s see what happens with this fashion and motorcycle shows in the Jurassic era…

Cuak!

Half-dried healthy Tomatoes

Serginho always drags me away when we see a bookshop – he says there is no “quick look” or “just a sec”… and he is right – I lose myself. Anyway, while in São Paulo, without him to drag me away, I found a beautiful Portuguese book about appetizers. Amongst hundreds of little recipes, there are some nice, some with too many steps (I’m not good with steps) and some with language difficulties, there are some jewels. One of them is this one of half-dried tomatoes. It is so simple, so good and so versatile it almost makes me angry:

Do you know those long tomatoes, the ones that are good for sauces? Well I don’t know its name, but here’s the photo:

Well, cut them in 4 long pieces, take some of the white away, and arrange them in a baking tray. You have to arrange them neatly, with the skin down.

Now, good olive oil, coarse salt, pepper and the herb of your choice. They suggest thyme. I have used basil and oregano and both of them worked well too.

Put them in a very hot oven for 2 and half hours. I try to do it when I have other things in the oven. Take a look every once in a while so that it doesn’t stick to the tray – if you feel it is necessary, put some more olive oil, but I never had to.

Once it is cooled down, put it in the refrigerator in a nicely tight glass container and you can keep it for several days. I use it on salads, as appetizers, as a side dish, it is very nice with mozzarella and basil.

Cuak!

Hello world!

What is Cuak??? It’s all Aninha’s fault, who introduced me to this expression from Argentina. Put it together with a sleepless night in front of the computer and voilá. Cuakcuakcuak was born…. God only knows what’s its role in the universe… let’s just wait and see…

Cuak

Patricia