Nutrition, Food, Travel and More

I just couldn't resist the fall spirit and had to buy this at Trader Joe's. I just had to have the pumpkin! Sunday morning seemed like a great time to make these. Ryan was assembling my bike, so I directed myself to the kitchen to make some pumpkin waffles.

Working on a nice, smooth, pumpkin smelling batter.

Here is my fun little waffle maker. Ryan bought it for me last year for Hanukah.

Not perfect, but not too bad. I at least did not make a huge mess everywhere with too much batter. We usually over fill, so I was cautious this time.

They have a little orange tint to them.

Then the strangest thing happen after breakfast. I won't lie, I did ignore the pounding on the dorr the first 3 times I heard it. My neighbors are doing some construction and I thought maybe it was just noise from this. Finally I got up and checked the door to find my next door neighbor outside with some food. WOW, they brought us food they had cooked. These are little pastries with a custard filling. I asked what was inside and they said natas, which is cream.

And for Ryan there was chicken and pineapple (galina com ananas- I think I got that right). We are hoping this is not one of our little chicken friends that lay our eggs over there.

It was a gorgeous day so we went back to the ExpoTerceira. Much busier Sunday than it was on Saturday. We also wanted to come back so we could eat at O Pescador.

I just had to stop at this booth again and watch this man make funny sculptures out of produce.

This is why we really went back.

Awesome looking menu selections. Some different and some the same from the regular menu. Of couse you see the pumpkin soup, which would complete my pumpkin craving kinda day.

Bread

Plus Speadable Cheese

Equals YUM! This was actually very good cheese although processed. I admit, their real cheese in the restaurant is much better.

A smaller, but equally as tasty, portion of their delicious bruschetta with banana chutney.

Here's my pumpkin soup. Color was good, taste was not as good. I liked it, but I have had better. This was thickened with a lot of potato.

Veggies and tofu for me.

The small steak for Ryan. The food was good, but not as spectacular as usual. I give them credit for trying as they were cooking out of a makeshift kitchen on a pier in the marina. So with that in mind, it was actually good.

Now you know the meal has ended!

Then we walked around the expo a little. I found the Michelin tire guy made it all the way to the Azores.

They had a booth out displaying the many cheeses of the island (ilha quijos). This was a heat lamp that melts the cheese to make it spread on foods. Almost like fondue, minus the fondue pot.

Since this expo displayed local business and the economy of the island, there were also some home items on display.

This is the Prius, but not just any Prius.

This Prius is SOLAR powered. This is the panel.

A hot tub. It just looked very relaxing.

This is a TV. Look how thin they are these days. That is just crazy.

So that was mostly it for Sunday. Remember this bike I bought when I was visiting the States. Well Ryan reassembled my bike and the weather was just amazing, so we went for a little ride just to test it out. It was great. There are some massive hills here, so I will need to practice before giving those a try. The inclines are insane.

I also want to review this product for those of you with curly hair. I bought this at Sephora when I was home after my mom gave me an article about it from the newspaper. The woman at the store gave me great advice...use less than what the bottle says. The bottle says a QUARTER sized dollop. Then rub into wet hair and comb through. I did get my hair cut wile at home so it is much shorther than usual, but boy am I glad I followed her instructions. I have been using a DIME sized dollop and it workd great. The humidity is no match for this product. I could tell the difference that same night. I am very happy with this purchase and I will continue to use it for as long as I am on the most humid location on earth. My curly hair thanks this product!

Today is the last of my EASY days for a while. Tomorrow until Friday I am substitute teaching for the high school science teacher at the American school here on the base. That by itself does not sound busy, but it is also my one week Master's course (Creative Problem Solving) on base. At least all my precourse work and papers are completed. I just have to attend class 6-9:30 pm Tuesday-Friday and all day Saturday and Sunday. Still, not too bad. But tonight I teach 12 am and 2 am seminars, and Thursday is a 12 am seminar, so I am wondering when I can get some sleep. I am hoping to still get some short posts up, so we will see!

QUESTION: My assigned day to bring food for class is Saturday. Any suggestions for a quick and easy, healthy brunch type item? I was thinking just grab some yogurts, but I feel very uncreative with that choice.

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. For those of you heading to FNCE (ADA conference) I hope you are enjoying yourselves.

I can hardly believe it is only Saturday afternoon and I have already fit so much into my weekend. Let's start with Friday afternoon. While I was grading papers and making posts to my students I had a quick snack, which was this fruit bar with fiber. It tasty pretty good.

But the bar did not make me so full that I couldn't enjoy my left over tofu and couscous for lunch.

I opened my Sony Digital Reader and I had these fun peanuts again. These are the ones you put in water and they dissolve so they are eco-friendly.

I didn't put them in water yet since I did not know if the product was going to work. The first one I received was defective and I had to send it back.

I really like the size and weight. I have never had a Kindle so there is nothing for me to compare it to, but I think this will be good. I chose this because it reads PDF files which the kindle does not. For reading and taking notes on journal articles this seemed more practical (work and play!).

Very thin and easy to handle. I charged it up and it seems to work!

Friday night dinner we went to Buzius, which everyone tells us is great. It is located in Porto Martins, which is an area where many Americans live.

You can't beat the view!

Started with some olives. I LOVE olives!

They served garlic bread because it is an Italian restaurant.

We split this wonderful Greek Salad.

Ryan had the vodka penne with chicken.

I went with the shrimp scampi since the server told me the shrimps had been beheaded! I love it when there is less work involved to get to my shrimp. Plus I didn't have to see them smiling back at me. This was the largest serving of pasta I have ever seen. I probably only ate 1/4 of this dish and brought the rest home.

See, no heads!

Ended the meal with a meia de leite.

Cafe for Ryan. This Nicola coffee is the best on the island, in my opinion.

After dinner we went home to watch a movie. I found my cat in this position. I do not think she wants me to ever go away again. Either that or next time she wants to go with me.

I also got this great sweatshirt that I ordered from the bookstore along with my textbooks. I usually wear my UNLV sweatshirt, but I wanted to get into the spirit of my new school.

This morning we participated in the 2nd Annual Azorean Breast Cancer Awareness walk held in Praia da Vitoria. The walk was so nice because the entire second half was along the beach.

They had a nice snack table set up.

Here I am getting ready to walk. I am wearing one of my favorite shirts.

Save 2nd Base

I got a cool water bottle.

Lots of people walking. Not a big crowd, but given the that the island is small, it wasn't too bad.

The group again. This time we are heading up the main shopping street in Praia. It is naturally closed off as a walking street so it made sense to take the group through here.

Heading down the second half of the walk (total was just over 4 km) we went along the new walking trail that goes along the beach and coastline. We spotted this area of "exercise quipment". Not troo sure but we think it is "art" like a sculpture to remind people of the importance of exercise. But at the same time it seemed like the activity centers worked and kids were using them like it was a playground. Across the street was a sports bar.

After the walk ended we stopped for a morning meia de leite.

This is one of the bars along the beach. No alcohol this early in the morning, but a coffee YES! I think the inside looks pretty cool. They have a set up for live music and an upstairs area. We sat outside so we could look at the ocean.

Turns out this week is ExpoTerceira, which is a convention set up showcasing the local economy. So they had vendors for foods and wines, local businesses and renewable energy sources. I took some pictures so you can see what kinds of things they have here on the island.

Can we say midlife crisis? It was a sweet car.

Solar panels in the section for renewable resources.

A fun Nescafe maker.

We got samples!

Display from a local beer and wine store. They had a pretty good selection of European beers. They had some Lambics so that was good.

These fund veggie sculptures were made using one of those veggie slices that I know they show on TV and it slices onions and things. I thought this was a neat idea.

Here is the display from Make me Nuts. Remind you of anything American (hint DD). We have gone to the actual store for a nice egg and pancake breakfast. They even sell donuts (just like DD!).

I found a vendor for soymilk products. They say these can be found in local markets in the villages. This is the powdered version.

O Pescador even set up a restaurant inside the hall. I spotted pumpkin soup on the menu so I may have to go back and try some.

There was a cheese display with samples. These 2 were my favorite out of the 4. These are local cheeses made on this island. These are from cow's milk and the other 2 were also from sheep and goats milk, plus cow milk.