Oi!

That’s Portuguese for “Hi!”

Kendrick was born and raised in Brazil, and as Valentine’s Day started to approach, I realized that I have never cooked him a full Brazilian meal! As I mentioned in my first blog post, Kendrick’s love language is food… so naturally, I knew he would be SO happy if I cooked for him. I decided the menu: Pão de Queijo, Feijoada, and Bolo de Coco.

Feijoada is a very traditional Brazilian dish. Way back in the day, Brazil had the largest slave population in the world, substantially larger than the United States. The Portuguese who settled in Brazil needed labor to work the large estates and mines in their new Brazilian colony. The food given to the slaves was restricted to rice and beans; but when times were good or there was a holiday, the slaves would get “scrap meat” aka less-desirable cuts that they added to their beans. By the 19th century, the dish became urbanized and was adopted nationally. That’s the story of how feijoada was born.

Pão de Queijo is a popular, gluten-free cheese bread that most Brazilians enjoy with dinner or as a snack. Bolo de Coco is a coconut cake, topped with warm, chocolate sauce.

Now that you’re salivating…I thought I would share these special recipes with you! I received the Feijoada recipe from my sister-in-law; which was adapted by her from my mother-in-law. My mother-in-law always makes Bolo de Coco when we come to visit, so this recipe was adapted from her as well.

Our Valentine’s weekend started on Friday, when I came home to the biggest bouquet I had ever seen! Kendrick picked lots of coral roses, since coral is my favorite color. The table runner and ribbon banner in the photos are actually leftover decor from our wedding! I made all the runners by hand, so I loved having an excuse to decorate the kitchen pink 🙂

Easy Brazilian Feijoada

Ingredients

3 tbsp olive oil

6 strips of chopped bacon

3/4 cup chopped onions

4 cloves of garlic (minced)

4 cans black beans

salt to taste

2 tbsp chopped parsley

2 dry bay leaves

2 pkgs Hillshire Smoked Turkey sausage (or sausage of choice)

rice

oranges or orange juice

Preparation

Heat the oil in a medium pot and add bacon, onion, and garlic and cook until golden brown.

Add the beans and enough water to keep the beans covered (about 3-4 cups). Add salt, parsley, bay leaves, and thin sliced sausages.

Bring to boil, then lower the heat, cover the pot and let it simmer for about 30 minutes. Continue stirring from time to time, adding water as necessary.

Serve with white rice and sliced oranges.

For Cake:

Ingredients

Pillsbury or Duncan Hines Golden Butter Cake

Chocolate Sprinkles

Coconut Extract

Unsweetened Coconut flakes

Preparation

Follow cake instructions on the box. Add a handful of chocolate sprinkles (I usually just eyeball it). Add 1/2 tsp of coconut extract. Add a handful of coconut flakes (I really like coconut, but if you’re not a huge fan, you could omit this.)

Chocolate Sauce:

Ingredients

For the Pão de Queijo, I followed a recipe I found here. I opted for olive oil instead of butter, and regular milk instead of soy milk.

Finally…we were ready to eat!!

After dinner, we exchanged cards and gifts. Normally, I’m the one who writes extra in greeting cards…but, this year Kendrick outdid me! He wrote me a letter, which was tucked inside my card. It was such a sweet surprise, and as I read it I started to get tears in my eyes- I truly have an amazing husband!

I decided to make this Valentine’s dinner Saturday night, so that I could relax and enjoy time with my hubby on Valentine’s Day- plus, we had leftovers…LOTS of leftovers! 😉

Did any of you cook for your significant other instead of going out? If so, what did you make??

I’ll be sharing Our Valentine’s Weekend – Part 2 on Thursday, so stay tuned!

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