Thursday, February 28, 2008

Culture Goes Both Ways!

So we've been trying to immerse ourselves in plenty of Brasilian culture over the course of the last few months. (And by "culture" I guess I am mostly referring to the food, because, oh buddy, it is good!) But, we thought we'd turn the table for a night and introduce some friends to a little American culture now!
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Tomorrow night we have two of Eric's co-workers and their families coming over for supper - American style! There will be nine of us total, and last night Eric and I finalized the menu:
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Baked Chicken Breast drenched in homemade BBQ Sauce
Green Beans cooked with bacon
Baked Macaroni and Cheese
Garden Salad (complete with salad dressing-not olive oil as is usually the standard here)
Angel Biscuits
Apple Pie with Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream (because what's more American than that?!)
Frozen Angel Toffee Dessert
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I am on a personal mission to convince the people here that Americans don't eat hamburgers, french fries, and pizza everyday! Well, okay I know some Americans do, but the mass majority of us actually have some variety in our diets! (I observed my first ESL class this week. It was a "conversation class" that had four 13-14 year olds enrolled. This week's lesson was on food. I had a hard time convincing the kids that I actually ate vegetables and fruit even when I lived in the US!)
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Anyway, I figured that I'd better start the cooking this afternoon unless I wanted to spend all day tomorrow in the kitchen. So, I went ahead and made the mac and cheese (will just bake it tomorrow), the apple pie, and the angel food cake that I need for the frozen dessert. I thought that after making only 3 dishes I could pretty well illustrate what I mean when I say that I create a lot of dirty dishes when I cook!
The DamageThe Goods
I also realized today that I should have just gone ahead and moved everything except the big appliances from my kitchen when we moved. I thought, "Oh, I won't need my tube pan for anything!" And now we know why I am attempting to make angel food cake in loaf pans! I also thought, "Oh, I won't need my fluted pan," and now I have 12 egg yolks left over from making the angel food cake and I am just going to have to make a pound cake to toss in the freezer and here I am once again without the proper equipment. And I thought, "Oh, I won't need all my mixing bowls down in Brasil." But, alas, I do!
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So tomorrow I'll finish off the meal and get ready to entertain our guests! YEA! I do love a good dinner party! :)

3 comments:

Kate said...

Emily,

You better put a few more people on your guest list. Because the Donnellson FO just bought plane tickets and we're on our way down. Gary says save some pie for him!!

-kate

Laural Out Loud said...

Is that a door behind your sink? I've been staring at that picture for quite a while trying to figure it out!

Emily said...

Laurel,

I read your comment and first thought, what the heck is she talking about??? ;) Then I reviewed the picture and oooohhhh...the knob there to the left of the sink! Actually, everywhere in the apartment where we have water (bathrooms, each kitchen sink, laundry room, etc.) there is a water cut-off valve. And that is what that silver knob is. Well, actually, that isn't the knob to cut off water to this sink...we actually can't figure out if that particular knob goes to anything (and neither could the plumber), but all the other water valves look like that.