So what does the World Cup have to do with improving the health of your family?
In my house, everything! When you have 5 boys in your home, we don’t talk about dolls, dresses and tea parties. To really connect with my boys, I need to connect at their level. It usually means talk of some sporting activity. This evening, table time conversation quickly arose to soccer and some fun facts around sports trivia.
My boys shared with me that the read an article that following the Germany and Brazil game on Tuesday that ESPN did a calcuated comparison to other sports for what the 7 goals Germany scored meant. Here’s what ESPN figured out:
NHL is the equivalent of 14 Goals MLB is equivalent of 22 Runs NFL is equivalent of 236 Points NBA is equivalent if 438 Points
Now most of these numbers have never been scored in one of these games, but regardless, it turned into some interesting fun times.
So in order to get ready for the FINAL world cup game, here is a fun recipe for making Pão de Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Bread)
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups (10 ounces) tapioca flour or sour cassava flour
- 2 eggs 1 –
- 1 1/2 cups Parmesan cheese
Instructions Preheat the oven to 450°F. Line a baking pan with parchment and set aside.
- Boil the Milk and Oil: Combine the milk, oil, and salt in the saucepan, and whisking occasionally, bring it to a gentle boil over medium heat. Remove from heat as soon as you see big bubbles coming through the milk.
- Add the Tapioca Flour: Add all of the tapioca flour to the saucepan and stir until you see no more dry tapioca flour. The dough will be grainy and gelatinous at this point.
- Cool the Dough: Transfer the dough to the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. (Alternatively, you can do the next few steps by hand. Be prepared for a work-out.) Beat the dough for a few minutes at medium speed until it smooths out and has cooled enough that you can hold your finger against the dough for several seconds.
- Beat in the Eggs: Whisk the eggs together in a small bowl. With the mixer on medium, beat the eggs into the dough in two additions. Wait until the first addition has been fully incorporated into the dough before adding the second. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Beat in the Cheese: With the mixer on medium, beat in the cheese until fully incorporated. The resulting dough will be very sticky, stretchy, and soft with a consistency between cake batter and cookie dough.
- Portion the Puffs: Using an ice cream scoop, a tablespoon measure, or a dinner spoon, scoop rounded portions of the dough into mounds on the parchment-lined baking sheet. Space the mounds an inch or two apart. Dip your scoop in water to prevent sticking.
- Bake the Puffs: Transfer the sheet with the puffs to the oven and immediately turn down the heat to 350°F. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the puffs have puffed, the outsides are dry, and they are just starting to color. Cool briefly and eat. Leftover puffs can be kept in an airtight container for up to a week and re-crisped in a warm oven or toaster oven.
