Blog da Ana Luisa

Simple, fast and delicious!!

2009-01-21T13:28:00.005Z

Simple, fast and delicious!!

I think everyone has tasted this at least once, but on the other day I was in the mall and I saw this little dessert costing 2.50EUR and I thought I am not eating that for that price .... and so decided to buy the ingredients and make one of my own at home.

You will need the following ingredients:

any type of cereals;
plain yogurt (without sugar);
jam.

Then you just layer the ingredients.

When you want something sweet to eat for dessert and don't want to eat too many calories I guess this a good option!!

See you next time!!

Travel to Gran Canaria

2009-01-06T21:57:00.016Z

Travel to Gran Canaria

My goal with this post is to give some personal insight about Gran Canaria.

Name of the Island: Gran Canaria (in english Gran Canary)

"Capital": Las Palmas

How to go?

There are lots of direct flighst from almost every european capital's country.
When I decided to go there for the holidays I went to a travel agency. For this type of destinations holiday packages are the best and the cheapest. I went there in September and got a promotional package for 700EUR (plane, and accommodation in a 4* hotel ofr one week)

What to know?

Language: Spanish, but English is widely understood in areas frequented by tourists.

Currency: EUR.
Weather: Gran Canaria's average daytime high's range from 20 celsius in winter, to 26 celsius in summer

Electricity: The current used in Gran Canaria and throughout the Canary Islands is 220 Volts AC 50Hz and plugs have two round pins as found on the European continent.

Time: Local time is GMT +1 (GMT +2 between the last Sunday in March and the Saturday before the last Sunday in October). The Canary Islands: GMT (GMT +1 in summer).

Health: There are no health risks associated with travel to Spain, and no vaccination certificates are required for entry.
Communications: The international access code for Spain is +34.

Where did I stayed ?
Gran Canaria Princess Hotel (http://www.princess-hotels.com/hotels-gran-canaria-hotel-gran-canaria-princess-4-stars.htm)

I recommend going to TripAdvisor, I already posted there and send some pictures but I'll post them here too.

What to do?

Going to the swimming pool in your hotel.
Going to the beach: beaches are not like in Palma de Mallorca, but enjoyed "ours" very much, it's called Playa del Ingles. The sand is really really thin, almost powder. The water temperature is warm, althouhg I went in September I don't think it ever gets as warm as the water temperatures in Palma de Mallorca.
Another beach, besides Playa del Ingles, is Las Maspalomas. Maspaloma is dove in english, there you can find real sand dunes like in the deserts. In the beach you can find a light house. It's a place you must visit because you can see wild species in a lake amid the sand dunes. The lake area is a protected zone, no one can go there. You have specific pathways with information about the wild animals living in that area, and you can go for a walk after luch... it's really pleasant, just don'f forget you water. And you'll see and can ride camels =) we didn't because it had alreday closed. But we sneaked in and got pictures.
Going to the "capital" Las Palmas, I think it's worth a visit.
Going to the Caldera de Bandama: a volcanic crater – 1000 m in diameter and 200 m deep – with a 569 m high peak, the Pico de Bandama.
Visiting other little villages.

It's worth doing those field trips with people from your country, to know besides the beaches a little more about the island, because it has a lot to offer. My boyfriend and I did one and we had a good time ... (with our dearest oldies =P)

Now some pictures .....

Playa del Ingles

Las Maspalomas

Caldera de Bandama

Quay in Las Palmas

Las Palmas

Where to eat?

In Las Palmas you have cafés and shopping center so you have everything.
Near the beaches there are plenty of restaurants with food good for every person of any nationality.
But my advice it to go to Gran Canaria with full pension (also known as american plan). In our hotel the food was delicious =)

What to buy?

Definitely something that has aloe vera in it, or you can actually buy the cactus it self.
Some t-shirt with a lizard on it, I bought one, in my field trip really nice.
Pins and magnets (... I collect them)
Cheese too, they have good cheese. (you can buy it at the airport, there's a big shop there and actually is a good place, not very expensive)
And almonds coverd in chocolate and caramel .... hummm.... so good.

I guess this is it.... see you next time!!

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References:

http://www.spain-grancanaria.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gran_Canaria
http://mobile.wordtravels.com/Cities/Spain/Gran+Canaria/Basics

2009-01-03T18:38:00.004Z

Hello!!

You will see from now on portuguese recipes and others here in the blog ... among other stuff of course =P

We will begin with the recipe of Arroz Doce, a portuguese dessert with rice, a word to word translation would be Sweet Rice.

Lets begin ....

Ingredients

rice (300 gr)
sugar (200 gr)
water (enough to cover the rice)
cinnamon strips and powder
lemon (1)
butter (25 gr)
eggs (5)
milk (5-7dl)
salt (8 pinches)

Step 1
To begin, peel the lemon and use 4 strips. Get one cinnamon stick and cut about 25 gr of butter.
Put water into the pan with salt and bring it to a low boil over medium-high heat. Add the cinnamon stick, the lemon strips and the butter.

Step 2
For the 5 eggs, separate the egg yolk from the egg white, the whites will not be used (sometimes I use it to put in soupes, at the end, it's really good). Then add a little bit of milk and stir until it's homogeneous.

Step 3
Put cinnamon powder on the bottom of the plate because at the end you'll be busy with other things. Other important thing is to wash the rice.

Step 4
When the water starts to boil remove the cinnamon stick and the lemon strips. Add the rice and stir for 5 minutes so the rice won't stick to the bottom of the pan.

Step 5
When the rice is almost cooked and there's almost no water left in the pan, add the milk. You can add 5 dl to 7 dl of milk depending if you want it more loose and moist or not.

Step 6
When it starts to boil again you can add the sugar and mix it all very well.

Step 7
There’s only one thing left to do, and it is to add the egg yolks to the mixture. At this time you can turn off the heat. Because the rice mixture is very hot and the egg yolks cook really fast, what you should do is to add a little bit of the rice mixture to the egg yolks and mix it really quickly, you repeat this 3 or 4 times and then you add the egg yolks with a bit of the rice to the pan and stir quickly to prevent the egg yolks from cooking.

Now just let your creativity flow and create funny patterns .... decorate like you want =)

This is a traditional Portuguese dessert and you can find it in a lot of restaurants, usually it is really good in the restaurants, but there are exceptions!!

This recipe is easy and it’s delicious =)

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