The easiest cake I´ve prepared, and liked.

http://www.scig.uniovi.es/dilbert.html

This is a recipe even I can remember! My friend suggested me to mix:

1. 18-25 finely chopped dates (I made it with 30, all the package. What is anybody supposed to do with 5 left over pieces?)
2. 1 cup of flour (I only had spelt and used it in the same quantity)
3. 3/4 cup of sugar (No need for that much -Reduced to 1/2, replaced it with brown sugar-)
4. Vanilla extract (a bit)
5. A cup of milk (soaked the dates on a cup of half and half for a couple of hours)
6. 3/4 cup of vegetable oil (for softness I added only half a cup plus 100 g. of melted butter)
7. 1 tsp of baking soda (Baking powder would work just fine, but the cake might harden faster. I knew it was not going to last so long as to even cool down),

Pour the mixture into a buttered pan or a silicon cake mould and bake it in a preheated oven (350 degrees) for about 40 minutes.

You will be bound to make it again and again (My friend did not warn me on that!).
Chopped walnuts can be also added, and for serving it whipped cream or any custard sauce would turn this simple cake into a luscious dessert.

These are my concessions to lent

1. I bought a seasonal magazine (Much more thematic than February ELLE)
2. I plan to visit the Cathedral of LUGO (Have I mentioned earlier how very little I appreciate these type of edifices?)
3. I read and spoke about Isabel la Católica, and even tried to find something positive about her adventures in foreign policy and other"wise,"
4. I will try to eat more fish despite its escalating market value (Fresh MERLUZA at the unprecedented price of 116EUR per kilo in the closest shop which by the way I thought was a discount food chain (¿?STILL PUZZLED¿?),
5. I am using mostly PURPLE in our new blog ( www.maromasdeltorpe.blogspot.com ). Is not purple a lenty-like color? It is not an easter one, certainly...mmmhhh...
6. I am making discrete sacrifices daily. For example, yesterday I refrained from making a fabulous chocolate cake; it was too easy. I decided to make it later, and much more complicated,
7. I have noticed it at all ( YES! LENT!) despite the negligible impact it has always had on my practical life (It did disturbed me a little not to be able to dispute the imposition of the wet ashes cross on my clean forehead when I was a child. I did not carry it with grace...I must admit though, that some classmates seemed more beautiful with that "symbol on top" -more than without-)

Not too many, just enough, but I still can apply for redemption later.

Fantastic jewelry HERE

YUGOP, but I have no idea how to insert it here permanently

I used to have this clock in my website on conflict management but for some reason I forgot how to add it or where to find the tags! A blog does not allow for much unless one knows a lot about blogging. I do not. Anyway, see the link, it is very, very cool!

Onto another matter: I love this sweater, does anybody know how to make it???????????

Tomorrow is candles day! I will take many pictures.

Recommended viewing:

1. Two women make pictures every single morning; they live more than 3.000 miles apart, they are friends, they blog the images and the result is a very beautiful photo blog made by two.

It takes discipline, commitment and romanticism to do this, that is why I like it:

CHECK IT OUT HERE

2. Last but not least: CINNAMON ROLLS Tartelette: Cinnabons - A Tasty Knock Off - Priceless Friends: "Link Newer Post Older Post "

Y que son los CALCOTS? What CALCOTS are?

Son una especie de las tantas de cebollas que tiene algun parecido con la que llamamos "junca" pero con mas consistencia, un poco mas gruesa. En todo caso, saben igual. Los Calcots son un plato tipico tarragones. Su consumo, tan exotico que se ha convertido ya en "producto" de exportacion a otras comunidades de Espana, por lo que se puede ir en Madrid a alguna que otra calcotada que es el nombre de este evento gastronomico decembrino. Se preparan a la brasa, y cuando la pelicula exterior esta chamuscada se sirven (de veinte en veinte) con la salsa romesco que les acompana. Los calcots saben simplemente a cebollas cocidas, dulzones, babosos, pero la salsa es exquisita. Se comen con escalivada (pimentones con berenjena asados y aderezados con aceite de oliva), alcachofas a la brasa y pan con tomate. Se sirven como guarnicion de las carnes y los embutidos y para pasarlo todo: VINO.

Calcots are like huge spring onions. They are mainly eaten in the Catalan province of Tarragona but since there is a whole gastronomical event around them, which precisely starts this time of the year, the consumption has been "exported" to the capital and other important regions. They are grilled directly on top of burning coals and served with a delicious dip (wich at the end is what makes the dish, the hassle and the mess worth) called romesco sauce. They are also served with wine, of course! escalivada (roasted bellpeppers with eggplant, and sometimes anchovies) and pan con tomate, our all times favorite.

Receta de la salsa romesco/Romesco sauce recipe

Ingredientes/ingredients:
3-6 tomates muy maduros/3-6 ripe tomatoes
1 cabeza entera de ajo/1 garlic head
1 docena de almendras peladas/a dozen peeled almonds
1/2 docena de avellanas (opcional)/6 hazelnuts
5 ~noras (pimientos o pimentones)/5 red bell peppers
Un pedacito de pimenton picante o guindilla si se quiere algo de pique/hot pepper to taste
1 vaso de aceite de oliva virgen extra/200g extra virgin olive oil
1/2 vaso de vinagre de buena calidad/100g quality vinegar
1 rebanada grande de pan tostado o frito/1 bread loaf; Toasted or fried
Sal y pimienta al gusto/salt and pepper to taste

Preparacion/preparation:
En un mortero se trituran las almendras, las avellanas y el pan. Se le agregan los tomates, los pimentones y el ajo, previamente asados (puede ser a la brasa o en el horno, pero deben estar tiernos y bien hechos) y pelados. Se machacan con la mezcla anterior y con la ayuda del aceite y el vinagre se homogeniza la salsa. Se deja reposar unas 3 horas. Al final se sala al gusto y si se prefiere una textura mas fina se pasa por un colador chino. Para que la textura sea my cremosa el aceite de oliva se va anadiendo a la vez que se esta machacando la pasta, continuamente y poco a poco. Se trata de una especie de alioli con mucho sabor.
Using a mortar and a pestle crush almonds, halzenuts and bread. Peppers, garlic and tomatoes should be grilled and peeled (well done and soft) before adding them to the mortar. Mix the remaining ingredients while adding at the same time the olive oil. In this way the resulting sauce would be very smooth and creamy. Season it to taste. For a finer texture use a Chinese strainer.

El pastel de miel con crema agria de aniversario

The "somewhat original" recipe illuminating this initiative can be found HERE . Our "original version" (OV) of that is recreated more or less, although summarily, as follows:

Difficulty: unprecedented
Preparation time: 3 to 5 hours; Just enough to miss the 11:30pm reservation made at Mosaic restaurant!
Cost: expensive, including the waste of dough, and nerves.
Ingredients: Undetermined amount of flour, water to clean the counter and the sticky fingers, energy to bake one by one the 6 layers of honey cake, and the others listed HERE ...to some extent...
Preparation: Forget to print the recipe, try very hard to remember it and give up, suspend this step and go to internet to look for it again, write down the recipe.
Try deciphering it while fruitlessly staring at it until somebody gives you a small push to start doing something and figure things in the making. Measure, weight, mix and get an extremely weird and difficult dough that sticks everywhere. Add countless more spoons of flour. When you feel disoriented ask for a second opinion. Did you miss something? Have you read properly? Was fat necessary? Could anybody seek for an alternative recipe? Question your abilities until everything cools down...EVERYTHING.
Do not try cleaning your hands and the counter or whatever surface you might be working on, simply because you will be left with barely any dough to make the layers of the cake you were after in the first place. Do not quit and leave the kitchen so long that you forget about the cake altogether, leave it all alone only enough time to let the mixture inexplicably transform into an ordinary, yet dry to the touch, dough (remember that this would happen without your intervention, in your absence, and possibly behind closed doors!).
At this moment you feel that you have invested too much time and energy and you will give it a last chance, mix the sour cream with sugar but do not eat it! The layers will need a significant amount of hydration!
Follow the instructions of the momentarily abandoned project and make 6 pancakes. Make sure that your monthly consumption of electricity skyrockets by placing the layers ONE BY ONE! in the oven. Disregard the waste of time. Do not even think of placing 3 in the different racks of the oven, because the honey cake would lack merits!!!!! The wax paper is also of no concern. Use and throw means just that. Why to change the principles?
Build a nice tower of the resulting cookies using the little bit of sour cream that remained and let it set and get moist in the refrigerator.
It would be so very late by the time you are done that no other plans for the night are recommended. Criticism is discouraged, the bystanders and observers should learn from the process without commenting on it because the cook could get very irritated.
The cake is FENOMENAL! Fantastiline, suurepärane!

*The eventful, confusing an unsettling discussion on the issue of baking powder, polvo royal, soda, baking soda, küpsetus pulber, and/or bicarbonato whatever it is that should be used in this recipe (or any other...) has been suppressed for the preservation of the vitality of an important institution: marriage. It also deserves independent analysis.