:lol: I know. But wanting to try feijoada is actually the reason for this most recent attempt at learning how to cook. I really want to try it. :tongue_smilie: Good idea.... off to stalk youtube. :D

I did know to chop them up.... but of course, they are already chopped up in the canned version. :D I bought some beef stew seasoning, carrots, stew meat, and potatoes. I figured I'd start really simple. Next weekend I'm going to try and make feijoada- this should be a significant disaster!! :tongue_smilie:

Why would you want anything but NPR?? Okay,okay. I do NPR, BBC, and a few French newspapers (more for language than content at this point.) But I love me some NPR. My nighttime ritual is checking the NPR app on my phone and reading all the new articles. :D (And I think I'll check out some of the sources suggested in this thread, so thank you everyone!)

Wow. Thanks. I... didn't realize this! :tongue_smilie:The ingredients list just says "Add fresh vegetables as desired: potatoes, carrots, celery, etc." I'da never thought to PEEL the carrots!! haha.

Thanks! My fridge only has one big drawer at the bottom, but with the little sliding humidity thing... would I show my ignorance if I admitted to keeping water bottles in there?:tongue_smilie: That cookbook looks great!! :D I'm trying to make up for the fact that I never learned how to cook while I was younger (and didn't get an appreciation for many foods either)... but it's hard. I've looked at recipes that will tell me to do some crazy feat that I have to look up. Then I just get intimidated and quit. I'm never giving up my hamburger helper.... but hopefully I can balance it out some! :lol:

Thanks! :D You guys are awesome. Much more straightforward than Google, which gave me 20 different ways to store my carrots.

I'm an October-January girl myself. No one ever wants to ride with me during those months.... :tongue_smilie:

No green tops. Should I leave them in the (plastic)bag I put them in or take them out?

This is kind of the mind-set I've been in... DDs father has made comments to people we know mutually about "never having kids" because he enjoys his freedom, etc.etc. :001_huh: Uhm.... really? Because.... she's 5. (And yes, these comments are recent) I do hope things work out for your DD. It's sad that she is being denied a relationship with her siblings.

I wouldn't know what to do with a cellar, except maybe store wine in it! (Except, I don't drink wine- but a wine cellar sounds so... hoity-toity. :))

No real advice, just :grouphug:, especially for your daughter. This is a situation I fear we will be in someday, since DD's father and his mother are the only two members of their family that DON'T acknowledge DD as part of the family.

:lol: Yes, yes you can. I can admit that we didn't eat very well growing up, all of our vegetables came from a can!! I've recently switched to frozen vegetables instead of canned, and thought that home-made beef stew would be healthier than in a can. This should be interesting..... :tongue_smilie: Right. That's probably why it's called a vegetable drawer... huh? :lol: I honestly didn't even think about that!

Sort of. I probably listen to country music the most, but I listen to a HUGE variety of stuff. DD and I both love music and almost constantly have music on. I listen to music for the lyrics, I like stuff I can relate too. DD listens for the beat, she likes stuff she can dance too. Anyone else see a problem here? :lol: (My top 3 though would be: country, Spanish/French/Portuguese artists of all genres, and top 40-pop)

I bought carrots (from the vegetable department- not frozen/refrigerated ones) tonight while at the store. I'm going to (uhm... attempt... :tongue_smilie:) to make beef stew sometime between tomorrow and Tuesday. Well... how do I store these things? Do they go in the fridge? Or on the counter? Or.... some other option? :D

My summer reading list is currently being formed. It's mostly non-fiction, on Brazilian social history. :tongue_smilie:I'm writing a thesis next year and decided to get started this summer. Also lots of foreign language books for the summer, since I want to really focus on my Spanish. ETA: And I'm sure I'll get some fluff reading done also, just don't need a list or plan for that! I am planning on re-reading all the Harry Potters though.

Very interesting poll! I'm an omnivore and.... something else. :lol: Not really sure what that is. FWIW, I'm currently registered as a Republican, but only because I haven't had a reason to change it. I'm split on the issues... don't really fit in any political camp.

This. I tell DD that I'm going to beat her up quite often.... her response is to laugh hysterically, and tell me she's going to beat me up. We do a lot of "rough housing", and this is just sort of an extension of that. I've also joked about leaving her behind before.... and admittedly gotten dirty looks. :tongue_smilie: DD knows that I'd never leave her, (or beat her up!!), and finds stuff like that funny.

I'm not married, but I can answer that it would bother me greatly. I'm weird about food. Particularly food that keeps it's shape (so drinks, soft ice cream, soups, etc. are *mostly* exempt from the following statements, although there are a few that fall into this category :D) I eat my food in a very particular way. Burgers have small bites taken all the way around so that the burger is almost always round, ice cream with hard coating is eaten coating first, reese cups eaten one specific way, my whole grain cheerios are eaten one color at a time..... :tongue_smilie:The food just doesn't taste the same once it has been ruined. Oh, and I have to take the first bite. (But if it happens to be a food that I don't eat in any purposeful manner: I'll share with whoever.)

Well. The place I'd most like to live right now isn't a state. :D That would be Brazil. If I *had* to choose a state.... Texas, but only because that is where the graduate school I hope to attend is. Climate-wise, I'd rather live closer to.... Alaska! :tongue_smilie: For retirement... well. I haven't even started my career yet, much less begun to think of retiring! :lol:

My entire personal library is made up of the books I collect! We live in a small apartment, and I can only afford space for the "critical" books. :D Foreign language books (children's, adult, fiction, nonfiction, dictionaries, etc.) in French, Spanish, and Portuguese. I can't really read most of them (yet... :D) but can get through a children's book in all three languages, and YA-type books in French. :lol: Books about South America - particularly non-fiction and important fictional works. Any books about Brazil/written by Brazilian authors. (Yes, this is a separate category. The South American books I try to limit to those which may come in use throughout school - not so picky about Brazilian books.) GLBT nonfiction/important literature. The "Great Books"... all the classics that I'd like DD to read as she grows up. Books on 19th and 20th century wars, especially WWII. Books on writing. (Think "On Writing Well", "The Elements of Style", etc.) and for lighter-reading, I also have all of Patricia Cornwell's books, the Harry Potter collection, and Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series (of course those books, along with many, many more, are in storage... :glare:)

:iagree: I love ethnic names, but I do think that a family who has made a home in the United States should at least make sure the child's name is "acceptable" in English. The same way (most...) English-speaking parents do. Nothing that sounds like a curse word, a derogative word, a word with negative connotations, etc.

I don't change for the season. I stay pretty pale all year, so no need to change foundation. On a daily basis I wear foundation (the mineral stuff), eyeliner, eye shadow (okay, just a splash of color...) mascara, chapstick and lipgloss. I'd really like to do more with my makeup but I guess I haven't figured out what colors go best for me. Everytime I buy new (eyeshadow, lipstick, lip gloss..) I end up hating it.. :tongue_smilie:

(crosspost from bilingual board) Has anyone here used a language tutor? How did it work out? I've been working with DD for awhile now on French, and we will be starting Spanish soon (at her insistence...I was planning on waiting a little longer!) Next semester (Sept-Dec) I'll have classes 4 days a week and DD will be with a babysitter. 3/4 of those days are 3-4 hours or less that I'll be gone. I was considering hiring a French speaker and Spanish speaker each for a day. (We are, obviously, near a college campus with both French and Spanish major/minors, as well as a strong education program, I'm fairly sure I can find future teachers with at least a minor in each language). These would each be to supplement what we are already doing... but what exactly could they do with DD? She isn't fluent, and I think she would get very frustrated if they only spoke in the target language. I was thinking that they could read books with her, play games, do other activities supplementing our lessons/past learning.... Are there downsides to this that I'm missing? As I said, this would just be as supplement to what we are already doing (and language is the one thing we do fairly consistently... :tongue_smilie:) so I'm not expecting a once a week lesson to translate to any sort of fluency. Any suggestions on what they could do with DD?

(crossposting this with the main board also.) Has anyone here used a language tutor? How did it work out? I've been working with DD for awhile now on French, and we will be starting Spanish soon (at her insistence...I was planning on waiting a little longer!) Next semester (Sept-Dec) I'll have classes 4 days a week and DD will be with a babysitter. 3/4 of those days are 3-4 hours or less that I'll be gone. I was considering hiring a French speaker and Spanish speaker each for a day. (We are, obviously, near a college campus with both French and Spanish major/minors, as well as a strong education program, I'm fairly sure I can find future teachers with at least a minor in each language). These would each be to supplement what we are already doing... but what exactly could they do with DD? She isn't fluent, and I think she would get very frustrated if they only spoke in the target language. I was thinking that they could read books with her, play games, do other activities supplementing our lessons/past learning.... Are there downsides to this that I'm missing? As I said, this would just be as supplement to what we are already doing (and language is the one thing we do fairly consistently... :tongue_smilie:) so I'm not expecting a once a week lesson to translate to any sort of fluency. Any suggestions on what they could do with DD?

DD has expressed a number of times that she wanted to go to school. Last time I told her that she'd have to get up very early, be gone from me all day, and that they don't learn French in public school. She said "NO FRENCH? WHAT? Nevermind." :D