It’s been Hot here. …yesterday it was 100 and over….
Too hot to cook, and almost too hot to eat,… almost….

…and I found myself taking out the cucumbers…and then
some cheese……and then…..
…then I remembered something that Alcir and I used to make
when it was So Hot in Rio, and we were both trying out the
Low Carb diet, where you eat things like protein and cheeses,
but no breads or crackers…

This was during my second visit, the one I haven’t told you about yet,
the one in 2006, when I stayed for Six months instead of one….
So I am jumping ahead a bit, but time travel is something allowed
here in writing on the internet land…

He had stopped drinking, and we both wanted to loose a little….
the low carbohydrate diet is easy and satisfying… mostly protein
and there are lots of things allowed that have very little carbs.

So we wanted a little tray of munchies while we were watching
TV, and decided to substitute slices of cukes for the cracker part,
and stack thinly sliced veggies and cheeses with little touches
of things for color…. creating the cutest trayful of yummy
and appetizing Appetizers!

He called it our SNACK-O-RAMA….
“BABE!”… he’d call out from the little room, as he watched TV…
“Make us our Snackorama!”

Here are our ingredients, to which you can add, I am sure!

*Slices of Cucumber
*Cheeses…. cheddar, parmesan, cream cheese (great for sticking
things together)
*Small pieces or slices of:  radishes…olives… purple onion…
…pepperacini.. (we couldn’t get these in Rio…like a lot of other
things I adored……..see list below)
*Touches of green…. green onion, celantro, parsley,
*Small pieces of fish, like LOX, salted cod, even leftover chicken.

You get the idea….. make each one a little different, and so pretty!
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Some of these things were not available in Rio…to my dismay!
I am a serious cook, love to cook from scratch, and yes,
I”m an American and a bit spoiled, yet some of these things
just seemed strange….
Things like:

Tortillas…. not at all!
Large bags of Plain Chips…all they offered were individual bags
of Flavored ones, which I hate…
anchovies
sour cream
salsa
organic anything except some produce
powdered sugar
unsweetened chocolate
oven thermometer
fresh milk…it was all Canned!!!
sharp cheddar cheese
fresh fish… he wouldn’t even let me buy any…too old
anything to make sushi…rice. seaweeds, raw fish
california wines and beers…the best!
natural oils
naturopathic remedies
large sizes of Anything…toothpaste, yogurt, all was Travel sizes.
peanut butter
good celery
thai curry
mushrooms
yeast for making bread

Also there were odd things for me to adjust to…
Aspirin was the equivalent in buying power, of $1 per tablet,
and they were sold in sheets of individual bubbled by the dozen…

At the Pharmacy, however, you could get antibiotics from them
without a prescription…..

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