Back Under Construction

New Year, new things. When would be the right time for changes, if not in January? I've been thinking about doing some changes in my blog, for some time now. If everything goes the way it's supposed to, I'll still post something every day, and will be finished with the new design till the end of the week And if I'm happy with it, I won't change the design of the site for, hmm, lets say another three months or so.

Hopefully you'll hear from me soon, when this blog will be all shiny and new. All just for you (and me. Of course).
xxx
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

Quote of the Week

Another week has come to an end and I'm bringing back my quote of the week series.

I read in Cosmo that guys usually don't like it when a girl has motivational quotes all over her place. If this is true, guys be ready to walk into a mausoleum of motivational quotes. I have notes with different quotes all over my place. And if you don't like it that way, too bad. Besides, I like my place the way it is (well a bigger place wouldn't go by unappreciated). And so it happens, I am quite proud of my quote collection.

This particular quote is from a movie called The Lovely Bones. I remember my big sister watched the movie and that it was a big hit when it came out. I think it captures what life's all about. Not about dwelling on the past, but thinking about the future. But it's also important to take a breath and stop for a while and enjoy the moment.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend,

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

Book Of The Month: E. Bronte: Wuthering Hights

I got so into over my head the past month that I forgot to write Book Of The Month Series for December 2013. But not to worry, I'll write it now. Truly, I hadn't decided which book I want to present for the magical time of December. There are just so many great books that capture that Christmas Spirit we're all talking about in December. I'll do my best and pick one (hopefully) till the end of January and wrote what it's about, what other people say about it, what I think about it and of course, why you should read it.

This time I chose a classic, I picked up from my bookshelf and fell in love with the story all over again. I'm talking about Emily Bronte book Wuthering Heights. I remember a new movie adaption came out not long ago (one or maybe two years) and out of curiosity I checked iMdb to see how many movie adaptation this book has. I counted 10 movies (one had a different titles and some were just a TV movies). Am I the only one who thinks that's a bit much? I mean you'd need more than one day to see all the versions. When I'll have too much hands in my hands I'll definitely do that and wrote all about how they were (I'll rank them from on to ten based on different criteria, like accuracy or hotness of the actors...).

Emily Bronte is one of the writing Bronte sisters (her sister Charlotte Bronte wrote Jane Eyre). Wuthering Heights is her only published book, which was published after her death when she was 30 years old. If you want to learn more about her I recommend English Wikipedia or Sparks Notes.

I don't want to write a lot about what the book's about, because then people are either mad because I spoiled them all the important parts, or they think those twenty sentences can replace the entire book and they don't read it at all. But the first type of people at least read it. Story follows the life of Catherine and Headcliff, both of whom grew up on Wuthering Heights. The story starts when Heathcliff is a owner of Wuthering Heights and a man named Lockwood comes to the estate. Lockwood then narrates the story about Heathcliff and Wuthering Heights with the help of house keeper Nelly.

Wuthering Heights is considered one of the best stories in the English literature. With its "wildness" and "rawness" Emily Bronte created a one of a kind story. Even though critics were are still are skeptical about into which literary category the story belongs. The author called it a novel with "a story within a story" and occasionally even "a story within a story within a story", which was highly unusual for the 19. century when the book was written and published. These days some authors write books with more parallel stories that effect one another.

Another word to be used when describing Wuthering Heights is, as I wrote before: a classic. This is one of those books that you just have to read or at least know what's about. I don't know about your high school, but in mine we studied this book. Well , we didn't have to read it, but we had to know what's about, who wrote it, when it was written and stuff like that. I think this is a usable knowledge. I know what you think: "I don't care if some lady wrote a book in 19th century. This was two hundred years ago. That's like old and so out of fashion!" But what if (this is a total cliché, but I think it's still the best reason to have a basic knowledge of, well everything) you'll once meet someone you'll like and they'll loved this book. I don't know about you, but I like to hear from a guy (or girl) that they know what I'm talking about  when they ask me what I love. Mostly because I'm kind of a book nerd. I could talk books all day and night. Seven days a week. Basically all the time. And because the people I meet usually don't ever read something that it's not absolutely mandatory for school or work. With some exceptions that also read Cosmo (female friends) or Penthouse (male friends)  type of publications (this is not entirely true I have friends that read a lot, I just want to make things more black and white and easier to understand).

THE VERDICT:

The book is a classic and it's definitely worth of the time it takes to read it. I found the story a bit too sad and depressing for me, but it's beautifully written and the storyline is wonderfully executed. I think it's a perfect book for book clubs (even if you only read vine labels). The story can be interpreted in many different ways and this can create some interesting conversations and insights of your friends (or whoever is in the same book club) way of thinking and perception. Overall I think you should read it.

xxx

Lucy Jane