Traveling Thursday: Italy!

Welcome everyone to my second edition of Traveling Thursday!


I've been to Italy twice, and I'd love to go back there at least once a year, and I'm sure my dear friend & bestie Náyade would love that! She moved there when we finished college/nursing school in 2002 cause she couldn't find work here, and she's been living there since, in the very gorgeous and amazing city of Firenze!


My visits to Italy have always been to visit my friend and also do a bit of sight seeing. On my first visit we saw Firenze, and did a few quick visits to Pisa, Lucca and Venice. I had a great time, and it was my first trip on my own, Náyade was picking me up on the airport, but I was doing the whole flying and layover in Nice on my own. Traveling on your own makes you realize how important it is to always bring a book with you, some music, and speaking English (and being able to understand & babble some Italian too ("Io capisco ma non parlo" is my fave phrase).

FIRENZE

Piazza de la Signoria with the fake David behind me

Ponte Vecchio and view of the Arno river

On top of the Duomo's dome, if there's a place with a few hundreds of stairs to claim, I'm all over it!

Piazza dei Miracoli (or where the leaning tower is) in Pisa

The leaning tower of Pisa was supposed to be just another Campanille...

VENICE

On top of the San Marco basilica

On Ponte Rialto

Any simple bridge has a beautiful view of the city really

On my second trip to Italy, I also visited my friend Sally in Milano. I have no pics of that trip on the lappy (either they were film and they're not scanned, or I lost the files on any of the previous deaths of laptops before I had my external HD back ups), but it was a fun trip. I landed at Firenze's airport, got the bus to the city, that stops at the train station (luckily for me) and had to run through it with my suitcase to catch the train to Milano. Shared a cabin with a stereotypical mamma and her sons, experienced the delays of the Italian regular trains, had a brilliant time in Milano, went out clubbing with Sally, had some vodka shots when we returned home, saw some Milano the next day and then went back to Firenze via the EuroStar (amazing fast train experience). Back in Firenze I waited for 3 to 4 bloody hours to see the Uffizi gallery (word of advice, always go with someone to queue for such a long time, it gets too bloody boring on your own!) and also managed to see the real Michelangelo's David.


After all the visits to Italy I always go back home with amazing photographs, some fun stories and a few extra pounds! But the amazing food (I love pasta!) and the even more amazing gelatos (that's ice cream, and the rest... well, can't compare!) are impossible to resist!

Monday Munchies: Sauteed Veggies With Turkey!

Monday has arrived, and this week it's the tummy's turn to be fed.


For this Monday Munchies I'm sharing yet another recipe from the Easy Cooking (Cocina Fácil) magazine.




Sauteed Veggies With Turkey
Serves 4

Ingredients:

- 800 gr thin breast turkey steaks
- 150 gr carrots
- 200 gr zucchini
- 1 red pepper
- 2 green peppers
- 50 gr soy sprouts
- shredded ginger
- 2 tbps soy sauce
- olive oil
- Half a lemon
- salt & pepper

Method:

- Wash & dry the lemon, grate the lemon peel and squeeze the juice. Wash & dry the turkey. Cut it into bite sized pieces and marinate them for at least half an hour with the shredded ginger, the grated peel & juice of the lemon, a pinch of pepper, the soy sauce and a drizzle of olive oil.

- Scrape the carrots and wash them. Cut the ends of the zucchini and wash them. Wash and clean the peppers, cutting out the seeds. Cut everything into thin stripes.

- Put a wok with a bit of oil at high heat, once the oil is very hot add the carrots and saute for 2 min, add the peppers and continue to saute, after 2 more min add the zucchini. Saute everything for 2 more min and reserve the veggies.

- Add some more oil to the wok if necessary and saute the turkey (with its marinade) for 3 to 4 min. Add the reserved veggies and the soy sprouts, previously washed and drained. Saute everything for another pair of minutes and serve.

- Enjoy!

Friday Feature: Bethtastic!

After a few weeks of sharing music on Saturdays, this week I'm back to sharing some of my handmade finds with you on Friday.


This week on our Friday Feature I wanna share Bethtastic with you all. Her Etsy shop is full of wonderful images of pin hole photography turned into great pieces of resin jewellry like bangles and pendants.




She's a full time teacher and does the resin casting on her spare time, so her bangles take a while to ship (according to her latest update, now it's two months), but they're absolutely gorgeous! If you have a photographer in your friends or family, I can assure you that any of her "Through The Viewfinder" bangles or pendants would be very well received!





I was lucky the turn around time for my bangle was shorter when I purchased it, just a month, and then shipping was pretty fast. It's a big bangle, and I have a small wrist, so I have to wear it slide up, but still looks great as a summer accessory!







I am completely in love with the photographs that compose this bangle, since they all have that old style pin hole with the distinct colours and the vignette.




All in all, if you're not in a hurry, and want a lovely piece of handmade jewellry, you should check her shop!

Wearing Handmade Wednesday: ReLovePlan.et!!

Wednesday is here once again, and since I had last weekend off, and my laptop sort of behaved, I managed to process a bunch of pics for various blog entries, including this one. Since I intend to keep my 3 blog entries per week, I'll be alternating Traveling Thursdays & Wearing Handmade Wednesdays.


Buying handmade mostly means buying online for me, and by a jest comment of the bf, and my own realization, I've noticed I barely find anything to buy offline that I really like, and sometimes when I do, I compare it to something I own, or I've seen in an online shop, and even if it might be cheaper, I just don't buy it. Last weekend I went shopping with a friend, and I only bought conditioner (one of the few things I still buy offline, along with hair mask, trousers, jeans & most shoes, and groceries, of course). Going through the shop I kept finding things she liked, and she went to try on like 6 or 7 items, I kept on looking at this loose tunic and thinking that I had one at home that was way more lovely, and made of habutai silk, so I paid more for it, but really, the feel of the fabric said it all!


After this digression of mine, let's go back to our Wearing Handmade Wednesday entry of the week!

My awesome & super comfy LOVE AlterEco Clothing top

Let me introduce you to the very awesome and inspiring, Bianca, the Canadian lady being the AlterEco Clothing brand and the ReLovePlan.et brand & dare I say, even movement?. She's an amazingly positive person, vegan, animal lover and a lover of our poor mistreated planet. And she's not one just to talk, but also one to take action, so she reuses fabric & old clothes, uses mainly organic cotton & bamboo for her creations, and in her blog she has all sort of motivational posts, yummy vegan recipes and causes she believes & fights for.

So, aside from checking her Etsy shop for her awesome clothing, do check her blog and her website, and if you want, you can like her on Facebook!

Mark This Book Monday: Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett!!

A new week has arrived, with a fresh new Monday and with a new recommendation to feed your mind, and entertain it!


Today I'm introducing you to a series that will keep you giggling and entertained for quite a long time. After all, the Discworld series has nearly 40 books already! The 39th to be published this October.


You might be thinking that a series comprised of so many books can be too daunting to even try to start, or that it would get boring and dragging for so many books, but I can assure you nothing is further from the truth!

First of all, as its own name reflects, it's a series of books based on the Discworld (a flat round world, riding in the back of a giant turtle, supported by four elephants, yeah, you read that right), but they are not the kind of books you need to read one after the other, they're actually divided into different story arcs, so they can be grouped into smaller series if you may, and even so, each book can be read as a story on its own, though of course, there are references to previous novels here and there. Here is a lovely scroll where you can see what I mean, and also, you can check the Wikipedia article (but be warned, there are spoilers!).






So far, I've read all the Night Watch novels, except for the graphic novel "Where is my Cow?" and by checking the Wikipedia article, I just got excited since the next novel to come out, it'll be a Watch novel! Sam Vimes, Captain Carrot and the rest of the Watch are, so far, my favourite set of characters. Sam Vimes, his Excellency, is a copper, an old style copper, not the brightest one ever, but one that is hell bent on doing what's right, and has no regard for politics. Captain Carrot is a six-foot-tall dwarf, and the Watch as an equal opportunities policy, so there are dwarves, werewolves, zombies, vampires and even a Nobby Nobbs. Also, a very present character in this books is Lord Vetinari, the tyrannical ruler of Anhk-Morpork (the biggest city in the Discworld). I'd recommend you start with them, the first novel being "Guards! Guards!".


My second fave series so far are the stories featuring Death, yes, the anthropomorphic personification of death, and his interesting family. Yes, Death has a family. Even though Death appears in almost all books in the Discworld series, with his speaking in CAPS, there's a series where we meet his adopted daughter, his apprentice, his butler and his granddaughter. Oh, and Death is quite partial to cats too. Lots of irony and lots of comedy in these books. The first one of this arc is "Mort".


I've also read on of the "Ancient Civilizations" books, called Pyramids, that for an Egypt & history fan & an atheist like myself, was absolutely hilarious! If you want to try a book that is not part of a bigger story arc to see if you like the writing style and the general feel of the entire series, I recommend you start with this one.


Starting now with the Wizards & Rincewind series, I've read so far three of the books, "The Colour of Magic", "The Light Fantastic" & "Sourcery", and I've also started reading "Eric". So far, they're also a lot of fun, but the wizard characters are changing quite often, since wizards ascend in the hierarchy by stepping into their dead predecessors empty shoes, so there's a certain short life span for wizards of certain ranks.


Also, I've just started reading the Witches arc. I'm really digging this books too, cause even if they're about witches, and witches do magic, it's not all about crazy mumbo jumbo, but more about headology and common sense, and well, magic when you just have to. So far I've read "Equal Rites", the first book, and I'm half way with "Wyrd Sisters".


As you can see, I fairly like this series, it's chock full of references to world history & events, fantasy books, superstitions, fairy tales, and even Shakespeare! They're the kinda books that make you giggle and laugh out loud; and one of our fave parts when G & me are reading them, is reading hilarious passages to each other from whatever book the other is reading. Terry Pratchett really is well deserving of being Sir Terry Pratchett.


Wossaname and Music With Rocks In It!!

Saturday Song: Iron Maiden - Dance of Death

Having a weekend off is nice, but when your sleep pattern is as messed up as mine is this week, it can mean not being able to fall asleep till 4 am, and only managing to sleep till around noon, with a rather fitful sleep...


So, to pump myself up I've decided to listen to Iron Maiden and one of my favourite songs by them, Dance of Death. Among the many curious things about me, two are my fascination with Pagan religions, culture & imaginery for an atheist, and my love for all things Celtic for a Mediterranean!


Listening to this song just makes me think of druids dancing around bonfires in the primeval forests... And the legends of the dance of the death abound in all & cultures, just a little food for thought, metal is not only for headbanging, but also for thinking! ;)





As a little anecdote, when G & me went to see Maiden in Valencia we thought they'd continue wit the setlist they played in the US, and G asked me what song I'd have them play that wasn't in the setlist, and I answered this one. Low and behold, they had changed their setlist and played Dance of Death instead of Paschendale!

Traveling Thursday!

Hey there everyone!


After a tough beginning of the week, working three nights on a row, and with some odd computer issues (does anybody know why a computer can get frozen just by trying to check your e-mail but not going to other sites?) still unresolved, I totally missed Wearing Handmade Wednesday, but I thought I could share some photos with you guys of some of my trips, so Traveling Thursday has just been born!


Today, I'll just share a few photos of my first trip to the US, with some of my co-workers, where I visited Phoenix, a very snowed in Grand Canyon, Las Vegas & San Francisco! As a big Charmed fan I wanted to visit San Francisco, and fell in love with the city, I really want to go back with the bf eventually!

We arrived just in time for Thanksgiving!

It's not Arizona without a cactus

A bit of a snowy Grand Canyon

Makes for cool photos but no helicopter trip...

Vegas has its own Venice...

...And its own Paris

San Francisco can be a bit of a climb


Walking about the Pier


The Pacific Ocean and my favourite bridge in the world!


Did I mention I really like the Golden Gate bridge?

Monday Munchies: Cauliflower with Ham!

Monday again, and this week is once again time to feed the tummy!


I'm always willing to try new recipes, and even more when they're new ways to eat some veggies that I'm not too keen on, since I'm always trying to eat as many different veggies as often as possible.




Cauliflower With Ham
Serves 4

Ingredients:

- 1 cauliflower
- 100 gr ham in one piece/slice
- 1 onion
- 2 yogurts
- 1 teaspoon flour
- 1 cup veggie broth
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 parsley sprig
- Paprika
- Salt & pepper

Method:

- Cut the ham in cubes. Clean the cauliflower and separate into florets, then wash them. Peel the onion and chop it finely.

- Boil the cauliflower in salted water for about 10 to 15 minutes. In the mean time, heat the oil in a nonstick skillet and fry the onion for about 7 to 8 minutes until translucent.

- Add the ham and sprinkle with the flour. Let it brown a bit so it loses the raw taste and slowly pour the broth while whisking it to dissolve the flour. Salt & pepper to taste and boil during 3 to 4 minutes stirring often. Add the yogurts and simmer it for another 2 minutes.

- Drain the cauliflower and divide into the 4 plates. Cover with the yogurt & ham sauce and sprinkle it with some paprika to taste. Wash & dry the parsley, separating the leaves and decorating the dishes with it.

- Serve hot & enjoy!