I'm goin' to Kansas City, Kansas City here I come!

My good friend  Bia and her family recently moved to Overland Park, Kansas.  They lived previously in Boston, so we are now only four hours apart, which is great.   We had planned this trip since January for the March 22nd weekend and also we would be celebrating cousin Jen's 30th birthday party.


I took a half day on Friday and the whole family (including Grandma) headed to Kansas City right around noon.  We made a pit stop in Columbia, MO to drop off Lola at Grandma and Grandpa's and we made it to KC just about 5 PM.    Bia has a son named Nick who is 8 years old and a daughter, Olivia, who is 4 (almost 5).  The kids got along right away and played so much together.  Noah was not shy and was so happy to be there.  He doesn't go to strangers very easily but he really liked my friend Bia right away.   My mom made lasagna that night and we just hung out and went to bed pretty early (We were so tired).

Noah, Nick, Olivia and Sam



Sam



New toys = Happy boys

The next day Aaron kept an eye on the weather (KC was suppose to be hit with a big snow storm on Sunday).  It looked like St. Louis was going to get hit too.  The St.Louis group that came for Jen's birthday was heading back early, so we decided to go back home on Saturday night.

Bia, Aaron and I did a little tour in the city and we went to Dean & Deluca for my gourmet husband to check out the goodies.  They have a restaurant there and it looked really good.

Dean & Deluca store

After a little tour, we got the family and headed to the best BBQ of Kansas City, Jack Stack BBQ.  The food was so good.  We had the beef burnt ends, which is the traditional Kansas City style barbecue favorite.

Jack Stack BBQ- Sam was sleeping but woke up just in time

Lunch with everyone!  Noah and Oliva turned and Aaron was taking the picture

Noah and Vovo

Olivia and Sam

Beef burnt ends and slice pork with famous pit beans

After having the best BBQ ever, we decided to head back home to avoid the big snow storm that was rapidly approaching!  We picked up Lola on our way and got home very tired.

The following day we woke up to this: 13 inches (33 cm) of snow, the biggest snow storm ever to hit St.Louis since 1982.  Good call that we made it home early.  We will go back to KC in the summer!

Our house - 13 inches of snow

Our sunday morning view (March 24, 2013)







Galette Bretonne Crepe Recipe (Breton style buckwheat crepes)

When we were in Quebec in the summer of 2011, Aaron and I had these amazing crepes in the main Montreal market, Marche Jean-Talon.  It is called Galette Bretonne, from Brittany, France.   We purchased them from this little cozy place and we found a table outside.  Of course, since Aaron is a chef by heart, he had to replicate the crepe on an ordinary day in February of 2013.

Sam likes to help papai shredding the cheese



He does such a good job!



Galette Bretonne Crepe

We also had a sweet crepe for desert made with nutella and bananas, which we were too busy eating and not photographing! Aaron did such a good job!

Galette Bretonne (Breton style buckwheat crepes)

These are the salty and savory crepes from Brittany that we had in Marche Jean-Talon in Montréal, Quebec.

Ingredients

For crepes:

2 eggs beaten

1/3 cup water

2/3 cup buckwheat flour

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 quarter teaspoon salt

2 tablespoon melted butter

For filling:

Good quality organic egg, Poached, (one for each galette)

Sautéed spinach

Emmentaler, Swiss or other similar cheese (shredded)

Thin slices of Jambon de Bayonne (or any Spanish or Italian style dry ham)

 How to make

Gently mix all the crepe ingredients to make a thin batter.  You can make this up to a day ahead of time and keep in a sealed container in the fridge.

Premeasure the amount of batter than will thinly coat the size of pan you are using.  A fairly large frying pan should work well, as these tend to be large crepes.  Heat the pan and some oil until it is moderately hot.  Pour in batter and swirl pan to evenly coat in a thin layer.  When one side becomes firm and starts to brown in spots flip over using your hand (be careful as they are delicate, a rubber spatula will help).  Remove from pan when other side cooks.  Repeat until out of batter, recipe should yield 4 large crepes. 

To fill the crepe, add shredded cheese, spinach and ham while it is still hot from the pan. Fold over edges to form a little purse and top off the open area with the poached egg.  Break yolk at table before eating, and enjoy.

Vovó is back!

I finally got some time to update the blog, after a couple of crazy weeks of everyone under the weather.   Vovó is back!   Sam recognized vovó right away and gave her a big hug.   Noah took a little time to get used to vovó again, but now they are very close.  Lola was very excited to see vovó too.

Sam is now very excited to learn portuguese, his portuguese already improved tremendously in only a few days of Vovó being here.  She will be here with us for awhile! 

Thanksgiving 2012



The family went to Columbia for Thanksgiving this year.  We got up early and got there for breakfast.  The boys were very excited for "Thanksgiving". Aaron's mom made an amazing Pecan cake/Christmas roll and a potato cheese casserole for breakfast.



Christmas Roll - Pecan cake made by Aaron's mom

Boy's place setting for breakfast

 The boys did a lot of crafting with aunt Meghan, they had such a good time.  It was a relaxing day  as it can be, and Aaron and I even grabbed a movie (Argo-Awesome!).  We also scored a deal on a vacuum cleaner on black Friday!



Final product!

Aaron's mom does a very good job setting up the table for thanksgiving, the table was beautiful:

Kid's place setting

Adult's place setting

The meal was delicious.  Sam did not try the turkey this year, maybe next year.  Noah really enjoyed the meal. We had turkey, lobster, stuffing, noodles, sweet potatoes, potato casserole, cranberries, and pies.

Happy Thanksgiving 2012!

The crew

Carolina

I am originally from Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.   I came to the US as an exchange student and loved my American family and US lifestyle so much that decided to come back for college.   I met my lovely husband in school and we got married in 2004.   We both work full time and have 2 awesome boys that are only 20 months apart.  I am teaching my boys Portuguese, but is is a challenge!

Aaron

Aaron, the husband, is from a college town.   He is the chef of our house, loves to cook all nationalities, and thanks to my mom also learned how to cook brazilian food.  He has many hobbies, such as gardening, beer brewing, biking, running and lately fermentation. He will be collaborating with his recipes.

Sam

Our first son, born on April 17, 2009.  As a baby, Sam was always very independent.  He is very intelligent and an observer.   He is doing very good with his portuguese and has very good pronunciations in both languages.  He is a very proud big brother.

Noah

Our surprise Christmas baby born on December 25, 2010 right after Christmas dinner.  As a baby, Noah was always a cuddler and loved to be held.  He was such a good baby.   He is such a joy, and so intense.  As the babysitter once described, he is a ball of energy!  He loves attention, still very cuddler, and very different from his brother.