When There's Nothing to Eat in the House

What do you cook when there's no food in the house? I default to crepes filled with whatever contents I can scrape up from the fridge or freezer. I always have frozen spinach so spinach crepes were an obvious choice.

This recipe makes 11 crepes:
3 cups flour
3 cups milk
3 eggs
pinch salt
1 tbsp wheat germ
2 tbsp butter

The filling is just spinach, ricotta cheese and some other white plain white cheese from the fridge.

 I fill them and roll them like burrittos

 and then just warm them in the oven so they don't dry out

If your kids don't prefer spinach, purree the spinach with whatever cheese they like, and rebrand the dish as "monster slime pancake roll-ups." It's all about marketing when it comes to children's eating habits.

Life on the Farm

This mare delivered a foal during Easter break last year and it was perfect timing since the kids were at the farm for over a week. Anticipation of the birth and getting to know a new foal is the best part of having horses. Apart from riding them, that is. She's once again about to deliver a new foal so her current foal had to be separated and put in another pasture.

Was that ever a disaster. We walked out on our first morning only to find the older stronger stallion in the new pasture, chasing the poor foal. He was biting him, and running him ragged on rocky treacherous terrain.

 We were walking little Pepita at the time and giving her a change of scene when the horses came running by. Poor Gabbiroo (the foal)looked exhausted and ready to give up.

This is Freddy's version of taking the dog for a walk, and letting her stretch her legs.

Moojie stepped into action and ran back up to the stables to grab a big whip. Freddy and I got big sticks to help and Zita snuggled down with Pepita so she wouldn't be trampled.

Freddy and I stationed ourselves on either side of a narrow pass between blackberry brambles and a fence. Moojie went running with his whip trying to get the foal towards the brambles so we could then block out the stallion. That was the plan, anyway. After a few attempts we finally got the horses separated, and with a closer look, we saw that the poor foal had been bitten all down his mane, and the bigger stallion had blood all over his nose from the bites.

We eventually moved the foal into a closed off orchard at the bottom of the hill, and brought a few treats to settle him. By the time everything was sorted, horses reorganized, and things were all put back in the barn, it was lunch time.

Times escapes us as we are carried from one animal adventure to another.

 Life on the farm is a daily ropes course of problem solving in action, teamwork, excercise, responsiblity, and hard work. I can't wait to get back there next week and meet the new foal, and see how big Pepita is getting. Since I took over 100 pictures of her, here's another dose of daily cuteness.

Puppy Love

We're in the Alentejo loving on a very sweet, very little, fluffy, snuggly puppy.

I'm so glad it's the grandparent's and not ours.

A Taste of Home

I went to the old GB store that is now Glood international foods today. I wanted to check out their Easter selection and pick up a few cream eggs. This is just a bit of what I bought.

Look at the heart in my sesame bagel!
I'll have to go back later for Easter stuff when I don't have children with me.

Just Two

It's Easter holidays here and we're down to two children in the house after Freddy went off to the Alentejo with Pai's parents ( aka Avó and Avô) yesterday afternoon. More on that later.

Saturday was Zita's big clarinet performance. She rocked the house and made all 3.5 hours of waiting worth every minute.

Her solo:

The quartet: sax, trumpet, clarinet, sax

 They only had one 30 minutes rehersal over two weeks ago so the fact that they managed to play it in sync (mostly) was a miracle. They got lots of whistles and cheers from the crowd when they finished and once again I got lots of compliments from other mothers.

She was the 40th student to perform, and not the last, so we had to watch a lot of kids perform. 39 kids before her and 7 or so after her. We got there at 5:00pm and by 8:30 she finally played.
Freddy was a champ and held it together better than I did. Pai was happily settled going over contracts and busy with work in his seat. I had to entertain Freddy within the realm of what is possible while remaining silent and still.

Some was very good, and one girl belted out with an Adele song so spot on it was amazing. The violin was torture of the worst kind.

We were hungry to the point of extreme grouchiness. We went straight for dinner afterwards and practically ordered as they were seating us. We polished off two baskets of bread in silence and then did the same with 4 steaks and one grilled fish.

These are all parental learning moments.  I've got the charged batteries on both cameras down, and I've figured out that people get there very early to hog reserve seats, but I dropped the ball big time on food.

Starvation aside, we were so proud of Zita and can't wait for her next show. I'll be armed with both cameras and lots of snacks in my purse.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

 The last time I made peanut butter cookies, everyone ate them, but they didn't love them like they were meant to be loved. These cookies however, were a big hit!

I didn't use as much peanut butter as I normally would and that coupled with big chocolate chunks, made them a new favorite. Next time I'll add walnuts.

Here's how I made them:

Combine 1 stick of butter with 1/2 white sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar

Mix in two eggs

I didn't measure out the peanut butter, but I scooped out roughly 4 heaping soup spoonfuls and mixed it in until smooth.

Mix in 2 cups flour and as many big chocolate chunks as you wish.

Bake for 8-9 minutes

Recipe makes 30 cookies

Weekly Menu

We had a meat-free week last week and all have lived to tell the tale.

Here's the menu:

Monday:  Bacalhau à Bráz (cod with potatoes and egg). I know it looks kinda gross, but it's actually yummy


(not my photo)

Tuesday: Baked Salmon, busy mixed green salad with seeds
Wednesday: Shrimp and portabello mushroom risotto
Thursday: Roasted veggie and spinach lasagne ( yes, with mascarpone!)
Friday: Pizza

By Saturday I had heard more than a few comments about how everyone was dying for a good steak, so I went to the butcher Saturday afternoon and picked up almost 1 kg of steak to grind and make burgers. We had two nephews and a baby neice in the house, so simple burgers were in order with 6 kids to feed.

Sunday: Thai coconut peanut chicken over rice

So it wasn't exactly meat-free, but we held off until Saturday and it's something I'll be happy to repeat.

It Seems Impossible

For the men folk in this family to dislike cats when this scene plays out every night

Dashboard Memory

Our morning school run entails driving Moojie to school, then dropping off Zita, and then doubling back to drop off Freddy. He doesn't technically have to be in class until 9:30 and some days he's dying to get in there and play, and other days he likes to linger in the car with me. Sometimes we read, and sometimes he comes into my lap in the front and just chats, but lately, we have been playing dashboard memory. It's the best way to use an incomplete deck of cards.

I don't usually pay very close attention to the cards I turn over so the pairs I get are just luck. Freddy was catching on to my poor techniques and said "now focus Mummy, look at the cards and remember what you just turned over." Love that Freddy Bear.

Sunday in Sintra

Pai was in charge of coming up with something different to break our weekend pattern of tennis, break, tennis, eat, rest, walk, eat, sleep. He packed a picnic and discovered that the the Chalet and Gardens of the Condessa d'Elda have been redone and are now open to the public. The first order of business was a quick stop at the Piriquita in the historic center of Sintra for a few of their famous pasteries.

Then we dug into the real picnic before visiting the chalet.

You can see the Palácio de Pena in the distance behind the roof of the chalet. All of the wood details on the outside are actually cork.

 I was so inspired to open the wall in our kitchen where the oven is to get back the open oven. The circular window floods the room with natural light. In fact the entire house was pouring with light which is a rarity in Portugal, and Sintra especially.

After we toured the house, we hiked through the surrounding "gardens," as they are called in the brochure, but in fact it is really just wilderness with rock boulders everywhere.

We got to the top of the hill, marked by this enourmous boulder and thought it was the perfect spot for

a break with leftover wine from lunch and azeitão cheese (orange juice for the kids).

These pink blooms grew on a few tall trees and looked unreal in the otherwise completely green and brown landscape.

I'm sure these rays of light showing up in the photo indicate bad photography, but I love them, just as I loved everything about the day.

Good Laughs on Father's Day

To celebrate Father's Day today, Pai went on the morning school run with me, and then had breakfast in Freddy's classroom.

There were different stations set up with activites they could do together, and Freddy chose the word search.

All of the children drew a picture of their dad and wrote why they love their Dad. I was shaking with laughter at what some of the kids wrote. Clearly, the teacher didn't coach them or filter the cards in any way.

Some dads were thrown under the bus with comments like " I love my Dad because every time he takes care of me, I get to just watch TV." ouch 

or

" I love my Dad because he doesn't hit me- only sometimes." double ouch.

The absolute best was this:

" I love my Dad because he married my mom before I was born, and she's almost 40."

 It's true- that takes a special kind of Dad.

5 year olds are smart little things.

Freddy's said:
" I love my Dad because he fixes our house when it's ruined and he works a lot for us."

I can think of a million reasons why the kids love Pai. What lucky kids they are.

Here he is giving Pai a coat hanger.

Zita made him a card with some sort of art work that she wants to give him tonight, and Moojie gave a heartfult "Happy Father's Day" this morning.

When We Dont Feel Like Pancakes...

we make coffee cake. This strawberry almond coffee cake is ready for the oven. After shots to follow...

Adolescence

I was all geared up to post our weekly menu when I saw this article in the Huffington Post on adolescenes. A mother laments the growing distance between her and her son and mentions that he "barks orders for money, slams doors, curses under his breath, and lists the things he hates." The sentiment is that all this bad behavior and distance is an inevitable part of this phase in the mother son relationship.  It's not inevitable at all! Respect and kind behavior are developed throughout childhood, and I'm certain that a child given the right foundation doesn't just turn 13 and lose every ounce of courtesty and good form they've ever been taught in life .

I can't imagine Moojie slamming a door, or barking anything at me. We talk about his day, his friends, and his life, and he would never, ever, talk back in the constant way the author describes. If Moojie wants money, he'll ask to clean the car, or mow the lawn. We have established money chores around here so the money is always there for them, if they're willing to work for it. I so hate to be judegy ( ok part of me loves it) , but we reap what we sow in a big way when it comes to our children.

I think that our children grow away from us if we aren't willing to change along with them. Do I drag Mooji along fabric shopping, or make him sit and watch TLC with me? No. 'Cause you know that's all full time moms do, right? I grab an eiderdown and sidle up to watch a little Indian Well tennis or National Geographic with him, read and learn about what he is covering in science, take an interest in the books he likes, and adapt to life with a teenager. I pick my battles in a big way, and praise praise praise the things I am proud of.

What I love so much about the big boys at Moojie's school, and every single young adult I've ever met in Portugal,  is that every single one, regardless of school behavior, crosses the threshold of our front door and immediately knows how to greet the adults, makes polite conversation, gives the requisite kisses, offers to help with dinner, clears his plate afterwards, and says his pleases and thank yous with sincerity. It's like they've all gone through a Disneyland boot camp of friendliness and courtesy.

I guess my very long winded message here is that it doesn't have to be the way the author describes. Start young and nip those eye rolls, door slams, and unreasonable demands in the bud. Zero tolerance is the name of the game. Oh, and never ask "how was your day?" in the car ride home from school. Wait until dinner time!

Little Changes on Happy Street

Instead of salt and pepper on the table, we now have two jars: one with wheat germ and the other with mixed seeds. We have been sprinkling seeds and wheat germ on everything possible. It's getting to be a joke around here that walking into the kitchen means getting offers of "wheat germ cookies?", or "wheat germ crepe?", or "wouldn't you like a few seeds sprinkled in your soup/salad?"

It's the easiest way to add extra essential vitamins without actually taking vitamins. Plus, seeds and wheat germ are extremely inexpensive.

The second change we've made is reducing our cereal consumption.  Being low on cereal is the equivalent of a nuclear catastrophe in this house. I think people don't even sleep well knowing the cereal supply for the next morning is low. Anyway, this combination of Summer weather and strawberries that finally have better flavor has called this smothies makin' mom into action. I've allocated an extra 10 minutes each afternoon to cut and freeze fruit, and then another ten  in the morning to make everyone a smoothie breakfast. Today's included strawberries, blueberries, plum, banana, orange, apple, and yogurt. When the kids come down to the table and grab their smoothie, and icecream silence gives me the satisfaction that all this extra fruit buying, washing, chopping, and freezing is more than worth it.

Freddy prepping the strawberries last night.

I'm already dreaming about tomorrow morning's smoothie.

What Happens When the Big Kids Are Busy?

Mummy gets to play Chutes and Ladders, Memory, and word games all afternoon.

Tournament Re-Cap

I nearly had to tie down my own arms to stop myself from taking any pictures since I was asked not to. It was absolutely not the disaster we thought it would be. Moojie always sees the positive in everything and came away proud despite tripple losses. This is without a doubt his best trait and one that serves him well in so many situations.

When his first opponent starting heading towards court 3, where Moojie had just been told to go for his first match, I nearly grabbed him and drove off. The guy had a full on beard. Not a scraggly teenage thing- a TSA reg-flag kind of beard.
I'm really only gettting a handle on the scoring now, but they play full matches, just like in real tournments on TV. Moojie said all he wanted was to win one game during the whole day and not lose 6-0, 6-0 in straight sets. So his goal was to lose 6-0, 6-1. See what I mean about low expectations?


Anyway, he and the bearded man began playing and although their levels were markedly different, Moojie did get some rallies in there, and scored points here and there, but was defeated 6-0. 6-0. He wasn't upset! He was thrilled that some of the individual games got to 40-40, and 40-30 so although the overall score was bad, he didn't look at it that way.

His next match was assigned to center court where everyone was watching. It's one thing to be crushed where people can't really see properly, but it's another thing all together to lose in front of a crowd. Something clicked in Moojie and he pulled out a level of tennis that I have never seem him play. His serve was strong and fast, he was working the other guy into a sweat (it was boiling hot noon day sun!) and putting up a fight.

I had no idea what the score was, so I asked another mom who said "5-3" and I almost wept right then and there. Moojie's physical fitness level is a huge advantage which I didn't realize until I saw the other guy was noticeably more tired, more sweaty, and resting between every individual game to eat a twix bar. Moojie can play for hours without tiring.   The other guy won 6-3, 6-1, but it was better than either of us could have hoped for.

All the parents knew we were there by mistake and that it was his first tournament (they googled Moojie just like I had googled all of their sons).  The moms were great encouragement and very complimentary.

We were such newbies in that everyone had wardrobe changes, fresh looking clothes for every match, sweat towels, jump ropes to warm up on court, and lots of power bar types snacks that they set on on their benches.  We showed up with water and nothing else looking very bewildered at the amount of stuff coming out of all those enourmous bags.

 I had to hide the camera behind my handbag to get this shot.

More determined than ever, he's going to play in a qualifer to enter another tournament in two weeks. This time I'll be there with all the extra clothes, sweat towels, snacks, and a better system for getting pictures.

Weekend Update

I couldn't bring myself to update the blog yesterday after being out of the house for 11 hours at the tennis tournament. I'll write about that properly during the week. Today we're enjoying the sunshine


and eating yummy seedy salads

 Lounging on the grass

 Picniking with Pipocas while Moojie kept great stuff coming off the grill

 and nibbling on pimentos padrón

Things I Want to Remember

Freesia sprang up all over the garden this week, and despite my determination to capture these gorgeous flowers, little Patches had a different idea. Every time I got close enough to take a picture, she jumped and pawed the zoom.

The scent of Freesia is even more divine than crawling Jasmine.

We've been playing a new game during the school run that involves license plates. Every Portuguese license plate has two letters and the kids try to call out a two word phrase beginning with the letters on the plate that passes us. So instead of squabbles, I hear "fabulous x-ray!; slithering worm; Freddy's ball;"  and on and on. We were driving in the gate and Zita said "hey, what two letters do we have on our car?" She hopped out and called out " BS!" at which point I stayed frozen waiting to see what they would come up with. After a lot of thinking Freddy piped up from the back and said "boisterous sea lion!"  Exactly what I was going to say, Freddy " boisterous sea lion."

We sped through The Adventures of Huck Finn since listening to it was all the kids wanted to do all week long. We started Tom Sawyer last night and they are geting the biggest kick out of Tom's antics. Right when we get home from school, the three of us throw the covers back on my bed, snuggle up with one hot sweaty head on each of my shoulders and read until it's time to do homework. Even Moojie listened in on two chapters last night.

Moojie is now a member of the national tennis federation, which means he can play in tournaments where points are awarded or lost and players gain a rank. He got signed up for the wrong tournament (unclear website!) and is playing in his first ever competitive tournament tomorrow morning against 18 year old  men- broad shouldered, wide jawed, hairy legged type men.  When he realized the mistake, he begged the tournament director over the phone to withdraw his entry pointing out that he's only 13 and has never done a real tournament before, but the guy refused, warning he would be fined with "falta de comparência" for not showing up. The coach told him last night to just play and get it over with, and in true frank Portuguese fashion said "oh you'll be creamed and lose badly, but that's no reason not to play."  I'm definitely suffering  more in the lead up than he is. Tomorrow morning at 8am, the two of us will load up the car and head out. Oh, and I of course googled his first opponent for tomorrow, it will be the opponent's one hundred and thirty third tournament.  I think I feel an ulcer coming on.

Freddy's News

I have a wobbly tooth!

Ikea- Can't Live With It, Can't Live Without It

I just finished putting together the rolley drawers under Zita's new desk. By new, I mean the desk I found in the basement. The drawers are new and freshly assembled after two days of dealing with poorly illustrated instructions.

I'm pretty sure that if I walk back into Zita's room in 1 hour, she'll have it looking neat and organized with a purpose for every drawer. Let's hope it holds up.

A Walk in Sintra

It not all sand and surf in the Cascais area.  Sintra's nature beckons and a few short minutes in the car is all it takes to surround myself with the beauty of Penha Longa.   

Church entrance:

The spa is the yellow building on the left. Don't be deceived by its modest exterior; it really is quite a treat. Sadly, the last time I went to this spa was for a post-natal massage after Freddy was born.

 I'm a sucker for tiled fountains.

 Looking towards the back of the church