Finally made it inside! Funny fact: the ticket sellers accept only cash, but once inside, the restaurants and snack-bar all take credit and debit cards. Very logical don’t you think? Anyway, we had a fun and tiring day. Akylis loved the open space to run around in. We were surprised at how large the gardens were. And here are all the pictures. Enjoy!

Amazonian Water Leaves

The Bamboo Forest

The Atlantic Rainforest Trail

The Cactus Garden

A big fish in the lake-Akylis fed him all his cookies.

The Greenhouses

The Bromeliad Greenhouse

The usual commemorative statues

A beautiful architectural elements

A monkey-He was a fat little guy that ended up falling out of the bamboo while we were watching.

The Christo in the distance so of course I had to pinch it!

Never fear, they have updated the signage and the visitor maps, so they are in Portuguese and English, though all the bathrooms are labeled “WC.”

I know what you’re thinking. Really? Hotdogs? How different can that be? Well let me show you!

That’s right, sliced up,sauced and  shoved into a hollow crusty roll. I’ve had this type of dish at two birthday parties, my MIL’s house, and my husband made it at ours. So today I made it and decided to finally share.

In my lovely banged up pot, I mixed 6 sliced hotdogs, 200 ml tomato sauce, a little pouch of Sazon, and a small can of corn with a little water. Heated it up, sliced the fresh crusty bread rolls, and served. Add Guarana soda for an authentic beverage pairing, and you have the easiest Brazilian dinner ever.  Super easy and tasty. My family loved it. At some food stands you can find the more traditional unsliced “long” hot dog, but this is the homestyle commonly recognized Brazilian hotdog recipe that is loved by kids and adults across the country.

Our Easter trip to Ipatinga also provided me with some new flavor experiences.

Here’s  my MIL (aka Sogra, MIL in Portuguese) getting ready for a party in her kitchen.

Yeah, that’s a lot of meat. She always makes more than enough for everyone! For grilling, she simply sprinkles the meat with rock or sea salt, except for the seasoned sausages.

On a regular day, this is what dinner looks like. The ever present rice and beans.

The meat of the day is what I call beef nuggets. Its a tougher cut of beef, boiled in water in the pressure cooker and then deep fat fried crispy (no batter). She slices onions, pulls the beef from the oil and heats them together for about a minute just to half-cook the onions. She goes through a lot oil with her meats and veggies. Hard to imagine she’s a diabetic isn’t it?

The vegetable of the day is boiled pumpkin and okra in seasoned water, which ends up tasting like a garlic broth. Its pretty tasty. Neither of these are really recipes since she just tossed the veggies in the water and added a spoonful her homemade seasoning mix. I probably won’t even make the beef nuggets no matter how tasty they are. They are just so unhealthy! But I plan to play to make the pumpkin and okra dish. I am in love with both of these veggies now.

And here’s Akylis playing Grandma Cooking. He’s such a ham.

This lovely little market in Ipatinga travels around the city, so each day it is in a different part of the city. It makes sense in a country where the majority of the population does not own a car.

The market entrance is really just the end of a 4 lane divided main street that is blocked off and stuffed with people, at least on Sunday. When M and I first found the market on our date night, it was on a blocked off side street in a different part of town. They sold everything: fresh produce, leather goods, farm products, handicrafts, clothes, etc.

These harem style jeans are still a huge part of the street fashion. No idea why…I call them crazy pants. Akylis ended up with 3 pairs of shoes between my purchases and my MIL’s. He is a well-shod little man now!

We have a similar style market in Central Rio where you can find all the name brands and knock-offs. Some venders travel back and forth between the US and Brazil because you can buy cheap in the US and sell high here and still beat out the store prices. The taxes on imports are crazy. And, according to one of my neighbors, all the best knock-offs come from Peru, and she knows the best vender in Centro who drives them in by the truckload. I haven’t been downtown with her yet to see if this is true. I’ve found domestically produced products and produce are the “cheap” items while imports are dramatically more expensive often double or triple the price. It seems great for job security, but leads to higher prices on most electronics, cars, books, DVDS, and other non-essential items.

Of course, Akylis’ favorite was the puppy seller. I agreed with him that the tiger stripped one was adorable, but we just can’t have a puppy in our apartment.

My favorite was the Caldo da Cana or fresh pressed sugar cane juice vender. I’m not the only one. His can was overflowing with the remains of pressed cane and the lunch rush was just starting. I’ve come to learn there are several kinds of cane and the juice from each tastes different. Obvious, I know, but the point is I can now visually identify which cane (and therefore which vender) I want to purchase. I love the greenish colored juice that comes from the green and white cane. The yellow canes aren’t as sweet and taste watered down. This juice is often paired with pastels so you’ll find numerous street venders in Rio and throughout Brazil that sell Queijo (usually Mozzarella or “Prato” cheese, and I have no idea what Prato cheese is in English, so don’t ask), Carne (a seasoned ground beef mixture), Frango (a seasoned and shredded chicken mix) or Pizza (Mozzarella cheese, sliced ham, and a little tomato sauce) inside fried pastry shells with glasses of sugar cane juice. The popular condiments tend to be garlic oil or hot sauce. If you want ketchup or mayo you’ll have to ask and its hit or miss if they have the little packs of those. I recommend the garlic molho for at least a try. The hot sauce is only for those who can handle spicy, especially if its a house sauce!

Fun fact: I tried to take a picture from the front, but the guy got mad. Apparently he thought I was inspector and he doesn’t have a license. I know for a fact that I’ve eaten food from unlicensed venders in Rio too. It hasn’t been a problem yet, but I’ve also been living here and drinking the water. Yeah I’m not one of those people who buy bottled water by the case. In for a penny, in for the whole experience!

My Mother-in-Law makes her own dish and laundry soap in huge batches and she showed me how!

The ingredients. Looking at the white bottle just scared me. She is not playing around. Her soap really cleans. The tupperware has used cooking oil. She also uses alcohol.

First she heats the oil and mixes it with the alcohol and soda caustica. I helped and of course when she said add the alcohol, I just started pouring the liter in. Of course that made it overreact and start to bubble over. It also smells absolutely putrid. Needless to say, she didn’t ask for my help again. She did add some cold water to slow the chemical reaction, but that cement slab was clean enough to eat off of when we were done.

She mixes this hot, bubbly, smelly mixture until its “done.” Not really sure when that is because she did it until it “looked right.” Just like her cooking recipes!

Next, she mixes the soap with water, somewhere between 30-40 Liters in her washing machine. The machine mixes it for awhile and then the metal scoop is used to decant it into various plastic bottles.

This batch made over 50 Liters of laundry and dish soap for less than R$20 or US$ 10. However, if you made this in the US there would probably be some neighbors complaining about your house being used for unsafe chemical production or some HOA rule being broken. Here, the neighbor showed up with a few empty 2L bottles and traded used cooking oil (enough for another batch) for 10L of soap.

Of course, my ever curious son was watching. Don’t worry as soon as the vapor cloud started, he and I moved upwind (and my MIL asked me not to help). If I ever made this soap, I would do it in a well-ventilated area with safety goggles, face mask, gloves, and boots, but that could just be the teacher/mom in me. I still can’t believe she did this in her flip-flops.

Akylis fell in love, met Madonna, and learned a new game this Easter.Good Morning! For some reason in Ipatinga, he just bounces out of bed an hour earlier without going to bed early. At least grandma was there to help mommy and daddy catch up on their sleep. He is still waking up at least once a night to eat.

The biggest change in Ipatinga is that my mother-in-law is closing in her patio to create another bathroom and room. Of course, since it was my husband’s family, he pitched in to help and so did the cousins, uncles and brothers.

Akylis wanted to help too, so he was assigned the role of managing supervisor. Here he is making sure his uncle Douglas is properly mixing the cement. Most days it was M and a guy from the church, but on Saturday, everyone joined in to finish the roof. I don’t know about you, but my family has never taken a Saturday/vacation day to all gather together and build a roof. These guys have helped each other build their various family homes. It is really amazing.

We spent the few rain free days at the park, where he met Madonna, the police horse. Fun fact: these units are called Cavaleiros or Knights rather than Mounted Units. Besides park duty in Ipatinga, the Police Knights patrol areas of the favellas here in Rio where the streets are impassible by car.

We went to an evening wedding of a cousin, but Akylis didn’t want to sit still; so, even though it was damp, Daddy took him to the playground across the street. I picked this outfit for Akylis, and M said that it looked like a uniform. I thought he was joking, but it turns out he was serious. The largest company in Ipatinga, which employs about 50% of the town, has uniforms in almost this same shade of blue/light navy. Ahh, good times.

He has learned to ham it up for photos too. This rabbit tricycle was his favorite part of the trip. He loved it. He rolled all around the house on it. He still hasn’t figured out pedals so its Flintstone style. I want to pick up one of these for his birthday, a mere 2 months away. How crazy is that?

He’s also picked up the idea of shopping. Grandma’s produce basket was constantly assaulted. He did this with his toys, daddy’s tools, and anything else he could fit behind his rear. I think its just adorable.

Our trip, originally planned for five days, stretched into 3 weeks. I filled the memory card in our camera so look forward to several more posts as I play blog catch-up!

Here’s the delicious recipe that I came up with!

I made Chicken and Okra with a twist. And yes, I broke “Top Chef” rules and put it on a purple plate. Marcio loved this entree, and was sad that I only made our normal two-adult portions rather than monster portions. He really wanted thirds!

The base for this recipe comes from my Mother-in-Law who showed me how to make Okra with ground beef instead of chicken and bacon, but I tweaked it a lot in an attempt to make it healthier and use what’s available to me. For example, I used Sazon instead of her homemade seasoning mix. You can find these in the U.S. I prefer the one for chicken with saffron in it, hence the yellow tinge.

Ingredients for 2 entree portions:

1 chicken breast, thinly sliced

3 cloves of garlic minced

5 Okra spears, sliced to look like wheels

1 thick slice of smoked bacon, sliced into smaller pieces

1 tsp salt

canola oil

Directions: In pan, stir-fry the bacon, garlic, and salt with a drizzle of oil. Depending on the Bacon, you might need more or less oil so start light and add as needed. Once the garlic and bacon are getting aromatic, add the okra. When the Okra is a bright shiny green, add the chicken. The chicken cooks quickly. This entire process takes about 13 minutes.

Serve with black beans and Brazilian white rice.

And for the bacon lovers:

No mamby-pamby little packages of pre-sliced smoked goodness here folks. They only sell bacon by the slab. And it is cheap, less than R$4.00 for this hefty chunk. A slice here or there for flavor has really helped Marcio love my cooking! Though he has lectured me on removing and discarding the skin. Each chunk has skin on one side. I just leave it on the side of my plate while he gnaws on his skin bits. Marriage is about compromise.

End note: to make it true to my Mother-in-Law’s version, she makes a huge pot with about a pound of burger, a lot of fresh Okra, and her homemade spice mix. She doesn’t use fresh garlic because its in her spice mix already and she doesn’t seem to buy bacon. At least I’ve never seen it in her refrigerator in all the time I’ve spent at her house.

 

This Sunday, we took Akylis to the Nature Preserve in Prainha, aka Parque Natural Municipal da Prainha. The park is about 30 years old and has done some major reforestation in this area. I am so happy we found this place and that its a short 20 minute drive from our house.

Near the entrance, they have a children’s playground and learning center. Akylis is a little too young for the learning part, but he did like the teepee!

We found the trail head, which looked easy and well-maintained, so we went, thinking Akylis would enjoy the exercise.

He did enjoy the trail side plants. He kept pulling leaves and flowers and throwing them around. Luckily none reached his mouth. He kept me on my toes!

And then he started getting tired, and the trail looked suspiciously less groomed.

And then the trail devolved into a beautiful long stair that climbs to the rock precipice. Akylis only wanted to be carried. Unfortunately we took a wrong turn (aka the only turn) and finished the loop without making it to the top. We plan to go back on a less rainy day to try again. I am planning on wearing actual sneakers too. It was a workout for everyone!

Akylis, though tired, did some fun poses.

Marcio was close at hand so he was never in any danger in the making of this blog photo shoot.

He seemed to enjoy the sitting and resting the most.

While there, we found the Stone Table…

and had to irreverently dance on it.

The solar powered ranger station was very neat, but the rangers were packing some serious heat. There seemed to be an entire squad of muscle men keeping an eye on the entrance and buildings. Everyone had to pass the squad to enter and leave the park. Needless to say, we only took pictures and left footprints. Yes, Sir! No funny business, Sir!

I found American ingredients! First, I went to the bakery for our fresh bread and they have a deli section in the bakery since that’s the traditional breakfast here. I saw this really pretty white cheese with a pink rind.

When I asked what kind of cheese they said either Queijo Bolo or Queijo Bohla; the former meaning Ball Cheese and the latter Bubble Cheese. It is Swiss Cheese!  Yummy!

Then later at the grocery store, while browsing the spices and condiments aisle, I found Molho de Ingles (English Sauce).

It was only R$ 3 so I picked it up to see what it was. As soon as I opened the bottle I smelled Worcestershire Sauce! I made up hamburgers for dinner with the sauce. Marcio’s reaction: he took one bite and then tried to wash the taste off. Literally! He took the meat to the sink and washed it. Then he squeezed fresh lemon on it to drown out the residual flavor. I’m taking that as a negative vote for ever using it again!

In January, while Marcio’s Aunt and Cousin were visiting, they wanted to tour around the Copacabana area without spending a dime, so M drove us around on a Sunday. We found this beautiful park by the river that gave us a great view of Sugar Loaf mountain and it had free parking.

Akylis had a lot of fun running around.

Of course Daddy was there to keep him from jumping into the water!

Overall it was a lovely and free family outing. I do wish we could ride the cable cars to the mountain top sometime. I am guessing the view would be breathtaking, but this was a good time without all that.