This Thursday blog is dedicated to veggies, the colors of Brazil and the history of its flag. I wish to guide you through the preparation of a easy and very delicious dish, to gather friends for a nice happy hour: salty cake with vegetables, fresh and ready for the summer time!
Ingredients:
As veggies: carrots, peas, potatoes, fennel ( you can mix or add other veggies, as you prefer) 
Use: olive oil, salt & parsley as seasoning
Add: 2 eggs, 100 gr of grated cheese, 1 roll of puff pastry, also called “pâte feuilletée”, to be found in any grocery store.
Put in a pan peas, 2 potatoes, 4 carrots, fennel, turn on the oven and start cooking the veggies with olive oil, salt and a pinch of parsley. Cover the pan and leave it to cook- but always check for the veggies not to get sticky in the pan- cook for around 20 minutes. Turn off the oven and let cool it down.
Take 2 eggs and the grated cheese and add them to the veggies. Mix everything.
Take a baking pan and roll out the puff pastry and add all the veggies dough you have just created.
Put it in the oven and leave it at 180 degrees for 40 minutes.
Tip: use a cooking brush to spread some water around the crust, to make it more golden!
As you can see from the picture, the veggies’ colors are like the Bandeira do Brasil, the Brazilian flag, officially adopted on November 19th 1889, replacing the flag of the Empire of Brazil. The concept was the work of Raimundo Teixeira Mendes (1855-1927) a Brazilian philosopher and mathematician originally from Maranhão. The green field and the yellow rhombus from the previous imperial flag were preserved- the green represented the House of Braganza of Pedro I, the first emperor of Brazil, while the yellow represented the House of the Habsburg of his wife, Empress Maria Leopoldinha. A blue circle with 27 white five-pointed stars replaced the arms of the Empire of Brazil. The stars, represent the Union’s Federated Units- each star representing a specific state, plus one for the Federal District.
The motto, Ordem e Progresso ( “Order and Progress”) is inspired by Auguste Comte’s (1798-1857, French philosopher) motto of positivism: L’Amour pour principe et l’ordre pour base: le progrès pour but (“Love as a principle and order as the basis, progress as the goal”).
Here a quote about Love from Anaïs Nin (1903-1977) a Cuban author who lived and produced novels, journals, short stories, essays and erotica between France and the United States of America.
Songs while cooking:
Dream on– Aerosmith
It takes a fool to remain sane– The Ark
Radioactive– Imagine Dragons
Electric feel- MGMT
You get what you give– New Radicals
Blue moon– Billie Holiday
Vogue– Madonna
Lady ( Hear me tonight) – Modjo
Coming up roses– Keira Knightley
Velha Infancia– Tribalistas
Congregation– Foo Fighters
It’s a love thing– The Whispers
A night to remember– Shalamar
Summertime- DJ Jazzy & The Fresh Prince
Ciao and see you next week!
@GaiaParadiso
The Lighthouse 