Acrobatic Bull Fight

Although today is Thursday, I am really trying to get caught up with all my pictures and posts, so I am putting Thursday Thoughts on hold this week.  Instead, I can’t resist sharing with you these strange “bull fighters” from Spain.  We actually attended the same event last year.  This is the bull fight where the guys do acrobatic tricks with the bull.

As we approached the arena, we spotted the cars from the street racing the night before.  We didn’t get there, although we saw it the year before.  The weather was looking like it may rain, so we decided to pass.
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But the rain held off, so we were able to attend the bull “fight” the next night.  Yes, these guys taunt the bull, but mostly in an effort to position themselves to pole vault and back flip over a charging bull.
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Another act they do is to catch the bull, “tame” him and then climb up it.  Here are the step by step shots.
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TA-DA!  At the end he stands up and the other men bow to him and and bull.
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I picked up a fresh roll from the big bread bakery on the island, which was between the parked car and the arena (I swear I did not do that on purpose).
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The band was there, which is an awesome part of the experience.
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Here you can see the guys approaching the bull to leap over him.
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This was one of their final acts.  The caught the bull and “tamed” him.  yes, it involved some pulling on his tail, but they brought him to the ground.
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And you see him “playing” with the bull.
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It is really funny event to see.  I took some video too, but I seem to have the hardest time getting it to upload here, so if anyone has tips on blogger for videos, let me know.  It has been trying to upload for almost an hour now.


QUESTIONS:  Have you ever been to a bull fight?  Any suggestions for next week’s Thursday Thoughts?

A new cafe, and an old favorite

Still trying to play catch up here on my pictures and experiences on the island.  When I went out with my friend, Alexandra, the other day, we decided to have lunch at this cafe, which has only been open for a few months.  Since cafes tend to close early and really focus on breakfast and lunch patrons, I haven’t had the chance to make it here before because of my schedule.  But, as I was out for the day and going around town, I finally had the chance to try it out.
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They had a great selection of sweets and sandwiches.
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Alexandra ordered a burger.
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I just had a cheese and tomato sandwich.  The woman did not speak much English and the tiny place was filling up with kids on lunch break from school and adults on break from work, so I went with something easy.
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Ordering dessert was NOT a problem!  Alexandra had a strawberry tart and I had a PB coconut cake covered with chocolate.  Both were excellent!
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After those desserts we might need to give this a try…
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LOL, I was not aware people did not know you can’t just vibrate the fat away, but apparently this is still an exercise machine over here.  I almost died from laughter when we saw this for sale.  in case you can’t see, this is called the Vibro.

As if that wasn’t enough good food for you to look at, here is an amazing meal Ryan and I enjoyed at one of our favorite places on the island.  I will probably miss eating here the most, and not just because the lobster is the best I have ever had.

They serve bread here with homemade jam and goat cheese.
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Ryan ordered the steak, which comes with potatoes, rice and salad.  It is not uncommon to get both potatoes and rice with a Portuguese (Azorean) meal.
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I had the lobster.  I almost ordered something different, but I could not bring myself to do it.  When lobster is super expensive, I will not be so liberal in my ordering, but for about $28 (including tax), I can splurge more on it than if I were in the US (or somewhere not on the water).  I just love this dish.
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Then to finish the meal, a coffee, which is the perfect European end to the perfect European meal.
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One final picture, because we thought this was so cute.  This is a lamb shaped bread from Easter.
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QUESTIONS: Do you have one meal that you always order at a local favorite?  Do you like lobster? Do you remember those vibrating exercise machines?

Weekly Meals, Today’s Dietitian Cookbook

When it came time to prepare dinner 2 weeks ago, I wanted to try out some different things.  I received this cookbook at FNCE last year when I purchased my subscription to Today’s Dietitian Magazine.
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Since it is not specifically a vegetarian cookbook, I looked through it and then put it with my other cookbooks.  Like I said, I was looking for something different and something that was not relying on plant proteins, since we (I should say I) do eat eggs, dairy and fish.  It is not so much a concern for me, but a concern for Ryan who has higher protein needs than me.  I selected a salmon recipe and then an egg recipe because those are different from what I usually cook, even though they are equally as easy to prepare.  It is nice to get the variety.

I went with a baked BBQ salmon recipe.  It started with marinating the fish in pineapple juice.
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The recipe was just for the fish, and since that is not a balanced meal, I decided to cook this brown rice medley and a veggie.
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I have a rice cooker that also has a veggie steamer.  The rice took just over 30 minutes to cook, so when it was nearing the end, with about 10 minutes to go, I added the veggie tray on top and steamed up some green beans.  It worked out perfectly!
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Next I made the rub with some spices and brown sugar.  Put that on top of the fish and placed it in the oven.  Obviously I had this baking while everything else was steaming. 
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The fish smelled wonderful, especially with the brown sugar mixed with cumin and chili powder.
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  The timing was perfect and everything was done at the same time.  I love when it works out like that!
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It was an awesome meal and I will definitely make this again.

I had some brown rice medley left over, and like I said it was so good, I decided to use some for lunch the next day.  I mixed it with soy crumbles and kalamata olives.  It was delicious!
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The second dinner I made 2 weeks ago was a crustless quiche.  Yep, I am that behind on my own posts and reading everyone else’s.  I am sure I will get caught up soon…I hope!

I loved the looks of this recipe because of all the veggies and the use of some eggs, but mostly egg whites.
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I bought the prepackaged egg whites because the recipe called for 6 egg whites and I felt like I was wasting food to crack open that many eggs and without a use for the yolks, they were going to be thrown away.
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I mixed it all together, at which point I discovered our pie pan was completely rusted.
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To save the project I took out a glass casserole dish and just baked it in there, which was good because I don’t think I could have fit all of it in the pie pan.

While that was baking I started on my hash browns.  The recipe was just the quiche, and I felt like it was missing something, so I added in a starch for my side.  The quiche had eggs, veggies and dairy (cheese), so potatoes would be perfect.  I had never made hash brown this way, but I discovered after reading about them online, I needed to dry off the potatoes, which I did, but I think not well enough.
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Somehow or another, this bottle of wine was opened.  No complaints from me!
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As my potatoes were cooking, and luckily Ryan had just gotten home, I realized dinner took longer than expected to prepare and I only had 5 minutes until a conference call.  Ryan took over in the kitchen and finished up and when the quiche was ready, he served me dinner while I was in my office on the phone.  Even though we did not get to eat together, it was yummy and I was glad Ryan liked this dish too.
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I wish I had a picture of the finished meal, but I was on a call at the time it was finished.  I really thought there was one on my iPhone, but sadly I can't locate it from the upload I did to my computer.  Sometimes this Mac drives me nuts.

QUESTIONS:  Have you ever prepped something only to discover you don't have the right dish to cook it in?  What is your favorite whole grain?  Any tips for making hash browns with shredded potatoes?