Ramen night

3AM and I'm still awake... Thank you theine from the green tea ice cream! 

Tonight I went to a new Japanese restaurant with my friends A., V. and F. to celebrate A.'s birthday. 

We had been aiming for this reataurant for a while, and we were just waiting for an occasion to go try it out. In particular I was very curious because I heard that this reataurant had ramen in their menu and the last time I ate it was 10yrs ago in Japan. The restaurant was small but nice, and I've found very lovely the Japanese look in the pottery chosen for serving the dishes. We chose different things but we all shared a bite of our dish with each other so everybody could taste. In particular my friends found very interesting the surimi of my dish and though there was just a few pieces we managed to have at least one piece each. 

Everything was really very delicious, from starters to dessert, and even if the ramen I ate in Japan is still unequaled to me, I found this one very delicious too. I think we will go again!

The Library

Last two muffins left, a book to pick-up within 5days and a driving manual to study for getting the driving license. So yesterday afternoon I dusted off an old onigiri bento box that I bought several years ago, I packed my books and snack, and I took the opportunity to go to the library and study in peace. From home to the library: the longest walk that I took in a while. I wanted to do the walk back home too, but at the time I was on my way back, it was already dark outside so I took the bus. Also I wanted to take it slow in my recovery. But it felt so nice there! Silence and peace, yet surrounded by people. I love people and life, it charges my batteries everytime. 

I borrowed a book about ikigai, "The Little Book of Ikigai. TheEssential Japanese Way to Finding Your Purpose in Life" by Ken Mogi. Today I reached chapter 2, but only because I had to stop and study the driving manual, or I'd have read this book all at once. I'm very fond of Japanese philosophy, Japanese was my major at University afterall. And I also like this psychology-ish "self-help" books, because I think they can be very inspiring and show you things from another point of view. I think it is great that with libraries, anyone can read books, any kind of books, the book they need in that moment. 

On that Ken Mogi's book, on chapter two, the author suggests to wake up early in the morning, for several reasons. Actually my paternal grandmother too used to say "morning has golden in his mouth"(=the early bird catches the worm) to my dad all the time, even whithout being Japanese. And, starting tomorrow, I'll take the suggestion and try put more effort in waking up early since recently, I'm indulging in strange sleep/awake rythms too much

Muffins and Roses

It's been a while now that I'm not going to walk.

So the obvious consequence for me is cooking cooking and cooking. Even if the oven is broken. Even if I'm on a diet. That is just a challenge for me. And I wonder what is triggering this cooking thing.

So today I challenged myself to lighten and perfect my recipe of the bread crumbs cake, this time turned into microwaved muffins for a change.

Actually I did try this recipe a few days ago, because I needed something sweet to bring for a tea at my friend mrs.M.'s house, and this recipe somehow, seemed to have been quite a success among mrs.M and her husband. I decided to write down all my recipes in order to write a book sooner or later, and mrs.M supported this idea very enthusiastically, even showing me the book of an acquaintance of hers for an example. But I forgot to take a picture, so I took it today even if the recipe is slightly different this time. I don't know if I'll tell you my recipe because my microwave oven doesn't allow me to choose time and power and I'm still testing in order to find the perfect baking technique... but I'll see if I can do something at the end of this post.

Later today, I trimmed my small mignon roses plants. Unfortunately last week I forgot to water them for two days, two very hot days, right while they were in full bloom. And they burned the most of their leaves and buds. But luckily the main branches were still green so -as every time I make some mistake like this- I trimmed away all the withered parts and sprayed some insecticide for caterpillars and cotonose cochineal, of which I noticed symptoms. This way they should sprout stronger branches and buds and become bigger and beautiful.

This muffins look so messy because I used fresh blueberries (present of mrs.M.) instead of dried ones. But it is said that taste is more imortant than appearence... and they look upside-down because, well, I like the flowery shape on the bottom the most! 

Here's the recipe! As always, if you want to put it on your blog, ask me by message or comments and give me the credits! Thank you!


BERRY BREAD CRUMBS MUFFINS

Ingredients (for 5 muffins):

1 small organic lemon

60g bread crumbs (powdered)

50g raw cane sugar

1/2  banana (ripe)

1/2 whole milk

1 egg

2-3 spoons of olive oil

1 pinch of salt

1/2 bag of baking powder

1 handful of dried blueberries (or cranberries)

A few drops of rum essence or a splash of rum (orptional)

Proceedings:

1) grate the lemon peel in a big bowl and extract the lemon juice into a separated container.

2) in the bowl smash the half banana with the lemon peel until you have a puree.

3) in the order, add sugar, bread crumbs, baking powder and the pinch of salt.

4) add the egg and mix well.

5) add lemon juice and mix well.

6) add oil and mix well.

7) add milk and mix well.

8) optional add rum or rum essence and mix well again.

9) at this point the dough must have the same consistence of yogurt. If it's not soft enough, add milk or water until you achieve the right consistence.

10) achieved point 9, add blueberry or cranberries, mix summarily, and divide the dough between 5 microwave-ok muffin molds. Be careful to fill the molds just until one half of the capacity

11) baking; for LG microwave oven: function "bread", once, then function "cake" 2 or 3 times. Check with toothpick test. For common house oven: bake 200°C for 30-40 mins, check with toothpick test.

Bread crumbs cake ♡♡♡

It's been a while since the last time I posted something. I had a very bad pain in my back and in my hip, so strong that I couldn't stand or walk for quite a while. I don't really know how it happened since it started after I was relaxing at home for two days and only recently I started feeling good enough to try go walk again.

The fact is that staying at home all day I couldn't keep my hands still and I started cooking and baking like a pro. Which means that I invented a couple delicious recipes to add into my little recipes book, but I also gained back all the weight I had struggled so hard to loose in the past months of diet and walking. But let's look at the half full glass and.. I invented very delicious recipes too! This time, my pride is this bread crumbs cake. Luckily I couldn't eat more than a couple of tiny little slices of it because my parents ate it in a blink of an eye (and gave a quarter to our neighbours to taste) and then the oven broke down. There is already a recipe or two of the bread crumbs cake on the internet but I checked and this one version seems to be brand new and only mine. I'll share the recipe with you at the end of this post, but if you want to bring it to your blog please ask me for the credits! 

Back to the walking, since I just recovered from my back pain (even if I'm not completely healed) though I would like to burn all the calories as fast as I can, I also don't want to strain myself with the long panoramic walks I used to do, so I chose to have much shorter and slower walks and, from there, to increase very gradually. This morning, for my daily walk, I chose the local market. I originally wanted to buy a nice dress to wear tomorrow for a sushi and karaoke night with my friends, but actually I was not very confident to buy something new. But right when I approached the marketplace I heard a voice calling my name. It was a high school friend, that I didn't see or hear from for almost 8yrs. She was with her mom who took me into liking, and chit chatting together I almost didn't look at the clothes and ended up without buying anything. Her mom, instead, found two nice blouses and had a discount on a third one. But for me, I didn't see anything special for a party night and at the same time fluffy enough to conceal the big sushi all-you-can-eat belly! Tomorrow I'm gonna search my closet, and maybe I'll go check an outlet. So I'd better go sleep to wake up early! 

Good night! 

♡BREAD CRUMBS CAKE "MY WAY"♡ 

Ingredients (note that the amount of liquids can vary considerably depending to the type of bread used):

1 sweet potato

100g walnuts

150g powdered stale bread 

3 eggs

300ml milk

100g raw cane sugar

1/2 glass of Bailey's 

50g dried raisin

3 teaspoons of powdered cinnamon

1 bag of baking powder

50 ml oil

Pinch of salt

powdered sugar for decoration 

Proceedings:

1) put raisin to soak in water

2)grease a baking sheet, cut the potato in small cubes without peeling it, mix the cubes well until they get greased too and bake them in the oven 200°C until soft. (Around 30mins depending on the size of the cubes)

3) in a food processor, mince the walnuts with a couple tablespoons of sugar, until you get something like a crumbly paste

4) once it's cold put in the food processor the potato cubes and process until you get a puree

5) in a large bowl mix together powdered bread, sugar, baking powder, salt pinch and cinnamon

6) now add and mix well together walnuts first and then potatoes. It must look crumbly but homogeneous

7) add the eggs and mix well.

8) add oil and mix well.

9) now add bailey's and milk until soft. It have to make a dough of the same consistence of yogurt. If milk and Bailey's are not enough to get to the consistence, you can add the raisin water. (If you're vegan you can substitute milk with raisin water, I don't know what you can substitute eggs with)

10) add raisin, mix well once again and then put in the mold. I use a silicone one to get a flower shaped cake, but if you don't have it you can use any mold with greaseproof paper on the bottom to pull it out easily afterwards. Bake in oven 200°C, for 45mins more or less. Make the toothpick test (= pierce with a toothpick to the bottom and if it comes out dry it is ready, if dirty or wet you need to wait a little longer) before turning off the oven. Before serving cover with powdered sugar. I suggest you to eat it after 12h at least for a more rich taste.