Fish Cakes Portuguese style

Two nights ago, we had salt fish for supper (salt cod). A common dish in both Newfoundland (me) and Portuguese (DH) cultures. In our house, that means fish cakes the next day!!!
It's a process much like the Croquetes here

Use leftover fish, potatoes, sometimes the leftover carrots and fresh chopped parsley. Apparently, this is important. An emergency market run was in order to get the parsley!

Mash it all up. We used the potato ricer for the potatoes. it made the cakes very "fluffy" compared to the usual mashed potatoes. nice. 2 spoons are used to shape the cakes into triangle shapes. You don't get to work alone in this kitchen. Always a little sous chef around.

With the fat fryer outside, (really, we don't eat that much fat fried food. just had 2 traditional treats in the same month. that's about all we fry, and hand cut fries) a little queue was getting started inside.

And leftovers the next day. It's hard to sit and eat a proper length meal with this type of food. When the first ones come out, there is a constant dipping into the bowl for more before we even get to the table. Everyone is full by the time we sit down!

We make fish cakes in Newfoundland also. But it is more chunky shaped in a hamburger patty shape and pan fried. My mama makes the best salmon cakes! yum.

And yes, they are even good cold!

Ciao,
Amanda

GONE FISHIN'

Tonight is the night we go to Portugal! Hoping to hit this spot again in Sagres, most western point in Europe.
Much to do today in preparation. So excited when I think of all we are going to revisit and do. I must stop thinking about it and get productive here.

I'll be blogging about our adventures so come back soon.....

thanks for looking,
Amanda

we're back!!

yeah, we're back. boohoo we're back.
but I won't be keeping the Portugal stories back. Still have many adventures to tell and pictures, on this blog to show.

The flight back went very well. Better than the flight over. We went to bed around 5;30 pm and I woke around 3:30 am, but stayed. We are in the midst of a heat wave, but it is cool outside right now. The kids are out playing in the yard.. 6:30 in the morning. Wonder when we'll crash again?

How about a card? I did this one before I left. I was playing with my glue pad. Used it to stamp the image and poured eggplant embossing powder on it. The idea didn't work as the glue wasn't thick enough to keep the EP on. SO I heat set it. Added some bling from Michael's.

Thanks for looking,
Amanda

Saturday??

yes, I think it is...
What a busy day yesterday.

We spent the morning with Henry's cousin, Rosa. We walked across the bridge from our hotel to go to Little Portugal. It is a place with replica buildings around Portugal and really small replicas of a village. The kids loved it.
Then back to the hotel area for a quick shop, off to outside of Gois with Henry's other cousin, Rui at Casa du Frango. house of chickens. Great grilled chicken, then back to the hotel for a quick shop on the way from the car park and off to Folgosa and Somora.

I thought the drive to Samora was bad. The drive to Folgosa was a million times worse!!! winding, round and back and crazy close to the edge. I thought I was gonna throw up or pass out! My jaw was sore from the tension! lol

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.!!! I've never seen such mountains. We were on one range of hills looking at the other across the valley. By the end of it, we were on the other side of the valley. The sun was setting by the time we got there and the lighting was beautiful.
The home we visited was his mom's family home. It had been left when the family moved to canada many decades ago. There were trips back there over the years by various family members, but the house was left to nature. It was a very large house and looked amazing. There were possessions still in the house. Furniture, dishes, books, pictures. Cherries and oranges growing on the trees. Just AMAZING! There were 3 ladies walking the sheep and goats up home thru the street. Henry did talk to a couple in their 80s!. They remembered his family.

After that trip, back down the mountain to Samoura for the goat feast. :} We were very late, so everyone was glad to see us come. They made bacahllau for me (salt cod fish) as I don't like goat. Or should I say, I haven't tasted goat, but couldn't bring myself to try it after all the crazy driving.
It was after midnight before we left for more wind-y driving.

Off to Henry's cousin Ze and the beach outside of Lisbon. Then home early for the plane ride in the wee morning hours.

We really love this place and meeting his family. Some of them for the 1st time. Very friendly and open. We would like to stay, of course. Planning on how we will spend our next trip here... whenever.....

Try the link below for some pics..

Thanks for stopping by,
Amanda

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=119820&l=b29d6&id=780715580

in the city

wow, here we are in Coimbra. This is the part of the trip where we are visiting Henry's relatives. It is very busy and lots of driving. Crazy, we should have come here first so we could rest before we go home. lol
Everyone has plans for us and we are being treated very well. Food, food food.

Yesterday, we went into the mountains. DId you know I'm sensitive to motion? Even though henry is an avid sailor, I haven't been in a boat for 5 years. Well, imagine me in the car going round and round several mountains. ugh.

We went to Samoa. His aunt?cousin? not sure, anyhow, she was cooking pork over a fire in the kitchen under the chimney. Too col. Everything we ate, she grew. Potatoes, lettuce, oranges, pork, chicken, everything. SOOO yummy. Never had pork that tasted so good. Oh yes, the kids had fun picking cherries off a branch they cut down from their cherry tree. Lovely indeed.

Then back into the city. our hotel is right downtown. Awesome. We had 30 minutes to explore. All the little cobbled alleyways with shops everywhere. Everything was closing as it was 7. Hoping to hit them again today. We're off to some sightseeing with Henry's cousin, then meeting with another bunch and then to see Little Portugal. It's a kids attraction with little houses their size. Should be fun.

I think it's back to Samoa tonight. their having goat. Hope it's not the one we saw in the pen yesterday.:} And a trip to Folgosa. it's where Henry's mom grew up.. also in the mountains.

As usual, no pics. Gotta run,

Hey, mom, dad, meridith, Q, Uncle dave.... email me! I miss you all. And thanks to others that have emailed. i'm getting a little wanting to hear from english people. :}

Thanks for looking,
Amanda

There is internet access in the hotel lobby, Should be able to do a good update tonight with pics.

Last day in the Algarve

This is our last day in the Algarve. We’re going to spend the day cleaning and going to the beach. But this time, we’ll stay at the beach for awhile and play, play, play. Hoping to hit Praia du Luz. I think it may be a little touristy, but hope to find some shells and a quiet spot. Ha. Then off to Lisboa tomorrow.

Yesterday, we went looking for a zoo with endangered species on the way to Monchique. We missed it and ended up in Monchique. It is a town in the mountains. It was just enough of a change of scenery for us. A lot of walking up and down hills. We were very hungry and went into a little café looking for french fries. We found them. Real Portuguese style. It’s homecut fries. Lightly fried. Love em. Reminds me of my mom making them when we were young. The only other thing on the menu that day was stewed chicken. I was very leary of the look of it and wondered if it was stewed rabbit! By that time Henry was chatting up a local fireman eating there and they had a chuckle out of it. Let me tell you… it was sooo yummy. It looked a little dark b/c it was cooked in wine. Meat fell off the bone and tasty. We were watered and fed and went for a walk in the town.

We happened upon a chocolate shop. It was run by a lady from Wales. She loved it here so much, she moved her family here. We bought some of her handmade chocolates. Try them later. She only had one kind of Portuguese chocolate. Not bad. It was the same company that makes ice cream that we had. Very milky and creamy.

On the way back to the car, there were numerous handicraft shops. I had to take a look, of course. The knitted things were amazing and the prices incredible. A thick wool cape/poncho thing for only 25 euros?? Nuts. I bought some sheep skin slippers I had my eye on for a while. They were much cheaper there than another tourist trap, so I went for it.

Another thing that caught our attention was the landscaping and gardens that looked relatively new. I took some pics and hope to put them up here or facebook. Oh yes, on the way, Raf has to use the bathroom. Henry was gone to get the car. I asked a man sitting on the bench for a bathroom? Water closet? Toilette? Toilet? He started rambling and mentioned the town Portimao. So I knew he didn’t understand. It got to the point where Raf was doing the great pee dance, so I went into a building. It turned out to be some sort of school. Looked like a daycare I had never seen the likes of before. There were no children there, but there were 3 workers just getting ready. So clean, tidy and many rooms with different play themes. I would have liked to find out more about it.

Off we went again, to find the zoo. Passed the place where it should have been, went back again. No luck, so we stopped at this place called “Parque da Minna”. Turns out it’s an attraction much like a pioneer village. The zoo had closed 2 years earlier. So we went inside and really enjoyed the walk. We saw some cork trees! That was a highlight for me. I don’t know why I’m so intrigued by them. Maybe it was way back in the beginning of Henry and I dating and he telling me how cork comes only from Portugal. So to see the trees with half the bark cut off was interesting. I got a few pieces that were on the ground. It takes 7 years for the cork bark to grow back.
There is a house that was owned by the business man in town. The used to be 1400 acres of worked land. The house had some rooms on the main floor for bookkeeping and waiting areas for the workers to meet the business man and then the rest of the main floor was the working area. They made some firewater (moonshine), had places for the “shop”- tools, hardware, etc that the people could use, a place for the horses etc. Very enlightening. The top floor consisted of a few bedrooms, drawing room, living room, bathroom, kitchen. Was interesting to see that as all the other older homes I’ve been in had the kitchen on the main floor. This one had a large chimney area/pit that was called the Kitchen. They lit the fire in the middle of the floor (I’m sure there was some sort of device or elements to put the fire on) and cooked there. The bread ovens were outside.
There was a display on how they made wood coal and a bird area. Tons of bird species, pigeons? With feathery legs. Chickens, roosters, etc. Lovely day in all.

One stopa t the hypermarket (again!) and then home where Henry made some Caldeirada- layered fish stew. Tomatoes, onion (he bought them off the back of a truck at a lookoff point on the way home), potatoes and fish layered and cooked. Took only 20 minutes and very tasty. Don’t know what’s happening with the fishermen’s strike. We haven’t heard the news in a few days.

Well, best be off and do some chores. I’ve been writing all this stuff at home in Word so that I can just copy and paste when we get to internet places.

Thanks for stopping by,
Amanda

Check out the photos at link below

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=119820&l=b29d6&id=780715580

more adventures in the Algarve

(apologies, Blogger is not letting me d/l pics here. Maybe it's the internet connection. when we get to Lisboa, I'll go crazy with pics. If you are my friend on facebook, check there... I think this is also a public link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=117464&l=db9a3&id=780715580)

Yesterday, we went to another castle. Castles here are more like fortresses than living castles. This one was in Silves, a little north east of here, not far from Lagos and Portimao.

Located on top of the hill, there is a walled village below it. It took us a bit to find the castle. The streets are all , not quite cobbled as in England, but with limestone instead. Makes for treacherous walking for a 21 month old. I’m holding her hand or chasing after her more than I’d like to be. :}

The inside of the castle was all open with some new/contemporary like gardens and stone work with bricks. Totally threw it off. Then there was an area where they were excavating and you could see the base of the walls of the living quarters and the stone mill area. Henry thinks it was for making olive oil. I should have taken pictures, but wasn’t in the mood. (chasing wee ones on the very narrow wall/ walkway. YIKES!

Then we set out for some shopping. We went to one shopping mall in Lagos, but it was small and not what we were used to. So we headed for another, hoping for better luck. We promised the kids a new toy. Let me tell you, Lightning McQueen is not so big here. Neither are toy stores. What we did find was in a hypermarket, like a superstore. Most popular kids characters here is Calliou (called Rucca here) and Noddy. So I guess that covers the French and English tourists. :}
Oh yes, and a hair dryer. Brought mine from home, but the plug converter made it a whimp. Wondering why you haven’t seen pics of me? That’s why. lol

I did find some nice shoes in V. do Bispou. Only 32 eros and nice, quality leather. I wore them the whole day and not a problem anywhere.

We made it back in Raposiera in time for churrasco. I thought it would be a big deal, but we were the only ones there. It started to get a little lively by the time we left, so we were probably early. We had a whole BBQ chicken, platter of rice, salad, and French fries. Half a litre of wine, 2 drinks and 2 tarts for 20 euros!! We were so full!!

Today we are lazy. Packed a lunch for a picnic and will hit a beach. There were lots of rally cars parked in V. Bispo yesterday and we can hear them. So we’ll take a look and see what’s on the go with that.

I d/l some crocheted flowers, but can’t remember all the terminology for the stitches. Guess I’ll d/l that today. Figured out one flower though.

(Pascale, yes, I’ll take you up on the offer. I can’t send email thru my regular program, but can receive them. I can send thru facebook, but don’t get enough time)

Off to another beach today. And home for fish supper. Again. My daughter is a fish freak. Sitting on her daddy’s lap and pigging out on the stuff. He’s a proud papa.
The fishermen are on strike here so we’ll see how that effects the villages. They figure they will only be on strike until the money runs out and then will go back to fishing. Sad. Every morning, and afternoon, the fish trucks go around and honk their horns. Dh says it’s a small refrigerated truck.

Only 3 more days here and then off to the cities to visit some of DH’s family. Looking forward to seeing the other side of Portugal… Lisboa and Coimbra and his mom’s home , north of Coimbra. I also want to find some cork products. I’ve seen some pictures. Looks cool. It comes from the north, so I’ll wait till we get there.

Well, Henry is done putting the laundry out on the line, so we’re going to go exploring.

Thanks for stopping by,
Amanda

Another day, another beach....

Well, more beach hopping in sunny, yet a little cool in the Algarve.
Loving it here. There are so many little beaches and places of interest just a few minutes from our house.
THe countryside reminds me so much of NFLD. I swear that Nfld, fell off Europe and went to Canada.

I finally warmed up yesterday. I've been wearing a sweater for days. We found a beach called Praia Branca. It was very small and private. Not the touristy kind we've found previously. There were many caravans and German campers there. I was a loser and didn't wear sunscreen, but I did wear my tankini top. OUCH. Yes, I hurt.

We went to the market in V. do Bispo this morning. Bought some stuff for supper. Tomorrow, we're going to the little restaurant in the village for BBQ chicken. THe owner himself cooks it outside. Looking forward to it. I'm getting a little fished out!

I finished my book, so now I'm a little restless. no creative stimulation, no creating, no blurfing. i wandered into a little shop in the square, and lo and behold.. they had crochet thread. So a bought a few balls and will experiment making some flowers for my cards. Look out friends, you may have an abundance of flowers to out on your cards if all goes well. lol

I tried to d/l some pics, but Blogger is giving me grief in that area. The kids have had enough playing in the park and everyone is hungry.
I'll try to get a trip here later...

Thanks ofr checking in..
Amanda

Day 2 or 3, what day is it?

K, I think I have a little time to get things going here. The kids are asleep in the back of the car. Big day at a very windy beach. Pics for that will come tomorrow, as we forgot the cable again!

The pic below is from our trip to Lagos a short trip from here. It is in the town centre. little laneways and things going everywhere with much to explore.


This is a really tourist town area. Lots of brits there. Of course, had to take a picture of the marina. We had lunch in a restaurant just around the corner form the tourist section. WHat a difference it made. We were the only tourists there. Henry speaks Portuguse, so it helps a lot.


The 2nd day, we went to Sagres where it is the most south west point in Portugal and Europe. This was special to me, as the town I'm from in NFld, Port aux Basques is also the most South West tip in NFLD. And let me say, it was just as windy!!! Crazy windy. We walked around the tip to the lighthouse and back again. Crazy fishermen hanging off the cliffs. Saw on land a small one. Hope it tasted good. Look how long the pole is...


neve and me at the tip. how windy is that!. She didn't want to be in the wind anymore..

And another look at the fortress. Fort Henry. There is a bunch of history to tell, but later.


Today, we went to the beach in Portimão called Praia da Rocha. Huge cliffs, mucho winds (again) and many tourists. I think they were they only ones there. i mean really, why would the locals spend a day going down enormous cliffs to hide out by the rock for wind cover?

Off to start the charcoal outdoor BBQ (like a fire place outside). He ran after the fish truck this morning. They drive around and ring the bell. So we're making our own sardines. Yesterday, i ordered a hamburger at a restaurant, instead of fish. Umm. go for the fish. It is not an american burger. Good, but no bread and came with a fried egg. i ate every bit, but not what was expected.

Adeus,
Thanks for reading..

We're here!!!!

We're here in Sunny Portugal in the Algarve.
I'm sitting under a chestnut tree using free wireless in the village square. We are currently in Vila do Bispo, a larger village than where we are staying- Raposeira.
Wow, the streets, laneways are small in the village. I've learned to just close my eyes around some corners. I have faith in Henry's driving abilities, but boy, it is tight.

I don't have any photos loaded today, as forgot to pack the cable for the camera. It's back at the house. I'll so it tomorrow.
(update: we found it, but the kids are getting restless and it's chilly now.)

Today. we went to Lagos. Definately a trendy tourist city. Many Brits here this time of year. Had a nice sardines and fish soup lunch in a cafe that was tucked away. We were the only tourist in there. Nice.
THen we went to a beach in Salema. Tine, but Raf got soaked. The water was cold. It reminded me of my times at the beach, growing up in Newfoundland. We would let the waves tease us until our feet got frozen, then let the waves get us further, until we were so numb, we couldn't feel a thing.

Anyhow, that's enough for now. We're outside and it's getting cold. Must go back to the house. more tomorrow