How about brownies or cookies with Brazil nuts? If you can't find them in your grocery store, try a health food store.

Most tropical fruits would be appropriate, although not exclusively Brazilian.

Opening a coconut, drinking the milk, and eating the meat is fun and I doubt that most 7 year olds have done it.

Jim

Grilled alligator steak!

: )
lyra

Here is a link that might be useful: Foods of Brazil via da wiki

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately, the school is nutfree so I don't think I'll be able to bring Brazil nuts.

I found a recipe that looks very easy, and I might go with that.

Here is a link that might be useful: Beijo De Coco Da Bahia

We had a Brazilian foreign exchange student several years ago and she told me that there were two kinds of cookies in Brazil: chocolate and "not chocolate". It turns out that the "not chocolate" was coconut. This is a recipe that her mother provided, although it took some time to "translate" from their native Portuguese into English because it came from their cook. I was just sure that 4 cups of cornstarch was wrong, but it wasn't. the 2 oz. of freshly grated coconut I thought should translate into 1/4 cup but it wasn't enough according to Juliana, so I made it 1/2 cup and used 1/4 cup in the dough and rolled the cylindars of dough in the rest, making a "crust". She was impressed, LOL, but they kind of reminded me of coconut shortbread.

Sequilhos de coco
(Coconut and Cornstarch Cookies)

4 cups cornstarch
1/2 cup freshly grated coconut (divided into 2 parts)
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 egg
1 pinch salt
1 1/2 cup tub margarine

Preheat oven to 375° F. Sift together cornstarch and sugar. Add 1/4 cup coconut, salt, egg and margarine. Mix with your fingertips to form a ball. Roll dough into 2-inch cylinder and roll the cylinder in remaining 1/4 cup coconut. Cut into 1 inch slices to form cookies. Place cookies on greased cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes. Let cool completely and keep in an airtight container.

If you don't want something sweet, how about empanidas? These are basically cheese filled tarts, made with a pie crust, also compliments of Juliana's mother's cook.

Empadinhas (Cheese-filled Pies)
For the crust:

For the crust:
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup shortening (Crisco)
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cold water

For the filling:
6 cups of grated Muenster or Havarti cheese (or you can mix different cheeses)
3 cups milk
12 eggs
4 1/2 Tbsp of melted butter or tub margarine

Beat eggs well and mix all filling ingredients. Prepare dough by cutting shortening and butter into flour and salt. Add water and egg and mix until the dough "comes together".

1. Pinch off cherry-sized pieces of dough and use them to line the tartlet molds. Push the dough in with your thumb. The dough should just reach over the top of the mold.
2. Pour a spoonful of filling in each crust, 3/4 of the way up.

Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden brown.

The cheese tarts are best warm, so if you have a microwave or can take them in freshly baked it's best but my kids never hestitated to eat these at room temperature and by the panful.

Annie

When I was in Brazil it seemed all everyone ate was steak! Everyone drank Caipirinha, but you can hardly take that unless you make them without liquor.

My nephew's aunt made some fabulous turkey meal one night and fish another. Hi mom made some bean-based dishes.

Little kids sold roasted nuts on the street that were so good, but that is out.

I think the best bet is to go with something 7 year olds will eat. There's a simple dish of milk and sugar that you cook into a syrup, cool and cut into squares.

We were in Brazil in January and ate alot of meat (every kind of meat and every cut) cooked horizontal, kind of rotisserie on a skewer, it was their BBQ and very good. They always had lots of salads and black beans and rice and always empanadas, meat empanadas. I enjoyed the
Caipirinha's so much that I had four bottles of Cachaca shipped home.

The other thing we noticed was the Brazillians ate alot of ice cream and they really liked papaya. We had papaya cream for dessert one day and it was really good.

Maybe you could take papaya.

Uh, do you think it would be a problem to give Guahana (sp) to the kiddies? (grin) It's a popular soda, sorta like ginger ale, but it's got caffine in it. Personally, my 7 yr old is hyper enough.

No help here but I'm hungry now!
Oh, a custard covered with a sweet syrup is often served by a brazilian cousin of mine, sorry no recipe but it looks a lot like the mexican flan.

here's a little candy type recipe that are kind of like a truffle. my niece's hub is brazilian and she's conquered these LOL

Brigadiers

1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 stick of butter
2 heaping tablespoons dutched cocoa powder
In a heavy-bottom pan mix the chocolate with condensed milk, when blended add the butter and cook on low, stir constantly and mixture will pull from pan. Continue stirring for another two minutes and remove from heat. Pour into a pyrex dish and let the mixture cool. butter your hands and take a pinch and roll into a ball. you can then roll the balls into chopped nuts, jimmies, cocoa powder or coconut. onto a plate and let cool completely before you form the little balls (I usually leave it in the cupboard until next day).

I just finished making 40 little brigadiers, rolled in cocoa powder. Thank you so much for your suggestions. I'm plating them with half a coconut shell and a bowl of fresh coconut cubes.

DH was happy to pull out the power tools to drill a drain hole in the coconut, and DS had a blast hammering it open.

wish i had one right about now suzy.

what did you think of the taste, suzy?

They were good! The kids snatched them right up. They were a little sweet for my liking, but I could see a single one being perfect alongside a cup of coffee.

Even the coconut was finished at the end of the fair.

DS was pretty proud because most of the other kids had pretty plain foods; pitas, naan, grapes, and such. The kids at the Kenya booth had a cornmeal "gruel" that nobody liked and I had a lot of fun joking with the parent who had made it.

Thanks for the recipe. It was simple and quick to make. One of the parents even knew what they were!

suzy, that's how they are usually served (with coffee) and i agree a little sweet, figured the kids would like them, but given how easy they are and never one left on a plate.

glad to have been of help.

maryanne