Birds of a feather: how to

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Friday Recipe for the Weekend

Chicken
Ingredients:
Chicken's breasts (with skin)
6 Shallots (in cubes)
Season (Paprika, Ginger powder, salt, black pepper, chilli sauce, chilli powder - or anything that you prefer)
Oil or Olive Oil
How to Prepare:
Just season the chicken at your taste and add the olive oil and the shallots and take to the medium oven for about 2 hours or until you see that the chicken is nicely cooked. You can add some chicken stock dissolved in hot water for quickly cooking process. Serve when done.

Mash Potatoes

Ingredients:

Potatoes

1 tea spoon of butter

3 tbs of grated cheese (any type)

2 tbs of mayonnaise

How to Prepare:

Peel the potatoes and leave it to cook until they are very smooth. Drain the water and start the mashing process (I normally use a fork - because I like to feel some potatoes parts), add the butter, the cheese and the mayo and mix all together very well. Keep it warm to serve.

White Rice

Ingredients:

1 small onion finally chopped

2 tbs of oil

1 tea spoon of salt

2 garlics finally chopped

1 mug of white rice

2 mugs of boiled water

How to Prepare:

Put the onion, garlic, oil and salt into a pan (small one) and let them gold - be careful to not let it burn! Add the rice, mix and than add the water. Mix once again and leave it until the water dry out. I normally leave about 10 minutes inside the oven (don't turn it on!) just to dry a little bit more for itself. Serve.

Vinaigrette's Sauce

Ingredients:

Tomatoes

Onions

Parsley

Olive oil

1/2 tea spoon of salt

vinegar (until half way of all contents)

1/2 mug of cold water

How to Prepare:

Finally choppy all the ingredients and mix all together. Be careful with the vinegar as you could do a stronger or not that stronger flavour. The water is just to manage the strong flavour of the vinegar. Leave at the fridge and serve cold. This type of sauce is a good combination with BBQ and there's a lot of ways to do it so... Search for more around the Internet!

Picnic - Tuna Cream

Hello Everyone!

Last weekend my friends and I went to Victoria Park (Leicester - UK) and enjoyed the lovely weather (19C degrees!) doing a picnic. Loads of fun, food, drinks and chatting... :)

My main recipe for picnic is a simple Tuna Cream - that you can use on bread, toast, biscuits,... Even for a good green salad!

Tuna Cream
Ingredients:
2 cans of tuna chunks (without the oil)
3 tb spoon of mayonnaise
1/2 white onion
1 can of corn (without the water)
How to Prepare:
Mix all together! :)

It's done!

I know, I know... very easy but some people always forget that the easiest things in life are the best (most of the times!)...

Enjoy... and don't forget about the CHALLENGE!

Diet/Light - Grilled Chicken and Green Salad

Hello everyone!

Well, as all know I'm trying to get rid of some Kilos that are really bugging me a lot! Find about more in my 'out-body experience' at THIS IS NOT ME post. lol

So, I started - in my own way - a new diet: eat less, try to cut off the sugar and sweet stuff (this is the difficult one!) and eat more healthy food. In theory it seams very easy but believe me, it's not.

There are some Scientific explanation now about Caloric Food and I always believed that it was true even they didn't had all the tests done, as I'm a completely 'addicted' to Junk Food in general.

Anyway... Let's jump for our new weekly recipe:

Grilled Peri-Peri Chicken with Green Salad (for 1 portion)
Ingredients:
Chicken
1 breast of boneless chicken
Peri-Peri sauce (I used the powder one with the liquid one - all together)
Salad
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Onions
Green Olives
Feta Cheese
Cucumber
Olive Oil and lemon juice (just to give some taste)
How to Prepare:
Chicken
Cover the whole breast chicken with the Peri-Peri sauce and put it on the oven (200C) for about 1/2 hour but keep eye on it - it depends how potent it's your oven.
Salad
Cut in pieces and mix all the ingredients together, seasoning with the olive oil and lemon juice.
It's done!!!

I'll hope that you all have a wonderful weekend and a nice/warm SPRING time all around the world!

For next week, I propose a challenge: send me (by Twitter, Facebook, Google Wave, Email, my Personal Blog or simply leave a comment) about your favourite type of food and I will 'perform' your dish (your recipe or my 'own way' of doing it), I will make a quick video of 'your dish impact' on others (my neighbours, friends, family...) and we can decided if you could be a winner and your recipe will be the a 'guest post'! :D

So, the challenge is ON and I'll give 2 week from now (it ends 8th of May). Bring it on! :P

I can't eat but I can watch! Just something to put water in your mouth this Friday:

You can also add my banner to your blog and keep in touch anytime!!!

Colours - Strawberry Milkshake

Question of the week:
Which is your favourite colour? And about flowers?
A: I'm always changing my mind about colour but this last months I'm very into Dark Green and Brown - don't ask me why! ;) About flowers I really enjoy tulips and roses (all colours but red).

This week I felt that I really need do some diet (I was 52kg in 2007 and now I'm with 70kg!!!) and posted in my personal blog some tips for diet and health eating. Also decided to have a good try in close my big mouth and eat less!

So, I will teach - well, just show how I made mine - an easy delicious and healthy shake.

Strawberry Milkshake
Ingredients (for only 1 cup):
4 strawberries
3/4 cup of milk
How to Prepare:
Put everything on the blender and mix, mix, mix...
It's done!!!

I know, very silly recipe but remember that you can add anything that your imagination asks (vanilla ice-cream, condensed milk, Chantilly,...)

I have something to amuse you all this Friday:

Spring Time! - Carrot Cake

Question of the week:
What's your favorite thing about Spring?
A: How the whole World seams to be more colourful than normal!

Here in UK it is so amazing - I think all Europe - we can see every season turning beautifuly from one to another, totally differnt from Brazil. Brazil is a tropical country so we have lot of thunder tropical showers, weird summers and winters. Did you know that we can go to the beaches on winter time in Brazil? Yes, because the coolest temperature on winter is around 18C degrees minimum! :)

Here in England we have marvellous tullips and spring flowers - that really make the landscape a gorgeous view. Even though I'm not a 'flower person' I can enjoy plant some and watch them growing.

This week I will teach you all a very easy recipe that always remind me about Spring time.

(I know that this picture is still about Easter but as I made the Carrot Cake...lol)

Carrot's Cake
Ingredients for the Cake:
1/2 cup (tea) of oil
3 middle grated carrots
4 eggs
2 cups (tea) of sugar
2 1/2 cups (tea) of plain flour
1 spoon (soup) of baking powder
Ingredients for the Covering:
1 spoon (soup) of butter
3 spoons (soup) of pownder chocolate
1 cup (tea) of sugar
(if you want a covering more liquid just put 5 spoons of milk)
How to Prepare:
Put the carrot into the blender with the eggs and the oil, add the sugar and leave it for approximately 5 minutes.
In a bowl or in the beater, put the remainder of the ingredients mixing everything - less the yeast! That one is mixed slowly with a spoon.
Roast in oven heated (l80ºC) for 40 minutes.
Preparing the Covering:
Mix all the ingredients and cook - doing a kind of syrup. Put over the cake.

It's done!

(Me, hubby and some friends: Mirko - Italian - and Sophia - Mirko's daughter, who is half Italian/ Brazilian)

(Sophia with her chocolate eggs and my Carrot Cake!)

Hugs,
Lara

DIY: Simple Stripe Pillow

Hi Guys! & Happy Wednesday! Today I wanted to share a QUICK DIY that I put together tonight...literally typing the instructions is taking longer than this took to make!

To make this project you will need:
2 pieces of background fabric - 18 inches square
1 stripe - 1.5 inches x 36 inches
1 stripe - 2.5 inches x 18 inches
1 stripe - 3.5 inches x 18 inches
Fiberfill or pillow form
Plus, the usual sewing machine, scissors, thread, straight pins, etc.

To make your own simple stripe pillow, choose fabrics, patterns, and textures that appeal to you! {That's the most important part!}

Step 1:
Take your base/background fabric and cut it to the desired size. I just used a pillow cover that I already had lying around.

Step 2:
Cut your strips (er, stripes!)...dimensions shown above.

Step 3:
Place the 3.5 inch stripe on your background fabric first. When you are happy with the placement, put the 2.5 inch strip on top of it. Secure into place with straight pins.

Step 4:
Next, sew a straight line a 1/4 inch from the edge on both sides (and on your stripes!). This will secure the two stripes into place, and my bottom stripe ended up have a nice little pucker to it.

Step 5:
Then take your longer 1.5 inch (a.k.a skinny stripe) and pin one end in place. Then work your fabric to create pleats (it's kind of like making a paper fan!) and pin each pleat in place.

Step 6:
Sew straight down the middle of your skinny stripe to secure your pleats.

Step 7:
Place right sides of your background fabric together, pin, and sew a 1/4 of an inch seam all the way around but make sure to leave an opening so that you can turn it right side out and put your stuffing in. (sorry for the horrible picture, daylight was fading fast!)

Step 8:
Turn right side out. (tip: use a cuticle stick or similar sharp object to push your corners out so they are tidy!)

Step 9:
Fill with fiberfill or pillow form or other stuffing of your choice and close it up! To close that opening you can hand stitch it shut, use adhesive velcro, or even glue it!

Now that this is finished, I think it would be supppppper cute on decorative pillow cases for my new bed. I'm just dying to try that out! Also, I think washing it would fray the fabric more...I'm all about texture :)

Happy crafting!

Good Friday - Salt Cod with Potatoes (BACALHAU)

Question of the week:

What's your favorite way to eat your Easter egg?

A: Scrambled with potato wafles!

As Vera's parents mine also hide the chocolate Easter eggs (those ones very very tiny!) everywhere in the house! It was always an amazing hunting for me and my young brother. Fun, fun, fun!

(My grandma - cooking some delicious recipes - and I, giving some mini chocolate eggs to my family members - I was 10 years old or so on that time!)

Hello Everyone!

This 'Good Friday'/'Holy Friday' I will teach you all a very easy (and taste!) fish dish - as the catholic traditions said that we are not allow to eat any type of meat but fish. I was born catholic but I'm not a religious type of person but as me and my husband are expecting some friends today I decided to make a proper traditional dish that most of Brazilians eat on that particular day: BACALHAU is the original name of this fish in Portuguese. There are numerous bacalhau recipe variations, depending on region and tradition. It is said there are more than 365 ways to cook bacalhau, one for every day of the year; others say there are 1001 ways. Bacalhau is often served with potatoes. Green (Vinho Verde) or mature wines (Alentejo Wine, Dão Wine, or Douro Wine) are served alongside.

Some facts about Good Friday:

- Christians remember the day when Jesus was crucified on a cross.

- The Anglo-Saxon name for Good Friday was Long Friday, due to the long fast imposed upon this day.

- Good Friday was not celebrated as the day Christ died until the 4th century A.D.

- The name may be derived from 'God's Friday' in the same way that good-bye is derived from 'God be with ye'. It is 'good' because the barrier of sin was broken.

Do you want to know more about EASTER?!

Salt Cod with Potatoes
(BACALHAU)

Ingredients:
2 big dry fish (in rudely pieces)
3 medium potatoes without skin (cut in slices)
1 onion (cut in slices)
4 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons of white wine
1 teaspoon of parsley
1 mug of boiled water
some green olives
How to Prepare:
Wash the fish and withdraw the fins, the skin and the biggest bones. Start to unravelling in quite rudely pieces. Accommodate the fish in a roasting tin smeared with the oil. Cut the potatoes in rudely slices as well and annex to the fish. Add the onion and the olives. Sprinkle the parsley on top.
Spill the remainder of the oil mixed to the wine. Drop off the mug of boiled water on top of everything. Lead to the middle oven for 2 hours or until you see that the potatoes are nicely cooked.

It's done!

If your fish is Dried and Salted Cod:
Some dry fish came very salted (because normally they came from other Countries like Portugal, Brazil...) so you need to 'un-salted' the fish.
How to Prepare:
Put the fish in a bowl submerged in cold water and leave in the fridge for about 24 hours (yes, it will took you awhile). Change the bowl's water 2 or 3 times in this interval. You can use the fish after this process.

ps: If your fish is not salted, probably you have to put a pinch of salt and black pepper when you were preparing the dish otherwise be careful because the salted fish it is REALLY salted. ;)

Hugs,
Lara

My First Post!!! - Chicken's Risotto

Hello World!

My name is Larissa Santos also know as Lara (easy one!) and I'm the dark blue owl with glasses and a kitchen roller in my wing. You all need to know that without my glasses I (literally) can't see anything and I'm passionate about food and drinks. It is funny to pretend being a cute owl as a teenager I was used to be called like that (because of my huge glasses at my thin face!) lol

I will be posting about food, recipes, tips and advices about healthy food, wonderful (and taste!) things that you can do it in your own kitchen - without any previous experience!

I'm originally from Brazil (South America!) but I live in UK (Leicestershire, England) with my sweet (and sometimes not so sweet) husband Abner and our little princess Tchutchuca (it means 'sweetheart' in Portuguese - PS: Brazilian people speak Portuguese and not Spanish!) - she is our first daugther and, no, she is not a real kid but a 2 year old yellow Labrador! We still trying to have a real baby (actually we will be attending our Insemination processes very soon)... But this is another story - maybe later on! ;) - do you want to know more about me...? HERE

Let's cook!!!

- To celebrate my fisrt post I will teach you a very easy recipe with Chicken - one of my favourites recipes:

Chicken's Risotto

- Rice
Ingredients:
1 medium onion finally chopped
2 cloves of garlic finally chopped
3 tablespoons of oil
1 teaspoon of salt
1 mug of white rice (or your usual type of rice)
2 mugs of boiled water
How to Prepare:
Prepare the rice as usual - gold the onion and garlic on the oil with salt (be carefull to not burn the garlic!), add the rice, mix and then add the boiled water. Leave to cook until dry all the water. Keep.
- Chicken Sauce
Ingredients:
1 medium onion finally chopped
1 teaspoonf of Mango Pickle sauce (I normally use Patak's)
2 cloves of garlic finally chopped
3 teaspoons of oil
3 chicken breats (cooked in water and salt) unravelled
3 tablespoons of tomato sauce (any of your choice)
1/2 mug of boiled water
How to Prepare:
As the rice, gold the onion with the garlic, salt, the mango pickle on the oil. Put the chicken on the pan and mix well. Add the tomato sauce and the water, mix again and leave to cook for about 5 minutes.
- The Risotto's
How to Prepare:
Put the rice into a big bowl and add the chicken sauce, mising well. You can leave the risotto on the same bowl or beautifully arrange into a nice glass/porcelain dish - where you can take to oven (if you preffer) with some parmesan cheese on top - to gratinate.

It's done!

- Of course you can add anything you want: pickles, cucumber, leek, tomatoes,... It's up to your taste and imagination!

Hope you all enjoyed my post as I really enjoyed doing it for you!!!

Hugs,
Lara

Sunday DIY - PomPom Flats.

Happy first day of Spring!

This is the first of many Sunday - DIYs and inspirations I will show you. :) Every spring and summer, I wear a lot of flats. They look so great!

To make your flats special, you will need: