I Got My First Kiss!!!!

Before you jump to conclusion and imagine me like a modern day Drew Barrymore in Never Been Kissed, I'm really sorry to disappoint you. I've been kissed before, even though it would certainly be fun to go out in a search for the first and perfect kiss.
What I'm talking about are Hershey's kisses. Yep the chocolate ones. And I know how hard it is to believe I never had one, but it's true. I've always ate either Milka or Gorenjka (a local chocolate factory) and in the past few years Lint and some other Swiss based chocolate factories. But never in my life have I ate Hershey's chocolate. I know, I know, I've been to USA and I had a chance to buy and eat Hershey's chocolate... But the thing is, when I'm travelling I'll rarely spend money on something as unnecessary as food. As a matter of fact I lost 5kg while I was in NYC this past fall. Impressive, ha?

I tried the ones with white chocolate and cookies

But truth be told, I could buy them I just didn't feel like eating chocolate (but I did feel like eating Capitan Crunch and Willie Wonka sweets) and when I came back home and saw them in the store, I thought they were quite expensive for the amount you get. So when I saw them in the store with 50% off, I was the happiest girl in the store!
I don't now if you tried them before, but I absolutely loved them! They are DELICIOUS! Maybe a bit too sweet, but this is the way I like it =)

kiss, kiss, kiss
Lucy Jane

Secret Confessions Of Gossip Girl Addict_part 2

It's secret confessions time! Well, it's Monday and so far I had a horrible day. I had a statistic's exam, and let me tell you, it was hard! I mean I'm not the only one in our class that's complaining, frankly I hadn't heard a person say: "Oh, this test was so easy, I had no problem finishing it!" or "It was so easy, I'm gonna get an A!". The talk was more like: "Well, at least now I now what to expect in June."
But enough about this stupid college, or maybe not. This actually could be one of my confessions. I hate studying psychology. At least the way I have to study it now. I mean the whole programme is designed in a way that expect all the students to become college professors or a researcher. I have no intention of being either of those things. I mean how come US colleges can have a programme where you can take both action and biology without any complications? Is this really something only my country isn't capable of doing? I have no idea how I'm gonna finish first year, let alone another four. But I usually finish what I started (and if it's school related, I finish it good enough to get what I want, like getting into college), so no fear about that. Yet.

My second confession is I am a stress eater. To let go of this horrible statistic exam, I went to the store and bought so much candy, I am super sore right now, from getting them from the store to home (it's only a five minute walk). I think you can imagine how much I bought. I came home about half an hour ago and I already ate one tenth of the things I bought.So, please forgive me if I wrote (or will write) something weird, but I think I'm sugar high. Maybe this is the right moment to tell and confess that I'm a junk food junky, because not only I eat a lot of candy, I can also eat obscene amounts of chips and other salty snacks. To tell the truth, the only unhealthy food, I'm capable of saying no to are juices, sodas and other sweetened drinks. I don't even sweeten my coffee or tea. Thank you mom, for washing my brains, so at least I don't drink sweetened drinks.
And I hate Coca Cola. And when I watch movies and everyone is drinking one, I'm like, can I please get a glass of water. Not to mention how hard it's for me to order in McDonald's. Did you know, I never got a bottle of water instead of a glass of Coca Cola? I mean I always have to pay extra if I want one. No wonder there are so many overweighted people on Earth.
And also I could live in a book store and I started kind of loving this new series I wrote about in one of my TV Series Worth Watching In 2014 series. I'm talking about True Detective. I watched last night I couldn't take my eyes off the screen.
Sweet day,
xxx
Lucy Jane

Saturday Lunch

After the very heated discussion I became our household regular Saturday lunch cook. This means I was chosen to make lunch for five people every Saturday. And when I say lunch I mean I have to make at least a soup, a main dish, a salad and preferably a desert (a low calorie one that is).

I like to cook and I decided to do my best. Today the household wanted to eat Tortillas. So I made them. I didn't use any specific recipe or anything like that. I simply made a non spicy chicken and vegetable tortilla filling. I needed about an hour, hour and a half to get everything done.

For this Tortilla a la Lucy you'll need (this is for about 6 grown-ups with a healthy appetite):

-500g of chicken (chicken breasts or fillet or something familiar that doesn't have bones still on, because cutting the meat off the bones just makes extra unnecessary work. We don't want that, do we?)

-4 small cucumbers

-2 red peppers

-1 onion

-oil

-1 leek

-130g of frozen mix of peas & corn (you can add corn and peas individually you don't have to buy the same thing I did. Just make sure you add about 60g of corn and about 70g of peas)

-125g of brown beans

- 0.20 L of tomato sauce

-salt and pepper

-if you want to make your Tortillas spicy just add some chilly at the end

What to do?

First put some oil on a pan an quickly cook chicken so it turns this white colour (once the pan is heated it takes about a minute on each side for this to happen) and then put it into a preheated own on 200°C for 17 min. This way the meat won't lose its juice and become dry and non-tasty. While you wait wash the peppers and cut them into small squares (or something similar, no one really cares if it's a square or a triangle as long as it looks and is eatable). Then cut the leek about 5 thick. Peal the cucumbers and cut them into squares about the size of your thumb (same as red peppers). Cut onion into small pieces and put it on a big pan or wok with a heated oil (I put 2 spoons of oil, it's up to you how greasy you want  your tortillas to be, but I think that 2 spoons is the smallest amount you can use without burning everything). When the onion looks glassy add the cut vegetables and cook the  for 7-10 minutes. Add beans, peas and corn and cook for 3 minutes before adding the chicken cut into  squares the same size as red peppers and cucumbers. Add salt pepper and tomato sauce and cook on small fire for additional 5-10 minutes. At this point you can also add chilli if you want the tortillas to be spicy.

Serve with warm tortillas and cheese in fajitas manner or you can you can make tortilla and put some  cheese on it and put into microwave for 30 seconds and serve them with white salsa (I bought mine in a store).

Bon appetite and enjoy the rest of the weekend,

Lucy Jane

Easy, Fast & Cheap Home Made Italian Lunch

I love Italian fashion, charm and their delicious food. I visited almost all the big Italian cities and some smaller ones too. I love Italy, and I can't wait for a trip to Rome I'm planning in March!

But today I'll share with you one of my favourite recipes for Italian pasta. It's super easy to do, it's not time or money consuming. And it's delicious and healthy.

  

This is what is waiting for you to eat it after less than half an hour of cooking (well you have to wait for 15 for pasta to cook and also for red pepper to steam).

Pasta with red pepper and mozzarella

 Ingredients (for four people):

- 2 red peppers

- 4 spoons of oil

- 1 mozzarella (200 g) or 100 g of cheese that melts

- 50 mL (or 1/5 cup) sweet cream

- salt and pepper

- 400 g of short pasta (I used Barilla's Farfalle; you can use Pipette, Rotini, Radiatore)

What to do:

Boil the water, add some salt and pasta. Cook for as long as it's instructed on the packaging.

Wash the red pepper and cut it.

Put 4 spoons of oil in a pot add red pepper and steam it for 15 minutes

Add some salt and pepper, and right before we serve the meal, add the mozzarella/cheese (which you already cut into small squares) and sweet cream. Stir until cheese melts a little.

Put the pasta on the plate, pour the red pepper sauce over, and you have a easy, fast, cheap, healthy and delicious meal for lunch or light dinner.

Buon Appetito Popolo! (and yes I used Google translator for this)

Lucy Jane

The Promised Macron Recipe

So here's the promised recipe for macrons. It took some time, but I finally did it.

For about 30 macrons (depends on how big you want the shells to be):

- 90 g of egg white (it's better if you leave it on a kitchen counter for a day))

- 30 g of white sugar

- 200 g of powdered sugar

- 110 g of almond powder/flour or fine blended almonds (preferably white)

- colour die for food if you wish (whatever the correct expression for this is, I hope you got my point)

Process (just be ready to repeat it over and over and over again, before you make perfect macrons):

-quickly mix egg whites, until you can see bubbles.

- add the white sugar

- mix until egg whites turn white and you are able to turn around the plate (you were mixing egg whites in) and the mix doesn't fall out of the plate
- add almonds and powdered sugar
- mix them into a think but creamy paste (mix like you're folding it (from downside to up)
- optional: somewhere in the middle of previous step add the colouring.
- paste is perfect when it flattens in about 10 s after you stopped mixing it

- put the paste into a plastic bag and cut off a really small piece of one corner
- make shells on a baking sheet (or however it's called - the thing you put your  cookies and stuff on so they don't burn into the baking pan) or you can buy a special macron baking sheet

- leave them to rest for about 60 minutes (depends on humidity), so they form a slight crust
- bake them in an preheated oven on 140 degrees Celsius for 22 minutes; when the macrons rise, lover the temperature to 130 degrees Celsius
- after we took them out of oven, leave them to cool down for 5 minutes
- turn macrons around together with the baking sheet
- pull the baking sheet off the macrons (not the other way around)

That's how your macron shells should look like

- put two together and put a marmalade or chocolate ganache or a cream cheese mix in between
-et voila:

Bon appetite
Lucy Jane

How (Not) to Make Macarons

The Cronut might be next black, but I still prefer the good old macrons. But, I do have to confess, that even dough I haven't tried a cronut yet (it was first introduced, like a week after I left New York City) I do have the perfect words for this culinary masterpiece: It's like my two favourite desserts got married and made a baby! Sadly I didn't make up those words, I heard them in one of the series I'm watching (N.C.I.S. Los Angeles, and it was said by Deeks to Kensi, when she brought him one).

Sadly I don't know the recipe for cronuts, and I read somewhere, that the chef that invented them sued a bakery in Los Angeles that made the same pastry for using the name cronut; But I do have a recipe for macrons and a story of how I made them.

For all of you, that don't know what a macron is, it's a French dessert made from egg whites, powdered sugar, almond powder and topped off with a different flavoured toppings. Macrons are also Blair's (for all of stone-age people, that don't know who this is Blair is one of the main characters in TV series Gossip Girl) favourite deserts. The most famous company that is considered to make the absolute best macrons.

The first time I had the pleasure of trying a macron was at a family gathering in Switzerland. Some of my relatives lives there and we celebrated my cousins birth. Her godfather is super rich, and he bought a "macron cake" in Paris and had it delivered with a train to Bern, where the celebration was held. It was the first time I even saw a macron, I had no idea how they taste or what are they made of. But I fell in love with the first bite. Learning how to do them seemed like the only option, considering that I'm not as rich as cousins godfather. So I did.

As all electronic age kids, I sat down in front of the computer and googled it. I found bunch of recipes and YouTube videos that showed how to do them. And the impulsive person I am, I decided to start right away. Without thinking or checking if I have all the ingredients, I just went right ahead.

The first thing I figured out was I didn't have any sugar. And you can't make macrons without sugar. So I went to the store and bought sugar. Naturally I bought the normal one (not powdered), and since I didn't feel like going to the store again, I decided to use the sugar I bought.

The next problem were almonds. I bought almonds with their peel (is this a correct word? I had to googled it and now I didnn't know how to use it...) still on. So I had to skin them. This is a long and dreadful procedure, that I never want to repeat. First I had to put almonds in a pot filled with hot water, waited for a few minutes and than almost burned my fingers, trying to peel the peel off (still confused over the word peel, hope you got what I wanted to say). After more than half an hour I finished and was getting ready to blend them, only to find out that my blender is broken. At this point I was losing the interest of making macrons and almost gave up. But I didn't. I used an old blender, that didn't do the job properly, which only added to the list of what did wrong. When the paste for the macron was finally done, I just wanted to sit down and eat some chocolate. But I had to make those perfect round shells, before I could do what I wanted. It turned out , it was easier said than done.I believe I made exactly one beautiful round macron. All the others looked like, hmm how should I put this, a five-year-old played darts with a balloons filled with macron paste. But the tip of the iceberg was, that the macrons didn't have "the foot". That is the crusty thingy that makes them so special. This was the first time I made them. It wasn't that they weren't good or eatable, they just didn't look right.

This depressed me so much I didn't want to repeat the horrible process I went trough the first time. It took me almost a year to try again. I tried a different recipe, but I still wasn't able to do them right. So I repeated the process the next year. And they still looked horrible. I did them 6 moths ago, and they still didn't have "the foot". But a month ago I finally, did it!

For a change I bought almond powder, instead of blending them myself. It turned out it was the right thing to do. And I used powdered sugar as well.

I must tell you that I used more than 40 eggs and 2 kg of sugar, before I made my first perfect macron. So don't fell bad if your macrons aren't perfect the first time around. You'll get it eventually.

Here's how my macrons looked like, and the last picture is a macron from Laudree. I think they look almost the same. What about you?

Sugary goodbye,

Lucy Jane 

p.s.

I can't believe it, but I almost forgot to add the recipe. And then I figured out I lost it somewhere in that giant pile of my stuff on my work table where I save all those stuff. So in a day (probably two or three, considering the size of that pile) I will make a post with THE recipe for the best home-made macrons in town!

Where Not to Eat...

So today I went to a lunch with my friend. At first we were planning to eat healthy and watch our body-shape, but when we saw the menu in the "healthy" restaurant we were planning to eat, we changed our minds. It must of been quite a funny sight: "Two girls walked in this super small place, where they only serve fruits and vegetables watched the menu for a while, making faces as they read the words French bean salad, broccoli soup, beetroot soup... Then they looked at each other burst into laughing turned around and left the place." If you can imagine that, than you know exactly how we looked at the "healthy" restaurant.

So, we left the place and suddenly we didn't care about our health any longer and decided to eat at one of the Mexican restaurants in our city. We decided to go to the Joe Peña's Cantina and Bar. I never been there and I heard that the food is delicious and that it has great atmosphere. We were both excited and super hungry when we came to the Cantina.

I went by the Cantina many times before and I liked the way it looks and the people seemed happy with both the service and the food. But when we arrived the Cantina was full and we just sat  down at the table where two other guests just left. The table was still dirty and it was left like that until we left. As if this wasn't enough we waited for a waiter for about 20 minutes, just to get the menus. Oh, and I have to tell you that some of the restaurants in the city I'm currently studying have a special menus for students, that are cheaper and partly founded by the government. We have to use our mobile phone and call a number and than put our phone on a machine that identify us and gives us the right to a cheaper meal. Well I guess my phone had a bad day because I had to call the number more than five times, before the waiter gave up and brought another machine. And he was kind of rude about it too.

If it would be just that, I would survive and forget the awful first (more than) half an hour, but apparently I got a lot of bad karma for not eating French beans and broccoli soup. Because once we gave our order to the (not very nice) waiter we waited for a loooong time before we got the soup and than the main dish and than the desert. The couple next to us, that came when we gave our order got their food before us! Can you see why I'm so unhappy?

When the food finally arrived, the soup was (guess what!) broccoli or something equally not in my range of not eatable food. The nachos that we got were good, but we got only two different super small plate sauce for two people. Does that mean that if I was alone I would get even smaller plate? I'm not even sure if it's possible to get a smaller plate. Or they just thought that we didn't need two sets of sauce for two people? Anyhow, we were still having a great time gossiping about everyone and anyone we set our mind to. But as the time passed we were getting hungrier, and the waiter with  our food was no where to be seen. When he finally brought the food, for which he assured me, that is not spicy, I almost burned my mouth trying to eat it. So much for the nice waiter and the main dish went down the toilet. And the salad. We got mixed salad with some spicy sauce. If you haven't figured out that yet, I'm not the biggest fan of vegetable, so my enthusiasm when I got it didn't really show. And I only ate the tomato, cumber and corn. And there goes the salad. I really do prefer the restaurants where you can pick your own salad, considering that I left half of it and it was later thrown away!

At this point, we started openly complain about the food and the service. When the waiter came to pick our food and asked us if we finished, we said yes, but when he asked us if the food was all right I didn't say a thing, even though I wanted to scream how bad it was and that he lied to me that my fajitas wouldn't be spicy. We didn't know that there was a desert but when we saw it on the next desk, our spirits lifted up for one last time. I believe that desert has a potential to either saves or ruins the meal.

I was ecstatic when I got the beautify arranged plate with what at the moment seemed as a delicious desert with fried banana rolled in tortilla, served with chocolate and caramel sauce with some sweet cream on the side. I'm just thinking about it and I became super hungry, by the delicious vision I created in my head. And this is the main reason why I never want to set foot in this restaurant, except if the staff changes completely. The desert was (put in the nicest words possible) awful. Banana was all greasy on one side and super hard on the other. I would survive that, but it was black in the middle (we got half of banana each, and I still can't believe that the chef hadn't noticed this!) and I almost threw up, trying to eat it. And yes I behaved super unladylike and spit the part of banana that I had in my mouth into my napkin.

Please do something about that restaurant, because I'm kind of proud of my table manners and Joe Peña's is destroying my reputation. If you're my (future) boyfriend/friend that fells like he/she should take me to this restaurant, please DON'T! I really don't want to embarrass you, by my lack of manners that seems to come out when I visit this place.

I would say spread the love, but I really don't fell a lot of love right now, so goodbye my cyber "friends",

still hungry Lucy Jane