About


rainydayrochellevintageOlá! Welcome to my Acquired Life, a blog about food, photos and my life in Portugal. 

My name is Rochelle (pronounced Raquel) and I am the cook/baker/writer/photographer for this blog. I started Acquired Life back in July of 2009 under the name of Acquired Taste, but as of  April 2011 have changed it to include more of my life than just food. I wanted to be able to share not just recipes with my family and friends back in America but photos and musings of my new life abroad with my Portuguese husband and Canadian-Portuguese son.

There are still food and recipes here but now there is more. More food, more photos, more life. I have an acquired life that's not for everyone, but I'm more than willing to give you a glimpse of what it's like.

Thank you for stopping by!



More About Me

I live in Portugal but I'm originally from Portland, Oregon. I've lived in three states and three countries in my nearly thirty-something years of life. I have a decent sized family with a huge extended family, I'm the baby of my siblings and of all my cousins.

A Taste of LisbonI love animals. I'm owned by a cat (Phoebe), two love birds (Romeo and Juliet), six chickens, three harlequin quail, dwarf bunny (Bunny), guinea pig (cauliflower), hedgehog (Mr. Bombastic), a pygmy goat (Amélie), and a sheep (Eva).

June 2nd we added a little runt pup named Anouk to our family too!

We (really me) have been adopted by a stray kitty or two. Someone (me) felt bad and fed them. The fluffy (Fluffalapogus) one is now my little buddy.

I have too many interests to count and I often go on weird obsessive streaks over certain things, but my love for photography and food are constant. 

I dislike the color pink but am a fan of "dusky rose". My favorite colors are green and purple.

Did I really need to "bold' "italic" and "underline" how my name is pronounced? Yes. I bet if you met me you'd still pronounce my name wrong. It's okay I'm used to it by now.

The first meal I ever made was a pickle sandwich at the age of 6 or 7. My mom said it was delicious. It was disgusting and I made her throw it out after I tasted it. The next thing I made was french toast. It was awesome and I still use the recipe 'till this day.

I enjoy using round brackets to talk off topic or as a way to add my two cents...  (Like this. I also like to use the ellipsis mark ...)

Music has been a part of my life since as far back as I can remember and I played the flute in middle school. I do not like country music, most jazz, or rap/r&b/pop, but everything else is pretty much fair game. I have a tendency to listen to the same song over and over again until I almost don't hear it anymore.

I've always wanted to own a bookstore, but never will. I've also wanted to own an Internet cafe, but never will.  I was in the process of getting a home bakery going, but probably (more likely than not) never will. Maybe a book should be my next idea??

I like art of any kind and find the beauty in nearly everything even if most would find it ugly.

I'm very shy, but I'm trying to work on that.


More about the Blog


Roasted Tomato and Garlic with Oregano FlowersThe food, who cooks it? I do! I also eat it... usually.

Who does the photography? Unless otherwise stated, all photos are mine. I took, styled and edited them.


What kind of  camera do you use? Up until April 2011 I used a Canon PowerShot A1000 for all of my photos. Then I used a Canon Rebel XS (EOS 1000D) until April 2013. I'm now on an Canon EOS 1100D. I also have two film cameras a Canon Rebel K2 and a Nikkormat FTN.

How long have you been doing photography? Any tips? I've been doing photography for about 15 years. I took 4 years of it in high school and then a semester in at a community college. I've never done photography as a profession (though I would like to), but have included it in my daily life as a very serious hobby.

canon cameraThe cheapest tip I can give you is to use natural light and don't use an on camera flash. The other is, practice practice practice. I hope one day I will have time to go into detail and write out a post dedicated to this subject.

The design. Who did it? Why thank you for noticing! I just recently changed the design with the help of a template done by Iksandi.com,  which I tweaked a bit. I did the header graphic (that includes my fabulous Galo de Barcelos Rooster).

Will you review/giveaway my product? I appreciate that you thought of me, but I don't do product giveaways/reviews. I've done two reviews in the past and though I enjoy both products, I just feel weird about doing product reviews.

Do you do restaurant/location reviews? Yes, but only if it's because I went there and I chose to do it. I don't do sponsored reviews. I will, however, take suggestions!

Comments, do you like 'em? Yes!! If you don't see your comment, there are three reasons reasons; either I never got it, it looked like spam, or it was inappropriate. If you have problems commenting, please contact me (info below) and I'll see what I can do to fix it.

Can I use your photos/writing? Everything on this blog and my flickr account are under copywrite to me. If you'd like to use anything, just please ask.

Can I sponsor you? Yes! But I do have some conditions. Lets talk!

Where else can I find your work? Glad you asked! Currently, I write for Honey & Nonno, Food Loves Beer Magazine and contribute to Honest Cooking. I'm also the former English blog editor and writer for the online food community, Made in Kitchen. My photo for queijadas de Sintra was featured over at Eat Portugal, and I have been caught out in the Lisbon area photographing delicious food at Peixe em Lisboa (2012-2013).

I'm currently in the Santarém region of Portugal wandering around looking tourista-esque with my camera.


Contact

Want to suggest something? Have a question? Didn't get enough of my ramblings?
Looking for a freelance writer, photographer, recipe developer, baker/cook? Then lets talk!


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Or just e-mail me at acquiredlife{at}gmail{dot}com
 

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