New Years Resolutions? Naaah...

Yes, I know, it took me a while to wake up this year. What can I say, I'm a taurus, I start everything slower, but when I do, get out of my mf way ! :))

I don't have New Years Resolutions. Weir, ah. Why? Because I don't find them any different that normal resolutions. I have plans, a list of things I want to do, but not because it is new year, but because I want to do that shit.

In no particular order:
1. I want to dye my hair reddish. Not crazy red, but a natural tone. Something like this:

from here.

2. Made my bucket list and it is quite looong :S I will share it with you one of these days :)
3. Go to the gym to loose about 10 kg. The goal is not exactly to loose weight, cause I am not fat for my height, but to have firm muscles, which will add up with about 10 kg's less than I have now.
4. I read a saying one of these days : "sometimes you just have to be your own here and save yourself", so I need to kick off my lazy shoes and put on my hero shoes :)
...and so on.

Here are a few things worth to see and listen, hope you enjoy.

a. Loved watching Tom Ford's perfectionism in action:

Style Forum Special from Music Guy on Vimeo.

b. Emeli Sande - Heaven, just beautiful, very lyrical.

c. Nneka - Heartbeat, a powerful message.

d. Carpark North - Burn It, a bit of northern rock ;)

e. A beautiful Asian story made movie, The Promise (2005), watch it if you get the chance.

f. "The best love is the kind that awakens the soul; that makes us reach for more, that plants the fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds. That’s what I hope to give you forever." from where do you think it is? Yepp, The Notebook from 2004.

g. I ADOOOORE this necklace. Unfortunately it is already sold, but maybe I can make something similar for myself ;)

h. I find this beautiful :

Handmade Portraits: Sophie Blackall from Etsy on Vimeo.

i. A pretty blog from a Moldavian girl living in Romania called Rock & Roses. Oh these "Russian" chicks have a sense of style like no other.

j. Last, but not least, here is a perfect instruction video on "How to Cook the Perfect Steakhouse Filet" from 20 Something Cupcakes. It is quite easy and very yummy!

k. oh, oh, and not to forget, you need to watch (if you get the chance) "A Woman of Substance" and "Hold the Dream". One great story (these are two mini series) about what a determined woman can do and that there is no "can't" just "won't".

Enjoy!

"Great Food Is Like Great Sex..."

from here


Agreeeeeed :)

What I've been Loosing Precious Time With...

I've been reading Babble's "Top 50 Mom Blogs, 2010" and I was bored out of my mind...
I needed to get to place 6 to actually find a cool blog! Place 6 was Pioneer Woman who I've been admiring for a while now.
I never thought that some moms can be this boring for non-moms. The surprising part is that they seem to be interesting for other moms... yet, don't ask me why cause I'm not going to waste more precious time to figure this one out.

Here are a few cool blogs that I did find on the list:

Pioneer Woman --> pretty and a lot of good recipes!
GIRL'S GONE CHILD
--> seems down to earth
CHOOKOOLOONKS --> beautiful pictures!
parent hacks --> useful
CITYMAMA --> a bit of everything
Mighty Girl
--> a natural and honest woman, without exaggerations, just how I like it :)

Check it out! Maybe you'll have more patience to discover other "hidden treasures" on the list ;)

Did You Know Sophia Loren Wrote Two Cookbooks?

Well I didn't :)

(1998)"Sophia Loren's Recipes and Memories".


(1972)"In the Kitchen with Love".


I would loooove to get my hands on her books <3

If you have one, tell me if it worth putting the books on my Christmas wish list :D

Sophia is a real woman in every sens of the word. See some of her quotes:

"I've never tried to block out the memories of the past, even though some are painful. I don't understand people who hide from their past. Everything you live through helps to make you the person you are now."

"Sex appeal is 50% what you've got and 50% what people think you've got."

"The two big advantages I had at birth were to have been born wise and to have been born in poverty."

"Cooking is an act of love, a gift, a way of sharing with others the little secrets -- "piccoli segreti" -- that are simmering on the burners."

"A woman's dress should be like a barbed wire fence: serving its purpose without obstructing the view."

"Many people think they want things, but they don't really have the strength, the discipline. They are weak. I believe that you get what you want if you want it badly enough."

Gotta love her :)

Wanted!

Pressure cooker from here.

SSB : The Diet That Time Forgot

The other night I was doing some work while in the background the TV was on.At one point I became attentive to a very interesting documentary which I would like to share with you also.

The documentary was about "Four overweight Brits, addicted to fast food meals, take the road to Pakistan, where they are welcomed by a community of shepherds, who use the same diet for thousands of years. It remains to be seen whether the four Europeans will be able to break bad habits and learn to eat healthy and unexpectedly delicious." (source)
"The four Brits will go 'cold turkey' as they swap chicken nuggets for goat; pizzas for super lean yak; and tinned ravioli for apricot soup. It's a nutritionally balanced, optimal diet which has resulted in locals living to a ripe old age, free from obesity related diseases like diabetes, heart disease and cancer; but to our Brits - who fail to consume five fruit and veg a month, let alone a day - the diet will be tasteless, monotonous and downright unpalatable." (source)

At first this might sound a bit extreme for them, but in time they realise that food actually tastes very good and their senses just needed a "retraining" :)
Their whole life is changed by this experience. It is wonderful to see how an experience like this changes gradually the life of a person in a positive way.

If you would like to see the documentary, you can find it here.

Weird facts about me :P

First and maybe the weirdest :
1. Love baking and cooking sweet stuff, but don't really like eating them. Weird, huh?
Than :
2. Love cupcakes ! to bake them, not to eat them, again :D
3. Don't like peanut-butter. I know, I'm a renegade now :))) But I do like peanuts and using peanut butter in recipes and cookies :)
4. Love movies! All kind: old, new, comedy, artistic, drama, crime, just don't show me horror movies! I will have "day nightmares" for years! I know movies are not real, but still cannot hold back in thinking that some weirdo out there might just put those sick things into real stories. Brrrr...
5. I follow around 100 blogs, but because I work around 10 hours / day I never get to actually read all of them... and than I complain about it :P

hm, this would be it for now, I will add more when I remember them :P

BTW! I found a link where you can find a loooot of blog links worth checking out ;)
So check it out :
http://userealbutter.com/blogolicious/

Enjoy!

SSB: A step-by-step guide to wasting less food

I recently found this article on Yahoo.
I agree with it, couldn't of written it any better myself (or maybe yes :D).
Anyway, it is worth reading if you're like me and really feel miserable when food gets thrown out :(
I cannot not think of all the people in the world who keep on starving while I am throwing away food. Bad, bad, bad!

P.S.: If you work in finance you know why I am so absent lately :( no worries, I will be back soon with a whole bunch of stuff to show and tell ;)

Stay real!

SSB : Homemade Mayonnaise

I don't know how many of you actually still do the mayo "inhouse" but it is worth it, believe me. Also, quite simple and uncomplicated.
The only mayo I bought was a Hellman's one, quite good actually, but still doesn't beat the REAL one ;)

Where to start, where to start...

Prepare the following:

1 Egg yolk - raw
1 Egg yolk - boiled - if you want a smaller quantity
1 tablespoon of mustard - any kind U like, I personally like the Dijon one ;)
oil - sunflower oil, olive oil, etc, whatever you prefer, but for the sake of a smoother taste choose one that doesn't have a very powerful taste on its own

optional:
lemon zest

Let's get to it, shall we?

Add one raw egg yolk and one spoon of mustard. If you need just a little bit of mayonnaise then add a boiled egg yolk as well, it will get thicker quicker with less oil ;) If you need more, a raw one will do it.





Mix together with a wooden spoon. Don't use metallic spoon or bowl when making mayonnaise. Keep it natural : porcelain, wood, glass, etc.



Mom always tells me to mix it always in one direction else the mayo will be spoiled... I don't know if that is true, never tried it :P

Add a bit of oil to the egg and mustard mixture. About a spoon or two at a time. Then mix. When its incorporated, put another spoon, and another spoon of oil.... and another, until you're bored :))) kidding! Add oil until it becomes hard enough that when you raise the spoon from the bowl, the mayo that is on the spoon, will not drop back in the bowl. It will look a bit elastic. Then you can stop.







You will see that even if you start up with barely something at the bottom of your bowl, by the 5th spoon of oil, you will have your bowl half full. IT GROOOWWWSSS! :))

Another tip, if by mistake you put in more then a bit of oil, don't panic, just start mixing it fast, with wider spins, you will see that it incorporates fast, no reason for panicking ;) I do not recommend you though to do this at your first attempt, you might not have enough practice yet, but if happens, just mix fast. Go, go, go!

Season with salt and pepper, just a bit. Add the lemon zest if you think that the mayo is way to ...oily. Some like it, some not, so test it how you like it. I personally like it plain, no lemon for me plsss :)

Now, you have your home made, all natural mayonnaise. Enjoy however you like it :)

SSB: Baked Potatoes - Jamie Oliver style

yes, I know, I am a traitor. I said I'll come back with a recipe and I didn't. Mea culpa!
BUT to recuperate, today I will post two recipes :D

So, first I choose a simple yet very tasty recipe which can be done regardless of season: Baked Potatoes.
Even if this is a widely popular recipe, everyone has a different way to do it.
I usually just bake a potato in tinfoil with some butter. Before you put this in the oven or on the barbecue don't forget to make some wholes in the potato with a fork, the butter will go in deeper in it and taste better even in the centre of the it, no just on the surface.
Jamie's version is even better, because it gets the butter and the herbs taste into the potato evenly.
I found the recipe over here, on his site and I had to try ;)

So for two persons U'll need:

2 bigger potatoes (or 4 if you have smaller ones)
2 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
2 tablespoons of butter
pepper and salt
thyme (or other herbs that you prefer)
optional: bacon or ham (whatever you prefer)

Chop up the garlic and slice the potato into 1 cm slices (not too thin though).


Spread the slices out on the tinfoil and put a bit of butter, garlic and herbs on each slice. Also, a bit of salt, pepper and the bacon if you choose to use some ;)




Now, reassemble the potato (I feel like a kid who disassembled the toy just to see what's in it :)))


Wrap up the tinfoil around the potato.


Pun in the oven at a medium heat for 30-45 minutes or onto the barbecue and enjoy when it's done ;)




Enjoy!

SSB: Lunch Boxes And A Pretty Red Pan

Remember that I was talking a while back about lunch boxes and that I NEED to buy a cute one?
Well (and this is interesting) I bought a Chinese made lunch box in a Japanese goods store :)))
It's quite cute. I bought one for me and one for my BF. I guess I don't need to explain which is who's ;)

So, the yellow (actually it is a light green-yellow combination, but in the picture it is quite yellow) one is MINE and MINE alone :D and the blue one is my BF's. We clarified that he wouldn't of liked the pink or the red version or the yellow/green one so he was ok with the blue one ;)






As you can see it is a typical lunch box, nothing unusual about it, but I still find them very cute :)
If you are out of ideas on what to put in your lunch box here are some good ideas from a very talented cook (in my humble opinion). Her name is Meeta and she runs the site "What's for lunch, Honey?". Step by to visit her.

Also, as I went out shopping (actually for food, but I cant help it if other stores got in the way as well)I also bought myself a new frying pan.
When I was little I could not understand how my mom can be happy for receiving anything that she would use in the kitchen. It was beyond my understanding! I always thought that she should kick my dad's behind for not buying her a perfume or a nice outfit or anything else more ... prettifying.
Well, now I start to get her. I cannot tell you how happy I was when I found this ceramic covered red pan. It's extra nice and it's supposed to he healthier than the usual non-stick pans.



I fell in love with it at first site :)
As I was restless I already tried it and it is different in the most positive way possible.

Enjoy your weekend my darlings! I'll be back tomorrow with some recipes ;)

SSB: Nigella Lawson

I'm more of a Jamie Oliver fan, but I have heard a few things about Nigella. Although curious, I never reserved the time to look her work up, until I accidentally stumbled upon her thoughts on cooking on www.channel4.com.
I must admit that I recognise myself in these thoughts.

"I am not a chef. I am not even a trained or professional cook. My qualification is as an eater."

(How To Eat)

"Cooking is not about just joining the dots, following one recipe slavishly and then moving on to the next. It's about developing an understanding of food, a sense of assurance in the kitchen, about the simple desire to make yourself something to eat. And in cooking, as in writing, you must please yourself to please others. Strangely it can take enormous confidence to trust your own palate, follow your own instincts. Without habit, which itself is just trial and error, this can be harder than following the most elaborate of recipes. But it's what works, what's important."

(How To Eat)

"I'm not interested in barking instructions: this isn?t meant to be a monologue. As I've said before, I want to be there in the kitchen with you; my words are merely my side of the conversation I imagine we might have."

( Nigella Bites)

Oh, that is exactly the way I feel about cooking!

Not to mention she is hot!




I think I will search up one of her books to see what kind of recipes she recommends.

Enjoy your weekend!

Presenting "Sweet, Sour, Bitter" Posts - Testimonial

I'm going to present to you from now on my adventures in the kitchen.
One thing about me is that I (almost) never respect a recipe to the letter, it is always personalized according to what comes in my mind (and my fridge:D) per the moment. I recommend you to try it. It is fun and you may just discover some new recipe that you will love more then the original one.

Cooking for me is fun, passionate, relaxing and healthy.

I have an extra small 2x3 m kitchen, but that will not stop me from cooking and eating what I want and love.

You will not find in my post way too healthy and obsessively clean cooking, because cooking is not about that!!!
Cooking is fun and adventurous and passionate and free.
"Free your mind and the rest will follow" said an old song, and that is what cooking should do to you as well.
Be open minded, relaxed and HUNGRY and I warranty, there will be little possibility for you to do something uneatable :)))

I am also not against meat or cooked food or anything else that became an obsession to people nowadays and are trying (unsuccessfully may I add) to prove that they are stronger then their own instincts and body.
Eat what your body is asking for, don't listen to everyone (unless they are nutritionists)! Eat a bit of everything. Diversity is the key and diversity is the only thing I ask from my food. Don't build up frustration! Rather cut down on the volume of "not so healthy food" or even better, find a healthy alternative, then to build up frustration. Think healthy and delicious!

I honestly admire vegans and vegetarians. I would never be able to do that.
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE vegetables and fruits (they are the major part of my diet), but I could never give up a juicy fish fried on the BBQ or a chicken made in the oven with some potatoes and herbs... yamm, I'm hungry already :D
So if you don't share my point of view, just cut me some slack and move on.

My mom and grandma are my mentors when it comes to cooking, but I am proud to say that I posses a serious dose of born talent :P How much? well... I guess you will need to stick around and find out ;)

Enjoy life and food!