In honor of the two-week countdown to our Brazilian junket (can I get a woot-woot?) I decided to post a recap of our last Füdism, a monthly foodie gathering where we throw down the food-geek gauntlet with a group of friends. In January the theme was Brazilian food, and as usual everyone brought their A-game.

"just" a potato salad

feijoada!

Our contribution, besides hosting, was two dishes: codfish balls, and pork empanadas. Om-nom-nom, if I do say so myself.

codfish balls... easy to make and fun to say!

balls in the oven

mmmm, crispy balls!

Mark chops the meat

empanada filling

empanada-rific

Part of the fun of these events is poring over cookbooks and internet recipes for just the right dish. It's even better to get an authentic recipe from an expat friend.

arrumadinho

authentic recipe, quaintly quoted straight from the source

These photos capture only about half of the total feast, but at some point I stopped snapping and started chowing down. The caipirinhas flowed, the gorgeous dishes kept coming, and we had plenty of meaty goodness.

no Brazilian meal would be complete without a big hunk of meat

I'm a bit chagrined to note that I focused solely on the "food porn" shots, and neglected to take a single picture of the delightful people who not only prepped these dishes but also made the gathering extra-festive. My bad! Brazilians are legendary for their hospitality... I think this group of gringos made a good run at it. Saúde, fudistas!

Be sure to check out Wanderlust & Lipstick's WanderFood Wednesday for more mouth-watering travel foodie posts.

RELATED LINKS:
* We're going to Rio!
* browse all WanderFood Wednesday posts

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Three cheers for Rooting DC! This year marks the fifth annual gathering to celebrate urban gardening in all its many colors and flavors. Whether you want to learn to compost, cook healthier, organize a community garden, or influence local food policy, this is one event not to miss. And it's free!

I've attended for several years running, and I love how this event gets me energized for the gardening season ahead. Attendees comprise a wonderful mix of gardeners, foodies, community organizers, and most importantly low-income residents for whom this event was created.

The goals of the Rooting DC Forum are to:

* Build community among groups and individuals who want to improve our city through gardening and greening
* Share information and resources about gardening and greening in DC
* Provide opportunity for DC gardeners to coalesce around specific areas of interest
* Identify volunteer opportunities by creating a database of community based garden projects
* Keep gardeners connected via monthly e-newsletters that highlight volunteer opportunities, events and news from participants
 

oktapodi loves urban (and suburban) gardening

I'm slightly bummed that I'll be missing Rooting DC this year because we'll be in Brazil -- I know, I know, don't cry for me -- but I encourage all my DC garden peeps to check it out. Online registration opens January 30.

While Rooting DC remains free and open to the public, tax-deductible donations of any amount are greatly appreciated. To further support the cause, there's a silent auction & happy hour next Thursday, Feb 2, at Looking Glass Lounge. I'll be there, raising a toast to my West Coast nephew Jack, who turns two that day. I'd love to see you there!

OK, so let's summarize. Here's how you can get involved to support this great cause:

1. Come to happy hour on Thursday, Feb 2
Looking Glass Lounge
3634 Georgia Ave NW, WDC 20010
5-8pm
RSVP on Facebook

2. Spread the word!
- Like Rooting DC on Facebook
- Follow Rooting DC on Twitter (also watch the hashtag #RootingDC)
- Download and share the event flyer

3. Come to Rooting DC on Saturday, Feb 18
Coolidge High School
6315 5th Street, NW, WDC 20012
9:30am - 4pm
Online registration & more info: http://rootingdc.org

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I'm a big fan of salad, but when the weather gets blustery, nothing beats a big bowl of homecooked soup. To get back into the WanderFood Wednesday groove, here's a quick homage to a recent masterpiece: minestrone!

According to The Kitchen Project, "minestrone means 'Big Soup' to Italians and means a soup with lots of goodies in it." For me, it's all about the beans. Traditional minestrone usually calls for cannellini or great northern beans, but I happened to have a delightful melange of dried beans on hand from last year's garden.

Jacob's Cattle, Cherokee Cornfield, Black Turtle, and "Big Red Ripper" cowpeas

I was a little sad that these beans mostly reverted to a standard brown color when cooked, but it was fun to see them all mixed together in the pot. One love!

The final product was an adhoc mix of whatever veggies we happened to have around, elbow pasta, plus some beef stock and a dash of tomato juice just to give it some extra oomph. The crowning glory was a cube of frozen pesto, made last year at the height of summer basil production. As the pesto cube melts into the hot soup, it provides just the right splash of garden-fresh flavor.

ahhhhhhh

Snuggle up by the fire with a bowl of this homecooked goodness, and all the world's cares melt away in a haze of basil and garlic. Soup IS good food!

Be sure to check out Wanderlust & Lipstick's WanderFood Wednesday for more mouth-watering travel foodie posts.

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best cookie cutter ever, courtesy of my sister in Alaska

Hope your holidays are merry & bright! Or at least covered in frosting. And here's to a stellar 2012... it is the Year of Awesomeness, after all. Cheers!

time to make the ducks

For our combined Zamborsky Thanksmas this year, we didn't do a full Slovak Christmas Eve meal. However, we did tweeze out a favorite tradition: the making of the ducks!

a serious business (not)

even Jack gets into the act

Without Grandmom Gallo around to award a shiny nickel to the best duck, we were reduced to our own catty judgments, and maybe even a little trash-talking. The wine flows, the kitchen steams up, and the gloves come off. It's all part of the ritual.

the making of the ducks is followed by the judging of the ducks

some ducks are just winners

I didn't get any pictures of the finished product, which have been brushed with egg and baked to a nice golden brown. They got gobbled up with the Thanksgiving meal. Because, at this time of year, you can never have too many carbs.

the Boogerduck stands alone

Hop on over to Wanderlust & Lipstick's WanderFood Wednesday for more mouth-watering travel foodie posts.

RELATED LINKS:
* I'm Dreaming of a Slovak Christmas
* browse all WanderFood Wednesday posts

November is a dreary time in the garden, at least here on the East Coast. And Nov 21 in particular is one of the toughest days of the year for me. But just when I feel like giving up and burrowing in for the winter, Mother Nature pulls out a few surprises. Here are a few random happy things I found yesterday:

kale, glorious kale!

I have no idea what this is, but it's been growing all year and decided to flower yesterday.

strawflowers, still going strong

pass the peas! we might actually get a few before winter

Thanks, Ma!

It's been in the works for over a decade.

For Mark's 30th birthday, I took him to Mardi Gras to celebrate. Unbeknownst to me, he's been scheming ever since about how to top that for my 40th. (This kind of competition is what I call a win-win!) And for my birthday this year, he announced that we're going to Rio de Janeiro for Carnival. Woot!

In 2012, Carnival starts on February 18... closer to Mark's birthday than mine, but who's complaining? We have our flights booked, but not our accommodations, so that's definitely the next order of business. We'll be there for about 10 days, so we probably won't have time to see much outside the city. But recommendations for daytrips and things to do in Rio are welcome. Should we get tickets for the Sambodromo? What about the balls? What are some other (and perhaps less-obvious) ways to experience Carnival? Let the crowdsourcing begin!

In the meantime, we'll be practicing our Portuguese and maybe even learning to samba. Should be an epic adventure.

And if anyone has any ideas for how I'm possibly going to trump this for Mark's 50th birthday, lemme know!

all images courtesy RCS Travel & Tourism

This time last year we were in Aruba, chilling out at the Renaissance's private beach and enjoying some fabulous diving and not doing much else. One side of the beach sported some massive iguanas, the other had a flock of flamingoes. I don't think I'd ever seen one this up close before... they're kinda surreal.

RELATED LINKS:
* browse all posts from Aruba
* check out other great travel snaps at Delicious Baby's Photo Friday 

Does it feed your soul? Go within before you go without. We don't know how long the economy will be down, and in the meantime we need to live our lives!

Sure, last Tuesday's Meet, Plan, Go! in DC dealt with nuts & bolts issues like insurance, airfare, and finances. But in between the logistics a steady theme emerged. Travel is more than getting from Point A to Point B. It nourishes something deep inside.

For the second year, I had the privilege of assembling a kickass panel to tell their stories and answer questions about long-term travel. In the audience of about 80 people were nurses and lawyers, project managers and artists, techies and cops, past and present and future careerbreakers, all bitten by the travel bug and yearning to see more of the world.

After a little informal mixing and mingling, and an opening video featuring interviews with many MPG hosts from across North America, our panel of experts turned up the star power:

>> Moderator Alexis Grant backpacked thru Africa in 2008, recently left her journalism job and has just published an e-guide called How to Take a Career Break to Travel. In addition to contributing her own travel tips, she kept the program flowing smoothly and guided the panelists through a wealth of topics.

>> Nancy Bearg, co-author of Reboot Your Life and former National Security Advisor to vice presidents, regaled us with some eye-opening stats about how just burnt out the American workforce is. Did you know we're leaving $21 billion in vacation time on the table annually? Sheesh. Nancy gave us some great tips on how to make your travel work for your career. In 20 years, more than half the jobs out there will be things we don't even know the name of today. Create your own niche to come back to!

>> Kim Palmer, author of Generation Earn, tackled the big issue of money. Before you can figure out how much you need to save for your trip, you need to determine your dream/vision. Do you want to work while traveling? Relocate to another country? Just lounge around? Regardless, get your finances organized before you go, and consider launching a side business to sock away funds for your trip. Craigslist is great place to see what people are getting paid to do!

>> Kinnari Patel, corporate rat race escapee and social entrepreneur, advised us to tap into local hostel staff for information on traveler-friendly job opportunities and volunteer gigs. To find an organization to volunteer with, do your research online but ultimately go within to find a place that's a match your passions.

>> Coley Hudgins represented both the expat and family travel contingents. He's moved his family to Panama, and his youngest daughter will have dual citizenship. (How cool is that?) Kids are more flexible than you can imagine and will roll with anything. Getting your spouse on board can be another story, but as long as he/she has a willingness to get outside his/her comfort zone, you're on your way. He advised us not to  underestimate the "boots on the ground" effect of researching travel deals as well as local employment.

Here are a few of my favorite nuggets from the night, as seen around the Twitterverse:

@hungry_wil: search within before you go without.

@pulpologist: You'll come back frm #travel more creative & a risk-taker, and this makes you a more appealing employee!

@CareerBreakHQs: Amen! RT @pulpologist: Wing it! Don't overplan. You'll never have this much freedom again in your life!

@jenniferparker3: Me too! RT @cityandsand Yes. #travel RT @jenniferparker3: Is this something that your spirit needs?

@pulpologist: You will have naysayers. (They're jealous!) Ignore some, let others know how important this is to you.

@BBADWoman: You nvr know the work yr going to get abroad until your boots are on the ground! Good blog name #BootsOnTheGround

As a way to unwind after the event, Mark & I watched the classic movie Harold and Maude. If you've never seen it, or haven't seen it in some time, I highly recommend a viewing. It's not a travel flick, per se, but includes lots of timeless wisdom about finding your passion. And it has an amazing soundtrack by Cat Stevens, who reminds us:

Well, if you want to sing out, sing out
And if you want to be free, be free
'Cause there's a million things to be
You know that there are

And if you want to live high, live high
And if you want to live low, live low
'Cause there's a million ways to go
You know that there are

You can do what you want
The opportunity's on
And if you can find a new way
You can do it today
You can make it all true
And you can make it undo
You see
It's easy
You only need to know

In addition to fueling the passions of future careerbreakers, our DC event raised funds for the Joan Zamborsky Memorial Trust Fund, which provides supplies and enables scientific exploration for an alternative high school in Pennsylvania. Way to go, travelistas!

Many thanks to:
* my kickass panelists, for their energy before and during the event
* DC Travel Tweetup ambassadors Jennifer P, Jennifer L, Kelly, Claudia, and Kim, for helping to spread the word, for mixing and mingling, and for tweeting up a storm
* Lisa & Russ, for rockin' the reg table and icebreakers
* Mark, best.soundguy.ever
* Kelsey, fabulous photog
* Recessions Lounge, for donating the space
* Hosteling International volunteer Bob, for representing HI
* our kickass national sponsors: Intrepid Travel, Hosteling International, and GoMio

Recaps from just a few of the 16 other events:
* Austin
* Minneapolis
* Boston
* Toronto
* San Francisco
* Scenes from Meet, Plan, Go!

To see more photos and get involved in our monthly meetups, check out the DC MPG Facebook page. Oh, and check it out, we made the WaPo!

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The Perhentian Islands are renowned for being the most beautiful Islands in Malaysia and this title is warranted. The coral sand beaches are lined by palm trees on one side and fringing coral reefs on the other. If Robinson Crusoe was to be filmed they could easily use the Perhentian Islands as the set.

However below the turquoise blue waters not all is good. The coral reefs are dying fast, mainly due to the hordes of tourists which search out this tropical paradise on a daily basis. Corals grow at fastest just 15cm per year and with hundreds of tourists snorkelling and diving the coral reefs daily the breakage of coral is a big issue.

The same goes for the sea turtles of Perhentian. The beaches of the Perhentians are nesting grounds for two species of turtle, green and hawksbill. The number has been slowly declining since 2000. Tourists often seek out nesting turtles and if they get too close they will scare the shy creatures who will then go back into the sea without laying any eggs. If a mother gets to lay her eggs, they then have to evade being collected by poachers who consume or sell the eggs as a local delicacy.

It's not all bad news though! Reef Check Malaysia and Ecoteer both run projects in the islands and several of the resorts are protecting their own piece of paradise. Ecoteer run the community house which is open to the village children in the afternoon as a youth centre. Ecoteer international volunteers also go into the local primary school twice a week to improve the children’s English and to teach them about the environment.

The Ecoteer House is the base for Ecoteer and provides international volunteers with an opportunity to experience the village island life and to give back to the islands' environment. Reef Check runs extensive surveys to establish the health of the coral reefs in Perhentian.

One of the resorts who are doing a lot of good is Bubbles, pictured above. They run a turtle and coral conservation project aimed at protecting the nesting sea turtles and replenishing their fringing coral reef. The seas surrounding Perhentian are very easy for first time scuba divers and during the Bubbles volunteer program you can not only take your first course but the advanced and then become a qualified Reef Check surveyor.

The Perhentian Islands need you, otherwise Paradise will be lost!

You can find out more about these projects at www.ecoteerresponsibletravel.com.

Daniel Quilter has always been inspired by the words and footage of David Attenborough which has created a love and passion for helping this world. After he finished his studies in 2005 in Environmental Science Daniel went on an adventure to Borneo that changed his life. He lived and volunteered in Malaysian Borneo for eight months which culminated in him starting Ecoteer.com. Six years on and Daniel is still helping the nature and people of Malaysia.

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