Family + Brigadeiro = One good Weekend

From 1994-2001 the Santos family had the wonderful opportunity of having 5 cousins come and live with us. 

I only have a few old pictures on my computer, but here are some.

Adam, Jari, Me and Gigi

Junior and Me

Vovo and Me with Gigi in the background.  

I can still remember the excitement as a young child with every trip to the airport.  These cousins became more like family to us.  So yes, technically I have; 1 sister, and 1 brother.  But I was raised with these crazy siblings.  



Lala, Amanda, Jr., Me, Jari, Geo, and Adam
The photo is just missing one, Gigi.



We learned and tried many new things with each of our "siblings".  They taught us how to play marbles, and I can't number the random game we learned from Gigi.  We spend many summers swimming at the "Club". 


 Durning the school year we watched them at soccer, basketball, swim meets and cheerleading.  I remember the paper-rout we took after school, they would let us ride on the front of their handle bars.  I saw (or heard) them wake up each moring for seminary.  They were amazing examples to us as children.
 
Meal time was always fun as well.  We watched each of them try their frist green vegetable.  They all said how they would never like the "rabit food" (their little name for any vegetables), but now most have changed their minds.  We tryed new food as well, Amanda once cooked chicken hearts for dinner... yum!  And I can remember being payed $1.00 to trying a green olive. 


 One thing we all learned to love was sweeten condensed milk, with everything!!!  We put it on ice cream, fresh slices of pineapple or banana, sometimes just straight from the can... 

And of course you can't have Brigadeiro without sweeten condensed milk.  

The past two-month have been filled with making these yummy little balls of chocolate.  I even taught  Blake how to make them.  

What a pro...

we made 4 batches in 3 day...

They are at any Brazilian birthday party, or really anytime of the day.  It was a must have at our wedding so we found a wonderful Brazilan lady in Orlando to make them.

But while attending my cousins wedding earlier this month, (more on that later) I got a whole new outlook on Brigadeiro.  You see, I only knew how to make the chocolate or non chocolate (I guess vanilla).  

And my family (being the crazy people they are) made all the candies for the party by hand.  YES! The night before the wedding they stayed up till 5am making the most wonderful candy one could ever imagine eating.  Let me tell you, it was not just chocolate and vanilla.  They went above and beound the everyday stuff.

So I had to learn.  Vovo was coming back to Florida to stay a week with my family.  This called for a Saturday of candy making.  It was so much fun just talk and spending time with my Vovo.  

Letter that day (after making candies) we took her out to see a movie.  Because she does not speak a world of English, we thought it would be appropriate to go see a cartoon (as they are easy to understand, even if you don't understand the language) so we went to see Rio.   

The movie was wonderful, I recommend it.  But the best part was hearing her and my Dad laughing about this little bird being introduced to life in Brasil.

 again pictures all around...

So after learning a little more about how to spice up my Brigadeiro making skills, Blake asked if we could make some for the Russ Easter lunch this weekend.  We will see how it goes... 


Oh and here is how you make Brigaderio.


All you need is:

• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
  1 tablespoon butter
  1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk 
• 
  
   Cook the mixture until it thickens over medium heat, should show the bottom of the pan when stirring. 
   Pour the mixture in a lightly greased dish and let it cool. 
    Form the little balls, don't forget to grease your hands with margarine first. 
   Roll in sprinkles 
   Place the balls in candy cups... Or just eat it with a spoon.
  And for anyone watching their weight... don't worry Vovo said you can eat them every day and not gain a lb.  I'm going to live by that..