Serious thought from the last day of 2009

I have been secretly worried about the Earth for some time now. But like most people, there's the conscious, but not knowing what can I do to help.

For a start I am suggesting you to see the film The Age of Stupid to get your mind set. There is also another motivating film In Transition 1.0 that gives you clear examples how people are genuinely worried and trying to get us out of this mess.

But nothing gets done if 0.1% people are involved. And lets face it most people are not even aware of the climate change issue. All they hear from the news is that government is introducing tax on CO emission and average (stupid) mind feels upset and thinks that all they do is increase taxes, how can I buy that new plasma tv now!

If that average person would take a proactive approach on climate warming and think about the little things they can do by sustainable living perhaps then there wouldn't be needed to have a tax on CO2 emission. Is it too much to ask from people to think?

Bottom line. I could make a big speech, but I won't and I'll let you do the searching. The main thing is to find ways to greener future. No one is going to knock on your door and tell you what you need to do next. Maybe in some places they are, but think how much money they are spending on it, by running a campaign to explain common sense. Simply start from this:

1) Please see these films.

2) Stop consuming!!! You don't need all those THINGS!

3) Eat local foods.

Good Bye 2009!

The day that the sun never came out

Another lazy morning where the entertainment options aren't that fun. So I Stick to home duties and hang on in here 'cos the afternoon is already on.

With the nasty weather outside the least thing I can think of is to go out for food shopping.

A quick pick in the freezer and voila! I have chicken breast as pretty much the only option on the menu... how exciting is that?

Chicken breasts aren't the most tasty or fun meal to cook, so what a heck do I do with this?

Google it!

In 0.23 sec google gave me 14,900,000 results with the key "chicken breast tasty"...

Obviously no-one in their perfect mind would go through nearly 5 million of results, so I don't know why

they even bother...

Anyway, in the first page I found the so popular top 10 of chicken breast recipes.

The draw gave me the marvelous:

"Blood orange chicken salad"

As mentioned above chicken breast was one of the few things in the fridge so all the rest was pretty

much made up, but

anyway I mention the recipe just as a reference.

So here's the improved recipe:

1 - Prepare the Vinaigrette: In a small bowl, whisk the juice of one orange, 1/2 red onion chopped, 3 soupspoons of olive oil, 1 soupspoon of vinegar, 2 teaspoons of mustard, 1 teaspoon of orange zest, salt and pepper to taste;

2 - Marinate the chicken breast with a couple of tablespoons of the vinagrette for 20 minutes.

3 - Throw the breast in the oven (200C), adding salt and pepper. 5 minutes on each side.

4 - Boil the Pasta;

5 - Boil the veggie medley! A salad can also be used alternatively.

7 - Cut the chicken breasts in eatable pieces;

8 - Cube a nice chunk of cheese;

6 - Mix everything in a large bowl - Chicken, pasta, veggies, cheese and the rest of the vinaigrette.

And enjoy your new tasty and exquisite chicken salad...

(Presentation suggestion)

The Baker gets some rest and the Cook is taking over

What does that mean now?

It means that I am replacing Daring Bakers challenge with Daring Cooks challenge for 2010. Daring Cook is basically all the salty dishes. Let's see maybe I stick to it, maybe get back to baking...

Since Joao hasn't proved himself as a great cake and pastry eater I will give it a try with salty dishes. You see this whole thing has a practical side. When its baked it needs to be eaten. So next post is going to be a salty meal. Stay tuned!

Daring Bakers Gingerbread House for Christmas

Little Gingerbread House

The December 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers' everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

I must admit that I was lucky enough to grow up with a mother who was making gingerbread cookies on every single Christmas and some of the years we got more wild and built the gingerbread house. I remember that one year there was an accident with the house though, there was a little elf standing in front of the house holding a candle in the hand and when we weren't looking he set the house on fire. Anyway, we forgave him and continued our Christmas dinner.

I went with the Scandinavian recipe for the dough, since it's more from my side of the town. Yes, I did experience the same problem as everyone else that the dough seemed too dry, but I decided to ignore it. Since it was going to sit in the fridge for overnight, I thought that hopefully its better the next day. I was right! Dough was joined together much better, however it was quite difficult to work the cold dough, I had to put all my strength into the game. I did my own templates and designed my house rather smallish, taking account the fact that its only two of us consuming it, if any. I cheated a little bit and instead of sugar syrup I used melted chocolate to glue the bricks together.

Building in process

Scandinavian Gingerbread from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book by Beatrice Ojakangas

226g butter, room temperature

220g brown sugar

2 tablespoons cinnamon

4 teaspoons ground ginger

3 teaspoons ground cloves

2 teaspoons baking soda

100 ml boiling water

875g all-purpose flour

1. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until blended. Add cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Mix the baking soda with the boiling water and add the dough along with the flour. Mix to make a stiff dough. If necessary add more water, a tablespoon at a time. Chill 2 hours or overnight.

2. Roll the dough on a floured surface, cut required shapes and transfer these to the baking sheet.

3. Preheat the oven to 190'C. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the cookie dough feels firm.

Leave cooling on flat surface to maintain the perfect shapes.

Christmas in Ireland celebrated with Pixies

In deed here we are back to the jolly season of christmas where all the beggars look cute and overweight baby Jesus will come to visit us.

I must confess I've been naughty but I still hope on my luck to get some candy in my sock.

To celebrate the holy holiday once again we're holding a little dinner/tea to the lonely souls of Dublin emigrants (3 in total). Of course there are other reasons involved, mostly the satisfaction of our stomachs with an unreasonable sized meal. I don't know how can I still consider having a feast, after being in Portugal for 10 days eating like a true swine, but I guess it's in my culture.

The preparations started quite ahead of the happening and for a change we're on schedule this time.

For this years menu we have Presunto with Melon (Yes, we found a melon in December! Go Carbon Footprint!) and a selection of filled (enchidos) and cheese. For the main meal we are having a pheasant stew with roasted potatoes and veggies. Aire is also intending to eat Sauerkraut, but not me! Blerg! (go and see in wikipedia).

Appetiser: chourico (sem cedilha), melon, presunto,cheese

Sauerkraut

Main meal: wild pheasant, roasted potatoes and veggies, sauerkraut

For dessert we're counting on an industrial tiramisu, which tastes much better than it sounds.

Industrial tiramisu, but still very good judging by the leftovers...

A selection of Portuguese pastries is still available for the strongest stomachs.

Pasteis de nata and Brendeiras de Natal

All this will go side by side with good wine brought all the way from home inside the ultra protective surfing booties!

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With the christmas lights on, some candles here and there and a nice smell of cooking in the house, Merry Christmas everyone! Um Feliz Natal para todos! Häid jõule kõigile!

Enjoy yourselves, wherever and whoever you are...