Sound Garden...

Another one because this one's such a feel-good song and I just came across it again...

Sound Garden...

Feeling of the Day...

[ via kaneto ]

In dreams, we enter a world that's entirely our own.  

- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Sound Garden...

Love the song. Love her voice. Love her style. Oh... and I love James Bond and all the movie soundtracks!

Sound Garden...

I've always loved this song. Haven't heard it in a while but it's still as beautiful as at the first time...

Feeling of the Day...

[ via Blood for the Blood God ]

Feeling of the Day...

[ via make tea, not love ]

Minds, like bodies, will often fall into a pimpled, 

ill-conditioned state from mere excess of comfort.  

- Charles Dickens

Sound Garden...

From the beautiful "Chayenne - This must be the place" soundtrack...

Sound Garden...

Feeling of the Day...

[ via Elephant on a Wire ]

Cooking is like love... 

It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. 

- Harriet Van Horne

 

 

 

Feeling of the Day...

[ via we ♥ it ]

On the Big Screen...

Tonight! At Cinemagic. I'm on my way already...

EDIT: OMG! Sean Penn was incredible. One of the best and most touching films I've seen in a while... And the soundtrack is awesome, too.

Tea Time...

It's been quite cold throughout the last few days... Plus me having a sore throat - there's only one cure: lots of tea. I'm not sure how many different kinds of tea we have at home... black, green, herbal, fruits... I need variety (same principle works with shoes or scarves for me LOL). I thinhk I could live without coffee (although it'll be hard in the morning...) but I would die without tea. Anyway, here some nice images of tea to get you in the mood... and I'm off now for some Sweet Lemon black tea... ^_^ Which one is your favourite?

[ via we ♥ it ]

On the Big Screen...

I've promised my sister we're gonna watch it. Still have a few months to mentally prepare - and since I've seen all the other parts already, I might as well find out how it all ends! (Maybe I should FINALLY finish reading the book...)

Feeling of the Day...

[ via we ♥ it ]

What is soul?  

It's like electricity - 

we don't really know what it is, 

but it's a force that can light a room.  

- Ray Charles

On the Big Screen...

Feeling of the Day...

[ via we ♥ it ]

Drink your tea slowly and reverently, 

as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves - 

slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.  

- Thich Nat Hahn

On the Big Screen...

Tim Burton and Johnny Depp again. I know it's gonna be good...

Feeling of the Day...

[ via we ♥ it ]

On the Big Screen...

Can't wait...

Feeling of the Day...

[ via Pinterest ]

I arise in the morning torn between 
a desire to improve the world 

and a desire to enjoy the world.  
This makes it hard to plan the day.  

- Elwyn Brooks White

Sound Garden...

Feeling of the Day...

[ via we ♥ it ]

Then, the cool kindliness of sheets, that soon
Smooth away trouble; and the rough male kiss
Of blankets....
- Rupert Brooke, The Great Lover

Sound Garden...

Randomness...

[ via we ♥ it ]

Feeling of the Day...

[ via GOODIES GOODIES GOODIES ]

If the family were a fruit, it would be an orange, 

a circle of sections, held together but separable 

- each segment distinct.  

- Letty Cottin Pogrebin

Sound Garden...

La Cuisine...

Weil meine liebe Schwester beim Essen ein bisschen heikel ist und ich ihr eine Freude machen wollte, hab ich ihr... naja, besser gesagt uns Calamari besorgt. Ist ja nicht so, als ob ich diese nich auch gerne essen würde... Meeresfrüchte waren schon lange überfällig und dieser Salat geht wirklich ganz einfach und schnell - und schmeckt ausgezeichnet! Wer will, kann auch noch roten Basilikum dazugeben! Die frischen Kräuter schmecken schön aromatisch. Perfekt als leichtes Abendessen, Vorspeise oder an heißen Sommertagen!

Calamarisalat im Kräuterbett

4 Portionen

500g Calamari, aufgetaut oder frisch

6 Knoblauchzehen

1 Zitrone

3 EL Olivenöl

1/2 Bund Rucola

1/2 Bund Petersilie

1/2 Bund Basilikum

2 Zweige Estragon

1 Pkg. Kirsch- oder Cocktailtomaten

Kräutermischung Provence oder Mediterran

Salz, Pfeffer

Essig, Öl zum Marinieren

Calamari in ca. 1-2 cm dicke Ringe schneiden. (Oder dünner, wem's beliebt.)

Knoblauch in feine Scheiben oder Streifen schneiden und in einer Pfanne mit dem Olivenöl frittieren, bis er braun und knusprig ist. Herausnehmen und auf einem Küchenpapier abtropfen lassen. Pfanne mit Öl beiseite stellen.

Zitrone filettieren: Zuerst die Spitzen abschneiden, dann die Schale und die weiße Haut. Fein würfeln, Kerne entfernen.

Die Kräuter, Tomaten und Rucola waschen. Tomaten halbieren und zusammen mit den frischen Kräutern und dem Rucola auf 4 Teller anrichten und marinieren. (Limetten- oder weißer Balsamicoessig schmecken sehr gut.)

Calamari ordentlich mit der Kräutermischung einreiben. Das Knoblauchöl erneut erhitzen und Calamari zusammen mit den Zitronenwürfeln zugeben und goldbraun anbraten. 

Calamari auf dem Salat anrichten und mit ein bisschen Sud aus der Pfanne übergießen. Je nach Geschmack salzen, pfeffern unt mit Kräutern nachwürzen. Den frittierten Knoblauch darüber verteilen.

Bon appetit!

Feeling of the Day...

[ via Pinterest ]

The essence of pleasure is spontaneity.  

- Germaine Greer

Randomness...

[ via Alexandra Wanka ]

Hahaha....

La Cuisine...

Es ist Frühling - und damit wieder Erdbeer-Saison. Und weil mich der Rhabarber auch so herrlich verführerisch pink angelacht hat, gibt's diesmal eine neue Komposition. Durch den Orangesaft erhält das Kompott eine angenehm natürliche Süße, ohne dabei überzuckert zu schmecken! Das geht ganz leicht und superschnell und eignet sich hervorragend zu den verschiedensten Desert-Kreationen: ob mit Joghurt-Topfen-Nockerl, geschichtet im Glas mit Vanillecreme, als Beilage zu Souffles and Küchleins... ganz egal! Es schmeckt immer!

Geschmortes Erdbeer-Rhabarber-Kompott

400g (Himbeer)Rhabarber
8 EL brauner Zucker
Saft von 1 Orange
400g Erdbeeren
2 EL brauner Zucker

Rhabarber waschen und in 4 cm lange Stücke schneiden. In eine Auflaufform legen. Mit dem Zucker betreuen und den Orangensaft darüber gießen. Zimtstange zugeben. (Wer will, kann auch 3-4 Gewürznelken dazugeben.) Form mit Alufolie abdecken und im Backrohr bei 120°C ca. 20 min schmoren.

Erdbeeren waschen, putzen und in 1/2 cm dicke Scheiben schneiden. Mit dem restlichen Zucker vermengen. 

Rhabarber aus dem Backrohr nehmen. Erdbeeren darauf verteilen und weitere 10 min schmoren.

Herausnehmen, gut durchmischen und auskühlen lassen! Schmeckt aber auch lauwarm sehr lecker!

Bon appetit!

Hier ein Serviervorschlag aus der Wienerin - mit Schneeschnockerln:

[ via typischich.at ]

Feeling of the Day...

[via sometimes, you gotta fall before you can fly ]

I Would Run To You

Because I'm in the running mood lately... Just came home from an hour running... Was a bit heavy though with a slight cold... Well, my nose just likes to run, too. LOL

Feeling of the Day...

[ via forever in neveland ]

On Stage...

From The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saens (1975)

Once I again I found this amazing video at Fffleur de Lys. She has such an amazing taste. Great minds think alike ^_^ Plus the Dying Swan is one of the most beautiful scenes on stage... 

Blog Love...

[ via the evening party ]

Photographer, writer, & hedonist born in Lisbon Portugal, currently living in Toronto Canada. Earned a degree for looking at paintings of naked ladies (among other things). Enjoys tea, plums, rosewater, french tunes, smut, saints, and age gaps. Suffers from bibliophilia and cinephilia.

For anyone who loves great photography, poems and short writings, please check out my good friend Sara's lovely blog the evening party. I find it inspiring every time I browse through the various pages... And she always sends me lovely things for my birthday and Christmas ^_^

La Cuisine...

Vom Salat ist mir noch ein guter halber Kilo Karotten übrig geblieben und Huhn hatten wir auch schon länger nicht mehr... Da hat sich dieses Gericht geradezu aufgedrängt. Ganz einfach zuzubereiten, aber ein bisschen Zeit braucht man schon dafür...

Hühnerkeulen mit Karottenchutney

Für 4 Personen (oder 2 besonders Hungrige)
350g Karotten
1 große oder 2 kleine weiße Zwiebel
20g Ingwer
125ml trockener Weißwein
500ml Apfelsaft
50ml Apfelessig
100g Kristallzucker
1 EL Senfkörner
3 Gewürznelken
1 Zimtstange
1 EL Pimentkörner
1 Bioorange
25g Rosinen
1 TL Cayennepfeffer
1 EL Paprikapulver, edelsüß
8 Hühnerkeulen
12 Vollkorntoastscheiben
Salz
Olivenöl

Karotten schälen und in 1 cm große Stücke schneiden. Zwiebel und Ingwer schälen und klein würfeln. Alles zusammen mit dem Wein, Apfelsaft, Essig, Zucker, Senfkörner, Nelken, Zimt und etwas Salz in einen hohen schmalen Topf geben. Piment im Mörser zerstoßen und die Hälfte zugeben. Bei mittlerer Hitze ca. 45min köcheln lassen, bis die Flüssigkeit leicht sirupartig eingekocht ist. Orange heiß abwaschen und 1/2 der Schale abreiben. Zusammen mit den Rosinen 5 min vor Ende der Garzeit zugeben. Zimtstange heraus nehmen und Chutney erkalten lassen.

In der Zwischenzeit Backrohr auf 220°C vorheizen. Den restlichen Piment mit Salz, Pfeffer und Paprikapulver vermischen und die Hühnerkeulen zuerst mit Öl, dann mit der Gewürzmischung einreiben. In eine Bratpfanne mit Olivenöl geben und ca. 250ml Wasser zugießen. Im Backrohr auf mittlerer Schiene 40-45 min braten, bis die Hühner knusprig und goldbraun sind. (Wer eine Bratpfanne mit Deckel hat, braucht kein Wasser zugeben.)

Das Brot kurz vor Ende der Bratzeit toasten.

Hühnerkeulen mit dem Chutney anrichten und gemeinsam mit dem Brot servieren.

Bon appetit!

Easter Eggs...

Some of my Easter deacoration this year... Made them 2 years ago. Unfortunately I did not have the time to be too creative this year... But I love the bright colours and this time I even got some Palmkätzchen (Goat Willow / Salix caprea) to put the eggs on! My sister thinks I'm over-decorating for the occasion... ^_^

Sound Garden...

Last night I caught an airing of Adele: Live at the Royal Albert Hall 2011 on TV. It was absolutely beautiful. This is my favourite song from her current album and a really touching performance...

Love At First Sight...

[ via Pinterest ]

OMG! That's so cute. And most apt for Easter. Foundling bunny Ruediger slumbering in the hand of his keeper at the animal care staff from the zoo in Muenster. He was found there together with sibling Kaline. The two wild rabbit babies are now fed with milk for baby kittens...

weiter lesen: http://web.de/magazine/nachrichten/bildergalerien/bilder/13070848-bilder-woche.html#.A1000145

Happy Easter!

[via Pinterest ]

Easter spells out beauty, the rare beauty of new life.  

- S.D. Gordon

On the Big Screen...

Gonna see that one tonight! It will be interesting to see Daniel Radcliffe NOT playing Harry Potter... And I haven't really seen any horror movies in quite a while...

Feeling of the Day...

[ via we ♥ it ]

Leisure time is that five or six hours when you sleep at night.  

- George Allen

La Cuisine...

Mmmmhhhh... ich liebe Karotten - und weil es jetzt die ganze Zeit so schön war... Was gibt's da Besseres als einen Salat?! Aber Vorsicht: man ist ganz schön satt nachher! Man muss zwar ein bisschen Zeit einrechnen für die Zubereitung - also den Hunger gut planen ^_^ - aber es lohnt sich!

Salat aus gebackenen Karotten mit Radicchio und Ziegenkäse

Für 4 Personen

1kg Bundkarotten

7 EL Sonnenblumenöl

1 Biozitrone

1 Orange

2 EL Dijonsenf

2 EL Ahornsirup

4 EL Walnussöl

1 gehäufter EL bunter Pfeffer

150g Radicchio

40g Pekan- oder Walnusse

200g Ziegenkäse natur (am besten eine Rolle)

Salz, Pfeffer

Backrohr auf 200°C vorheizen. Karotten waschen, putzen und schälen. Dünne Karotten kann man ganz lassen, die dickeren einfach der Länge nach halbieren. In einer Glasauflaufform mit Salz (nach Belieben) und 4 EL Öl vermischen und ein bisschen Wasser dazu gießen. Im Backrohr ca. 40 min garen, nach der halben Zeit einmal wenden.

Inzwischen Zitrone heiß waschen und 1/4 der Schale abreiben. Saft auspressen. Orange auspressen. Zitronensaft und -schale mit Senf, Ahornsirup, 5 EL Orangensaft, Walnussöl und dem restlichen Sonnenblumenöl verrühren. Mit Salz und Pfeffer abschmecken. Pfefferkörner unterrühren.

Radicchio waschen und in mundgerechte Stücke reißen oder schneiden. Nüsse grob hacken. Ziegenkäse in ca. 1 cm dicke Scheiben schneiden. 

Karotten aus dem Backrohr nehmen und gleich mit der Hälfte der Vinaigrette in einer Schale vermischen. Den Radicchio mit der restlichen Vinaigrette mischen.

Karotten auf Tellern anrichten und Radicchio, Ziegenkäse und Nüsse darauf verteilen. 

Bon appetit!

Feeling of the Day...

[ via we ♥ it ]

Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness

has never danced in the rain.

- Unknown

Sound Garden...

Meet Emeli Sande. When I first saw a picture of her in an article I thought this is just another one of those The-Next-Rihanna-Kind-Of-Wannabes... But: I love her album Our Version of Events. After quite some time, there's an album that I really like every song of! Happens very rarely, usually it's just one or two. Found this totally by chance... there was a tiny review about it in my favourite magazine Wienerin and then I heard this song on the radio and decided to give it a try! Absolutely love it. This is one of the happier feel-good songs but there are also some melancholy ballads. Great voice, great lyrics.

Beautiful Restraint

[via Pinterest ]

What makes the television legal drama series The Good Wife so …good?  Lots of things, but it occurred to me one of the primary reasons each episode sizzles is on account of the restraint expressed by all the characters.  In a landscape of entertainment characterized by lack of inhibition, this represssion and its consequences are refreshing.  I also think it’s a more accurate depiction of the complexity of human relationships.  It’s what the characters do not say and do not do which makes the suspense work.  In this landmine, no one is free – old or young. Everyone has secrets and pasts. What information is known when and through whom as well as who knows who knows, becomes paramount. 

Given this moody atmopshere, when something does actually happen, the viewer appreciates it so much more.  A small kiss shared between Cary and Kalinda, while expected, is savored.  Especially since the characters themselves do no make a deal of it afterward.  The lines between personal and professional goals and motivations are often blurred.  The series works on the strucutralist theory of binary opposition, embraced by Hegel, Levi-Strauss, and others.  Binary opposition, simply defined, are a pair of concepts or terms opposite in meaning set up against each other. 

This self-control and constant undercurrent of hesitation came to a peak in last week’s episode Foreign Affairs (4/12/2011).  All of the things which are not told are brought to light in some fashion or another.  Kalinda tells Will that he should tell Alicia that she’s an amazing woman because “People like to be told.”  Investigator Andrew Wiley tells Alicia that his investigation uncovered a “Leela” (Kalinda) whom with which her husband Peter was rumored to have an affair.  Cary has yet to reinvoke his romantic interest in Kalinda from the kiss a few episodes ago.  Kalinda does not tell Alicia that she slept with Peter, and does not yet know that she knows.  Natalie Flores reveals her feelings for Eli Gold by touching him momentarily on the arm and saying simply “If this were another time.”

In The Good Wife, as in real life, witholding information can be just as deadly as revealing it.  Information which may have been harmless if only exposed and handled earlier in the timeline, become dangerous monsters.  Needless to say, there is plenty of dramatic irony.  But the real treat is that we as viewers journey along with the characters as they figure out their motivations, desires, and goals.  We are with them as they make decisions, backtrack, and change their minds.  We are with them as they suppress personal emotion for what they perceive to be the greater good, or allow personal ambition and secrecy to damage friendships.  The show is extremely adept at introducing as well as handling baggage between characters.  The layers are a complex, seeming abyss.

Ironically for a series structured aroung a beginning with a sexual scandal, The Good Wife shows almost Victorian restraint vis-a-vis the subject.  Here we have the constant jostling of the supergo, ego, and id.  What sets it apart from reality tv as well as its competitors such as Gray’s Anatomy, is the power of the superego, and how that can be personally and professionally just as self-destructive.

[via Illume at Eight ]

Life is a Cabaret!

What good is sitting alone In your room?
Come hear the music play.
Life is a Cabaret, old chum,
Come to the Cabaret.

- Liza Minelli, Cabaret

Elli, Kerstin, Alex & me... fancy, fancy!

Last Saturday we went to a 1920's party organised by Cabaret Wien. It was a lot of fun, especially to dress up and trying on the hairstyles and make-up of those days... Those dresses, the funny hats, ribbons and feathers in the hair, those long pearls *sigh* I borrowed my mom's. There was even a Burlesque show but I was still tired from my birthday party the day before so I went home earlier... I really loved how everyone tried to look like back then... even the guys. I never thought that suspenders could look that cool and sexy... or old-fashioned hats... ^_^ Back then, people really had a great style. Why did we stop dressing like that?!

 [ all pictures via Cabaret Wien ]

Cinemagic...

We've all been waiting for tonight. Strangely enough, none of us managed to go see THIS one before. I don't know when I've seen a Silent Film the last time... or a B&W one, that is. Must have been Sergei Eisenstein's Старое и новое / Генеральная линия (The General Line) which I had to analyse for one of my classes... Anyway: another Thursday movie night, another great movie... and a good time with good friends!

Feeling of the Day...

[via Pinterest ]

 To send a letter is a good way to go somewhere 

without moving anything but your heart.  

- Phyllis Theroux

Feeling of the Day...

[ via lose yourself ]

If we have no peace,

it is because we have forgotten 

that we belong to each other.  

- Mother Teresa

Daydreaming...

[via Pinterest ]

Sometimes I'd love to have a bed in the forest where I can just lie

 and stare at the sky... daydreaming, enjoying the silence!

Feeling of the Day...

[via Pinterest ]

Le Inspiration...

[ via Pinterest ]

You have bewitched me, body and soul.

- Mr Darcy, Pride and Prejudice 

Oh, I wish someone would say that to me...