Yogurt-lemon cake

If you are looking for a perfect breakfast-tea/coffee break time cake, try this yogurt-lemon cake. I just tried it (and this time I made sure to not forget to add baking powder to the recipe)! I just had two slices of it with a cup of coffee!

One thing. If you have problems with cow-milk like I do, but you can have no-fat plain yogurt, then this cake is for you (I used no-fat Greek-yogurt for this recipe). However, it does contain milk, as one of its main component is yogurt.

Recipe:

- 350 gr of flour
- 8 gr of baking powder (for this cake I used self-raising flour, so I didn't add again the baking powder)
- 80 ml olive oil
- 425 gr of Greek-yogurt
- 120 gr of sugar
- 2 and 1/2 lemons
- 2 eggs
- a small pinch of salt
- a small pinch of vanilla extract

Mix the yogurt with the eggs, a bit of grated lemon skin, and the juice of the two and half lemons. Mix well and add the oil, sugar, baking powder, salt, vanilla extract, and slowly all the flour. Grease a cake pot, pour the mixture in it, and bake at 180 degrees C for 20-30 minutes. Check with a toothpick when it is ready.

Done! ready to enjoy it!

PS. I am not too happy after all with this cake......my mom tried too and she was not too enthusiastic either....if you know a better recipe let me know...

are you a native speaker?

I saw this message the other day on couchsurf. They were looking for someone who would like to act in front of a crowd, who wouldn't be afraid to talk with a microphone and who speaks English, better with an accent.

I know that I don't have an Italian accent, as everyone thinks that I am front Eastern Europe when I speak English, but I do have an accent. I do speak English and I would like to start again my childhood hobby of acting. So, I got in touch with the person who put the advertisement on couchsurf.

First step: phone interview. The name of the guy with whom I had to talk to was Liam, which I pronounced "Laiam" (read it literally as I wrote it)........I would say that I started very well with my English. He corrected me on his name and then his next sentence was: "we only want native English speakers"....I wonder how he could guess that I was not :-)

Anyway, that opportunity for a nice break outside my main work hobby/earning money (yes, they were also paying for this acting....all my friends were making fun of me asking me if it was a porn movie....otherwise, why looking for inexpert actors???...but would you need to be a native English speaker to act in a porn play??? and would that be in front of a crowd??? I don't think so...) is gone......it was gone in less than a minute of a phone interview actually. I guess I did very well.

Ok, not a native English speaker to act.

Next language. French. I applied for a teaching position here. I do have quite of an Italian accent when I speak French (everyone spots me as Italian already when I say "bonjour")...It seems that I got selected for the interview, which is in French. The person who will get the job will have to teach in French. Mandatory: in French. My ex-boss here has a plan to help me to get rid of my Italian accent in less than a week for the interview.....I don't know how he is going to achieve that.....why couldn't I teach with an Italian accent? I do have problems with the language and I am still lost in translation sometimes (when it comes to work, I think in English)....but I guess I could teach....It appears that as a non-native French speaker, I would have some possibility to get the job only if everyone else who got selected for the interview will not show up......highly likely, I would say.....

Anything that I could do here by speaking my native language then???? apparently, none is looking for Italian speakers.... :-(

At least my consolation is that even if my native language is the wrong one in terms of job market here......it sounds very nice and I am proud of it!

traveling, traveling, traveling

I am currently in France, but traveling all the time. Meaning: one day or two I am at home, the next I am somewhere else for a couple of days (just a couple of days), then back home, then travel again and so on.

All this for work.

It is quite nice to travel and I like it....but I feel a bit like a person scattered all around that as someone who is just traveling. Some days I wake up and I need some minutes to figure out where I am and what I should do that day. Plus, I am often traveling with other people for whom I am responsible.....not that easy, not always. For the last two weeks, I mostly moved here in France and I got to see some nice place and I got to have some very nice experience.

Next stop: Hungary. I am looking forward to that. We will go by car and our plan includes one day stop in Italy and one or two days stop in Slovenia (I love Slovenia!!!), all this to sample different animals. Then 4-5 days in Hungary and then back.

After that (4 days later), I will be on my way to Italy for a couple of days.

Then to Spain and I still don't know when.....

In less than a year I crossed Europe by train mostly I have no idea how many times....one days I should write all these adventures down. Everything happens so fast! Last sunday, even if the weather was very nice, I just got on my bike, visited a friend and had a long afternoon of tea, a bit of cake (a lot of it actually) and a lot of nice chat...I really needed to do something that would not have required too much moving.

I can't say that my life is boring...On the contrary, actually. But I do have a lot of responsibilities and sometimes (like yesterday for example), I feel overwhelmed.

too tired to make a cake

I wanted to try a recipe of lemon muffins....We have a meeting today in the lab and I thought of bringing them to the meeting....I thought it would have been nice....

well....I was so tired last night when I came back from work that.....I forgot to add the baking powder to the recipe....the result is a very tasty stone (at the end I put the dough in a cake pan instead of making the muffins).....

I tried to have a piece of it this morning for breakfast....but it is a real stone....

I will try again.....

Nuclear power plants: yes or not?

I read in the news this morning that within three years, Italy will start the works to have nuclear power plants......and I wonder....but who really wants them?

Do I? and the majority of the Italians? Didn't we vote years ago against having nuclear power plants at the moment when the rest of Europe was investing on it? we didn't want them at that time, we want them now when any country invest in alternative energy sources.....and Italy? no, in Italy we cut the support to the research, but we plan to invest in nuclear power plants.....

I agree that producing as much energy as a nuclear power plant produces just using alternative energy resources is not easy....but we have to consider other things: 1) nuclear power plants produce energy, but they also do use a lot of energy, so I am not sure how so positive the net energy produced is. b) where are all the nuclear waste produced going to be dumped? in the sea?
c) who would live close to a nuclear power plant?

I saw a few of them here in France. And they are ugly. People in Italy complain about not wanting the gigantic wind mills to use the wind energy because the wind mills disturb the view and ruin the landscape. Ok, what about a nuclear power plant then? is that any nicer? have you ever seen the fumes coming out of a nuclear power plant?

Shouldn't we vote again to see how many Italians really would like to have nuclear power plants in Italy and invest their tax money on this issue more than on other things? why do I feel that while other countries try to move forward, Italy is trying to move backward???

PS. I saw the wind mills in Sardinia, in the middle of the landscape and they didn't look ugly at all to me. Actually, they are huge, but they didn't disturb my view of the landscape.

relaxing movie

If you are looking for a funny, relaxing, nice movie, check this French one out:

Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis

Watching it in French is very funny, as the French from the North doesn't sound French at all to me :-)

The most beautiful thing

I love nature. I love anything to do with nature. It is my thing. Or at least, one of my things.

I recently bought from Amazon two BBC dvds with David Attenborough speaking. This guy has the best voice for a story teller and the stories he tells in any of the BBC videos in which he is starring are amazing. I can't find a better word than amazing.

I just saw the first dvd of "Life in the undergrowth" and I realized a couple of times that I was staring at the screen watching the video with my mouth wide open. Animals are incredible. Incredible doesn't even give the minimal ideas of the diversity and beauty that exists on this planet. And every time I look at a video like this, I can't avoid to feel very very little and very very insignificant. I may be here, with my computer on internet writing some random bla, bla, bla, but what some animals evolved out there for the weirdest reasons, to make them better suited and more successful in the environment in which they live, it is just behind imagination.

There was one scene in this video that was about a spider guarding his eggs, cleaning them and taking care of them. The entire scene is amazing. And then thinking that it was not fiction, but that it really happens, just out there somewhere and that there is one of the billion of wonderful things going on in this world........it makes me just feel like wow!

I imagine that this post can sound very boring to anyone who is not so crazy about nature and animals as I am....but believe me, for me, every time that I take the time to look at one animal, to spend some time outdoor, that I have any chance to get in touch with some nature....I just go "wow" and feel very little and insignificant (but not in a bad or negative way). Now I am just still in the "wow" mood....

PS. I never imagined that snails mating could be so romantic!

re-programming myself

There are times in life in which a big change is needed. There are times in life in which it is just better to stop and sit. This is a time in my life for both things.

The big change has been coloring my hair in red. I never colored my hair before. I tried any possible hair cut, but never colored them. This was a big change. And I can say that I am happy about it.

It is also a time to sit down and look at things from high up, trying to be a spectator of it more than the main character. I took two weeks holidays. A real holidays. I worked maybe one day and a half of the two weeks so far (I am not done with the holidays). I got to think about my feelings. I got to think about my passions and about who I am. I got to think about what I do because it gives me pleasure and what I do because I feel I have to or for a future investment. I got to think to what really matters in my life and to the person I am.

I recently applied to two permanent job positions in France and even if I didn't want to fully admit it to myself, I was deeply convinced to have some very good chance for at least one of the two. I didn't get any of them. But what it hurt me more, what left me empty and sad, it was not that much the fact that I didn't get the position, as much as the reasons why I didn't get it (I am too old, not French (but this of course cannot be admitted openly), not enough of this, too much of that...such as that I am too enthusiast about what I am doing to convincingly sound very professional. A lot of very crappy, hurtful reasons.

So, I did what I had to do on the short term for work, I spoke to my current and past bosses (two people that in terms of work I esteem a lot), and I took it of. I left. I went to Italy. I spent time with my family and friends coming from everywhere. And after weeks of feeling as a big failure, for investing so much on a career that may well never be the way I dreamed of, I felt I needed to re-program myself and my priorities.

I went to a Natural History Museum yesterday. And I had tears in my eyes. I was looking at the beauty of the diversity of animal forms, especially looking at the amazing diversity of invertebrates, that I felt the luckiest person in the world for what I am doing. I am not only doing what I always wanted to do, but I am also doing something wonderful, even if more than half of the world think that it is useless and "commercially not valuable" (this more than half of the world includes some members of my family, among million of other people).

I felt lucky. I am 34 and I am doing something that I can say I really enjoy. And not only. I am not only my work and my passion for my work, even if I invested a large part of my life for it. I traveled a lot. I saw many places. I know many people. I have great friends, people that I realized that in moment of need are there to help. And I have an amazing family. I have people who love me for the way I am. Even if I am weird. Even if I am unconventional. Even if I keep fighting and believing in something that it may never happen. Even if I am an idealist. Even if at the age of 34 I still believe that we can make and have a better world.

And I said fuck. Fuck to all the rest of the world who manage to make me feel like a failure, because I don't uniform to some standard way of doing things at a certain time. Fuck to the ones who even if for a couple of days made me feel old and made me forget of all the great experiences I had in these 34 years. Fuck to the ones who judge me for my job or my hair or my clothes without even knowing me.

So, I took these two weeks of break and I am spending my time laughing, and reading, and enjoying the sun, and wondering for the streets of places I don't know, voluntarily feeling lost. I took these two weeks to remind myself who I am and what I like. And today I also did something very, very not-diplomatic but that I felt I needed to do since long time. When it comes to people interactions, in work as well as in relationships, I think that respect is at the base of everything. I have been working for years now with someone who completely lacks of respects for me and treats me very badly every time she has the possibility to do so. She is the reason why I left the USA when I was working there. Today I wrote her how I feel about the way she treats and has been treating me over these years. I have been really strong and clear. It was not at all a diplomatic email, but I respect myself a lot and I do want other people who interact with me to do the same. I think that everyone deserves respects and none should be judged, mistreated or discriminates because of a different way of thinking or doing things.

I am re-programming myself. I hope to be able to get to the bottom of the process.

This is the life I like

Italy, afternoon

Last night I went to Florence to see the new show of the MOMIX, Bothanica. I consider the MOMIX my personal way to be brought to another dimension. A dimension of dream and lightness. I love to see their shows and I was very happy to be there yesterday.

My life is not in Italy, and I enjoy my life in France and the people that I consider my friends there. But being in Italy, with my family and my old time friends is all another story. I love the city where I come from and even if for sure I am highly biased on this, I think that it is one of the most wonderful cities in the world, as a city and especially as a location: close to the sea, close to the mountains.

I got here on saturday and since then I spent a lot of time with friends and family. Two friends from Spain stayed at my mom's place (my mom is a great host), and we went for dinner (and there was another old time friend of mine), we hiked under a pouring rain (and at that time we were 10, with people coming from Spain, Germany, and Hungary), and then we had dinner again together at my mom's place. A dinner with family and close friends, with a lot of laughs, jokes and good time. I can't say that I am unhappy in France. But nothing can replace how happy I can be when I come back to Italy and I manage to spend some time outside here in company of some of the people I consider part of my family and my family itself. It is just always too short. But this is how it should be a good life!

made of green ingredients

France, afternoon

I am a big, big fan of The Body Shop.

I love some of their shampoos and air conditioning (e.g. the honey one and the olive oil), all the things of the white musk, the new grapefruit body butter and shower gel, I like the philosophy (e.g., the products are not tested on animals, a lot of products support community trade). Every time I visited a The Body Shop magazine, I always find a way to buy something. I consider it my way of spoiling myself.

But, because I started looking at each ingredient of some product of another "green" brand, Yves Rocher, I got to do the same for The Body Shops products I have. And I realized something, these products do contain botanical ingredients, but they are also full of chemicals. I am not sure what all these chemicals do to our health, but their names are scary. So, just as an experiment, I took one of these products, and checked on internet a few of the chemicals ingredients contained in there. Of course, as quantities of each compound are not indicated, there is no way to actually know what it is the percentage of botanical ingredients versus purely chemical ingredients. Fortunately, my research on internet revealed that the chemicals ingredients of the products I have at home (from Yves Rocher and The Body Shop) are not toxic or dangerous (more or less) based on current available data.

Here a few of the chemicals I have been looking up on the web:

Cyclomethicone: While silicons such as cyclomethicone do not appear to have adverse effects on the human body, there are many concerns regarding the harmful effects it may have on the environment (i.e. marine life). For this reason, many countries like Canada have requested the silicone industry to provide more information and scientific data regarding its safety.

Methylparaben and propylparaben: used as antimicrobial preservatives in foods, drugs and cosmetics for over 50 years. Readily absorbed via the gastrointestinal tract and dermis. There is no evidence of accumulation. Acute toxicity studies in animals indicate that they are relatively non-toxic by both oral and parenteral routes, although mildly irritating to the skin. Not carcinogenic, mutagenic or clastogenic.

Butylphenyl methylproprional: it is a skin irritant and there have been tests that found that skin applications of this product at high concentrations in animals caused sperm damage.


PS. If you know a website where to find all the info about chemicals substances used in food and cosmetics let me know because I am very interested on the topic.

a nice sunday

France, afternoon

It is sunday and I am at home working. But it ok. I am actually doing something relaxing. And I went running today. I should get running into my routine. I ran only 16 minutes today. So, I could basically squeeze 20 minutes of run in my every day schedule, as it doesn't take so long and I could just get ready in a few minutes, leave my place and run. Not big preparation necessary.

I can't run every day, as my back would give me hard time. But I could try to run at least two times at week....but when I come back home from work, all what I want is to collapse on my couch and remain in a vegetative stay for a while. Of course, after that I don't feel for sure like running. And there is no way that I could wake up earlier in the morning to run before work. It is already hard for me to get up at 8am to get to work at a decent time (10 am).....no way that I could fit running in.

So, I should run every sunday and once a week. That would already do something. I mean, I move, I walk a lot, rollerblading when I can, doing yoga sometimes, but nothing regular...and for my mood (and the safety of my co-workers and my friends) I strongly need to exercise regularly, otherwise I have too much energy that I risk to release in not good ways.

Anyway, after running I got back home, showered and had a very good lunch. A friend of mine made some hummus for the evening together I had on friday and she left the left-over here. I had it today on bread with some avocado. So good!!!!!

Now a bit more work and then I will go to watch a movie with some friends.

PS. I put a picture of Gary Oldman here, a very sexy man, because today is his birthday.

baking on friday

France, night

I normally bake on sunday morning, but since I invited people to come over to my place, I decided to bake two cakes for this evening. I made brownies and a cake with carrots and apples (very little apples). They were very good. But I was especially surprise by how delicious it was the cake with the carrots and apples. You should try it!!! I highly recommend it. I can't find a good picture to put it here. I should have got a picture of my own cake.
My mom sent me the recipe for this cake (I think she found it on the web):

Ingredients:
150 grams of flour, 5 eggs, 200 g of carrots, 180 g of margarine, a packet of baking powder, 125 grams of granulated almonds, 120 g of sugar, an apple, 1 tablespoon cinnamon, two full spoons of brown sugar.

Grate the carrots and place on a kitchen towel. Cover with another towel and let dry for one hour. Work 150 g of margarine with the sugar (mix very well till you get an homogeneous compound). Stir in four egg yolks and one whole egg (save three egg whites). Add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, almonds and carrots. Beat 3 egg whites till they are very firm (I still don't know to say this in English. In Italian is montare le chiare a neve). Grease a round mold hinged, pour the mixture and sprinkle the surface with plenty of sugar cane. Bake at 180 degrees for one hour. Peeled and sliced apple. Cook for few minutes in a pan with the remaining margarine, and a tablespoon of brown sugar. Take the cake from the oven and distribute the apples on the surface of the cake. Put it back in the oven for just a couple of minutes.

Ready to eat!!! Enjoy it!!!

Sliding

I love trying anything that slides, rollerblades, skates, ski.......But I don't think that I will try this. Just watching it, it made me sick.....I would like to meet the guy and ask him what he had in mind when he decided to do that...

Video - Descente de cote en BuggyRollin

On my way to Paris

France, morning

I am on my way to Paris. I will take the TGV, the fast train, from here to Paris in a couple of hours.

My feelings for Paris are growing slowly. I have never been crazy about Paris until I started to have to go there already a few times for work. Then I met some friends and we found some nice cafe' and places to see and to try. I don't think that Paris is good for me as a tourist. Too expensive, too much. But then when you know someone, when you start to get familiar with the little cute corners here and there, then it hits you....at least, it did it with me.

So, I will be there just for a quick working stay, but tomorrow I plan to meet with a friend and go together for an early dinner in a part of the town that I don't know yet. This is the thing of Paris, you can always find something new and nice to discover.

I should definitively travel more here in France, since I live here....I saw so little of this country so far....

Unbelievable

France, evening

I went rollerblading today for a couple of hours. It was a nice sunny day. Not warm, but sunny. In the couple of hours in which I was outside it went for not too warm, but sunny, to very, very cold and windy to snow.

It started to snow on my way back home from rollerblading (fortunately, it started when I was very close to home) and it didn't stop so far. I live close to the sea in the South of France and today is March 7....and a couple of days ago it was spring and there were already people in t-shirt and shorts outside.....and now, it is snowing very seriously. I just got the picture that is on this post. I absolutely can't believe it!!!

I strongly hope that this will not create problems to the transport and circulation, as I have to travel a lot in the next days.