Homemade Cherry Yogurt

Living in Brazil my breakfast was healthy and easy to prepare: delicious Brazilian coffee, fresh bread, fresh squeezed juice, cheese, fruits and homemade yogurt.

My morning ritual has become simpler since moving to America. Only on weekends I have fresh squeezed juice, no time to do it during the week, and instead of fresh bread I have waffles and coffee, but one thing I can not live without is homemade yogurt. 

A great experience of leaving in a another country is that we get to know and eat different food, like cherries, for example, I had never had cherries before I moved to America, and it was love at first bite. 

I often make homemade yogurt, and many times I add fruits to it, choosing the ones that are in season. This weekend I chose to make cherry yogurt.

This is my mother's recipe, it's a healthy, fresh and summery food, and it can be made with any berry of your choosing, or any fruit you can puree and add to the yogurt.

Homemade Cherry Yogurt

I make homemade yogurt in the simplest way possible. Some recipes say you should place the mixture in the oven, I don't do that, and it works. I use the ingredients below, but you can replace them to the ones to your taste, i.e. 2% milk, goat milk, honey, condensed milk, maple syrup, etc. Do not use ultra-pasteurized or UHT milk. 

♥  4 cups organic whole milk

♥  6 oz organic plain yogurt. For future recipes you can use the plain homemade yogurt to start new batches.

♥  cherries to taste

♥  sugar to taste

For the puree: Blend some pitted and diced cherries to a puree consistency, do not juice them.

Boil the milk, remove from heat and allow it to cool to lukewarm temperature. Whisk together the yogurt and the lukewarm milk until smooth.

Transfer the mixture into a tight recipient with lid, I use a plastic jar, and wrap it with a blanket. Place it in a warm place and leave it undisturbed until thickened and set, about 10-12 hours. When the yogurt is set, refrigerate it for about 3 hours.

Once the yogurt is chilled, stir the fruit puree to it.

Enjoy this healthy recipe, it's delicious, rich and fresh.

A thank you note & a flower bouquet

♥ I would like to thank everyone and each one of you who took the time to express their sympathy with words of encouragement and kindness, I'm deeply touched and grateful.

Thank you! ♥

I like to create fresh flower arrangements and place them here and there around the house, and then take pictures of them, naturally. Like mixing & matching colors is a constant learning process to me so is creating flower arrangements that flow with movement and ease, and I am particularly thrilled when I feel I did it right.

I wish you all a very nice weekend ♥

Saying goodbye

Last year in April, I was on vacation in Brazil when my sister Maria Olímpia was diagnosed with cancer. On May 10th this year I went back there to say goodbye to her. I was lucky enough to be by her side when she still was conscious. I talked to her, I helped taking care of her. Those few days are so precious to me now. I came back to America on May 17th, and last Friday, May 23rd, after a long and painful battle my beloved sister passed away.

She was a teacher, a writer, an intellectual, the oldest sibling in a family of ten. She was always present  in all family matters, she was there for the joys and the sorrow, always taking care of each one of us. She was an intelligent and sensitive writer, she wrote various forms of literary art, such as novels, short stories, poetry, articles, and essays. Her writings about our family has touched even distant relatives, so special and powerful they are.

I was not there for the wake and burial, in Brazil they happen just a few hours after the passing. I stayed at home, alone, reading the delightful letters she wrote to me, and looking at a few photos I have from her, along with comforting words her friends and relatives left on her facebook. 

Buying and reading books was one of her greatest joys, as well as writing her own stories.

Lately, very few things give me comfort, calming and peace than taking pictures, so taking a few pictures and writing this post was a way to say, once more, thank you Maria Olímpia for having been part of my life.

First flowers

The days here are still rainy and gray, which let me down a bit, but yesterday the day was beautiful and bright, and I could not resist taking my camera outside to register the first flowers I see in my backyard.
I have to confess that not all my photos come out as I wish, but I keep trying and hopefully learning how to take better photos.
I am flying to Brazil today and I did not have time to prepare a post, so here are the photos I took yesterday.

Peach Pink, Green, Mint & Orange

We've heard 'practice makes perfection', I don't know about perfection but that it does make it better, it does. Since I can remember black is the color choice in my wardrobe and neutral to my home, but about 6, 7 years ago I realized it's not because I don't like colors but because I did not feel confident to mix and match them, so I started practicing mixing and matching,  patterns, textures and colors and bringing them to my daily life.

Inspired by  Leslie Shewring's photos, who knows how to mix colors and tell a story with them like nobody else, I started putting together a color palette of two, three, or more colors with my favorite things and taking pictures of them, and I am amazed at how fun, addictive, and inspiring this can be.

If you want, like me, to get inspired by Leslie's photos, just check out her Color me Pretty board on Pinterest.

Tiradentes

We took these photos last year during our vacation in Brazil on the day we visited a small town nearby where my family lives. Tiradentes is one of the smallest yet best preserved colonial and historic towns of Minas Gerais.

On weekends and holidays the population of this charming small town with its narrow cobblestone streets practically triples. Trails, waterfalls, handcraft and antique shops, homemade sweets and preserves stores, film festival, bike fest,  culture and gastronomy festival, besides good restaurants and excelente pousadas, and historic churches, including one with an all-gold interior. It amazes me how such a small town offers so much to its visitors and yet preserves its historic characteristics.

A little bird told me that a well known Connecticut furniture and accessories store often buys art and antiques in Tiradentes.

While living in Brazil, I only lived in Minas Gerais surrounded by its gorgeous green & blue mountains, so for me to visit Tiradentes is a trip back in time, maybe that's why I like to visit it midweek rather than when all of these exciting events are happening, this way I can most easily appreciate its many attractions. 

Wander at a slow pace on its narrow and hilly cobblestone streets, go where local residents go, listen to the unmistakable mineiro (those born in Minas) accent, which is very peculiar. Talk to people as I walk in front of their one-of-a-kind stores and houses. In general, Brazilians are friendly and helpful, and talk to strangers like they are old acquaintances. 

Simplicity and peace that's what I feel when I'm there, and so I feel at home. 

By the way, this is the color my front door will be next time I paint it. 

Salted Codfish Casserole - Bacalhoada

Bacalhoada or Salted Codfish Casserole, is a traditional dish at most Brazilian tables on Easter, and like others of our  food traditions its origin is from Portugal.

This fish isn't an easily-found-in-the supermarket item, and a good one can be pricey, that's why it's not an everyday meal but a special-occasion one. My American husband had never eaten Salted Codfish before I introduced it to him, and now he is a huge fan of it

Salted Codfish Casserole - Bacalhoada

♥ I always buy salted codfish fillets, boned and skinned, if you buy whole salt cod you'll have to remove the bones and the skin and discard them. Soak the fish in water for about 24 hours, changing the water at least 5 times to get rid of the salt, and that's the only trick on this recipe, otherwise it's an easy recipe to make. As you change the soaking water several times you may end up soaking out all of the fish's salt, in which case you'll have to add some back in. 

Just before you are about to start cooking bring the fish to a quick boil, drain well and pat it dry. Cut the fillet into about 2 inch square chunks. At this point taste the fish for saltiness, if most of the salt was soaked out of it, and it doesn't taste salty at all, I add a chicken, or fish bouillon to the water I'm going to cook the potatoes in. Set the fish aside.

♥ Start by making a homemade tomato sauce - to skin the tomatoes I place them into boiling water for about 45 seconds, and then place them in a bowl filled with cold water. The skins of the tomatoes will crack and start to peel, and all you have to do is peel them off completely. Cut the tomatoes into small pieces discarding the hard pieces. I know most people do not use the seed in their tomato sauce, but I do, I like it and I see no reason to discard them. This is the first time I used sweet campari tomatoes to make this recipe and I liked a lot the combination of the sweetness of it with the salt of the fish.

Start in low heat and keep it there, place about 2-3 table spoons of extra-virgin olive oil in a saucepan, add diced-cut onions and let them start to glisten and sweat a little before adding garlic, stirring constantly or you'll end up with burned garlic. Add diced-cut peppers, parsley, freshly ground black pepper and pitted black olives. For this dish I did not add salt to the tomato sauce. Stir constantly for a while and then cover the pan to simmer it until it's time to assemble.

I did not give the quantities for the tomato sauce because I think this is a matter of taste, if you like lots of garlic, like me, add them, but if you don't just add the quantity to your taste, the same to all other ingredients.

♥ Peel and slice the potatoes into 1/4 inch thick and cook them just tender but not fully cooked. 

♥ Generously coat the bottom of a large baking dish with extra-virgin olive oil. Place a layer of potatoes, and a layer of the tomato sauce over it. Add the fillet pieces and generously pour some extra-virgin olive oil over it. Repeat with another layer of potatoes, tomato sauce, fish and olive oil.

♥ Preheat oven to 350°F and cook uncovered for about 30 minutes, or until you see the fish has started to flake.

♥ Serve with white rice, and here again I adjust the salt content according to the fish salt. For this dish I decided not to put salt in the rice to balance the overall salt content of the meal.

Bon Appétit!