Jyothi

This pendant was given to me by a shaman artist when I was about 17 years old.
It happened like this.
Me and my parents where walking on a alternative market where different stalls where offering their services.
There was the tarot reading, Reiki etc etc.
There was also this little stall full with beautiful jewelry made by a shaman artist. And when I saw this
pendant I really wanted to have it, but no way I could afford it. They where asking about 150 guilders for it, which for a 17 year old is a lot of money. The artist saw that I really liked it, and asked if I wanted to hold it. I said yes. She told me to keep it in between my hands. A little later she asked me:” What do you feel?”

I told her I felt an energy coming from the bottom of my belly going up.

She was surprised and happy I could feel the energy from the pendant and she gave it to me as a gift.

I wore it for a few years and then I took it off, I can’t even remember why.The other day I found it again and felt that I should wear it again. So I cleaned it and now it is hanging around my neck once again reinforcing my inner strength.

Just a few weeks untill autumn officially starts. This weekend is the last weekend of the summer holiday of the boys. Monday they are both starting at there new school. I really hope they make loads of friends en feel good at school.
Also most likely i have found a job and will start working again. it really feels good to start doing something outside of the house/family again.

I found this recipe searching for a good recipe for a cake without eggs. As my mother in law in allergic for them.

3 tsp lemon juice 
1 1/4 cup milk
2/3 cup sunflower oil
3/4 Cup sugar 
3 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/12 tsp cinnamon powder
1 1/2 tsp ginger powder
1 1/2 cup grated carrots 

Preheat the oven on 170 degrees Celsius. Butter the cake tin of you choice. These ingredients are enough for a round cake of about 20 cm.

In a small bowl mix the lemon juice with the milk, let it rest for 5 minutes.
Mix the flower with the baking powder, cinnamon, ginger and salt, put aside.

In a big bowl mix the oil with the sugar, until the sugar is dissolved. Add the milk mixture, mix it again. Add the flower mixture and mix well so there are no lumps left. Add the carrots and pour the mixture in the baking tin, and bake for about an hour.

enjoy  

The first time I made this cake I made it several ones and made Lucas first birthday cake from them.

This is the applepie my granny always used to make when I was little. Now I make it for us or for when we are with friends. I added a bit of ginger to the original recipe. I love the combination of apples, raisins, ginger and cinnamon.

Ingredients

For the dough

240 gr flour
180 gr butter or margarine
120 gr sugar
1 tsp salt

For the filling

1 kilo apples peeled and cut in little pieces
50 grams of sugar
1 tsp of cinnamon
1 tsp of ginger
100 gr raisins
lemon juice

2 spoons of milk
2 spoons of jam (ideally apricot jam, but here i used home made plum jam)

round cake tin of about 24 cm
preheat the oven on 160 degrees Celsius

Mix all the ingredients for the dough until you have a firm ball. cover with clingfilm and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. Roll about 2/3 of the dough out until it is about half a cm thick and put in the cake tin.

Mix the apples together with the sugar, raisins, cinnamon, ginger and lemon juice.

Put the apple mixture on the dough.

Roll out the remaining 1/3 of the dough and cut it in long stripes, put the stripes over the apples like a sort of net. Brush some milk over the dough stripes.

Put the pie in the oven and bake it for about 45 minutes or until it is golden brown.

Take it out and spread some jam over the top.

Let it cool down and enjoy

Before I had kids i used to listen to loads of music, always had the radio on. Or cd’s in the cd player and my Walkman with me with tapes. Then after Joshua was born I listened to some but not as much as i used to and I started more and more to forget to put music on. Then i had a job where there was always music on the background, then at home i was not very worried that it was quiet or that Daniele put on his cd’s. The radio i could not really be asked to listen to because half the songs where not my taste and i can’t stand commercials.

So the other week Daniele invited me to come as well to http://www.last.fm a type of radio station where you can make your own play list and on the kind of music you like they make suggestions of similar kind of music.

So i subscribed and for the first time in years i am listening to the radio again. Only this time it is just with the songs I like. And also found some old dutch songs that my dad used to sing when I was little……

Living in Italy also means that when it is the right season the vegetables of that season are really cheap. So the other day I bought 10 kilo of tomatoes for 4 euro.

So I went looking online for recipes, this is one of them.

6 plum tomatoes cut in thick slices
1 package of puffpastry
about 300 grams of grated cheese ( I used a mixture of Gouda, parmesan and pecorino)
1 tablespoon of mustard
1 tablespoon of dried basil

Put the puffpastry in a low pie shape. spread the mustard on the bottom. Lay down the tomatoes in a circular way. cover it with the grated cheese and the basil.

Then put the pie in the oven for about 30 minutes on 200 degrees Celsius. Or until it looks done. Take out and let the pie cool down. Enjoy  

Tha last month and a half we have been busy with moving to our new house. So we had to strip walls, paint them and a bit of burocratics to resolve…

Now things are nearly finished, just the finishing touches.

The new house even though it has some small problems feels very good and so far i like living in this new city.

My mother told me to watch this it is very interesting. My family back in Holland is bringing it in practice and it is working for them. So will give it a go as well.

The village where Joshua goes to school, is a village expanding build along two busy roads and with a station. Houses where affordable or at  least 6 years ago they where. Now they are expensive. People started living there because of the busy roads and the station it is well connected to Rome.

But when people live there the things that keep them so well connected to Rome turn in something that make a lot of noise and are annoying. So they want them changed. They do not want all the cars driving through the village they do not want to see or hear the train. So they made a project to get the train underground. http://digilander.libero.it/Sotto_terra_il_treno/ . To me it looks nearly as an impossible job to do with all the houses build so close to the rail road.

I do understand from a human point of view I really do understand that it is very annoying to have cars an trucks passing your house continuously, and that twice an hour all the streets are blocked because a train has to pass…….but when they moved there that was already there. And they do not stop building they are building more and more houses with a result it get even busier………

Apart from that we can not afford to buy a house there if I could then for that amount of money i would not choose to buy a house there. But that is just my opinion.

Well I have a pair, well actually they are called Woz? and are made in Europe, and cost about half the price. In the end i choose for a blue pair, because it goes with a lot of cloths. I have to say they are really comfy. I even took wore them for a walk in a forest, nearly mountain climbing and no sore feet what so ever……  so when we can afford it i would not mind having another pair in a bright color.