Breakfast in Brazil...

Hot fresh bread and coffee with lots of hot milk and even more sugar is breakfast in Brazil.  It is really yummy...but since walking to the bakery in my pajamas is on my do not do ever list, no one eats hot fresh bread for breakfast.  We never really have been coffee drinkers.  I still have coffee filters from the original pack purchased by my father when he also purchased our first and only coffee maker when he came to visit us eleven years ago!  So, no one drinks hot coffee with lots of hot milk and even more sugar for breakfast either.  This family has to rely on Mama's creative cooking.  Sometimes it gets interesting.  Yesterday it was bacon and egg pancakes and they were actually pretty tasty.  See recipe below. 

Bacon and Egg Pancakes

3 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

4 tablespoons sugar

2 cups milk

1/2 c. oil
3 eggs scrambled
1/4 cup bacon, cut into bitesize pieces and fried crisp

Sift dry ingredients together.  Combine milk and oil and stir into dry mixture until just blended.  Gently fold in the scrambled eggs and fried bacon.  Cook on a non-stick griddle or cast-iron pan.  Flip when edges are dry.  Enjoy with butter and maple syrup.

This little girl sure enjoyed her pancakes!!

Baking in Brazil...

Sometimes baking can be a bit of challenge here in Brazil.  I appreciate any recipes that are completely from scratch so I can adapt them to the ingredients I have available to me.  Recently I found a yummy recipe online for peanut butter filled brownies baked in cupcake tins.  See recipe here: http://www.bakedperfection.com/2009/07/peanut-butter-cup-brownies.html

I decided to revamp this recipe using a wacky cake recipe for the brownie part.  Here is my version of Peanut Butter Cup Brownies:



3 cups flour
2 cups white sugar
8 tablespoons cocoa
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons vinegar
12 tablespoons oil
2 cups water

Combine all into a large mixing bowl and beat until thoroughly combined.  Pour into 24 muffin tins lined with cupcake papers.  Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes until the centers are set but still wet looking.  Fill a ziplock bag with peanut butter that has been softened in the microwave for about 1 minute.  The amount of peanut butter you use will depend on how much of a peanut butter filling you want in the cupcake.  Snip one corner of the bag.  With a toothpick dig out a little hole in the middle of each cupcake while they are still warm.  Poke the snipped corner down into the cupcake and squeeze peanut butter until it is level with the top of the cupcake.  You can drizzle peanut butter across the tops and some chocolate.  For the chocolate, just melt several tablespoons of chocolate chips in the microwave with 1/2 teaspoon of shortening for 30 seconds and then stir until smooth.  Repeat the same process in the ziplock bag with the chocolate.  Cool completely.

mmm...somebody's ready for a taste test!



What are we up to these days...

We have been busy getting the house back to "normal" after Christmas and enjoying some good cousin time with Melissa's cousins who are currently in Brazil.  Whitney shared some chocolate Temptations by Jello.  You can see it tasted REALLY good.

Tia Dori has been visiting from Sao Paulo and has been giving the girls some art and music lessons.  They did several art projects about perception or perfection as Ellie will excitedly tell you.

Lots of hot summer days to play outside!

 

Mr. Bushy Boy got himself a haircut.

Our good friend Paloma and her new husband Igor were visiting her parents for Christmas so we enjoyed seeing them.  They celebrated their one year anniversary last Sunday.  She helped a lot taking care of the kids when Flavia was born.  Her parents are helping out with the starting of the church here in Bento Ribeiro.