Family Dishes!

One of the things that I like about our family get togethers, is the chance to taste many of the special family dishes. There are a variety of reasons why I don't get the opportunity to eat them as often as I have in the past.

1. I don't know how to make them.
2. Even if I knew how to make them I don't have access to many of the fresh ingrediants that are available in the local portuguese markets.
3. I don't have a huge fresh vegetible garden in my back yard like my parent's garden.
4. I don't have time to make them.

This past weekends birthday party had some very special foods that I hadn't tasted in a long time. These included fresh cheese or "queiso fresco" This is a salty white cheese that is not cured, that is why they call it fresh. Tony's wife's mother made it. She also made a delicious Portuguese Sweet bread which goes very well with the fresh cheese.

The signature desert dish of course that viz avo makes is the sweet rice pudding "arroz dosse". She is always the one who makes it for alll of our family events. Although often attempted by my aunts and mom, no one comes close to viz avo's sweet rice. It use to be my father in laws favoriate. I sometimes think that my kids some day will not being able to share in and appreciate these special foods. I certainly don't want to be the one who "drop's the ball" by not knowing how to make these dishes or being able to teach my kids how to make them. Over time it is inevitable that some of these dishes will be lost as we all become part of the "melting pot". I think the stew we are becoming is something more special than the individual ingredients we started with. My wife for example has contributed some very special dishes that have now become part of our family's cusine. The best recipe's will be the one's that continue on to the next generation because they taste great and because we have made an effort to preserve them. This post was inspired by Tia Lola because she sent me viz Avo's recipe for sweet rice. Here is the recipe.

Sweet Rice - ARROZ DOSSE

Ingredients
1 GALLON WHOLE MILK
2 CUPS RIVER RICE
ORANGE PEEL
3 OR 4 EGGS
4 CUPS OF SUGAR
PINCH OF SALT
1 CUP OF WATER

Directions
- BOIL WATER WITH ORANGE ADD RICE TO BOILING WATER STIR TIL WATER EVAPORATES
- ADD 3/4GALLON OF MILK SMMER FOR 45 MINUTES
- ADD 4 CUPS OF SUGAR STIRRING CONTINUOUSLY TO PREVENT STICKING ( This is where most people mess up. )
- SIMMER FOR 10 TO 15 MINUTES
- IN A SEPERATE BOWL MIX 1 CUP OF MILK AND 3 OR 4 EGG YOLKS THEN ADD TO RICE BRING TO A BOIL
- REMOVE FROM HEAT AND PUT INTO GLASS DISHES

Thank you Tia Lola for contributing the first recipe. I hope there will be many more recipes that I will post. If others have a good Portuguese recipe you would like to share please sent it to my email address along with a story of why the dish is special to you. Remember the Web motto "You should give as much as you recieve." or something like that. Or as one of my old managers in a previous company called it "Quid pro quo"

Avo's House For Dinner

We went to visit Avo and Avo and have dinner today. As usual the kids complained about having to sit in the car for the one hour and 15 minute trip. Once they get to Avo's house, they were happy I made them go. Tony, Maria, Megan, Catarina, Amos, Deborah and Carolina also came to dinner. My mother as you all know is a very good cook. Even my dad is pretty good. What a spread she had today. Like most portuguese meals she had several different dishes. Each one tasting delicious. Avo's meals often include fresh vegetables from their huge vegetable garden in their back yard. Today's meal included egg and flour battered string beans from the garden. The last batch of grean beans frmo this year's harvest, my mom told us. These green beans are the kid's and Susan's favoriate, really I think they are everyone's favoriate. We picked up Apples and an apple pie from Phantom's Farms. The Apples are in season now. The pie was still hot from the oven when we bought it. The desert, as american as Apple Pie, finished off a truely Portuguese American meal.

Sharing family dinners is one of my family values. They allow me to spend some time with my family, eat some great food and re-energize my body and soul.

Just to make sure I keep you guys coming back to my blog, I picked up some really nice old pictures of the family. I certainly know that my writing alone won't be enough. My hope is that we actually get some sort of dialog going on. If not it is ok. As long as you do check in occassionally to see how everyone is doing. I scanned the photos in when we got home tonight. One of them included a black and white photo of me in portugal, that I am now using for my profile photo. I was about 3 years old when it was taken. I hope you like the pictures. Let me know what you think of them.

The Cousins Circa 1980


Tio Agusto's House - Circa 1980


Avo Quim - Circa 1970


What may have been my passport picture to come to the US - 1969


The back of my picture sent to my dad when he was in Africa
You can see the date on the picture.

Don't waste!

After finishing dinner tonight Susan started putting away the dishes. She teased me saying she was going to pour out what was left of her beer down the drain. She did this because she knew wasting left over food or drinks would completely drive me insane. Growing up we always finished all of the food on our plate and our drinks. We never threw out food. Leftovers would become the meal for the next day. This attitude continues to be part of who I am and how I behave. Conservation and reuse was a core value of our family growing up.

I remember several times as a child were the behavior of others simply didn't compute when it came to waste. Growing up it was an extraordinary treat for me and my brother to go to McDonald's on a Friday night with the Family after my mother finished Grocery shopping. I remember one time when a mother was eating her dinner at the table next to ours in McDonald's. They finished eating and were in the process of gathering their paper waste to thow out. I remember being in shock when the mother let her kids not finish all their fries and hamburger. I stared at her as they got up from their table and threw out all their leftovers in to the garbage. I asked myself who would pay good money for McDonald's and then simply throw it out. Even as I got older I can't remember a time in my life where there was left overs from McDonald's and somebody in the family wouldn't have finished them up.

On another occasion I remember stopping by my friends house after they had finished dinner. They were in the process of cleaning up from dinner. I watched as they threw out large quantities of pork chops that were left over from dinner. Again I could not comprehend how this was done without even giving it a thought and was done by the mother.

Conservation and Reuse is a core value of my family. It still remains part of my behavior. Perhaps not to the extreme it was growing up but still an important way of how I operate on a daily basis. Susan sometimes gets embarrassed by it but I don't think it is a value to be embarrassed about. The people who should be embarrassed are the ones who waste so much when there are so many people in the world that don't have any. Can you recall examples of conservation and reuse growing up? I would love to hear them. Please post them to the comments of this post.