Clichee

There are some quotes that you hear all the time, and seem to have lost their meaning. Many of them aren’t even true. But there are some cliches, that turn out to be quite right.

Everything happens for a reason.
If something bad happens, look at its bright side, try to see this event from another perspectice. Things have a very weird way of occuring, and a misfortune that spoiled two weeks of my summer, turned out to be a chance to start something beautiful.

You are what you eat.
Never trust people that don’t love chocolate.

Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.
Hell, it’s very used, every person on Facebook has once posted this quote. But, it’s a good motto! And I like stars a lot. Actually, I’d prefer them over the moon.

If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.
Golden quote from Bambi that more people should go by nowadays.

Action speak louder than words.
Very, very true. It might be clichee, but what you do, how you act, showes so much more about your person than your words.

Cooking Tuesday special: Spiced Carrot Layer Cake

Today it’s a special Cooking Tuesday because it’s my birthday, therefore I have a rather difficult recipe that will end with the most delicious cake in this galaxy!
Now, I am usually all for chocolate. . There is never enough chocolate. I could literarly eat 85% dark Heidi for the rest of my days.
But trust me on this one, this cake is absolutely delicious, unique and suprisingly light.

What you need:

FOR THE CAKE:
1 cup unsalted butter, plus more for pans
1¼ cups flour, plus more for pans
1¼ cups whole wheat flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tbsp. baking soda
1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. kosher salt
½ tsp. ground allspice
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
½ cup finely ground almonds
3 cups finely grated carrots
1½ cups packed dark brown sugar
3 eggs, separated
½ cup plain yogurt
¼ cup orange juice
1 tbsp. orange zest
1 tsp. vanilla extract

FOR THE GLAZE AND ICING:
12 tbsp. unsalted butter
½ cup sugar
¼ cup buttermilk
1 tbsp. light corn syrup
¾ tsp. baking soda
1½ tsp. vanilla extract
½ cup mascarpone cheese
3 8-oz. packages cream cheese
2 tbsp. dark or spiced rum
1 tbsp. orange zest
1 1-lb. box confectioners’ sugar
2 cups finely chopped walnuts

What to do:

Make cake: Heat oven to 350°. Butter and flour three 9″ round baking pans; set aside. Heat butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat; cook until it browns. Chill until solid.

2. In a bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder and soda, cinnamon, ginger, salt, and allspice. Finely grind coconut and almonds in a food processor. Combine nut mixture, carrots, and flour mixture; mix.

3. In a bowl, beat together browned butter and brown sugar until fluffy, 1–2 minutes; beat in yolks one at a time. Add yogurt, juice, zest, and vanilla; beat. Add flour mixture; beat. Whisk egg whites to stiff peaks; fold into batter. Divide batter between pans; smooth tops with a spatula. Bake for 30–35 minutes. Let cool slightly.

4. Meanwhile, make glaze and icing: In a 4-qt. pan, combine 4 tbsp. butter, sugar, buttermilk, syrup, and baking soda; boil. Cook until dark, 3–4 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in ½ tsp. vanilla. Spread glaze over each warm cake. Remove cakes from pans; transfer, glazed side up, to racks. Let cool.

5. In a bowl, beat remaining butter, mascarpone, and cream cheese with a mixer until smooth. Add remaining vanilla, rum, zest, and sugar; beat. Chill. Spread 1¼ cups icing evenly over 2 cake layers; stack, top with remaining layer. Frost top and sides; press nuts onto sides. Chill before serving.

ENJOY IT!

recipe taken from here

Before I’m 17

I have no idea where my sweet sixteen year has gone. I think I mostly slept through it, which wouldn’t be unlike me.
However, here I am, the last day of being 16 ever. Creepy.
I don’t really care about ‘getting older’ at this moment, because in the morning I know I won’t feel any different. I’m just in for the cake.
But I am proud of this year. I made fabulous friends, I finally, finally went to a French course, I improved my piano playing, I read the whole SH collection ( give me some credit, it was pretty huge ), I discovered Hannibal, I even learned how to make a Caesar salad – not from Hannibal the cannibal, though.
There are things I didn’t get to do, of course, but there’s a lot of time ahead. A lot of days and hours and minutes ready to be filled with fantastic stuff ( like sleeping).
So come on, 17, let’s see what you’ve got.

The Stars Dealer

I have always been fascinated with stars. I can’t really explain the reason behind it, or this enormous feeling I get when I look up at the night sky. I suppose it’s all very typical for the human being to be fascinated with all that is beyond our knowledge, what is beyond our world and the Universe is itself one big question.

I’ve read about people that feel small looking at the stars above them. That feel like a very tiny bit of this whole wide infinity. People that realize how little they matter. How unimportant their lives go by, like the blink of an eye. I don’t.

Looking up at those shining bits of light, I feel so important. I look up and lose that sense of loneliness, because for a few moments, I feel like time stops, just for me to give time to admire such vast beauty. So, I decided to steal some constellations and store them in my bedroom. Remember those phosphorescent stars you had as a child, glued to the ceiling, to keep nightmares away? I bought a set of those 🙂 Now I have my own private night sky, shining above my head every night.

And honestly it’s the best thing there is.

Learning time: Parade’s end ( miniseries )

Presents keep coming these days and I am overly excited because I received Parade’s end – the book.
I keep it on my table, and stare at it lovingly the whole day, because I just can’t wait to read it.
I’ve seen the BBC miniseries, so that’s where the obsession comes from. Initially, I was only interested in it because Benedict Cumberbatch plays the lead role( good reason enough to watch any movie ). Of course, I remained stunned at the beauty of the episodes and realized how ignorant I had been, not to have heard of this amazing book before. If you’re a fan of BBC miniseries, you’ll definitely enjoy this one. It has 5 episodes in total, and though it doesn’t always keep you on the edge of your sit , I enjoyed every single moment of it. The places are stunning and the adaptation has a great quality that makes it special, warm, enjoyable.
Of course, Cumberbatch doesn’t dissapoint, but only makes you love him, if possible, even more. To me, though, he wasn’t the surprise of this movie, because I was already very fond of him.
No, this time, I fell in love with Sylvia, portreyed with grace and elegance by the lovely Rebecca Hall, who did a superb job, playing a complex, interesting woman.

I cannot wait now to rediscover the love for this story in the pages of its book, that I hope, brings the same pleasure as watching the series did.

A special person

Today I received my first ‘before birthday’ present from my grandmother, a wonderful person I would like to introduce you to.
She is very kind, very patient and the person I probably spent most time with. She is strong and ambitious, although she doesn’t always show it. She raised my mother alone, so I know how tough she can be, but also that she can spread more love than any other person I’ve ever met.
She is stubborn and sometimes naive, but would never admit it. She is pessimistic, but somehow, always right at the same time.
I couldn’t imagine any day without her. She knows when it’s going to rain and puts an umbrella in my bag, she constantly reminds me to eat fruits and vegetables ( even if I am 17 years old now), she recommends me books and watches Sherlock with me. She cooks every day, and I know she wants everything to be perfect when I come home from school. She puts little flowers on my desk ocasionally, just so, most of the time white roses, because they are my favourites. She buys me sweets, even if I always tell her that I already eat to much and she can recognize Mika whenever Rain plays on the radio.
And in every little thing she does for me, I know she puts so much love into it and I am so grateful that I was named after this magnificent human being.

Love, M.

Inspirational board on war

I have for my literature class a very interesting essay: The importance of militating for peace.
While I could probably talk hours and hours about this subject, it seems hard to put my ideas on a page, so I’m going to use this post as an ‘inspirational board’ and expose my thoughts on the subject.
Why is peace important?
Because it lets our society develop beautifully, in a background where harmony and happiness reign and not terror. For that is what war means, right? It means cruelty and death and hate more than any mind can imagine. It means destroying worlds and cultures. It means promoting something wrong, promoting an ugly world.
People weren’t born soldiers. People were born out of love, to create, to think, to share ideas, spread intelligence. People were born lovers, musicians, discoverers. They were made curious and always wondering and turning them into weapons is where the tragedy starts.
Leading men towards men is nothing to be proud of, is nothing honorable.

I could talk, and talk but we all know what there is to say here. War doesn’t belong to this world and should never again be part of it.

Love, M.

P.S. Leave your own thoughts and opinions and help me write a decent essay 😀

Cooking Tuesday: Red wine soaked pears with raspberry sauce

For aujourd’hui I prepared a most special dessert that will get you intoxicated with pleasure : Red wine soaked pears with raspberry sauce. It sounds sofisticated, sweet, glamorous but I’ll let you in on a little secret: it’s not even that hard to make! So pick up that bottle of delicious Pinot noir because … I just love cooking with wine. Sometimes I even put it in my food!

What you need:

4 ripe pears, peeled
About 4 cups dry red wine (we used pinot noir)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cinnamon stick
About 8 scoops of ice cream (we used chocolate Arctic Zero)

About 3 cups fresh raspberries
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup red wine sauce (reserved from pears)

What to do:
Combine the sugars, red wine and cinnamon stick in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a rapid boil and then reduce to low. Add the pears and drizzle with red wine sauce.
Cover mixture with a cover. Poach pears for about 10 more minutes, or until soft. Using a slotted spoon, move the pears to a bowl. Pour the sauce over the pears and let mixture come to room temperature, about 20 minutes. Turn the pears every few minutes to ensure the color is a deep red.
Meanwhile, make the raspberry sauce by heating the raspberries, sugar and 1/4 cup of the red wine reduction from the pears. Cook over medium heat until mixture is bubbly and thick. Using a potato masher, mash the raspberries to make a thick sauce.
Serve the pears over 2-3 scoops of ice cream. Drizzle with raspberry sauce and serve.

Can you believe it is this easy to create such a special dessert? Try it yourself and tell me how much you loved it 🙂

Love, M.

Recipe take from here

Learning time: Prisoners

Last week I’ve been for the second time at the cinema to watch the movie Prisoners and it was also the second night I couldn’t stop thinking about something.
This brilliant movie approaches a sensitive subject: the kidnapping of one’s child. The movie is dark, cruel, very sad and very close to reality. Don’t be fooled into thinking that this is a light, Sunday-evening movie, because it is not. From the superb performance of the actors, to the intelligent script, this is one of the very few movies that made me buy a second ticket.
Now let me get back on the actors. Paul Dano is brilliant in his role and makes the story twisted and dark, while Hugh Jackman gives a touching performance of a father so desperate, that he would do anything to get back his little girl. And last but not least, there’s that damn Jake Gyllehaal. Leaving aside his baby blue eyes and that annoyingly beautiful face and… What was I saying?
Oh, yes, even my father loved him. I mean his performance.
Go see this movies while it’s still in cinemas. My mother, a romance fan, hated me for dragging her to a creepy movie and in the morning she said it was absolutely brilliant.
Go for the plot, go for Jackman or Gyllenhaal, go for the writing of the story, just don’t miss it!

Love, M.

P.S. Talking about my whole absence and my summer would take a while, so if your curious to find out more about my adventures in France and Italy visit my photography blog here

Did you miss me?

It’s been a while. I gave up on the idea of a blog a while ago and I keep turning back to it. For some reason.
I haven’t really been busy. Well, summer was full, taking over my life with its waves and happiness. Cutting the story short, I was in France, I met the French, fell in love with the French ( How could one not?).
I travelled through Europe, went at gigs, had fun and met Mika!

But since summer only lasts three months I am back to my ironic self dealing with homework, not such a dramatic highschool life, the future and a big, noisy family.
And the big question….
I say lets bring back them Cooking Tuesdays.

Love, M.