Festa de Coxinhas!

      A couple of weeks ago, we had a coxinha party at one of the church members' house. It's kind of difficult to explain exactly what a coxinha is.   They are meat-filled deep fried manioc teardrops. They take a LOT of work and a LOT of time!  The women started to work on them at 1:30 in the afternoon, and we didn't get to eat until after 9:00!  

      The manioc is what took most of the time.  Manioc is a root that is used in a variety of ways here in Brazil and in other parts of the world.  It can be fried, boiled, mashed, etc. 

      For our coxinhas, 20 kilos (that's 44 lbs!) of manioc first had to be peeled, which involves removing a bark-like outer layer.  Then it was washed and chopped into smaller sections.  After that it was placed in several pressure cookers and cooked until it softened enough to be mashed. 
      We started mashing it with forks, but it was too hard, so we had to switch to mashing it with our fingers :) 

      Then there were many veggies that had to be chopped and diced to add to the meat when it was being cooked.  (We made chicken and hamburger coxinhas.)  

    By the time that everything was ready to be assembled, it was already after 6:00. Many of the men had arrived from their jobs at that time, and came to help.  

  
   Some garlic fried in oil was added to the big tub of manioc, and folded in by hand. Then it was time to form the coxinhas.  We started with a ball of mashed manioc, and formed it into a bowl.  Then we added some of the chicken or hamburger mixture to it. This is where it got kind of humorous, because everyone, (men and women included), thought that they had the best technique for forming the coxinhas.  :) 

      The coxinhas then had to be closed at the top, which formed the point.  Then they were dusted with flour, and ready to be fried!

      They were deep fried in oil, and placed in a styrofoam box to keep warm until they were all finished.  In all, we made over 200 coxinhas!       

 
    As soon as the "okay" was given, and the chow-down began.  The kids eagerly lined up on the floor and accepted their first coxinha.  (Poor kids were STARVING by now, because remember, I said we didn't get to eat until AFTER 9:00!)   I'm not sure how many coxinhas were left over, but there weren't very many.  Mahalia and I shared about 4 coxinhas, but one of the men ate 15 of them! 
      I guess the best way to describe a coxinha is: meat wrapped in mashed potatoes and then deep fried.  The manioc was still soft, but had a nice crispy outer layer. 
      Now I understand why they only do this about once a year!  It was a LOT of work, but it was a lot of FUN!  

Family Camp 2012 - Escaldado

On the very last night of camp, we had a special guest come to cook our supper - Jesus! No, I'm serious, Jesus cooked soup for us - a special soup called "Escaldado."  The word literally means "scalded." 

First, he cooked and shredded 40 pounds of chicken down until it "scalded."  He cooked and cooked and cooked all of the juices from it.

Then his wife added chopped tomatoes, onions, and green peppers, some broth, a little bit of tomato paste, and some salt.  

Then it had to simmer for a couple of hours.  During that time they added several eggs to  it, but I missed getting a picture of that step because I was off bathing my incredibly filthy children in a sink somewhere.  Sorry - both about missing that step and having incredibly filthy children.  

ANYWAY, the eggs cooked into hard-boiled eggs throughout the escaldado.  

Oh, and if you didn't believe me at the beginning, here's a picture of Jesus with his supper!  This was just one of the three pots of escaldado that they made, although this is the largest of the pots, and there wasn't ANY left.  Yes, it was that good. 

They served it with French bread rolls.  It was very nummy.  It tasted much like chicken noodle soup minus the noodles and plus the egg.  Okay, so maybe that makes it not much like chicken noodle soup after all.

 Anyway, the joke all night was that Jesus came to camp, just to make our supper!

Family Camp 2012 - Activities

Here are some of the fun activities that go on during free time at family camp.

Ping Pong

Carpetball

Here is the zip-line at camp.  The kids love it!  They wait and wait in line until it is their turn.  First they have to be strapped in.... 

....then they jump off the edge and ride it down the hill between the trees....

....then one of the kids waiting at the bottom of the hill will grab the rope that is dangling from the harness and pull them back up to the top for the next person in line.  

Every afternoon the ladies would gather together to do crafts.  This year they made pretty little canisters and decorated flip-flops.

I think they really just enjoy the fellowship more than anything.

Canteen: one of the most important places at camp - just ask the kids.  They sold drinks, Brazilian chips (like cheetoes, but many different shapes and flavors) and various candies.  And even though we didn't buy any candy from this canteen for our kids, they got plenty of it!  Brazilians love to share food with our kids, and they don't think to ask an adult first.  I don't even remember how many times I saw Johnathan or Mahalia wandering around with a sucker, or chips, or candy that someone had given to them.  I thought about putting a "Please don't feed the Americans" sign around my kids' necks :)

Meanwhile, the men and teen boys would get up a soccer game or two every afternoon.

And the kids all loved playing at the playground. This big swing was always full whether it was kids or adults!

Here's my little pale face at her favorite place at camp: the merry-go-round.

And here are a couple of crazy American boys going up the slide the wrong way.  Who's boys are those, anyway!?

Family Camp 2012 - Food

Ahhhhhhh! Food.  Be prepared to be jealous.  Brazilian food is GOOD!  There were so many yummy meals to choose from, but finally narrowed it down to these tasty dishes.  

I (Tracy) had the oportunity to work in the kitchen quite a bit during Family Camp.  It was interesting to see how you go about cooking from scratch for 200 people.  It's a lot of hard work, that's what!  The cooks were in the kitchen ALL DAY LONG!  You can't buy many canned or pre-packaged foods here, so everything has to be done by hand.  And you can trust me, tearing every leaf of arugula off of its plant to make salad for 200 people takes FOREVER!!! (thank you for letting me get that out of my system :)

Rice.  Brazilians could not survive without rice and beans.  Seriously!  Just ask every woman, and she will tell you that she has to make rice and beans EVERY day for her family.  It was funny to hear the cooks grumble about how much rice they go through in one month.  Even if they were to make a complete meal, they would still have to make rice and beans too.  It's just expected.

At camp, they made 33 pounds (that's dry/before cooked) of rice for lunch and supper every day.  That's a lot of rice, folks! Here is one of the cooks scooping the rice from the main pot into a serving tray.

This is the head cook at camp.  Every one asked her opinion on everything before they made a dish, and she knows what she's doing!

I thought you might find this interesting:  None of the Brazilians I've seen use a spoon to taste for seasoning.  Instead, they poor a little bit of the *burning hot* broth into their palm....

....and straight to the mouth for tasting! *OUCH*

They also cooked 65-75 pounds of meat for every meal!

Have you ever seen the black/green overgrown bananas in Wal-mart's fruit section?  Well, it's this - plantain. They're much sweeter and less "woody" here though because they are left on the plant for longer.  

Mmmm....fried plantain.  It's yummy.  Trust me.

And on a hot day, what would be better than some refreshing lemonade?  The cooks would pull two men out of the morning service to come back and squeeze enough lemons for lemonade. 

 Many, many lemons were juiced in the making of this lemonade.  And we enjoyed it.

And here is a parting shot of everyone getting their plates full so that they can sit down and enjoy it all.  Well, was I right?  You're jealous, aren't you?  :)