miércoles, 19 de marzo de 2008

The Erasmus Myth



p.s.- se admiten comentarios...

domingo, 16 de marzo de 2008

"Arguiñaning" or how I learnt to cook

One of my biggest fears before I came to Linköping was the fact that I didn't know how to cook... ok, everybody can handle the challenge of some pasta+already done sauce or defreezeing some vegetables...
I have to admit that I am really impressed by my improvements ever since August!
after that TERRIBLE "tortilla de patatas" I made in September for my corrifor mates, I have been making noticeable progress! Croquetas, escalibada, apple "crumble", cookies, beans+veggies,... and even moussaka (although it wasn't as good as we expected...)







I've been trying recipes from Youtube (at one point I only watched Nonna Stella's cooking until I discovered she only had 23 chapters...), reading quite a lot about cooking techniques and surprinsingly not calling home to ask my parents (my father is the greatest cook ever!) although I've always had in mind their "cooking style" ;)

On the other hand, I haven't tried any Swedish traditional cooking at all... kötbullar, potatisen sallad, that creamy thing they put over toasts, kanellbullar,... simply not for me. Too much artificial tastes in it (they love everything with ketchup, a lot of curry and other similar spices...). But I have to admit Paula's salmon toasts from our last international dinner were really nice!

This week many ppl will be away so not many dinners expected at the cooking school-restaurant "Parmigiano Reggiano Corridor" where I've spend most of my evenings enjoying and learning from my friends but at least for tonight, fika at Andrea's.
I'm thinking about baking the hipercaloric cookies... just in case anybody wants to try, I'll post the recipe:

HIPERCALORIC COOKIES (with dried cranberries or chocolate chips)

Ingredients
175 gr of flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt
125 gr of butter
1/2 cup of white sugar
1/2 cup of dark sugar
1 egg
3 spoons of peanut butter
1/2 cup of dried cranberries or chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 150ºC.

In a bowl, mix the flour with the baking soda and the salt.

Mix the butter with the two kinds of suger, add the egg and the peanut butter and then, little by little the flour. Finally, add the cranberries/ chocolate chips.

Place clumps of cookie dough onto cookie sheets. Do not crowd cookies. Leave space for them to spread out a little and not touch.Bake for about 14 minutes.

Cool cookie sheets. Separate the cookies from the cookie sheets with a spatula or pancake turner before they cool completely.

Enjoy the aproximate 500 kcal per cookie... :P


viernes, 14 de marzo de 2008

Another rainy day in Linköping

Despite the lovely sun which woke us up this morning, another cloudy afternoon... and it looks as if it's going to be like this for a while...



ps.- "don't look back into the sun, now u know the time is come and they said it would never come for u, oh-oh-oh-ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

viernes, 7 de marzo de 2008

...

¿oyes el viento?...

jueves, 6 de marzo de 2008

9-M and others

I should have tittled this post "Spain still goes on" but I didn't want to make the blog look like a review about the different EU countries since in my last post I talked about Italy...
but nevertheless, this post will go over the highlights of the current situation of Spain. Even if I am here, I like to be updated about what's going on in Spain.

Firstly, the elections coming up this Sunday. I have to say that I am very angry with the Spanish embassy in Stockholm for not having sent me the papers which would allow me to vote even if I am in Sweden. Unanswered calls, no reply to my e-mails,... anyway. I am quite aware that it is important to vote, specially at decisive moments like this. The one good thing that has happened during this electoral period has been the fact that the candidates from the two major parties (PP- conservatives, PSOE- socialists) have finally accepted to participate in a public debate. Actually there have been two. I was able to watch them the day after in youtube and in the websites of Spanish newspapers. (Please take a look at the video in the Youtube link) Aparent conclusions from these debates: the socialists have a stronger candidate and they are, according to polls, said to be the most voted party next Sunday.

My personal opinion according to what I've seen... I am not going to analyse the concrete arguments of either Zapatero (socialists) or Rajoy (conservatives) but what I am going to point out is the attitude of both them during the debate: it is certainly not acceptable to giggle about certain aspects or to just come back over and over to the same arguments whenever they do not belong to the discussion. The conservatives will still be unable to reach the government as long as they keep with this candidate and with their political untolerant attitude...

The best thing about these debates on TV has been that they have proved that Spanish people are interested politics (still!): over 12million people watched the debates. I must admit I feel proud about this, we DO care about what politicians do! :)

More things... well, what actually pushed me to write this post was the finding of this extract from my favourite radio programme, "La Ventana", presented by Gemma Nierga. The interview is about an investigation called "In the mind of the torturing" which has ended as a documentary/book. Baltasar Garzón, a well-knowned Spanish judge responsible for trials about terrorism and international genocide (specially about the Argentinian dictartorship), and Vicente Romero have condutec it. In this link you will get to the interview... It's really shocking to think about their inner feelings during this investigations as they dealed both with those who were torturing and those who were tortured...
The question which has arised to me after hearing about the investigation process is: up to where should the legitimacy of foreign countries and what's more international organisms to take to trial those who are acused of having commited crimes in their home States?
The case that I am concretely thinking about is the jugding of the Argentinian militars by Spanish courts... the trial for these crimes started earlier in Spain than in Argentina due to the inmunity laws that were aproved after the dictatorship...

sábado, 1 de marzo de 2008

what about Italy?

that's the question I've been trying to answer to myself.
I first visited Italy in August 2003, I think moved by the faxt of having met my good friend Niccolò in Nice the previous Summer. I was in vacation (+ Italian language course) in Florence for the whole month. Despite the unbearable heat, Uljana, the views from Forte Belvedere, living in the same street as "Davide" from Michellangelo (yes, I lived on the same strees in which Galleria dall'Academia is), the Duomo and the Gellateria close the Galleria dall'Academia made me enjoy one of my best lifetime experiences :))))
after that I kept Italy forever in my mind (and my heart) but never had the chance of going back until last April [about the IW Milano 2007... certainly couldn't define those wonderful 7 days but say that they certainly helpd me to broaden my view about life (thx Luigi, Riccardo, Andrea and Ale)].
In the meanwhile, I got to know Italian cinema, not only the classics but also the "teenager" latest films: Manuale d'Amore, L'ultimo bacio,... I have to confess: I like them! even if I'm not the kind of falling-in-love-everyday girl, from time to time you need to see this kind of sugar coat movies :P
I just love to see how much love means to Italians, no need to hide it! I love this scene from "che ne sarà di noi" (right now downloading). Maybe we should take notice of Italian girls... :P



coming back to the question... I really don't know what's inside that makes me always come to Italy... maybe I was Italian in another life? At the moment I certainly am, I am part of the Parmigiana Reggiana Family :D

Future Plans: Alghero with the girls!