Top 10 Things Husbands and Wives Want

About.com has a list of the Top 10 things Men want from their wives and vice versa. I thought that it would be fun to compare this list.


Men:
1. Believe in his capabilities
2. Understanding
3. Affirmation of his Accomplishments
4. Acceptance
5. Less Chatter
6. Affection
7. Respect
8. Free Time
9. Trust
10. To be a Companion

I'm sorry but I looked at this list and wavered between preschooler and dog. If I had to convert all 10 items into two sentences and one word it would be: "Yes, it was a very good presentation but the game just started. Can I have a kiss and we will talk about this later? Thanks."

Of course the women's list isn't much better:


Women:
1. Telling her daily that she is Loved
2. Understanding and Forgiveness
3. Conversation
4. Willingness to make time for her and your children
5. Saying 'yes' more than saying 'no'
6. Listening well
7. Affection and Kindness
8. Sharing Household and Child Rearing Responsibilites
9. A Day Off Now and Then
10. Commitement to Take Care of Yourself Both Physically and Emotionally

First of all, reading this kind of makes me feel like my husband's bitch. Say yes more than no? Why does he get the deciding word? And forgiveness for what? About.com explained #2 like this:

There will be days when your wife will make mistakes or when she will be difficult to be around. No one is perfect. She both wants and deserves your willingness to understand and forgive her. Remember that no relationship can be sustained without forgiveness.


What? I'm sorry but we're counting mistakes now? Oh shoot, the dishes have spots. Mommy has to go sit in time out. Daddy won't you please forgive her. Yeah, I don't think so. I'll take the understanding part but not forgiveness because if I am being difficult to be around something tells me that you may have a part in that (minus give or take 6 days out of the month or when I'm on the pill.)

Here is my list for Mr. Rant:

1. For you to go back in time and remember your "moves" and use them on me again. I obviously thought they were hot. Of course you still are hot but didn't you do things that made me turn on in a second or was I just easy? On second thought don't answer that.
2. To come home early and declare that you are making us dinner. FYI, it needs to be something both the kids and I will eat and that does not require a trip to the store.
3. For him to chat with me in bed before we go to sleep. I heart pillow talk. It is a Mr. Rant pet peeve as it is time to sleep and if we were going to talk it should have been before we went to bed. Things pop into my head when I lay down and I like to chat about them. See the issue.
4. To be told I'm gorgeous, sexy, and awesome. Ok, he told me I was gorgeous the other day, kind of as a joke, but it totally still counted.  Hey Mr. Rant, would love it if you did it again!
5. For him to bring up a cute, funny, or random memory from our past. It's cool to hear our history from your point of view.

Ok, I can only come up with 5. I have it pretty damn good. But if I had to make up 5 for Mr. Rant they would be:

1. To Insist on Sex Constantly. For some reason after a long stretch of marriage men get a bit lazy to put on the real moves. I'm sure that he would be stoked if I just stripped down and asked "would you please take me?"
2. Took Up Cooking as a Hobby: Mr. Rant likes to eat and although I am doing pretty damn well in the cooking department I still can't even hold up a burnt piece of newspaper up to his mother, much less a candle.
3. Anal-retentive Cleanliness: Mr. Rant is so very Carioca in that nothing from outside should ever enter inside. In his ideal world we would change out of "street clothes" before even sitting on the couch. I like to run around Rio de Janeiro in flip flops and thus am constantly filing my feet to get the soot off. I drive him insane this way.
4. Be into Botafogo: Mr. Rant is mellow in that he wouldn't demand that I watch all soccer games with him but I know that he would love me to sit and watch Botafogo games. I used to watch in that early part of our relationship. Of course I used to just nap on his chest...
5. Take on more of the Bureaucratic responsibilitiess of the household. I like to blame being a foreigner and not speaking perfect Portuguese but we both know it's pure laziness. Dude, it's just a bitch to fumble your way through that muck of government. He knows his way through. It's so much easier for him. Of course that whole having a full-time job thing sometimes makes it difficult to wait an hour for a piece of paperwork. We all have our crosses to bear.

What do you want from your partner? Do you agree with the about.com lists?

How to Make Your Own Bagels!

One thing has always bothered me since I moved to Rio de Janeiro, the lack of bagels. I'm not even talking about good bagels. I'm saying any bagel! Hell, I'd even pay inflated prices for Lender's bagels at this point.

I decided to finally take matters into my own hands! If being an expat has taught me anything, it has taught me to take practical and planned out chances. Oxymoron, I know, but when you live in Rio de Janeiro you plan your madness.

I used this recipe from the Food Network. It was my second attempt and the best so far. But you be the judge of that.  The top photo is of my batch! By the way, they are tastier than they look!

I'm now on a bagel making mission. I plan to master the art of the plain bagel and then move into my favorite, the sun dried tomato bagel! Do not be intimidated by all the random steps. It's actually quite pleasant to boil bagels. Who knew? And the dough is lovely to kneed. I found the entire process quite domestically liberating.

Do note though that I had to use double the suggested yeast here in Brazil.

 boiling

 baking

Eating

A Typical Lunch in Rio de Janeiro

Todays lunch of rice, homemade black beans, farofa, broccoli, and chicken hearts

I have to say, it took me awhile to get used to the eating rhythm in Brazil. The big lunch and the lighter evening lanche (snack) was weird for a while.  I wasn't used to being so full in the afternoon.

Of course, there is something you should know about me. If there is food in front of me, I will eat it. Some call this compulsive eating, I like to call it not offending the food. If you were food, wouldn't you want to be eaten?

A part of me felt like I was experiencing that fabulous Saturday lunch every day. Actually I was! Rice, beans, some kind of protein, a vegetable or two, a bit of farofa, and maybe a salad. It's a smorgasbord!

Of course, my feelings for it had to adjust once again when I became responsible for cooking all the stuff. We are talking time and planning. I'm not necessarily good at either one of these qualities, especially in the kitchen. But what can I say, I'm a chameleon when I have no choice and I have now adjusted.

And my boys are total Brazilians. Every day we eat some kind of full meal for lunch (unless I'm feeling lazy but you'll never hear about it because I'll practically be stoned by the family).

I tell you this, you sleep better on a lighter stomach. Plus you are less snacky in the afternoon. All and all, I think the Brazilians hit the nail on the head when it comes to this custom. Hell, if I ever get to nap again after lunch, I'll be in pure Brazilian heaven!

My youngest chowing on chicken hearts. FYI: before you think 'wow, your kids eat so well' know this: My 2 yr old only ate the farofa, a smidgen of rice and beans, and chicken hearts. My 4 yr old only ate rice, beans, and farofa. The broccoli was totally avoided at all costs!


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Recipe: Stuffed Pumpkin!

Not only did I get a WONDERFUL long weekend away with friends this Easter, I also got a great new recipe! Stuffed pumpkin!

My friend, and fellow blogger, broke down how you make this tasty (and very pretty) dish.

For starters you need a pumpkin. Since I baked the above pumpkin for just me and Mr. Rant, I purchased a half a pumpkin. Over Easter my friend bought a full pumpkin and cut it in half to create two to stuff.

So put your pumpkin half(s) upside down on a baking sheet. No need to take out seeds or anything. It's easier after baking.

Leave pumpkin on low heat (about 180 degrees C) for upwards of an hour. Be careful not to burn it or to take it out too early. If taken out to early the pumpkin meat is kind of hard.

That leaves the filling. I like to think of this as a junk pumpkin. You can fill the bad boy up with anything you like! In the above pumpkin I used a yummy combo of leftovers.

It has: Bacon, spinach, ricotta, pesto sauce, capers, 7 grain rice mix, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

When you make your filling, pre-cook whatever needs to be cooked. I fried up my bacon pieces then mixed in my spinach to cook it. I then added the pesto sauce and capers and let that simmer. I mixed in the olive oil and ricotta with salt and pepper. At the very end I added in my already cooked grain mixture.

Mix the filling well.   Once the pumpkin is done in the oven, carefully pull it out and scoop out the seeds. Put your mixture into the center of the pumpkin and pop back into the oven for another 5 minutes or so.

Take out, put on a plate like the above picture, and serve!

Yummy, pretty, and you look like freaking Martha Stewart! 

Pancake Tuesday

Photo by: http://www.blondeshotcreativeblog.com/2009_11_01_archive.html

My boys woke up this morning and requested pancakes. That would normally be a total pain-in-the-ass request at 630am but I found it endearing. It's an American food! My boys requested something American!

I'm a sucker and am fulfilling their request for homemade pancakes. I can't help it, it's a good breakfast and it's a piece of my childhood. As much as I love their little lives here, I do like them having a bit of a taste of what I knew and loved as a kid.

And you know what, that is coming in the form of little circles of goodness. Of course my pancakes are homemade and contain grains and a vegetable. My childhood pancake came in a box and was smothered in syrup and powdered sugar.

Mmmmmmmm Maple syrup and Powdered sugar...

Anyway, you can find my recipe here: mmmm pancake recipe

I've since started adding oatmeal and ground flax seeds. Not too much and not too little.

Add a little juice and you have a good start to your day.