Jabuticaba cooking

My mother in law called me on Saturday and told me that there were lots of Jabuticabas on her mother in laws jabuticaba tree. I had already told her that I wanted some so I told my husband that we needed to go there immediately.

Jabuticaba is like a big blue colored berry that grown along the tree branches. Inside it is white and got tiny kernels. Those you either spit out or squeeze out.
We got to my husbands granny and my husband climbed the tree and started picking the jabuticabas. He picked 4 plastic bags. One being really big. I ended up with almost 3.

When I came home I rinsed them all in the sink and started to think about how I would store them. All my bowls were too small so I went and got the biggest bowl I had.

I am not sure how big this bowl is but it´s huge, probably 20 liters or so. The Jabuticabas are really big so I figure I had about 10 liters in the bowl. Here you can see the differnce between my big one and a normal little bowl.

My mission was to make squash and jelly from it. I have made 2 liters of squash so far. Burned one load of jelly and managed to make one load of jelly into syrup.
So it’s going pretty good. *lol*

The syrup will be for ice cream or yogurt, it´s very sweet. And todays mission is to make Liquor de Jabuticaba, a sweet tasting liquor with Cachaça – sugarcane rum.
I haven’t started on that yet so I can´t tell you how it´s coming on. But hopefully it will be good. And I still have about 4 liters of Jabuticabas left that I need to take care of today so I think I will make more squash as that seems to be the easiest.

London dear London

I´ve lived in London twice. The first time I stayed for eight months and the second time for almost 6 years. Every day there are people from all over the world who comes to London to try a new life. Many end up staying, you kind of get drawn into the busy life and you usually end up liking the hectic lifestyle that comes along with it.

I love London but I´m not sure I would like to move back and work there. A holiday would be nice though. There are loads of things to do in London of course, and if you are a gourmet you can find several nice places to indulge at.
If you have never been to London but are going this is what I´d recommend you to do;

First you need to find a hotel, Cheaper than hotels.UK have got many hotels in London for you to choose from at a good price.
When you are ready to hit town you should start with a relaxing walk in one of the many parks.
I particularly like Regent´s Park that is close to Primrose Hill. Primrose Hill is a wonderful little "village" with some very nice cafe´s where you might spot famous actors if you keep your eyes open. If you have kids they might like to go to the Zoo. Perfect for a quick coffee while you make your way up to Hampstead Heath and it´s surroundings for lunch.

After all that walking you might be a bit tired so go back to your hotel room and rest for half and hour or so and then get ready for some nightlife.
There are plenty of good restaurants around and their is something for every wallet as well. If you really want to visit Gordon Ramseys or a similar famous restaurant it can be good to book a few weeks in advance as it tends to be fully reserved most of the time if not all.
if you need help finding a pub or a club check Time Out London.

Of course you should include a trip to the London Eye and Trafalgar Square. If you are staying in the center there is no need to worry you will miss Piccadilly.
Cheese lovers should visit La Fromagerie which is just off Marylebone High street, close to Baker Street. See you can visit Sherlock Holmes and still get some cheese. La Fromagerie offers high quality cheese, absolutely worth a visit.

I love musicals so I would definitely go and see a show!

But why stop in London if you are going to England? Why not reserve a hotel room in Manchester and see what the rest of England has to offer. Once again, you can easily find Hotels in Manchester where you can have a pleasant stay at an affordable price.

I stayed in London too long and got caught in the working wheel so I didn´t take advantage of the country as I should have. If I would go there again, or maybe i should say when I will go again, I will try and get out and see places I didn´t see.

Cheaper than hotels have got hotels in Birmingham as well as many other places in the UK. A good choice if you want to spend your money on something sweeter. I would rather spend it on food and fun than accommodation, that´s for sure!

If I can help with any London questions, please ask. Or maybe you have got some recommendations yourself that you would like to add? Go ahead!

Hey Linda aren´t you cooking?

Of course I am!
It feels as if I am eating more than ever, I just haven´t had the time to write about it.
I have a yummy cupcake recipe coming up as well as a recipe for Pão de queijo, cheese bread.

Seriously I have sooooo many recipes that I want to share with you, I just need to write them down...

Well who ever waits for something good can wait a bit longer... OK I know that is freely translated from Swedish " Den som väntar på något gott". :)

Perfect for my cup!

I came across a very smart invention surfing through some blogs.
Cupcoats!

??? Yes Cupcoats!

Cupcoats are an eco-chic alternative to the cardboard sleeves typically used on paper cups to insulate your hands from your hot beverage. Instead of cardboard or 'double-cupping', add a dash of fashion to your hot coffee and tea experience with a Cupcoat by Cup Couture.

How cool isn´t that? I loved it!
How many times haven´t you burned your hands while holding a warm paper cup? If I had a Starbucks near me I would buy one of these little things and bring with me every time I bought a coffee. *lol*

And they come in different colors as well! I´m sure you can find one for you!
Angelina is my choice:

Angelina

Classy and sophisticated, the Angelina Cupcoat looks great no matter where you go. Hot pink, lime green, deep red accents on black and white. Black lining.

Photo from Cup Couture.

Too bad there is no Starbucks here...

Btw: Did you notice that I have joined the Foodie Blogroll? To find out more, check out the sidebar! A list full of great foodie blogs!

This post belong on Brazilian Food Love, if you see it else where please tell Linda.

Kitchen accidents

If you have never cut yourself in the kitchen you are either very lucky or you don´t spend too much time in there.

I rarely cut myself but of course it does happen. The other day I was grating marzipan, I was making cinnamon buns with marzipan, and I managed to cut my wrist.
It hurt so much, and now 3 days later it still hurts and every time I lean on my wrist there is the painful reminder that I have to go and buy myself a new grater.

You see, the reason I cut myself was because I used a small grater that you just hold in your hand. That´s because I´m a cheapskate and didn´t want to spend the money to buy a proper grater that won´t fall apart after using it a few times.

Here in Brazil it´s not always easy to find good kitchen stuff. That includes a stainless grater at a good price. So when I found this little pink grater I thought that it was incredibly cute and of course it was cheap.

Obviously now after this incident I have decided to invest in a good stainless grater, no matter the cost. And the little beautiful pink grater? I´ll throw that as far as I possibly can!

This post belong on Brazilian Food Love, if you see it somewhere else, please tell me!

Menu Plan Monday July 23rd

This is the first time I participate in Menu Plan Monday.
Menu plan Monday is a theme that is held every Monday over at Laura´s.

We are on a budget this week so this week there are no extravaganzas at all on our table. Simple, healthy and cheap food. I am cleaning out my cupboards this week! So I am only cooking what I have at home.

Monday: Simple Tomato Soup w meat and Cheese bread, Pão de Queijo. * Recipe coming up*
Tuesday: Black bean burgers with basil risotto and fried cauliflower.
Wednesday: Rice and steak with mushroom sauce.
Thursday: Minestrone soup á la Linda
Friday: Lanche - Typical Brazilian hamburgers without the hamburgers but with sausages.
Saturday: Leftovers
Sunday: Lunch at my MIL, dinner- leftovers.

Minestrone soup á la Linda: No exact measurements as it depends on how many portions you want to make.

You need:
Onions
Garlic
Water
Herbs such as basil, thyme and salvia
Tomato puré
Paprika spice
Pasta

Quickly fry the onion and the garlic.
Add the remaining ingredients except the pasta, put it to the boil. Lower the heat and let simmer for another 20 minutes. Add the pasta. When the pasta is cooked, serve the soup with bread.

Simple, or simple??

Tags:menu plan monday, minestroni soup, brazilian, cheese bread

Lazy Cooking

OK I admit, I am lazy in the kitchen. But that is not due to laziness such as I don´t like to cook. But due to the fact that I haven´t got much time to stand in the kitchen. Before I had a lot of time but now, time is limited.

My husband like simple cooking so I think that is a great help. He is happy with eating only rice and meat while I want some kind of sauce or something to go with the meat. See that is a different between Europe and Brazil, they don´t serve sauces. So what I do is that I buy small soup envelopes and make sauce out of that. Easy and quick.

Another thing to help me on the way, or any stressed mother, is to make lots of food one day and not to be afraid to serve it two days in a row. As long as you make sure you have something different for lunch that should be OK. If you want to improve it you can add a sauce or make a different salad.

When you have kids and family you really can´t be that fuzzy all the time.

If my economy permits I buy a few easy snacks and put in the freezer. So some days we have only chicken nuggets and fried potato and salad, some days a take away pizza. Do I feel bad about this? Well yes and well no, there are other things that are ore important sometimes. So you have to make the most out of the situation.

Lazy cooking isn´t that bad actually, it can be really tasty. You just can´t do it too often or it will get boring.

Are you a lazy cook?

Technorati Tags: lazy cooking, cooking, kitchen experiences