While our coffee machine was out for repairs, we rediscovered our manual milk frother. I first saw one of these at my mom’s house last time we were in Brazil. We immediately had to go out and buy one to bring back with us.

It makes the thickest, creamiest foam I’ve ever tasted. It’s easy to use and easy to clean. The model we have is from Frabosk.

“Milano” Milk / Cappuccino Frother (60 fl oz/ 1

Frabosk,

My husband is a crumb cake fanatic so we have been on a quest to find his ideal cake. I think we found it!

You can order it from Hahn’s Old Fashioned Coffee Cake. He even tried the raspberry one (which sounded a bit weird to a purist like himself) but really liked it.

I have a semi-date on Saturday night. With a French guy! Could it be that I am switching from milchbrotchen to baguette? From hefeweizen to bordeaux? From erdapfel to pomme de terre? You get the idea.

Goldfish-Pepperidge Farm Baked Snack Crackers, 58oz Box

Pepperidge Farm, Misc., $29.95

I’m snacking on pretzel goldfish and I have found three (three!) trios of goldfish having a threesome. That just seems wrong.

I had dinner with an old friend last night. Everything is going well until I asked him about his live-in girlfriend. His response: “Uh, actually, we split up recently”. Ok, can you pass the bread please?

We then headed over to the pub for drinks and this girl was sitting at our table. I had met her and her boyfriend before. So I asked her where her boyfriend was. Her response: “He dumped me a couple of weeks ago”. You would think I would have learned the first time around.

Two days ago, I reached for a white shirt in my closet and noticed a huge orange stain in the pocket area. I saw that the pocket was a little puffy so I peeked inside. What did I find? You guessed it. A goldfish cracker. It must have fallen in and I didn’t notice it. So, two weeks later, the grease and food coloring had caused the huge stain on my shirt. The dry cleaner said it was really hard to remove and you can still see a hint of yellow if you look very closely. I never had the illusion that goldfish was healthy natural food but stuff like this really makes you stop and think about what we feed our bodies. Anyway, I better go and check on my fake veggie hot dogs before they burn. ;-)

Someone found my blog by searching on “Brazilian women booty”. They must have been pretty disappointed.

Friday afternoon, Lisa, Fariba and I went up to San Francisco. We decided to stay overnight at the Hotel Triton so we didn’t have to worry about getting back that same night. We met up with Walter at Place Pigalle for drinks (one of the few places where you can still smoke inside) and then had a Brazilian dinner at Terra Brazilis. We then went to some cheesy tourist-trap ballroom where there were tons of 40 year old “female entertainers” with fake boobs. I tried to persuade everyone to leave but they were a little blinded by the red velvet and gold trimmed mirrors so we had to go in. Luckily, it didn’t take too long for them to come back to their senses and to run out of there. Since they wanted to dance, I suggested we go to El Rio where we stayed until closing.

The next morning, we were really tired but shopping awaited us so we dragged ourselves out of bed. It was very cold and rainy in the city. I miss that kind of weather but Lisa and Fariba weren’t too happy. We spent most of the morning around Union Square, and then we checked out and headed over to Hayes Valley to check out some of the cool boutiques. After we had stopped at every possible store, we sat in one of the sidewalk tables at Cafe Absinthe and had a few afternoon drinks and an excellent meal. We then continued down on Hayes to Suppenkuche. Around 7:00 pm, we headed over to Fariba’s friend’s Summer Solstice cocktail party. We only stayed for about an hour since it wasn’t really happening all that much.

In Brazil, we have this tradition (which actually came from Italy) where you are supposed to eat gnocchi on the 29th of every month and put money under your plate for good luck. So last night, Lisa made some awesome gnocchi and we drank tons of wine and put money under our plates. Hopefully the dollar bills are multiplying in my wallet as I type this.

VillaWare Natural Wood Gnocchi Board 2

Kitchen,

We woke up at 6:30 and were at the consulate at 8:00. The interview went very smoothly. The consul was from the East Bay so we mostly talked about California. He didn’t really ask me too many questions, the interview lasted less than 10 minutes. He told me to come back later to pick up my visa papers and wished me luck. He also appeared to be 5 years old.
We then went to Rio Sul and shopped till we dropped. I bought these awesome sandals (with 4” heels, I’ll probably break a leg), 2 earrings, 3 rings, 2 bracelets and a pair of sunglasses. I also bought a couple of small gifts for people at work. We then picked up my passport, headed to the airport and were back here by 6:00 pm.

Tomorrow morning, I’m getting a haircut. Layered. Scary!

O Rio de Janeiro continua lindo…
We arrived in Rio at 5:00 pm. I hadn’t been there in so long I forgot how beautiful it is (and I’m a Paulista so admitting that means a lot)!
We stayed at Le Meridien in Copacabana and had an awesome view from the bedroom. We were too tired so we ate at the hotel, at a restaurant called Le St. Honore. I had a salad with some Brie cheese. My mom had lamb and she said it wasn’t good. The little French chef came out to check on everything, wearing his chef hat and all. He was a cute (and seemed to be about 5 years old which is why I said he was little. He wasn’t really short) and gave us free desserts to compensate for the lamb. I had strawberry tart (or is it tarte?)

Found them at Fry’s of all places. They suck! For some reason, they’re a bit salty.

Tonight was nice, very girly. I met up with Lenore after work to go see Amélie. I had been dying to see it since it first came out back in November but then I went to Brazil and just never had time to see it. The movie is great. I usually get disappointed after I read so many great reviews about a movie. That wasn’t the case with Amélie. I mean, at least I wasn’t disappointed with the movie itself.

The thing is that I had read so many places how everyone in France had been affected by the movie and there was this huge wave of good deeds (and we’re talking about the French here! Actually, I had never heard anything bad about them until I moved to the US). Anyway, I was certainly expecting a life changing experience from seeing this movie. And it wasn’t like that. So I’m more disappointed with myself for thinking that a movie could do that than with the fact that the movie wasn’t powerful enough to change my life. But to get back to the movie, it was great. Great photography, great plot, awesome characters. I especially liked the opening intro of her as a kid. The scene with the raspberries is just great.

Although, now that I think about it, I did break up with my boyfriend of three years because of a movie. Well, it wasn’t really because of the movie but something that I saw in the movie made something click in my mind. I didn’t even finish watching it and drove to the dorms to end things. The movie? He Said, She Said. (yeah yeah, I know)

He Said, She Said

Paramount 1991, DVD, $9.98

Amelie

Miramax Home Entertainment 2001, DVD, $19.99

Anyway, after the movie we went to check out a new restaurant in Mountain View called Zucca. I read a review that said they served awesome Mediterranean tapas. The place is really small but very cozy and the food was awesome. The owners come to your table and check on you a couple of times and we got complimentary glasses of dessert wine.