Posts from — March 2008

During my stay in Amsterdam, I was wondering how a city like this will look like if the buildings would have many different colours.
I found out the answer in Prague. It looks amazing.
The same architecture and the buildings painted, it is more that I imagined when I visited Amsterdam.
Of course, it is impossible to compare two cities. I don’t usually do this. Just in this case when I felt the need for lighter colours in the brown-black Nederland’s town.
Prague is a city to feel in love with. Myself, I am.
The only think is to ignore the fact that almost everything is very expensive. Also, you have to remain calm every time you enter in a museum or a castle and notice that the personnel knows no international languages.
But before entering, you have to find your way to the museum which can be a tricky think. Once you get there, an other story begins: founding the entry door.
You may find this interesting if you like the labyrinths and the puzzle.

But, Prague offers a solution for all the problems: it is full of tourist guides in The Old Town Square.

And what a beautiful square!

A town worth visiting in the summer. The harbor is so modern and so spectacular, that you will want to spend many hours on a bench, or on many of them, just looking at it.

Apart from the beautiful old buildings, you will also find there lots of futuristic ones.
The two very different styles makes Rotterdam a interesting place to pass through.

The people there, however, can put you in a bad mood.
From my arrival in the train station, I received a wrong information about the direction I had to take the tram to. Good somebody else, corrected it one station later.
I checked in at Room Hostel and asked the lady at the reception if it is possible for me to get a bed ar the ground level, because I have a health problem.
She explained to my that it is out of their hands to do this kind of arrangements, but I may be lucky being the second in the room.
And lucky I was.
I put my personal sheets on the bed and I slept like a child. My room mate was a very nice Polish man, looking for a job as gardener.
He was desperate not finding it, because his money were running out and he was no able to pay for the hostel more than three days.
He started looking for a cheap apartment, with no result. In the end, he told my that he can sleep with the rats, in the cold… Poor East-European man trying to work in a wealthy country.

The next day I visited part of Rotterdam and returned to the Hostel where I found my polish room mate doing the same like he did when I first met him: searching freneticly the internet on his computer.
However, something was changed in the room. My sheets disappeared and on my bed I found a note: “Reserved for Mrs. …”
So, I asked what is all this about.

The man explained to me what happened:
A guy from the personnel came in the room to do the cleaning. When he finished he said that in my bed should stay an old lady who has problems climbing on the bed from the top.
The polish man offered his bed, at the same level, saying that he doesn’t mind at all changing the beds, that he can even sleep on the floor if it is neccesary.
The guy wouldn’t consider the option.
He took my personal sheets and placed the note on the bed.

With this story in my mind, I went to the reception, looking for explanations.
And they came: an old lady made a last minute reservation and she is too old to climb in a bed from the top.
O.K., but what about the bed my room mate offered, which is at the same level? And what about: “we can’t do arrangements about the bed” policy? I had the reservation made for one month and I requested the same
favour like the old lady, from the same reasons.

The guy told my that he doesn’t know who was at the reception when I first came in, but they are doing favours for special cases, like this one.

Well, you will not do it on my expense!

I found my sheets, I took my bed back and this is the end of the story.

The biggest advantage in Amsterdam is that you can visit lots of museums and churches in only five days.
If you are buying a three days pass, you will pay 53% for it. You will find a map in the book they are giving to you. Also, you will have a transportation pass you can use separately from the museum pass.

Amsterdam 3 Day Pass Visiting Tips

1. Buy the pass.
2. The next step is to underline the museums you are interested in.
3. You will see that most of them are in three different zones.
4. See if you can go in one zone by just walking. If you can, go there in your first day. This way you are not using the transportation pass from the beginning.
5. You will be able to use it after visiting the museum. So you can go places.

Be aware: The Rijks Museum is closed for renovation. The big one. You can only see a small part of the masterpieces in the small Rijks Museum.

Next to Stedelijk Museum it is a library where you have free internet access.

A good service Amsterdam offers is the stop/go buses. For only 1 Euro you can see all the buildings around one canal, for one hour.

Also, don`t miss cruising on Amsterdam`s Canals.

Some people use to complaint a lot around holidays, because they have troubles in finding appropriate gifts for their friends and partners. They leave everything for the last moment, and then they spend hours in supermarkets, trying to quickly solve the gifts problem. Then they get stressed, because time is running fast, and they end up by buying inappropriate gifts, only to get rid of this task and obligation.

Things shouldn’t be like that. Gifts are supposed to be a pleasure and a reason of joy, not of endless nerves and trouble. If you are the kind of person who likes to prepare for all occasions in time, you may consider gift baskets as a fast and elegant solution to surprise your friends and why not, even your business partners.

I’m not talking about birthday celebrations here, as those are rather more personal occasions, so more personal gifts may be better. But only think of Easter, which is approaching fast. Take a look at these Valentine’s Day gifts and tell me that you wouldn’t like to receive one of those tempting food baskets instead of a present which won’t suit your preferences.

Besides the fact that everybody loves good food, or tasting specialties which they would never buy by themselves, buying gift baskets online from specialized merchants is very convenient, because you can have the gift baskets shipped when you need them and where you need them, so you’ll avoid all the hassle of going shopping, wrapping packs, staying in line at the post office to send them, and so on.

Pizza is one of my favorite foods. I like it so much that I can’t help myself from going out every other day to eat one. I’m lucky, because the nearby restaurant has some excellent pizza recipes, so I have all the reasons in the world to come back again and again. However, there are days when I feel like not going out and still I’d like to eat some pizza. For such days, I’ve got the following pizza recipe which my friends and I love so much. I hope you’ll like it too.

Ingredients for 4 mini-pizzas

• 50 g parmesan
• 230 g wheat flour
• 1/4 butter pack
• 1/2 glass of milk
• 4-6 spoonfuls of pesto sauce
• 2 baked bell papers
• 12 black olives
• a small ruccola

Cooking Procedure

1. Grate half of the parmesan and put it in a kitchen mixer
2. Add the flour, the milk and a bit of salt
3. Pour the milk and process until you get a homogeneous pastry
4. Divide the pastry in 4 parts and extend each part in the shape of a plate
5. Spread pesto sauce over each slice, then put on top of it pieces of baked bell pepper and olives
6. Put everything in a hot over for 10 minutes
7. Add ruccola leaves and parmesan pieces and serve hot.

This is an easy to prepare and enjoyable meal, which you can eat in front of the TV set, watching the Cult TV series with your friends, or any other TV show you may enjoy. However, I wouldn’t advise you to eat these pizzas while playing online games, because you may need a new keyboard very soon.

Salmon recipes are sought after quite a lot. I suppose this is due to the great taste salmon has and to its reputation of celebrity food. Being a big fish, salmon can be sliced in such a manner that your guests would never encounter an unexpected bone in their plate or in their mouth. Salmon is the kings’ dish. Cooked properly, it can make eating a pure pleasure. You can never get enough of a well-cooked salmon recipe.

Ingredients:

• 600 g. salmon
• 400 g. asparagus
• 300 g. tomatoes
• 100 g. leek
• 40 ml. balsam vinegar
• 50 g. rucola
• 20 g. fresh basil
• 10 g. fresh mint
• salt, pepper

The sauce:

• 80 ml. oil
• 400 g. cream
• 1 lemon
• 120g. butter
• 1 orange for decoration

How To Cook It

1. Put the salmon in the oven, at medium temperature, for 20 min.
2. Turn it on both sides.
3. Fry the tomatoes. Peel them off and cut them in thin blades. Leave part of them for the salad.
4. Cut the leek on its length in thin slices. Leave part of it for the salad.
5. Add the tomatoes and the leek with the salmon.
6. Put it in the oven for 15 min.
7. Blend the asparagus.

For the sauce:

1. Melt the butter.
2. Add the cream and the lemon juice. Stir.
3. Leave it to diminish for 5 min.
4. Cut the basil.
5. Add salt, pepper and the basil.

For the salad:

1. Cut the rucola, the mint and the basil.
2. Mix the up the slices of the tomatoes and the leek.
3. Add balsam vinegar.

On a plate put:

• The asparagus.
• On top the salmon.
• On top the sauce and the salad.
• The slices of orange, round about.

This is all you need for a delicious meal. If you wish, you can replace the salmon with any kind of dried fish, as it offers a special savor to this meal. By the way, I think you can even find dried salmon, so you can use it from time to time, just for a change in your salmon recipes.

Outback Steakhouse Restaurant is just famous for the recipes offered to the guests. They have been making a name and build a brand since long time ago, and we can say that they’ve made it.

Of course, Outback restaurant recipes are easy to copy, if you go there for a few times and dissect carefully what you have on your plate. Pay attention to all ingredients, pay attention to the flavors and different tastes, try to figure out what are the things that you cannot see but have been added into the recipes.

When you go home and try it for yourself, make sure you first buy everything you need for reproducing the Outback restaurant recipes, in enough quantities. Then write down how you are going to proceed, and then start cooking. It is important to write down, because in case of success, you’ll be able to cook it again, and in case of failure, you’ll know what to avoid in the future, when you’ll try to cook again that Outback restaurant recipe.

Actually the interesting recipes are the steak one. A steak s just a steak, but when you add a few spices while cooking, you can be surprised what new flavors you can discover. Don’t be afraid to experiment. Try new things, strange combinations, and maybe one day you’d be selling your recipes to Outback Restaurant.

Does it sound good?

Soup recipes seem to be very easy to make. But this is only at first sight, because you can easily spoil the food by very small things that you don’t respect when you follow a soup recipe.

For example, is the soup recipe says that you should put in this and that ingredients, them boil it for 20 minutes, and only after that add the potatoes, you may think like this: well, soup recipes are all the same and I don’t see what difference it makes if I add everything in from the very beginning.

You just do that, and instead of a delicious soup recipe, you get some boiled vegetables which are hard to swallow and scratch your throat. This is because potatoes boil faster than other veggies, and if you boil them the same amount of time like the rest of the ingredients, they would be smashed into tiny fragments which would stick on your throat.

So, remember that all indications in soup recipes are there for a reason. Just follow them, and you’ll prepare soups which you’d be adored for.

My mouth is watering when I think of those delicious gluten free cookies that my best friend was cooking. It is true that because of those fantastic cookie recipes she was fat like a whale at the young age of 23. But she was such a good cook, you cannot even imagine. Her cookies really melt in the mouth.

They were so fluffy and flavoured that all neighbours would come to ask her how’s she doing, because there was such a nice aroma on the hallway the days she cooked any of her secret recipes. Cookies are not so easy to prepare, I was never able to learn how to cook them properly, despite the fact that my friend even gave me a special cookie recipe cookbook which she printed out in several copies to give it to all her friends. Because she suffered from a series of health conditions among which coeliac disease, she has been forced to follow some strict cooking rules. Leaving gluten out of the ingredients was one of these rules. Staying dairy-free was another one. Yet, she knew how to substitute harmful ingredients with healthy ones without lacking the great taste. I believe the secret was in the spices she used, but she never felt like disclosing those deep secrets to any of us, whom she used to call her best friends.

In my opinion, the black cookies were the best of all. They contained milk chocolate, cocoa and raisins, and some flavours I don’t remember now, but this combination made them really delicious.

How I miss my friend’s cookie recipes, now that she’s moved to another country! I know I haven’t given you any recipe in this post, but every now and then it just feels so good to share some feelings and thoughts, that I hope you’ll forgive me.

This is an update for all people who suffer from coeliac disease or from other digestive disorders caused by wheat: the complete list of gluten free foods, which I hope will help you stay away from foods you shouldn’t be eating.

How cool would it be to travel hassle free and to see a lot of places without having to carry all that heavy luggage which I’m sure you hate as much as I do?

If seeing lots of places while laying in the sun is your preferred style of travel, you may consider getting yourself a cruise. If you don’t know where to start your search from , go to Cruise Vacation Center and you’ll find there lots of cruises, from Princess Cruises, to Royal Caribbean, or even Norwegian Cruise Lines.

The website is easy to search, as it provides the visitors a few filters, such as the destination, the sailing date, the duration of your desired cruise and the cruise line you’d like to travel with.

By taking a look into the Hot Specials section, you’ll discover the latest discount offers, and you may be able to grab a good deal and save a lot of money. The website offers you the facility of booking online, which is by far the most convenient way to book your trips.

Due to a new policy that forbids cruise lines to show their discounts publicly, sometimes you may get better deals if you call the Cruise Vacation Center at the toll free number provided on the website.

Wouldn’t you rather go on a cruise, than on a common trip?