Saturday, February 10, 2007

We are back home, but a little piece of our hearts is still in Brazil...
It is not easy to come back, every time is the same thing, sad, the goodbye at the airport is hard, and then we get home and there is this huge feeling that we are already desperately missing our family that stayed behind...
But, life is going on, now and here, so we have to take a deep breath and keep going, happy and more than anything, strong.
The trip to Brazil was great!!! We had a ton of fun, spent our time exclusively with our family members, and ate a lot of yummy Brazilian foods!
We brought back with us not only a bag full of Brazilian goodies that will help us stay connected for the months to come, but also a lot of good memories from the awesome time we had there!
It was sunny and warm, the peak of summertime. We went to the pool, had lots of fresh fruit juices, ice cream, and even had time to go fishing with my dad, as you can see above!
This time though I didn't cook much... 21 days was definitely not enough to do all I wanted to, but it certainly was fun. I made a few things while there, some I photographed, but a few others I forgot... including two yummy cakes that I will definitely make again here at home and share the recipe here for sure.
And talking about pictures, here are some of them:

This is a dessert that is as easy to make as it is delicious to eat! It is called "Torta de Sorvete" or Ice Cream Pie, a creamy summertime concoction that everyone enjoyed!









These little cookies brought us back wonderful memories as we sat down to eat them with some coffee. It is a recipe from my grandmother that I haven had in many years... You need real cream from cow's milk (called "Nata" in Brazil) to make them. Nowadays not many people have fresh cow's milk, so it is hard to collect the "nata", but one of my aunts has a cow in her farm and saved some for me so we could make these delicious "Nata Cookies" again! Ohhh, how much I miss my grandma...









One of my Dad's favorite desserts (after Rice Pudding!), Bread Pudding, Brazilian style of course!









Another great moment of my stay in Brazil was a few days before I returned, when I met Karen (from Kafkanapraia) and Miki (from coisascabecagorda). It was super cool! I loved meeting them, they were very nice and we had a great time talking and eating all the delicious things they made! Miki made a wonderful fruit salad with gelatin and vodka that I could not stop eating and can't wait to make myself, and with so many cookies and cakes I didn't even get a chance to try Karen's great looking cocoa cake, which I will also make here at home soon!
Miki was a great host and Karen was such a delicate girl; I had the best time that afternoon learning more about two of the many friends I made through my beloved Kitchen Space!









And can you believe that besides all the yummy goodies I even got little gifts!?! Aren't they really nice?!?!
Thanks Karen and Miki for such a nice time! I just can't wait to go back to Brazil and see you both again!









All in all we had a wonderful time in Brazil, among family and friends, what else can you ask for right?!!
Today I went back to the kitchen and already whipped up two new recipes that turned out really good and will certainly be posted this week to come, and I will also post a few of the recipes from the pictures above! By the way, I have them in both languages, so if my Brazilian friends want them in Portuguese, just let me know!
Ana

7 comments:

Karen said...

Fiquei de olho nesse pudim de pão, parece tão clarinho, diferente dos que faço aqui!

Claro que não ligo de vc ter colocado a foto! Espero que a gente volte a se encontrar, foi muito bom conhecê-la! Fiquei muito feliz!

Beijos para todos! (Espero que seu pai vá visitá-la logo! rs)

miki w. said...

ana, vc é muito doce e fofa, adorei muito te conhecer! vc devia ter partido o bolo da karen, menina! estava realmente delicioso aiai.

adorei recebê-las e adorei conhecer você pessoalmente!

desejo um bom retorno e muitas delícias no kitchen space!

beijinhos, miki

ps - estou correndo muuuito esses dias, mas espero em breve postar sobre o nosso encontro :-)

Akemi said...

Ana, saudades, amiga! Fiquei tão contente de saber que vcs puderam se encontrar! Que delícia de encontro, tantos quitutes e presentes! Amei a zebrinha com seu nome! rsss
E as outras gostosuras??? Aqueles sequilhos de nata com um cafezinho devem ser bons demais!
Ficaremos aguardando mais posts!
Beijos e welcome back!

Ana said...

Karen, o pudim de pao eh o unico que fiz no "olhometro", hehe! Mas posso te explicar a maneira como fiz, meu pai adora pudim de pao e eu fiz dois enquanto estive por la! Tbem adorei te conhecer e irei sem duvida ligar p/ nos vermos quando for ai da proxima vez!

Miki, obrigada! Voce tbem eh demais de legal, adorei muito conhecer vc e a Karen! Hehehe, eu devia mesmo ter cortado o bolo, fiquei meio com vergonha na hora... mas vou saciar minhas lombrigas logo logo, ainda mais agora q a Karen ja postou a receita! hehe!
Vou esperar pelo seu post, e quando puder pelas fotos, estou curiosa p/ ver aquela q tiramos de nos tres!

Clarice, tbem estava com saudades!
Alias, sempre q fico tempo sem postar morro de saudades do blog e das minhas amiguinhas/os virtuais, eh tao gostoso postar aqui e ler os comentarios, conversar com voces eh otimo!
O encontro foi mesmo muito legal, e nos inclusive comentamos q um dia iremos tbem conhecer voce, acho q estamos todas doidinhas p/ nos encontrarmos juntas de uma vez, nao?!!
Vou postar as receitinhas sim, essa semana sem falta!
Enquanto isso tenho me inspirado no seu pecado da gula, esta demais esses dias, cheio de coisinhas gostosas!!
Beijos!

Ana

Fer Guimaraes Rosa said...

Ana, welcome back!
Legal ler que voce teve uma otima estadia no Brasil, aproveitando a familia, as comidas e o calorizinho. Super beijo,

Anonymous said...

oi ana!
a foto do matheus ficou mt bonita...q lugar bonito!!
vendo agora o bolo d sorvete lembrei q minha mae faz um igualzinho..deve ser a mesma receita!
bjus!!

Cris said...

Were do you have the recipe for the Bread Pudding, Brazilian style of course? You have a picture of it with no recipe, how can you tempt us sooooo. You may email me the recipe if you like.