Real Life: Bife a Role (Steak Rolls)

I don't know if I have mentioned this or not, but we had a house full this summer.  FULL.  Seven people came from Brazil, a combination of family and friends... for a month.

Yes, we might be a bit crazy.  Maybe.  But it's what you do when half of your world is, well, half-a-world away.  You maximize the time you have together.

Meaning, you blow up lots and lots of air mattresses and know that your home is not your home for the next 30 days, but just home.  Home to many, but home nonetheless.

This, of course, throws off your schedule greatly.  As in, the word 'schedule' is probably not a part of your daily vocabulary, in English or ever-progressing-Portuguese.  And your normal habits and preferences? They are replaced with field trips to Ross and then quick runs made to Target.  Because every Brazilian loves Ross, and every American loves Target.  You gotta keep it balanced.

Of course, bigger things happen.  Road trips around California; going camping with people who have never done it before; laughter ringing out from the table that usually seats two but can seat four, yet somehow manages to seat nine when you are really trying...

In the midst of all this, life continues to move forward. Some people head off to work while others head to the pool and bills are hopefully remembered and paid on time.  But at the end of the day (and a couple times before then), everyone needs to eat. A few gather in the kitchen to chop and dice, saute' and grill. You quickly figure out that feeding nine on a daily basis is a much bigger task than feeding two, while cleaning up sure does go faster when you have so many helping hands.

This goes on in the kitchen --

-- while Skip Bo is taking place in the living room with pillows falling off the couch, and a guitar is being played somewhere else while a few others sit around a computer watching a film clip in Portuguese --

-- and you realize that it's OK that you have Robitussin in the background of your food pictures and everything doesn't look so perfect.  Because this is real life.  And real life does not look like our food blog pictures.

It looks like this... perfectly imperfect.

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(No, I don't have any finished pictures for you.  After all, this was real life, so we sat, ate, and enjoyed each other's company.  If you would like to see what it it looks like, you can click here to be taken to a Google search.)

BIFE A ROLE (STEAK ROLLS)

From my mother-in-law’s kitchen

SERVES 5  •  PREP TIME: 30 MINUTES  •  TOTAL TIME: 50 MINUTES

special items you will need:

• a pressure cooker
• toothpicks

ingredients

• 10 thin slices of Silverside beef, about 5 inches wide and 10 inches long
• 1 lime
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 5 bacon slices, cut in half (I prefer beef bacon as I don't eat pork bacon, but you can use whatever you like)
• 1 tomato
• 1/2 onion
• 1/2 bell pepper
• 1 carrot
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil

directions

1. In a dish, season the meat with the juice of the lime and the salt, using your fingers to rub it into the meat.  Set aside.
2. Chop the tomato, onion, bell pepper, and carrot into 5 inch-long slivers -- ten of each vegetable.
3. Taking one piece of meat at a time, place one piece of bacon and one of each of the vegetable pieces.  Roll like a burrito, tightly wrapping it so each end is covered and nothing can fall out.  Secure with toothpicks (2 to 3). 
4. Add the oil to the bottom of the pressure cooker.  Place the beef rolls inside.  Cook in the pressure cooker on medium-high heat for about 20 minutes after the pressure builds up.  When it is finished, be careful to let the pressure die down before you open the lid.

 COST: $16.70     COST PER SERVING (5): $3.34

(Serve with beans and rice to make a complete meal, coming in under $4 per serving.)

The Glue that Holds Us Together... (Made-from-Scratch Black Beans)

Let me tell you a thing or two about Brazilian men.  No, wait, first let me tell you a thing or two I used to think about Brazilian men.  Back in the day, when I was single and ready to mingle, my friend Querubia kept saying, "Let me take you to Brazil.  The men will love you down there and you will find a great guy."  And my response?  "No, thank you.  One of those boys will make me fall in love and then run away with my heart, leaving me in the dust.  Nope, not for me." 

Oh, how life teaches us to "never-say-never"! 

So now I have this Brazilian man by my side.  Yes, he was good at making me fall in love with him.  And unlike the stereotypes I had been told, he did not leave me in the dust, left to pick up pieces of a broken heart.  Quite the opposite actually.

So now I feel qualified to tell you a thing or two about Brazilian men.  First of all, they love the women in their lives.  Mom is their superhero.  Sister is their confidant.  You know when they say to look at how a man treats his mother to see how he will treat his wife?  Brazilian men have that one down.  They know how to treat a woman.  (Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule, and I speak based off of what I know/see from my life and the lives of my friends, but this seems to ring true for most situations.)

Other very important things to know about Brazilian men -- soccer is king.  Don't try to come between a Brasileiro and his soccer team or death and destruction might come your way. 

The beach is life. 

Love is not just something said, but something shown. 

And beans and rice keep a smile on his face.

I knew going into our marriage that would have to learn to make beans and rice the Brazilian way.  He learned a whole language for me (or mastered it, as he was already learning it), so it only seemed fair.  My idea of opening a can of beans and throwing them into a pot was not going to fly anymore.  It was time to actually make beans, not just heat them up.  The taste difference is totally worth it.  Beans from the can are good, don't get me wrong.  But my beans?  Well, I eat them by the spoonful.  Cold.  Straight out of the fridge.  Yup, they are that good.

My husband is very good at eating American food (and by American food I of course mean Italian-Mexican-Greek-Anything-we-want-to-eat food).  His friends freak out, FREAK OUT, when he says something like, "I think the last time I ate beans was three weeks ago."  "WHAT?!" they shriek.  "Your wife is starving you!"  But I am proud to say he quickly comes to my defense with something along the lines of, "No, she is not.  You should try her food and then you will see why I don't need beans and rice all the time."  Nope, he does not need nor eat it all the time, but I do try to get some in front of him every once in awhile.  Right now we are on about once a month.  But when we do... SMILE from ear to ear.

Today I am just sharing the recipe for beans because I believe you already know how to make rice.  And before I can show you how to do Brazilian rice (which is different than throwing it in the rice cooker), I need to get really good at it.  I am only there about 15% of the time.  So for today, make some rice in the rice cooker or whatever to go with these beans.  As long as you are not feeding them to a Brazilian you should be fine ;)

I think I do them differently than others do, but this is how I have figured out how to make beans my Brazilian friends approve of.  First, I add the beans and the water and boil for about twenty minutes.  Then I put the lid on the pressure cooker (after adding some vegetable oil and salt) and cook for another half an hour-40 minutes.  Finally, after the the pressure is gone, I add onion, garlic, and bay leaves and boil for another 15 minutes.  This gives the beans a nice fresh flavor with flavor-packed mouthfuls of everything good in life.  Yes, it takes some time, but we make enough for five days and eat it every single day until it is gone.  And I do not complain once.  Because I (now) love beans and rice, too.

My Bean Recipe:Ingredients -

1. beans (about 1 1/2 cup)
2. 1/2 onion, chopped
3. three cloves of garlic
4. salt, much more than a pinch (maybe 2 teaspoons???)
5. two bay leaves
6. a little bit of oil
7. 3 cups of water 

Directions -

1. Sort and rinse beans.  Add to pressure cooker.  Cover with water until about knuckle-deep.
2. Boil for 15-20 min.  Add more water at end if needed.
3. Cover with lid, and cook on high until the pressure cooker starts singing.  Lower heat to medium and cook for 25 - 35 minutes. 
4. Turn off heat and let cool down so the pressure releases. 
5. Add onion, garlic, bay leaf, salt, and oil, and bring back to a boil.  Boil for 15 more minutes.  (Add more salt if desired).

Viola!  Delicious (and incredibly nutritious) beans!

Cost: $1.90        Cost per serving (with rice): $0.25

Who knew eating fresh felt so good in your mouth and in your wallet?  Not to mention in your body! ;)

Brazilian Tomato Salad

Five simple ingredients.  That's all it takes to make my husband the happiest man alive. 

Yup, tomatoes with some onion, cilantro, and a little bit of lime juice and salt are the way to this man's heart. 

And I totally get it.  I mean, my idea of salad had always been lettuce/spincach/arugula with some veggies and dressing on top, but this is so light and so fresh there is no dressing needed.  And you can skip the lettuce and get straight to the good stuff... tomatoes.

Unless you don't like tomatoes.  Then I guess it isn't the good stuff.  But if you do, well, you need to try this.  We had it with a plate of rice and beans and some ground beef/veggie mixture and I just mixed it all up... so. incredibly. GOOD.  I went back to get some more but there was none.  Guess who ate it all?!

Happy me -- I still have some tomatoes at home.  You know what I will be having more of tonight ;)

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 Roma tomatoes, sliced
• 1 Tablespoon chopped cilantro
• Juice of 1 lime
• 2 thin slices of onion, cut if quarters
• Salt, to taste

DIRECTIONS:
Chop, slice, cut, mix, ENJOY :)

COST: $1.10       COST PER SERVING (4): $0.28

Soooo cheap!