"Don't worry about anything; on the contrary, make your requests known to God by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving. Then God's shalom, passing all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds safe in union with the Messiah Yeshua." Philippians 4:6-7 (CJB)
~Quote~
The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next Abraham Lincoln
After much thought I have decided to close this blog. I really don't have the time to Blog as I would like. I kept this here because I was getting lots of visitors from internet search about Brazil and some other things I've blogged about it. For three weeks I have received an unusual amount of hits from Photobucket......now, at first I didn't think anything about, but now I have heard photobucket was hacked two weeks ago. This is a concern to me because my account was private. Since all of the pictures for this blog are stored into my "private" photobucket account, this leaves me no choice but to delete all pictures and this will just mean I will have a funny looking blog. If you would like to take me out of your friends list, you are very welcome to. I will wait a couple of days before I delete my account, this should give you plenty of time to delete me from you friend's list, the reason is because once I delete my account and I still have you under my friend's list, you will always have me as a friend, even if I don't have a blog. It's totally up to you.
I have truly enjoyed being here and have learned a lot. But, like I said before "There is a time for everything"
((((((hugs))))))
I didn't realize how long it has been since I posted. Well, its about time you get another little lesson about Brazilian culture.
Today I would like to take you to enjoy a nice Brazilian dinner by the beach. Our menu consists of a typical North Eastern Brazilian Churrasco
We went to the beach that morning it was wonderful to smell the sea and just savor the Lord's beauty "WHAT A GIFT" I was telling my friend Lori the other day that I feel like a dried out sunflower this time of the year here in Indiana. So, I close my eyes and dream that I am at the beach in Natal.
Lets enjoy the beach view as we wait for our delicious dinner. It was a bit cloudy that morning, then when we left the beach the sun begin to shine. I would give anything to be at that restaurant right now, it beats my -6 degree here in Indiana
I think I see our garson (waiter) coming
OK, I was so hungry, that I forgot to take a picture of our meal, then I went and followed our garson and asked him if I could take a picture of him with food that was going to the table next to ours.
Let me tell you what's on the tray.
Rice with peas and carrots.
French fries and fried mandioca (cassava) - my favorite
Fresh shelled beans flavored with onions and cilantro.
Tossed Brazilian Salad (yummy with olive oil and vinegar)
Assorted grilled meats, like sausage, chicken, beef and lamb - My family and I had Grilled Sun Dried Sirloin (simple the best).
Farofa de manteiga (read about it here)
And of course we can't finish this delicious meal without our delicious cafezinho.
I hope you enjoyed your tour of a typical Brazilian beach Churrasco
(((Brazilian hugs)))
Katia
Well, after much thought and prayers, many prayers. I have come to the conclusion that I will blog here just very part-time. I have absolutely loved being here, reading your blogs and getting to know wonderful people who's hearts are full of love for the Lord. I have grown and learned a lot about different people, places and things, and also made friends for life, which makes it very hard to post this post.
As most all of you know I have had so many problems loading blogs throughout this whole year. As people add more and more gadgets to their blogs and make nicer templates and add cute graphics to their side bars, add Slide Shows and so fourth, it becomes next to impossible to load their blogs, some days even the c-boxes takes forever to post a message.
I am not really sure what the deal is, for I don't seem to have this much problems as I visit other blog places. So, commenting has become a huge time consuming thing. If, I am to comment on most friends blogs it's a good portion of my day. I do hope people won't take offense of this. I am really happy for pretty blogs, it's just my own dial-up and my time that are in the way at the moment.
I have so many other things I would like to accomplish and this is one that takes my time away from what I want to do. I want to be wiser in how I use my time as a homeschool teacher and administrator of my home.
In the last couple of months I received so many nice comments from friends of how much they look forward in reading more things about Brazil. As I kept praying and trying to hear the Lord on this I have felt that I will maintain this blog just for part-time blogging. I am not sure how I will do this, maybe I will keep it updated mostly with entries about Brazil.
I have truly hesitated saying all of this, as not offend anyone. Let me make sure everyone understands me on this, I value your friendships and of course I won't totally give up I will still stop at your blogs and comment.
I hope your Monday is full of sweet surprises.
Blessings,
(((((Brazilian hugs)))))
I have been asked many times to speak to homeschool co-ops, Girls Scouts and churches about Brazil and often I am asked for recipes. I usually take a batch of the coconut and one of the chocolate candy below. This is one of those recipes that children love to get their hands on.
As simple as this recipe is, Americans seem to have a hard time understanding how long these need to be cooked; I took several pictures of the cooking process, in hopes that it won't be too hard to make them for your next International event at church. They are very easy to cook it's really a matter of watching the heat and stirring constantly.
Whenever you go to a party in Brazil like a birthday or wedding you always find the table of sweets (mese-de-doces) and the appetizer table (mesa-de-salgadinhos) along with other main dishes. They usually have so many variations of yummy things. I can remember as a child I would put one of everything on my plate. Wonderful yummy childhood memories.
Brigadeiros de Côco
Ingredients:
1 can Condensed Sweetened Milk
1 Tbs. Butter or Margarine
1 cup of Coconut (very full)
More coconut for rolling it
Preparation:
~ Grease and set apart a dinner plate.
~ Combine over milk and butter and cook over medium heat stirring constantly As the milk warms up and the butter melts the mixture will seems almost runny it becomes thinner.
After its completely cooled you are ready for the fun. Wash hands really well with hot water and soap, dry them well with a clean towel. Grease hands a bit. Roll about a 3/4 inch ball on the palm of the hands, then roll them on coconut.
When I don't have the little paper cups from below I just take them like this. Usually I line the plate with a pretty paper doily.
When I was in Brazill this last time I bought 600 of these little paper cups they are about a 3/4 inch. I have never seen these here in the states. This is how they are served in Brazil.
For Show and Tell today I thought we all could use a little of summer here in North America. I would like to treat you with some of my favorite things from Brazil, some of our beautiful flowers.
I really don't know their names, they are very common everywhere and also have the most beautiful fragrance.
What a most Awesome creator our Father in Heaven is. the beauty of such delicate things for us just to enjoy it for what they are.
These lovely pink flowers were growing along the roadside, I just couldn't resist but to take a picture.
The pictures below are from something more like a tree, than a bushy small plant. Can you believe this is a tree?
I thought this was a neat leafy plant. I love pink!
I was so sad, for I just couldn't get the camera to focus on this... it was simply breath taking and the fragrance, just heavely!
(((((Brazilian hugs))))
For Show and Tell go visit our friend our sweet Mary here or the side button for S&Tell
I first heard this sentence years ago, when my church denomination womens ministry had this as their logo for that year . "Sitting at His Feet" It's not something we can teach others, there is no formula for this, the secret is to just do it, to Sit at His Feet.
Over the years, I had to work out a lot of hurt and pain from my past. I had to learn to trust Him with all my heart no matter how deep and how painful the hurt was. I had to learn to deposit all at His feet. Just Like Mary....
......and standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears, and kept wiping them with the hair of her head, and kissing His feet and anointing them with the perfume. Luke 7: 38
This morning was my first test for 2008.....The Lord allowed a very hurtful, painful situation to come up to me again with a family member, this is going on for years now.....I could hear Him saying, "Are you going to come and deposit this at my feet again? Are you going to trust me with it again? Are you willing to carry your cross?" Again, I knew I had to stop and run to my closet and just cry and deposit this before Him......Now, this is not the first time I have done this, I have had to do it over and over again with this situation. One might be asking????? Is it because I keep taking the situation back from Him? No, it's because the scar was rubbed the wrong way this morning and I could feel the sharp pain there again.....
You see, He wants me to be strong through this situation...He wants me to depend on Him with this scar....... I know in my heart that I can never change anything concerning this situation, it's beyond my control. But, I can change my way of looking at it by giving and trusting Him with it, every time it comes up.
Sitting at His Feet, this is where I want to continue to be in 2008.
Blessings,
Katia
Today for S&T, I would like to share with you some of my Crazy quilts projects. I love quilts and throughout the years I have been experimenting with different methods and patterns.
Back before DD was born, one of my sister-in-laws gave me the red stocking with lace on the top for Christmas one year. I loved it so much! So, when DD was born I decided that we all should have a quilted stocking.
My sister-in-law's stocking
This is DD's stocking. I used several different stitches and also used charms, buttons and beads to decorate hers.
This is my DD's stocking, I decided to use only one kind of stitch. Here is another project I made a couple of years ago. It's done by hand, and by machine. This took me a little awhile to complete it. Shortly after my sister-in-law gave me my stocking I friend gave me this book as a gift. This book has a whole chapter on crazy quilts.
If you like to join us for Show and Tell click on the left side bar button or go here.
What my adorable family (we three) do for New Years Eve. This is a tradition since DD was four years old. She holds on to this and is very protective of this day, so much so, that when anyone asks us over for New Years Eve, she is very quick to say "What about our tradition?"
After hearing a friend traditions of their New year....I thought to my self, BINGO, this sounds fantastic! I then shared with DH and he also liked the idea. So, we surprised DD by telling her we were going to have a New Year picnic on the living room floor every year. Junk food night owls
I make some finger foods to go along with all of the leftover sweets from Christmas. We then, watch a couple of movies and eat whatever we want. We stay up until midnight as to watch the count down from Time Square and then go to bed.
The next day is very relaxed and simple, if we still have leftovers from the night before we just eat those and make a pot of soup or a pizza.
As DD ages we seems to have also changed a bit. In the last couple of years we decided to have all of the food on the table and carry our plates to the living room. I am glad, for it was always a little too much to walk around all of the food on the floor.
For some reason this year the popcorn tin and Pringles chips didn't make into this picture.
Dd made the Cheese Ball, it tasted simply delicious!!!! I plan on giving some of these recipes in the near future like the Brazilian candy and cheese rolls.
It seems to make extra special to just have lots of scented candles along with the Christmas lights.
We like it a lot and we are not out there facing the terrible traffic on this evening.
Continuation……One might be wondering as to why I waited this long to talk about Christmas, actually I was very busy this year with preparations for Hanukkah and Christmas, so I took a blog leave. I am so sorry for another long entry, I will try to make my next ones a little shorter
After Mom left my dad, life was very hard. She had to start life all over again as single woman, move to a different region of Brazil. Somehow there was a little treat of some sort for our Christmas dinner.
Mom started thinking of Christmas a couple of months before. She would slowly begin buying raisins, prunes, palm hearts, Champions (mushroom buttons) nuts, fruit cake mix, canned cherries, peaches and put it away in the cupboard or refrigerator and she would say: “This is for Christmas” Christmas was a treat and a feast. It was always the very best meal we would have all year long.
Usually the food is very colorful and full of mixed flavors.
I loved helping mom, because that meant I could nibble on some of my favorite things like olives, palm hearts and prunes. I can still remember Mom saying, “If you don’t stop nibbling there will be nothing left for this evening”
The turkey was always dressed with pineapple slices, dried fruits, canned peaches and cherries.
The rice was so delicious! Loaded with raisins, cashews, tomatoes, corn and peas.
The fruit Cake – What a treat!!!!!! Not so heavily loaded with fruits like here in the States. Fruit cake mix was and is a very expensive food in certain parts of Brazil. Mom, usually bought about 2 cups. We didn't have a fruit cake every year, but there was always a delicious cake on the table.
Passion Fruit or Coconut Flan. As hard as time would be, there was always a Flan on our table for Christmas. Some years, mom used some fruit cake mix and raisins instead of coconut or passion fruit.
Brigadeiros de Chocolate or Coconut (planning on having a post showing how to make these)
Potatoe Salad – Very different from the usual American salad. Usually, with carrots, palm hearts and olives, occasionally a diced apple is added to it.
Panetone – An Italian sweet egg bread with dried fruits and nuts. This is my most favorite bread, oh so yummy!!!!!!
Fresh fruits like grapes, apples and pear were such a treat. I suppose much like here in America, when citrus fruits were used for Holiday treats.
I am sure you guessed by now that we Brazilians love dried fruits.
There are other foods, but these are the ones I really miss, because that’s what we had only one a year. I guess we humans appreciate things more when they are difficult and expensive, maybe I am wrong on this, but it seems we take a lot for granted when we have too much of some thing.
I hope you enjoyed taking a tour of our Brazilian Christmas dinner.
This Blog is about my life and the different adventures that I experience being a wife, homeschooling mother, homemaker, friend, and daughter of the king of the Universe. I am a follower of Yeshua (Jesus' name in Hebrew) He was born a Jew and lived as a Jew on this earth. It's because of him, and his incredible love towards me, that my ashes were turned into beauty.
I'm a native of Brazil. I have been married to my DH, for 22 years. We met while he was there on a Mission's trip. We have one wonderful 13 years DD.
Can you believe this is a tree?
