Bolo Rei

Bolo Rei means King Cake. We eat it at Christmas times in big quantities. No Christmas is Christmas without Bolo Rei. It's like Christmas Cake and Christmas Pudding in England.

It's made with yeast, like bread, and it takes candied fruit and nuts, hazelnuts, pine nuts, raisins and that kind of stuff.
Many times, as the tradition says to do, it has a little present inside and a broadbean. That means that the person who gets the slice with the bean inside must buy the cake next time.
Well, that was some time ago. Now, with safety measures, most times the cake hasn't the bean or the present.
Even so, we keep eating it a lot.
When I was a little girl, in our home, it was my grandmother who made ours. It was an adventure to me to see the whole process. The smell, then my grandmother putting a cloth on top of it and leaving to raise, later on tending the dough and putting in the oven...
And then the smell of freshly baked Bolo Rei...
Now we buy it.
That's ok, it's still good anyway.

Done

The tree is up.
We always decorate for Christmas since December, 1. The Nativity is done too but, as the tree, it has a lot to improve.

Later: I just want to share a comment I made at Mountain Moma about the spirit of Christmas at her post Simple Joys of the Season.

I wish I had snow here. We only have it in the North so, no chance for me. Some 2 or 3 years ago it snowed in Lisbon – Sintra belongs to Lisbon – and it was such a hapiness. The television programs stoped to announce that!I like Christmas so much. As here there’s no Thanksgiving, I dream about Christmas since October. Well, ok, since September but stronger since the end of October. In the day 1 we put the tree up and do the Nativity. Then everyday we improve the decorations and put the garland on the door. I wrap the presents – whatever the number, that doesn’t matter, and make lists. I plan and dream. It’s my favorite time of the year.

Wrapping, wrapping, wrapping...

Sometimes I read that a lot of people doesn't like to wrap all those Christmas presents they buy. Not me. I can't wait, every year, to begin to wrap.

I try to avoid maratons of wrapping, when my back hurts because all that time standing and wrapping. I do small sessions everyday and, because I never tire and burn, it's always such a pleasure.

So, I began some days ago and I have been faithful to my purpose of doing a little everyday.

I keep looking to all those papers that I find so nice, mainly the child's ones.

I like to see the bows, to work on them so they can curl...

I can't wait to see my little girls faces when they will see the Disney papers.

They are not like that children that all the want is to tear the papers and see the contents. When they see a wrapped present, they begin to feel the pleasure. They look how nice they are and then they open the presents.

Ah, that's a nice season.

Thanks to Our Lord

Myspace Graphics, Thanksgiving Graphics at WishAFriend.com

Happy Thanksgiving.

Isn't she a beauty?!

My mother sometimes gives me a rose plant because she knows I'm crazy for roses. The problem is, many times, they come so beautiful but sometime later they begin to look not so nice and eventually, they die.
So this one is stil in all its splendour and I couldn't help showing you.
Just look at that!

Raining outside

It's raining outside but here, in the house, it feels good.
My cyclamen, that my husband gave me, is very nice. I can't say the same about some others in the windowsill. They need a bit of prunning. I should take more care of my plants.
Gardening time.

Christmas is coming

I don't know what it is.
In the end of October I was already dreaming about Christmas - as I always do. Then it came November and in the begining it was still hot. No spirit of Christmas at all. Later, the Autumn arrived in full force and I, so enchanted with the beauty of the season, didn't want to think on Christmas, I only wanted to feel the fresh air, the golden leaves falling down and covering the floor.
Now I'm late, I'm late.
Not really. I even bought some Christmas presents already, in October.
So, it's time to really think about Christmas, to wrap the already bought presents, to buy more, to do things, to plan and act.
I'm rather pleased with the header of my blog and the look of it all together but it's time to make it chrtistmassy.
So, oficialy, today begins the red and green season here at Alfazema.

To Do

Today I must clean the top of the fridge.

So, let me put my apron on.

Um... I must water that plant too.

Almost lunch time

Chilly leftover from yesterday's dinner on top of noodles.
Just an idea for your lunch.

Apple season

Some days ago my husband made this apple pie. It was very good and nice. Today I will make apple crumble. I'm not a fruit person but cooked apples, in a way or another, always have my attention.
Autumn, with all its beauty, has the added bonus of bringing apples too.
Apple season is in full and it will only end in the end of spring.
Well, in my house, I mean.

Autumn, definitely

It has been wet and coldish. Autumn, definitely.

The clothes, put to dry on the lines, take time to dry. Each morning the floor is wet as it had rained and sometimes it does.

For the english people and in other cold countries this is so frequent and normal but for us so as much because, due to global warming, the summer extended itself for so long that looked like we wouldn't have any Autumn at all. But no, here it is.

And I'm so happy about it.

So, in a minute, I will wash some more clothes - in our house it must be done everyday with rain or not - and put it on the line.

The fresh air is good too, not only the sun. Even when there's any it's worthwhile to put it outside. Much better the than dryer.

Here I go for a load: wash, dry (outside), take it inside, fold it and put away to have the drawers full.

It gives so much confort to find all the clothes we need ready to wear. Looks like a small thing but no, taking care of our laundry is to take care of our family. It's an important job.

For Blissfully Domestic.

Ok then

You Are a Snarky Blogger!

You've got a razor sharp wit that bloggers are secretly scared of. You're honest and critical. You never hold back, even if you're opinion is controversial. Okay, let's be honest. You try to make your posts as controversial as possible! And that's why your audience reads your posts as often as they can.

What Kind of Blogger Are You?

Blogthings: A Fine Line Between Insight and Stupidity

A full pantry

...or being prepared.



We are a family of 6, a big family for european standards - and what to say for this corner of Europe standards! We need to be prepared and have a full pantry.
Well, looking to several blog's well stocked cupboards, I reminded some pictures I took of mine some time ago. (So, maybe some of you have seen them already).



I must say, also, that my cupboards are in a urgent need of tidying up so they can be prepared to welcome the lot of things we need to buy before Christmas.



I'm always so much afraid of needing something in the days before the big event that I always buy a lot. I don't mind if, in the end I don't need as much because it stays for the days after.

For instance. It's a tradition, here, to have several fried wonderful things for Christmas Day and Eve so, I can't buy only two bottles of sunflower oil, I feel I must buy four, the same with flour, sugar and so on. It's quite ok because the result is I wouldn't need many things in January and the feeling of buying a lot makes me feel more in the season, a bit like the ants, storing things for Winter.



Well, time for homemaking now. I'll let you know about the progress in the tidying up.
The buying will begin is some weeks.



For Blissfully Domestic.

Guy Fawkes

Fawkes's father was either a notary or proctor of the ecclesiastical courts and later an advocate of the consistory court of the Archbishop of York. Edward's wife, Edith Blake, was descended from prominent merchants and aldermen of the city. Edward Fawkes died in 1579, and his widow remarried in 1582, to a Catholic, Denis Bainbridge of Scotton. The family were known to be recusants, resisters of the authority of the Church of England, and it is probable that his stepfather's influence contributed to Guy's affiliation to Catholicism; Fawkes finally converted to Catholicism around the age of 16. In the same year that Fawkes converted to Catholicism (1586), he would be made brutally aware of the repression the English Parliament enacted on local Catholics. Margaret Clitherow, later known as the "Pearl of York", was executed in her hometown that year by being crushed to death. She had originally been arrested for harbouring Catholic priests in her home.

If you want to know more you may go to Wikipedia, which has a lot of references and bibliography about it.

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This is just an homage to all the Catholics persecuted and killed in England before and after Guy Fawkes, for centuries.

Outdoor Wednesday

Who said we hardly have Autumn? It was hard to come but it's here. The air is nicer and the leaves are turning their colours.

These beauties live in the garden of Monserrate, a very pretty garden we have here.

Look at that. Looks like it came of a movie.

For Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Daydreamer.

The pleasure of homemaking

This last week I was not very productive. Homemaking is a thing I like so much but, for some reason, I coulfn't do much work.

I didn't beat myself just because of that. I decided that it happened because it was my birthday week ( it was on 24 Oct. ) so I had the right to have festivities and be easy on me foe a whole week.

Now a new week begins and I must go back to normal days.



Because yesterday it rained a lot, I thought that today I coukdn't take care of the laundry. You know, in a sunny country like this one, we prefer to dry it outside and only use the dryer when it is really needed.

So, off the computer now and it's tidy up time followed for some sessions of laundrytime. Then 15 minutes in everyroom and so on.

It's a wonderful day waiting for me.

Crumble time

It's foggy here. Cozy time. Good for baking. Maybe some apple crumble.
This picture shows an apple pie my husband made some weeks ago. It was very good but, for me, nothing is better than crumble.
So, crumble it is.

My birthday - part II

Here it is the cake.

I found a way of downloading those pictures I took with my new camera.

My husband made me a dinner, very good, that had leek soup, a kind of beef welington ( with pork) with mashed potatoes and vegetables and ice cream for dessert.

And in the end we still had my cake: a kind of pudding my mother knows I die for.

It was such a good night. The problem with all that so good food was, in the end I was so full.

Never mind, it's everyday that we have our birthday!