An Olympic Menu

The Olympics start tomorrow. In Rio! Ah, Brasil. O país do meu coração. We’re going to be watching a lot of Olympics and I’m going to try real hard to not be annoyed at the American announcers mispronouncing all the Portuguese words. I’m crossing my fingers they’ve been practicing.

To celebrate we’re going to be having some special themed dinners over the next two weeks.

For the Opening Ceremonies we’ll be eating black beans and rice with collard greens. This was the smell of every afternoon. It was what I ate practically every day for lunch and what I missed on the days we were served something else. Which surprised a lot of people, including me, because I didn’t like beans before I left. It’s now what we eat practically monthly at home for dinner and I freeze the leftovers in ice cube trays and our kids eat it almost daily for lunch. I’m raising some good brasileiros.

Brazilian Black Beans & Rice with Collard Greens
Beans
Ingredients
– 3 cups black beans
– diced onion
– diced garlic
– olive oil
– water
– bay leaves

Directions
1. Wash and rinse the beans and leave them to soak for half a day or so. I start ours just before getting lunch ready.
2. Dice the onion and garlic. Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in the pressure cooker and cook the onion and garlic till the onion is translucent. The olive oil is going to be what keeps the beans from making your pressure cooker explode. That’s a good thing.
3. Add the soaked beans and approximately 8-9 cups water total.
4. Put in a couple of bay leaves. You can add sausage if you want as well.
5. Bring to pressure for 3-6 minutes and then take it off the heat and let it release on its own. Or have it at pressure for 5-9 and do a quick-release.

Collard Greens
Ingredients
– collard greens, washed
– olive oil
– diced onion
– diced garlic
– lemon and/or lime juice
– cilantro

Directions
1. Bundle the collard greens, roll them up, and slice them into thin strips.
2. Heat the olive oil in a pan and cook the onion and garlic. Add the collard greens and cook till they are soft. Add a bit of water and cover to keep them warm.
3. Mix about 1/4 cup citrus juice, cilantro, and more garlic and drizzle over the collard greens.

Rice
– Cook the rice however you want.

To serve put the beans on the rice and top with collard greens. Sliced/diced tomato and orange slices go well with the plate.

Next week we’re going to have hotdogs like the kind I ate from street vendors (see description here). There’s a reason that despite walking everywhere, all day long, on my mission in Brazil, I still gained about 40 pounds. The only time I’ve ever weighed more than I did while I was on my mission was in the third trimester of Shimri’s and Shimei’s pregnancy.

We’re going to have an Olympic Rings dip night. Not sure on the details of this one yet but it will probably be a ranch dip with blue food coloring, guacamole, salsa, and then a black dip (or chocolate) and a yellow dip to be determined.

And for the Closing Ceremonies, because the next summer games are in Japan, I’m going to attempt to make vegetable sushi rolls for only the second time in my life.

Let the games begin!