Changes (again) in this city life (again)

It's been a fortnight since I arrived in this town. And even though I don't have a job yet, I don't have much time. Madonna was wrong.

I walk around the city and I see many things that have changed. The Uniqlo that had closed, opened again. Some other shops vanished, some of them that I liked, even. And where I used to go to buy pens, now there is a nice tea shop. Or a horrible Starsbucks.
The sun is shining and sometimes I am hot. But it is chilly in the evenings.
People has forgotten how to walk, and I keep bumping into them.
The Underground has "planned works" all over and even fires.
I prefer the bus. The open double decker buses are gone. The 49 has changed and I haven't seen a worm 25 yet.
Or I walk. I like walking, but I get lost.
I have come across very nice people, these days. And I have met with friends I hadn't seen in such a long time. I missed them, and seeing them smile or laugh make me so happy.
I've gone to the cinema and I can't wait to start doing other activities.
I went to the gardens.
I've eaten scones and carrot cake.
I've cooked.
I've baked.
I've kneaded.
I've knitted.
I've studied and read a lot.
And just yesterday, when I was on the 14 bus home, Lily whispered in my ears again.

Sun is in the sky
Oh why, oh why
Would I wanna be anywhere else?

And, really, why, if here I feel home and loved?

PS Thank you, and don't you ever say thank you again.

Anouncement
Take Me Out Tonight
has opened its doors.

Blood juice

Today's featured red bevereage: sanguinello juice.

Red Summer

Summer is here and so are the cold soups and fresh salads.
Red is the colour of Summer, fire and my back after going to the beach.

There are many Summer meals with reddish colours. Watermelon, Salmorejo, Gazpacho, Sangría, Tinto de Verano... Ok, fine, I know, most of them are Spanish. Today's special comes from the Baltic sea.

Enjoy it.

Šaltibarščiai
AKA Cold Borść
Lithuanian Salad/Soup with Polish/Hungarian origins.

Ingredients:

• Marinated beetroot
• Spring onions
• Hard boiled eggs
• Dill (better fresh)
  
• Cucumber
• Natural yoghurt
• Milk (a little bit)
• (optional) lemon juice and the liquid of the beetroot.

Preparation:

• Cut everything in small pieces and mix. The smaller you cut it, the softer it will be. For the photo above I didn't cut it very small as I prefer it as salad.
• Serve chilled.

Far is close

Once again, this is one of those mini-posts that I had in my drafts for a very long time. As long as Christmas.
For those out of Spain and out of Spanish culture, you must know the New Year's Eve celebration ritual. The countdown here is done with the bells of church, so twelve gongs. With each one of them, we eat a grape.
Well, now you know this, I'll show you what LG brought for Christmas.

This came from Japan, through London. With some other (1, 2, 3, 4). We didn't eat them in the countdown, but afterwards. And, I have to say, they were delicious. I think the best gumies I ever eat.
But Japan does not end here. The thing is that earlier in December, an acquaintance of mine had come back after 10 months there working as a dancer. Where? In an amusement park. So what? Well, the park is called Parque España, i.e. Park Spain. In their site you can find info in English, not in Spanish, though. You have to know a bit about Spain but, I tell ya, it is full of clichés.

All this surprises me a lot. The sweets are just sweets, but it is super funny that my friend brought them for Christmas. But the amusement park is what is more surprising. Where else would you find something like that?

PS Some very good Flamenco dancers are from there. The love they have for Spanish culture is incredible.

Transformation

Everyone in my family knows how to cook. That's why I have never had to worry about it. Recently I have discovered the pleasure of cooking, and what's more important, the pleaseure of baking. I still can't believe the transformation between this:

and this:

One

Today one year ago, I was bored at that horrible Real Estate office and I was, as usual, diving on the net. I was checking what was new and hot at Google and I discovered Blogger. I wasn't, then, a blog reader but I became. Also, on that day, I became a blog owner.

I opened my account at Blogger trying to escape from the boredom at work (the time it says is wrong, I guess I hadn't changed it to GMT+1 yet).

Now, still, I am not writing everything in here and spending most of my time with it, but I have another blog, I read other blogs almost every day and even have met so many very nice people through it –one of them even in flesh (:P).

So, today, Ten to the Dozen is one year old. Since November last year I have had about seventeen hundred visits. And this will only be post number ninety.
Thank you all of you, guys, who come around here, because you make my day with your comments.

[The cake was made by my sister-the-chef to celebrate my birthday, that was on the 14th but we partied last night. It was absolutely delicious –still have half of it, wanna some?]

Figs

As "Anonymous" asked, here is the recipe of the salad my sister did for my other sister's birthday.

Figs and goat's cheese salad with grape vinaigrette, praline and wafer

Ingredients:

Salad
Grape
Aceto di Modena (vinegar)
Goat's Cheese
Sugar (100gr)
Flour (20gr)
Albumen (the white of an egg)
Figs
Hazelnuts (a bunch)
Almonds (a bunch)
Walnuts (a bunch)

Preparation:

of the Praline:

Mince the hazelnuts, the almonds and the walnuts. Fry them with 50gr of sugar. Cook until they get golden coloured. Spread the paste you get over oven paper. Let it get colder.

of the wafer:

Mix the egg whites with the flour and 50gr of sugar. Spread the paste over oven paper and cook in the oven until it gets golden. Let it get colder.

of the vinaigrette:

Mince the grape and strain it. Fry it with a bit of Modena's vinegar and two spoons of sugar.

of the figs:

Cut the figs in halves. Place a piece of goat's cheese on top of each one of them. Grill them until the cheese melts.

Place it all nicely in plates.

Les figues

Figs are one of the oldest fruits in the world. Actually, in the Sacred Writings, in the Genesis, is the second fruit mentioned, after the apple. Adam and Eve, after eating the forbidden fruit, run to hide themselves with fig leaves. [" (...) they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves." Holy Bile, Genesis, 3:6] Even though, in many artistic representations of the couple in the Middle Age, they were depicted with grape leaves; this is a mistaken fact.

The Mediterranean cultivation is: olive, almond, grape and fig.
For 10.000 years, the fig has been a valued fruit for many civilizations: Phoenicius, Greeks, Romans...
In the Greek mythology we find that to Tantalus, the son of Zeus, once in Hell, they are bringing closer to him a branch of figs that he can never reach.

In the origins of Rome, we find that Romulus and Remus are drinking the milk of the Lupa Capitolina (Capitoline's She-Wolf) under the shadow of a fig tree.
From the European countries, Spain is the biggest fig producer and exporter. The regions where it is most cultivated are: Illes Balears, Extremadura, Païs Valencià and Andalucía. In Catalonia, the province of Lleida is the biggest producer.
Turkey is the biggest producer in the world.

We can find the common figs, which give the fruit once a year, between August and October. Also we can find the "breva" figs, which give fruits twice a year: June-July (which are called Saint John's figs (Figues de Sant Joan, in Catalan), figaflor (in Catalan) or breva (in Spanish), and the second time in the end of summer and beginning of Autumn.
In Spanish we find the saying "De higos a brevas" (From figs to brevas) which means "Once in a while, from time to time". So it means the period between around September and June, i.e. when the common fig grows and when the breva fig grows.

Fresh figs are not very caloric (80kcal/100gr) but they are very rich in: fiber, calcium, potassium and magnesium.

When we dry them we are multiplying their caloric and energetic value (274kcal/100gr).
They are very digestive, laxative, a very good revitalizer and with lots of vitamins from the B group.

Recipe and most of the information about figs, got from my sister Rocío.

I have the recipe in Catalan if anyone wants it.

Food

Today is my elder sister's birthday but we celebrated it on Sunday; the four siblings, my father and the girlfriend of my other sister. My other sister is a Chef and she did --with the help of my father as a Sous Chef-- the food. Here is the first dish: goat's cheese and fig salad with Mozzarella wafer and candied onion jus. Delicious!!!