Christmas week update

Hey Cheryl, sorry for posting about Climategate before I told everyone that I proposed. The fact is that I had reservations, and I needed to wait. Timing is everything and now that it is behind us it was a great memory. It did not go off as planned, but it was a pipedream to think it would. No details here on the blog, but I will be happy to tell you the detail because you are in the loop. The close loop. We’ll talk later. But just to give my readers a small taste, we celebrated over sushi.


I have been keeping it low and down to earth this trip. Just hangin’ out with the Costas and mostly Viviane. I had a chance to cook for the whole family last Sunday. A planned event of great anticipation by the family. Viviane has been talking smack about my skills. We served soup, Mac & Cheese with Sausage, and for dessert we had strawberry refrigerator cake. The soup was a total conglomeration of memories of dad’s soup that he served Grandpa and Grandma back in the days on Afton and from all of the lessons I learned in Dubai as I made soup from scratch a dozen times or more on request of Viviane has she loves the stuff. The Mac & Cheese was all mine. I will stand up now and say that I have full confidence in myself to bust out this American classic with only the bare minimum of ingredients. Buying cheese in Portuguese is a test, but one I passed. I made more than enough. The pasta was not over cooked and I included raw tomatoes of chives right at the end because well, I think it rocks. (Don’t forget to season them both together for a 10 minutes plus before you mix them in). I had to unfortunately keep the jalapeños out though because I was not cooking for myself. The sausages (again, Portuguese and I got lucky) were boiled in Skol (beer) for 45 minutes before their skin was seared with a black char in a legitimate non stick pan (kind of hard to find in Salvador). Sliced on the bias and served with Philippe’s Mustard brought in country shrink rapped by Ryan. (Huge hit by the way).

Viviane was in charge of dessert. She trusted me and took my advice and we went with refrigerator cake. A mystery to all down here, including Viviane, but we went for it. No Coolwhip so that is a hurdle. We used good ole fashion whip cream and had to use the back of a spoon to make it cover the top smooth. Strawberries, of course, we dramatically placed atop. Now if you don’t know what the hell I am talking about email mom., she will clue you in.

Short story long, when the day was over, I felt really good to have the chance to one, feed the family, and two, (more importantly) keep Vilma out of the kitchen for 24 hours.

I have not watched football in two weeks. No worries, but after following the Fresno State – Wyoming game on the web I realized I will spend two bowl seasons in a row overseas in a country that has no interest in it. I will get better at watching this stuff online, but the rub is the connection speed. That is always the missing link that no one seems to be aware of. Pun intended.

I am very happy right now. I have AC in the flat. My babydoll loves me. Life is pretty good.

Ryan and Paul: you’re on the clock.

BrotherBill