Kale away

Who doesn't love kale? Or should I say who DOES love kale? 

 

Everyone talks about this amazing superhealthy, supergreen, superduper superfood (I reckon there'll soon be a super hero that owes his power to kale!), but no one really seems to like it. It's probably due to its slightly bitter taste and to the fact that very few people know how to use it.

Wanting to lead a healthier and better life I decided to try a couple of kale salad recipes (thanks Lisa for the input) with surprising results. The secret is the MASSAGE, as weird as that may sound! It's important to get a softer and sweeter kale to "massage" it with salt, oil and some lemon juice, so that the seasoning is well rubbed in the leaves. It's always a good idea to prepare kale salads at least a couple of hours before consumption so that the flavours are well mixed.

KALE AND BROCCOLINI SALAD 

Ingredients: 

1 bunch of kale

1 bunch of broccolini

1 handful of almonds (or other nuts if you prefer)

Haloumi or Feta cheese

mint

coriander

parsley

1 lemon

extra virgin olive oil

salt

pepper

 

 

 

Strip the leaves from the kale stems, wash, chop and place them in a large bowl. Squeeze the lemon over the kale then drizzle with oil, season with a bit of salt and massage the kale. Slice the broccolini into small pieces and sprinkle it on top. Toast the almonds, or nuts of your choice, in a non sticky-pan then simply chop it roughly and add it to your salad. Chop or tear roughly the mint, parsley and coriander leaves and add it on top. Finally cut and sprinkle the cheese on top (if you decide to use Haloumi, before cutting it

pan fry it til golden).

  

KALE AND TOMATO SALAD WITH TAHINI DRESSING

(recipe from Cooking with kale by Rena Pattern)

Ingredients:

 6 stems of kale

450g grape tomatoes

1 large red onion

black kalamata olives, to taste

 For the dressing:

60ml of Tahini paste

1 garlic clove

125ml of water

lemon juice, to taste

half teaspoon of ground cumin

olive oil

salt and pepper 

Wash and dry the kale, place it in a bowl with halved tomatoes, sliced or chopped onion and olives (you can cut the olives if you prefer). 

To make the dressing: whisk all the ingredients in a small bowl. If you find it too thick just add a bit more water. Pour as much as you like over the salad. Toss well to combine.

 

Enjoy!

A smile,

Cami 

At World's end

G'day mates! 

It was about time to update this blog! 

I know it's been a long time...a reeeeeally long time and a lot has happened in this past year and a half. 

Let's start from where I last left off! 

After having quite a few boring days, followed by busy and worried ones trying to get ready for the last Uni exams and at the same time writing my very much hated but very much loved thesis, a 60-page long dissertation about Cockney rhyming slang (I should have chosen the Australian slang, retrospectively!), I finally managed to graduate. 

That was February though and, as you may have noticed, it's already January 2016 now. Aaand I have temporarily (maybe) moved to another continent, almost at the end of the world! 
I'm in BLOODY AUSTRALIA!

My very first Australian sunset on Cottesloe Beach, Western Australia

I left my beloved Valtellina on the 30th of April and landed in sunny Perth on the 1st of May. More than 8 months have already gone by and the adventures have been many..

Wine tasting trip in the Swan Valley, Western Australia

Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House from the ferry

A view of Melbourne from St Kilda Pier

Cape Byron Lighthouse in Byron Bay, New South Wales

Pineapple growing in the Epicurious Gardens on Brisbane's South Bank

There are so many interesting things that I've discovered during my stay about Australia and I'd like to share it with the world (yes, the entire world reads my blog, am I right?). 

Let's start with driving!!

When I first arrived I had to learn to drive on the left side(and probably wrong, but who can tell..). It may seem scary to some and I must admit that the first few minutes were somehow challenging: the only thing I could do was to constantly remind myself to keep left, as weird as that might sound to us right-hand side drivers. It's also quite weird to have the indicators on the right stalk and the windscreen wipers on the left one (unless you keep driving an European car!) and that was probably the most difficult thing to get used to, no joke.

Now, after several months of practice on both automatic and manual cars (ok, that happened just once but still..) I came to the SURPRISING conclusion that driving is just driving.

However, I still don't understand why we can't all drive on the same side, whichever that would be, but I found an insteresting article that tries to explain it.

Well, my dears, this was just a little post to get back into this blogging thing.

I'll be soon back with more aussie adventures.

Talk soon.

A smile,

Cami

When laziness strikes..

Hello people! I've been absent for a while, I know. But the truth is: I didn't know what to write about, I love sharing my travelling experiences with you but that's not all I want to talk about on this blog. I actually haven't figured out yet what's the main topic of this blog, so I guess it is, and it will remain, a random mixture of stuff. :) 

Anyway today I thought I would talk about lazy days. Who does not love lazy days? Well, I do and I had a lot this strange summer since the rain showed up quite frequently and going out wasn't a possible option on those lucky days when you don't have to study, nore to work, and you just can enjoy. One of the things that I really love doing when I have spare time is cooking; I find it relaxing and satisfying at the same time, since you get something done from it (if you can get a good result, of course ;P). 

I remember the first time I baked bread.

I really felt like experimenting that day and when I found this easy recipe on Facebook, I said to myself "why not?!" and decided to give it a try. I had almost everything I needed at home, expect from the yeast. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I needed to go grocery shopping anyway, so while I was there I got the yeast and the moment I got back home I started my experiment. Since it was as easy as I expected it to be, even if it takes quite a bit of time because of the leavening, and the result was awesome (my brother could confirm that :)), I thought I would also share the recipe (that can also be found here  but just in Italian!).  Unfortunately I don't have a picture of my masterpiece but you can get an idea on how it should look clicking on the previous link!

Ingredients:

400g cake flour

8g salt

1g brewer’s yeast

300g cold water(12°-18°)

Start off by mixing flour, salt and yeast in a big bowl. Then add the water and mix it well with your hands for about 30 seconds. Now you'll have to cover the bowl with some plastic wrap and leave it there to rise for 18-20 hours. Then , after covering in flour your worktop, pour the mixture that had been rising on it and fold it up until you get a fine ball out of it. Now it'll have to rise for two hours more. After that you just put it in a pot, a cast-iron one would be the best choice, and in the oven, preheated at 180°, for about one hour. Taaa-da! You will now have baked a delicious bread! Enjoy!! :D

  

Weeell, that's all for today, folks! 

Hope you liked reading this post :)

A smile,

Cami

Can you ever get tired of travelling? - Discovering non-traditional destinations

I just got back from a family Euro trip to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam and it made me think about travelling in general. It's one of the things I could not do without in my life because it makes you richer and richer and richer.

I guess that you only start to like travelling when you start to grow up and leave childhood or, at least, that's what happened to me. I remember myself as a 10-year-old or 11-year-old not being really keen on leaving my house to discover new places. I felt like it was a waste of time and I couldn't get anything from it!

I could never be more wrong!! Now I take the opportunity to visit new places whenever I have enough time (and enough money!). I feel like every place in the world is worth visiting and I try not to be prejudiced on any of them. This doesn't mean, needless to say, that I liked all the places I visited but I would never not reccomend a location just based on my own judgement. The experience is not only made by the enjoyment.

Anyway, today I wanted to talk about two cities I visited at the end of last year that I really liked but which are not traditional destinations: Riga, Latvia and Tallinn, Estonia.

As you probably know if you've read my previous post, the first semester of the last academic year I lived in Vilnius, Lithuania as an Erasmus student and while there with a group of friends met there (we were a mix of nationalities: Italians, French, Spaniers, Romanians etc.) we decided to visit the two other Baltic capitals. 

The first trip was to Riga at the beginning of October. We took a bus in the morning and arrived in Riga after more or less 5 hours (travelling by bus is really cheap and it was also the easiest way since there were not direct connections between the Baltic capitals by train!). After checking in at the hostel we started discovering the city. I must say it's quite a small city so two days were enough to visit it all; and also, being so small, we hadn't had to take any mean of trasport to move around. I remember I instantly started to like the city a lot mostly because of the atmosphere. In some parts you can really feel its past as a Sovietic city but it also feels really young and full of things to do. We easily found places where to eat (there is a sort of dumpling fast food, which is cheap, good and easy to find being on the main street and it's called Pelmeni) and where to hang out even at night (Rokkafejnīca bar, for example); and it never felt dangerous. It also is a city with history and important monuments especially expressions of the Art Noveau.

One of the new bridges that connects the old (Vecriga) and the modern part of the city

A view of the Esplanade Park

Melngalvju nams (House of the Blackheads)

The Freedom Monument

The cat on the roof, a really famous tourist attraction

A bit of time had passed by when at the end of November we went to visit Tallinn. This time we took the bus late at night (I think more or less at 11pm) and arrived in the Estonian capital really early in the morning (I have to say the journey was kind of a nightmare for me since I really cannot sleep on buses, but it was again the cheapest way, soooo..you must adapt!). After taking the tram from the station to reach the centre where the hostel was, we checked in and slept for a couple of hours before starting our new adventure. There was a free guided tour organized by the city so we decided to take it and a lovely Estonian student showed us all the highlights of Tallinn old town in about two hours. As I said before for Riga, also Tallinn is quite small so even there two days are enough to visit it well. I really liked Tallinn since it was a surprise: the old town is surrounded by Medieval walls, which you can also walk on, and full of nice spots (like a really nice cafè/bakery/chocolate bar just behind the Town Hall square). 

I think part of me liking it so much was also because the day we arrived was the day the Christmas market started, so it was really nice to see the city so Christmassy enlighted. 

The old town door

A view of Tallinn from a panoramic spot

The Town Hall with Christmas lights

 We also got the chance to go a bit further from the centre to visit the Kadriorg park, which is really relaxing and it also has a Japanese garden in it, and the beach. It was really cold and windy so I didn't put my bare feet in the water, I kept my boots on ;)

The beach :)

Kadriorg park

Here they are: my feet in the Baltic sea ;)

I hope you like this post as much as I liked remembering the memories I have about these trips. And if you happen to want to go there by bus as we did here are the links we used:  http://www.luxexpress.eu/ and http://ecolines.net/en/. 

A smile.

Xo

Cami

Once Erasmus, Always Erasmus

I guess it’s true what they say: once Erasmus, always Erasmus. If you ever become an Erasmus student, you realise that immediately, the moment you step into this new amazing experience. 

 

I spent my Erasmus period in Vilnius, Lithuania, during the first semester of the current academic year (2013/2014), and I could easily say it's been the best experience of my life so far. From the beginning of my University studies I knew I wanted to go study abroad with the Erasmus programme, so when the time to do it finally came I took my chances and applied. I wasn't sure I would be chosen since nowadays many students want to take part in it, so when the acceptance letter (more or less like the acceptance letter from Hogwarts ;)) arrived on March 14th, 2013 (yes, I do still remember the exact day it came!!) I could not be happier. 

Some months passed before I really got to leave for Vilnius and they were not that easy: I had mixed feelings! Excitement, happiness, joy, anxiety together with stress and worry kept passing through my mind. It's the never old feeling towards the unknown that made the wait so heavy but so whirlwind.

And in a flash August 31st came and my adventure began. 

Discovering the city and getting to know places, neighborhoods, shops, bars and clubs was one of the best parts, especially during the first few weeks when everything is new and exciting :D

These are some pictures from my first days there:

Vilnius new part from Gedimino's Castle

Old Town from Gedimino's Castle

Vilnius Old Town from Three Crosses Hill

 

Cathedral Square (They were probably building a stage for an upcoming event, there were a lot!)

The view from the dormitory balcony (yes, we were surrounded by woods and loved it ;))

Getting to know the university buildings and being able to find classrooms was another great adventure we went through at the beginning. I remember wandering around the Philology Faculty for about 20 minutes before finally founding the Survival Lithuanian course lecture room. :D

During the first week all Erasmus students were also invited to take part in the University Parade that every September marks the beginning of the new Academic Year. The entire students' body of the Vilnius University partecipates in it, divided into Faculty groups distinguishable by some typical symbols and items they carried with them. It is a long walk from the beginning to the end of the main street of Vilnius, Gedimino Prospektas!

Part of the Parade (unfortunately it was raining :( )

Rapresentatives of the Faculty of  Natural Sciences

Buut, all that being said I must tell you that the best part was, of course, the PEOPLE! Yes, people, the people I met are the main reason why I enjoyed Erasmus so much! Meeting new people is always a good experience but in this particular context it is even better because everyone is so open that there's no embarassment whatsoever. And it was not merely about meeting new people, but it was more like meeting new cultures!! Living in such an international environment made me grow personally and mentally a lot. I think that now I'm more open-minded than I ever was before! :D

Listing all the people I met and all the things I discovered living with all of them would be very long and I'm sure I would forget some of them so I won't even try, but they're all in my mind and in my heart (Guys, if you're reading me I miss you all so much <3).

 I'm really glad this programme was created and I hope it will even become better in the future, because, let's be honest, everything can always improve!
 Nonetheless I would suggest every student from every Country to become an Erasmus student: it's a life-changing experience! :D

Aaand, if you wish to find out more about Erasmus check here: http://www.erasmusprogramme.com/
and also my friend Raul's blog: http://errrasmuss.wordpress.com/

Hope you enjoyed this post! 
xo, 
Cami
:)