Last Weekend's Activities

Can you believe I am a week behind on pictures?  These are all pictures from Friday and Saturday, a week ago.  I am thinking that 5 part time jobs can make you loose track of time.  Well, at least I have these pics posted now. 

First off, I have to start with this cute little girl.  Our high schoolers (I am an AVID tutor for middle and high school students) did a community service activity last Saturday morning.  They volunteered their time at the kennel on base walking dogs, giving baths and playing with the animals.  This cute little 7 week old kitten is up for adoption, and I know she will have a great home soon.  She is absolutely adorable.

Last weekend, we also did some grocery shopping locally.  I bought some awesome grapes from Spain.  Yes, local would be good, but don’t forget this tiny island is 18x12 miles and can only grow so much.  Most of my produce is from mainland Europe or the organic farm in my village.  The best local produce here is the pineapple.  It is not from this island, but one nearby (Sao Miguel AKA St. Michael) that grows the sweetest pineapple ever.

   

The commissary on base actually sells this pineapple too, so we do not have to spend so much on it from the local grocery store.

Ryan found this at the local store too.  They are just getting into prepackaged convenience foods.  Good or bad idea, not my place to say, but over this past year, I have seen an increase.  Honestly, they do not contain anywhere near the amount of added preservatives as American products, and I continue to see very short ingredient lists, even in prepackaged, refrigerated foods.  This one is meat tapas.  Since I do not eat meat, he thought this would be nice as a filling for our whole wheat pitas. 

Haha, gotta love cheap wine.  For some reason, at this time of year, they have a large display of wines from the islands and the mainland.  Most wine here is cheap when compared to US wine shops and restaurants, but 99 euro cents is really cheap, even by these standards.  Since grocery stores usually have the lowest prices on wine, this is where I do my wine shopping when in other countries.

Oh, and my last fun purchase from the local grocery store was these cute little pears.  I have been eating them with a little bit of PB, but since I ran out I am going to have to switch to almond butter (TJ’s of course…thanks mom!).

Ok, maybe I am working through last weekend backwards, but I am saving the best for last, and that would be our Friday night…one week ago.  You will laugh when I am caught up on posts because this most recent Friday night we went to a different restaurant with the same name as this one.  The restaurant here is called Beira Mar (which more or less is like ocean view), and this is in the Beira Mar Hotel in Angra.

 

The view is amazing from here.  The weather was nice, so we sat outside.

Bread as usual to start the meal.

Yes, cheese and olives (oh Gina you would have loved these olives!) to go along with the bread.

I still can’t believe that as bad as butter is, and I never liked it before, this butter is amazing.  It can’t even compare to US butters.  Plus, it is local butter made right here on the island.  Actually, other islands use this butter too.

Ryan ordered the steak.  The mushrooms made it look too cute!

I had a cod fish and shrimp kabob, with boiled potatoes and salad, which is the traditional Portuguese way to serve meals.

The check came in a little chest with some toffee candy inside.

After dinner, since we were in Angra, we headed to this place that sells locally made ice cream from locally raised cows.  That is my favorite part of this island.  I love that I pass by the cows all the time that produce the milk that is used in my cheese, butter, ice cream and yogurt.  This ice cream flavor is ginja, which is a take on the Portuguese liquor of the same name made from sour cherries.  In Portugal it is served in a little chocolate cup (as you can see me enjoy HERE when I was in Lisbon).  So, the ice cream has some chocolate drizzled on top.  It is amazing.

Here are all the flavors.  You can see the Ginga in the back row in the center.

This brings me to the first of these pictures time wise, but as I said, I am saving the best for last.  Remember how I finally started checking out those health food stores?  Well, there was one across from Beira Mar, and I wanted to check it out before our dinner.  This place has been around for 30 years, but he does sell a ton of supplements.  I still wanted to check out his vegetarian foods selection, and look at his gluten free products out of curiosity.

Here is what I found and purchased:

I am so excited to have this soy chorizo.

I bought some veggie burgers too since I have a limited selection at the base commissary.

 

I bought red lentils, which have already been put to good use.

The last of my purchase includes this.  Holy cow, I never would have thought to make quinoa milk.  I must confess, I have not tried it yet, but this is because I know it will go bad in a week or so after opening, so I want to make sure I open it when I know I will be round to use it, assuming it tastes good.

I didn’t buy this, but Mer, Rach and Mom, if you are reading, what does this look like?  Anyone else want to take a guess?  It is made from spelt.

QUESTIONS:  Have you ever seen quinoa milk?  Have you ever been to 2 restaurants with the same name?