I love bananas

All the varieties here are spoiling me!

Making cheese again

I’m trying to get focused again on my cheese making adventure. Really. But now I just don’t have an appetite.

Before it was too cold to try and make cheese. Then I had gastric bypass surgery – which took away my desire to eat (and in some cases my ability to eat).

But now I think I can get back at it.  I can’t eat a lot of it – but the project still has appeal.

I have the equipment – so let’s see if I can make a go of it. It’s warmer outside now.

Luiz will appreciate my success. Stay tuned.

Going shopping every day

Do you want to know why I go shopping every day?  It's because if I try to store something for any length of time the bugs get to it.

Pasta, beans, flour, corn meal -- all of it. It has a rediculously short shelf life before the bugs take over - and start laying their eggs.

I need a HUGE refrigerator to keep everything safe!

If you are thinking of being an entrepreneur in Brazil -- invent a refrigerated spice rack.  Trust me.

Today I wanted to make beans - but no. Fouled by the bugs. Have to go buy another bag. And wash out the plastic container I had the never-opened, sealed bag of beans stored in. Sigh.

Oh well - at least there are sweet fresh mangoes...

Margarita pizza

Poor Luiz - he attends classes in Rio four days a week. He has to wake up at 5:20 a.m. to get to class on time.  I do my part to keep the house/clothes clean and have dinner ready when the time is right.  The bulk of my work is generally after 5:00 p.m.

He is enjoying his academic adventure - new friends, new information.

Fridays are fun. No rules. This friday I took a nap and left a message on my white board (which I have for English classes). When Luiz got home he knew the plan -- and joined me in nap taking.

Lucky us. Delicious dinner.

Baking in season

It’s not exactly pineapple season, but the strawberries are coming in by the truckload. So I sought inspiration.

Virginia suggested strawberry-pineapple jam. I know she has a slow cooker, so I was a bit worried about whether I could cook down the fruit without one, without burning them. But I do have a fine pan for such things. I bet I could do it.

More importantly, how do you say “pectin” in Portuguese?

Then Luiz asserted we should just have a sweet strawberry-pineapple tart instead. (He loves my pie crust, so this is a predictable request.)

Personally, I don’t think I have ever tasted the strawberry-pineapple combination. I was worried about the acid content. But Virginia assured me the acidity cooks out…

So I went for the tart.

Basically you make a sweet crust, slice up the fruit and mix it with a bit of sugar (I used Splenda, Luiz is diabetic), cook the fruit down a bit to get it all soft and to infuse the sugar/sweetener, then make up a package of vanilla pudding. Mix the fruit and pudding, pour it into your crust, then refrigerate until set.

Then slice it up and eat it with late night television.

Sorry I don't have a pic of the final product. It was more tasty than beautiful... but it was certainly fabulous.

S

Raw Wars: FDA's War on Organic Farmers & Raw Milk Suppliers

For the past several years organic foods have received an increase of attention due to the lack of pesticides and not being genetically altered. Many people are demanding that their food be untouched. Recently a SWAT team arrested farmers for selling raw milk to customers. Is it a crime to drink raw milk or does the government feel left out? Mike Adams, health ranger, first broke the story any tells us why the FDA doesn't approve of this.

Health Ranger: 'FDA fights organic farmers'

Also watch:

• ‪Government war on raw milk?‬‏

Related articles by Zemanta:

• Raw milk sellers charged with conspiracy after raid
• Is Raw Milk Safe?
• Join the social media revolt against government raids on raw milk
• Breaking news: Multi-agency armed raid hits Rawesome Foods, Healthy Family Farms for Selling Raw Milk and Cheese

Executive Order # 13575: The Theft of Rural and Agricultural Lands for UN Agenda 21

On June 9, 2011, President Obama issued a sweeping executive order (No. 13575) for a White House Rural Council that purports to exert broad municpal powers over the food, fiber, and energy production of Rural American. Where’s the Line, America to how much power the president can amass by executive order?  | Food Freedom

President Obama Executive Order 13575 Rural Councils

Also watch: ‪Agenda 21 and Executive Order #13575

Also read: S.1310 would overturn DSHEA – dietary supplements Act | Food Freedom

Read more about: Agenda 21

Danielle in Niteroí

Thanks for the long weekend visit, Danielle.  It was great to have you here.

We did the Blogger Meet-Up, naturally. But we also toured through Niteroí and went back into Rio several times to visit with Lindsey and Rachel. Fun!

One night we cooked up a fajita extravaganza. Yum!

Come back any time grrl, and next time we hope Alexandre is feeling better and can join us.

Blogger Meet-up in Rio – report back

Gathering at our point of departure.

Phew – it’s been a great weekend spending time with fellow bloggers. Saturday was our planned event in Rio which attracted a great crowd (many bloggers and their husbands, partners, children, etc.).

Inside the Arco do Tellez.

The Arco do Telles area is PACKED every weeknight for Happy Hour.

It was my intention to arrive early to stake out the meeting area and be a responsible leader.  But, the best laid plans… We missed our ferry and given that it was Saturday, the next ferry was 30 minutes later. So by the time we arrived there was already a good group gathered. Thanks to cell phones, everyone was informed of our delay, and some who arrived a bit later were able to hop into the tour in progress.

Confeitaria Columbo has hosted dignitaries and the rest of us for over 100 years.

We somehow stumbled upon these happy barber shop workers...

Luiz was his beaming, charming self as he walked us through some very historic streets, showing us an old home of Carmen Miranda’s and pointing out an ancient street which still has the small gutter running the length of the center of the street (aka: the old open sewer channel).

Rua da Carioca is fantastically scenic busy old street lined with historic archetecture.

While we wandered from historic site to historic building, only a few were open, and many are best seen during the week when you can enter and take tours of. Luiz and I did a lot of encouraging folks to return and spend more time discovering Rio’s history. There is SO MUCH to see we could have walked for three days!

After peeking into the modern Cathedral and walking under the Lapa arches, we made our way to Cinelandia and pulled about 6 tables together and settled in for a LONG and social lunch. While we did get up and switch seats now and again, it was still impossible to chat with everyone.  There were just so many of us present! The meet-up was a total success!

Not everybody (sorry) but a nice group shot at the restaurant Amerelinho in Cinelandia.

World’s Worst Humanitarian Crisis in Somalia: U.S. Sends in the Marines and More Drones

A U.S. Marine task force is about to be deployed in the war against Somalia, where American drones are stepping up their predations. For the second time in four years, U.S. aggression threatens the lives of multitudes in the Horn of Africa. “A United Nations spokesman describes the food and refugee emergency in Somalia as the ‘worst humanitarian crisis in the world,’ with millions at immediate risk.  Read more...

 

Drought spreads its pain across 14 states

 

The heat and the drought are so bad in this southwest corner of Georgia that hogs can barely eat. Corn, a lucrative crop with a notorious thirst, is burning up in fields. Cotton plants are too weak to punch through soil so dry it might as well be pavement.  
 

Farmers with the money and equipment to irrigate are running wells dry in the unseasonably early and particularly brutal national drought that some say could rival the Dust Bowl days.  - San Jose Mercury News


Related article: 

• 14 States Suffering Under Drought - NYTimes.com 

Also read:

• The African drought tragedy
• Africa's drought: Is weather or war to blame?

How chemicals are affecting us sexually: turning men gay, children gender confused and humanity sterile

Has The "Gay Gene" Been Found in Female Mice?

The sex habits of mice have long been an intriguing subject for scientists. Now, mouse sex just got a lot more interesting for the rest of us.
A group of Korean geneticists has altered the sexual preferences of female mice by removing a single gene linked to reproductive behavior. Without the gene, the mice gravitated toward mice of the same sex. Those mice who retained the gene, called FucM, were attracted to male mice. (FucM is short for fucose mutarotase.)
The geneticists' study, published last week in the journal BMC Genetics explains that female mice without FucM avoided male mice, declined to sniff male urine, and made passes at other females.  | Popular Science
Related articles:

• Female mice 'can be turned lesbian by deleting gene' - Telegraph
• Female mice turned lesbian after altering gene. An answer to genetic homosexuality? | ZME Science

• Air force looked at spray to turn enemy gay | World news | The Guardian

What if it could release a chemical that would make an opposing army's soldiers think more about the physical attributes of their comrades in arms than the threat posed by the enemy? And thus the "gay bomb" was born. Far from being the product of conspiracy theorists, documents released to a biological weapons watchdog in Austin, Texas confirm that the US military did investigate the idea. It was included in a CD-Rom produced by the US military in 2000 and submitted to the National Academy of Sciences in 2002. The documents show that $7.5m was requested to develop the weapon.

• "Epigenetics" Means What We Eat, How We Live and Love, Alters How Our Genes Behave

A mother rat withholds nurturing licks from its pup and elicits a brain change that impairs the pup's response to stress as an adult, researchers in Canada found. A pregnant woman's dietary deficits increase her offspring's risk of diabetes, stroke and heart disease later in life, researchers in England have shown.

Read about: The devastating affects of bisphenol-A

The Enemy's Plan to Kill You through the FoodsYou Eat

Not for weak stomachs: Mankind ready to eat its own faeces(?)

Businessmen of the world begin to invest in human faeces. The Bill Gates Foundation is allocating $1.5 million for the project to process human excrement into methane and biodiesel fuel. The Japanese found their own special way for gaining profit from their own excrement. They put forward an idea to turn faeces into meat. It seems that they have created the food of the future for billions of those living in the third world.  pravda.ru

Related articles

• Japan: Scientists Synthesizes Meat from Human Faeces (frstephensmuts.wordpress.com)

Peru's capital declares itself a GMO-free zone

Peru's capital Lima declared itself a "GMO-free zone" in a municipal ordinance on Thursday in response to a controversial government decree that critics feared would see the country flooded with genetically modified organisms.

The city council, lead by Mayor Susana Villaran, officially declared the city of eight million a "territory free of transgenic and genetically modified organisms," to protect the population's health and preserve biodiversity and the environment.

Forensic evidence emerges that European e.coli superbug was bioengineered to produce human fatalities

This particular e.coli variation is a member of the O104 strain, and O104 strains are almost never (normally) resistant to antibiotics. In order for them to acquire this resistance, they must be repeatedly exposed to antibiotics in order to provide the "mutation pressure" that nudges them toward complete drug immunity.  Read more...

Also read:

• Weaponized E coli used to destroy organic foods?

The New Politics of Food Scarcity, Soaring food prices and political unrest

Richard Ferguson, global head of agriculture at Renaissance Capital, an investment bank specializing in emerging markets, told The Guardian newspaper in the UK [1] that the problems were likely to spread. “Food prices are absolutely core to a lot of these disturbances. If you are 25 years old, with no access to education, no income and live in a politically repressed environment, you are going to be pretty angry when the price of food goes up the way it is.” It acted “as a catalyst” for political unrest, when added to other ills such as a lack of democracy.  | Food Freedom

Methods of Manipulation: Food and Medicine (Video, Pt. 4)

Extracted from her latest film, section 4 addresses food and health control via various local and international bodies, revealing the “slow genocide” wrought by poisoning people and the planet. ~ Ed. 

Vox Populi, Methods of Manipulation part 4 with David Icke, Jordan Maxwell, Max Igan, Freeman...

Agenda 21 In One Easy Lesson

So here it is. A one page, quick description of Agenda 21 that fits on one page. I’ve also included for the back side of your hand out a list of quotes for the perpetrators of Agenda 21 that should back up my brief descriptions.

A word of caution, use this as a starter kit, but do not allow it to be your only knowledge of this very complex subject. To kill it you have to know the facts. Research, know your details; discover the NGO players in your community; identify who is victimized by the policies and recruit them to your fight; and then kill Agenda 21. That’s how it must be done. The information below is only your first step. Happy hunting.  - BlackListedNews.com

Also read:

• Agenda 21 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• DSD :: Resources - Publications - Core Publications

FOOD & MIND CONTROL - DR. LLAILA AFRIKA, DR. SCOTT WHITAKER, CHE NAZZERITH

Other videos on the subject:

• Agenda 21 - Bing Videos

Cauliflower, Leek & Sun-Dried Tomato Quiche

Last Saturday I was inspired by some fantastic fresh vegetables at the market. I wrote up the recipe and walk you thrpough it over on the Cooking in Brazil blog.

You can put practically anything in a quiche. Let the market be your guide.

Go have a look. Get inspired.

Time for a Blogger Meet-Up in Rio

On the very exciting occasion of Danielle and Alexandre visiting Rio/Niterói, I’m proposing another Blogger Meet-Up.  Mark your calendar: Saturday, July 16^th. Time and location tbd, leave a comment if you have a fun suggestion.

The first time we got together, well over a year ago, several of us met at a kiosk on Ipanema beach.  Cold beer, small plates of bar food, and lots of English conversation.  Nice!

The next time we met was on Itaipú beach in Niterói. Sun, sunscreen, beer and food – and lots of English conversation. Sweet!

For our next meet-up should we venture into an interesting neighborhood in Rio?  The historic district just north of Praça XV is visually stunning, rich in historic buildings, churches and museums and has LOTS of barzinhos and restaurants.  People could arrive early and walk around, then we could meet at a particular watering hole.  Or we could wander the area together.

Or how about Jardim Botânico?  It’s a very peaceful place to walk and take in the smell of green (and Danielle could point out the interesting birds). There’s not really an interesting place to sit and enjoy a drink and lunch. The snack bar in the park is pretty lame, food-wise.  But there are appropriate places in the adjoining neighborhood.  That could be fun.

I suppose a return to the beach is never a mistake, especially for folks like Danielle, who will be in town on a rare visit.

So what do you think?  Again – mark your calendar. Plan on joining us. We’ll work out the details in the coming weeks.  And wherever we decide, it will be accessible by bus or Metro.

Oh, and light a candle in an appeal to the weather spirits that things WARM UP!

UPDATE: Luiz reminded me that he is prepared to provide a walking tour of the historic Praça XV area (where Rio began) and describe the history, archetecture, etc.  Very chic... It would be a couple hours, including a lunch stop. Totally flexible. Something to consider.