After visiting Fazendinha da Regina I was determined to make Portuguese green soup and pão de queijo (cheese rolls). I set a date with my boyfriend Jesse for a Sunday afternoon Brazilian feast. I’ve been known to cook themed dinners, which I think awards me the title of “Best Girlfriend Ever.”

Pão de quiejo, I am told is served at basically every Brazilian meal: cafe de manha, almoco, jantar e lanche (transl: breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack). Much of Brazilian food is influenced by Africans, including this type of bread. The recipe uses tapioca flour, since wheat flour wasn’t readily available to the Afro-Brazilian community in the 1920s. To a sure advantage, as the tapioca flour gives this bread a unique texture and makes it gluten free.

The recipe for pão de queijo that I made was from Olivia’s Cuisine, a Brazilian cooking blog. I have hyperlinked her…