Quoth the Raven "Nevermore" Halloween Costume

I've been dying to dress up as this for years. But I couldn't find a big black bird. Until one unproductive day in Spring this year. I was browsing the shelves of one supermarket when suddenly something caught my eye in one of those seasonal aisles.
Yup, things for gardening. It was sitting there as if it belonged there all along and as if I was supposed to be aware of its presence. The black bird. As it turns out people who (unlike me) can keep green things growing need a scarecrow to defend their produce.Which means cheap plastic crows and ravens are somewhere out there in big numbers.

And so it was settled. My costume would become reality. You must understand. I was planning this for years and even though my skills with make-up are doubtful, I still believe this is the best costume ever because a) it depicts my favourite poem, hence it's clever b) I came up with it - I didn't see it on the Internet or anywhere else, it's just my imagination in it  c) it turned out to be pretty bad ass. Even I was afraid of the raven. I had it in my bedroom and since I applied shiny red nail foil to its eyes, the little sucker would glow in the most unexpected moments and spook the heck out of me.

But back to how to do the costume. It's quite simple, actually. If you try it at least once in advance. This was the first time I used contact lenses (White Screen) so I had to try it beforehand. As it turned out, they were quite comfortable but applying make-up through a layer of mist sucks. See, most people get tunnel vision with colored eye lenses but the ones I bought cover the whole eye, especially the pupil. Trying before doing it for real helps because all the colors become hazy and you'll find out you applied too much contour once you remove them. So bear that in mind and have light hand when applying anything since it looks harsher for the real world.

You need a lot of white make-up. As a base I used the cheapest white cream make-up I found in a costume store. Forget all the spong-y applicators and dense brushes, the fastest way is to smear it with your hands (sure it doesn't look the best but we are trying to be efficient since we have to go to work in one hour). Once that was on my face and limbs I used Catrice's 660 Ice White Open to set it. Once that was done I contoured my face (temples, cheeks, sides of my nose and above the lids) and my neck and collar bones with the light grey/brown in NYX's I dream of St. John. I originally used the silver color in it but the result wasn't as natural as the brownish color. Then I lined my water lines with a white eye pencil to get rid of as much redness as possible (the white really drew it out and I looked like a rabid statue). The following step was to use a white lipstick and a black lipstick (the black went only to the inner rim of my lips to create depth). 

I styled my hair into two buns at the back of my head and sprayed all over with a white hair spray. Since there was a lot of it in the bottle I tried to spray it over my face and arms to settle the white make-up even more and it really held! Even my oily eyelids didn't crease! Yay! More than twelve hours in the costume and it held!

All that was left was to put everything together. I put on a gold leafy head band, wrapped myself in my bed sheet toga-style (which came convenient for trapping the raven on my shoulder since its legs were made of one single piece so I could get the end of the sheet through it to keep it in place) and secured it with a gold belt. I had white stockings on and a lot of invisible layers under the toga because ... well, October!

The reactions to my costume were priceless. Most of my colleagues couldn't recognise me and then they couldn't look me in the eye. The kids were afraid of me and some still couldn't believe it really was their teacher underneath (time to time I'd just stand somewhere not moving and they'd be so afraid!). One kid told me after the class that she was not afraid of me anymore but that The Raven was staring at her and she was afraid of it still. I spooked the hell out of pretty much everyone this year, so the mission was accomplished! :-)=
Spooky Halloween to you all!

Carrot Roll with Cream Cheese Frosting

This should fit into your "5 a day" plan because it has got carrots in it. So basically it's healthy, right? And also tasty :-) There is really no magic to it and I bet you have all the ingredients at home. Simple tastes are the most effective as you will find out.

You'll need:

batter

• 150g shredded carrots
• 100g flour
• 130g sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tea spoon vanilla extract
• 2 tea spoons cinnamon powder
• 1/2 tea spoon ground nutmeg
• 2 table spoons sunflower oil
• 1 tea spoon baking powder
• 1/2 tea spoon salt

filling

• 200g cream cheese
• 200ml heavy cream
• 60g sugar
• 1 tea spoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 tea spoon cinnamon

1) Beat the eggs with sugar, salt and vanilla till light and fluffy. 

2) Stir in the carrots and start adding the dry ingredients. Once it's incorporated well, you may put it in the oven at 180°C for about 10 minutes.

3) Have a tea towel ready - when you take it out, put it on the towel, get rid of your baking paper (if you used any) and roll it in the towel. Let cool down.

4) In separate bowls, beat the heavy cream and cream cheese with the rest of the ingredients. Stir the beaten heavy cream into the cream cheese mixture slowly. 

5) Unroll the roll and spread the cream inside and roll back. If any cracks appear, just cover the top with either a little bit of the cream or icing sugar.

Christopher Moore: Bloodsucking Fiends

Oh boy, I don't even know where to start. See, I always have difficulties coming up with reviews of books I enjoyed. This book has been sitting on my shelf so long I almost forgot I had it. And what a waste it would have been had I not came across it one morning. Honestly, where would my life be? This books is exactly what a sarcastic person like me needs.

Plotwise it's your typical scenario - an abandoned newly turned vampire is coming to terms with her new position in the world order. Or in the food chain, whatever you prefer. She needs a Renfield of sorts to help her during the hours she is dead to the world and she also needs to find out who is after her since bloodless people are being found way too close to her lair. 

But the way it is written... sarcasm, absurdism and humour drips from every effing page. The dialogues between the unlikely couple (a young aspiring writer who works night shifts in a store with god-knows-whom and a boring plain woman who is suddenly turned into a predator) are so frickin' absurd you feel like you've come to the Twilight Zone. Or to a 50-year-long marriage where no one listens to anyone while still talking. But you don't read poetry to your loved one while hanging from the ceiling upside down, do you? You don't give TURTLES to people as your love token, do you? As a man you don't get flowers from five illegal Chinese immigrants in hope of your hand in marriage, do you?

I just loved the book. I've googled there are some more. I'm coming for them! 

GENRE: fun, sarcastic fun

FANGS OUT: I'm still on the floor laughing
FANGS RETRACTING: keep them out, yo!
TOTAL SCORE:

Small Cherry Pies

You can use your muffin pan for something different than muffins, check this out:

Ingredients (12  cups):

• 2,5 cups flour 
• 1 tea spoon salt
• 4 tea spoons sugar
• 1 tea spoon lime juice
• 1 cup cold butter

• 1kg cherries
• 1/2 cup sugar
• rest of the lime juice
• 1 table spoon corn starch in 1 table spoon water

1) Put all the dough ingredients in a food processor (cut the butter in smaller pieces to speed the process) and pulse it till the butter creates small lumps. Combine the dough with your hands and wrap it in a foil and leave it in a fridge for an hour.

2) Meanwhile, get rid of the stems and pits in your cherries and put the cherries in a pot. Put the sugar in, pour in the lime juice and cook for ten minutes. Then bring to a boil and add in the starch mixed with water. Stir it in and remove from heat. Let it cool a little.

3) Cut circles in your dough and line the muffin tin with them - the circle should be big enough so that it reaches the top of each muffin cup. No baking paper or buttering needed, this dough doesn't stick. 

4) Pour in your cherry jam. Cover with another layer of dough.

5) Bake at 180°C till golden (about 20 minutes).

Caramel Cheesecake

This was the first one I've ever tried so I feel a little nostalgic about it. Plus no matter how many other variations of cheesecake I make, this one is the cheesecake of choice when I ask my family what they want me to bake. It's all the calories... they make people happy... 

You'll need:

• 80g butter
• 280g butter biscuits

• 250g quark (curd cheese)
• 200g cream cheese
• 350g sweet condensed milk (they even sell caramelized one)
• 2 eggs

• 50g butter
• 100g chocolate

1) Line your cake pan with paper or butter it. Take the biscuits and break them to pieces of your favorite size. Mix them with melted butter so that they are moist. Press them to the bottom of your pan (you can press them up to the sides) and bake at 180°C for 10 minutes.

2) If you can't buy caramelized condensed milk, then take the regular one in a can, make a small hole in the lid, submerge it in a pot of water so that the water is half a centimeter under the lid and boil for 90 minutes. Keep adding water, 'cause there will be steam escaping.

3) Then just mix everything together (make sure all the ingredients are the same temperature) and pour it onto the baked and slightly cooled crust. Bake for about 50 minutes. 

5) You can melt some chocolate with butter to top it all before serving.

Lara Adrian: Bound to Darkness

I found out that following the authors of the series I read on Facebook is quite good. They share when a new book comes out which means I can pre-order it and sometimes they even provide international pre-sale of their signed books. And since I am usually from the far-far-away land and cannot go to the book-signing events (how I envy you, you bookworms from pretty much anywhere in the US, because I see your online boastful posts from such events), this really helps. 

Before this I only had one signed book - that is J. R. Ward's latest one and you can read about that experience in one of my previous posts. Really, go there so that you know how low my expectations actually were when I was purchasing this book.

I was gladly surprised when this signed book arrived because even though it wasn't as fancily wrapped as Ward's, it included book swag (tattoos, bookmarks, some sticky notes and a screen wipe) and it actually was personalized! Wooohooo! Given the fact the author's mom had an accident and died at the time the books were supposed to be shipped, I expected some delay not this awesome stuff. Somehow Adrian managed to go through that difficult time in her life and stay functional which makes me admire her even more.

Anyway, to the story. This is a typical romance with a lot of action in it. I discovered the series when I was looking for something similar to Black Dagger Brotherhood and I obviously found it :-)=. The storyline isn't as elaborate as in Ward's universe though. The romance part still wins over the action so if you like your books to be only a little adventurous and more focused on the couple, this is it. Personally I would appreciate more details about the troubles plaguing the vampire race in here, but overall it's a pleasant read. 

The vampire race here is alien and has some super cool skin markings which glow in the dark! LOL no, they change color according to their mood (I used to have chameleons so this is a nice detail for me) and since they came out of the closet a short while ago, they still have some human trouble as well as even more problems with some long-forgotten foes.

GENRE: romance with some danger in it

FANGS OUT: well-balanced mix
FANGS RETRACTING: I want more detail
TOTAL SCORE: 

Brownies with a Sticky Core

These take some time to prepare and cut, but they are sooooo sweet and sticky you will love them. Really, your inner child is gonna have a blast.

Ingredients (23x23cm pan):

• 2x 100g 60% cocoa chocolate
• 100g of the darkest chocolate you can get
• 170g butter
• 3 eggs
• 270g sugar
• 70g flour
• 1/4 tea spoon salt
• 200g sweet condensed milk

1) Line your pan with aluminum foil and butter it.

2) Put the butter and 100g normal chocolate with 100g dark chocolate and either melt it together in a microwave or over simmering water. Put aside to cool.

3) Beat the eggs with sugar.

3) Pour the cooled chocolate in the eggs and stir. Then add flour and salt. 

4) Pout 1/2 of this batter in your pan and bake it for 10 minutes at 180°C.

5) After you take it out, sprinkle it with the remaining 100g of chocolate (either chips or chopped), pour the condensed milk over it and top it all with the remaining batter.

6) Bake for about 30 minutes.

The Long-Awaited Trip to Spain

Well, if you read my blog (yeah, there is the one regular reader on my blog according to the statistics in the main panel) you know that about a year ago I got some money after finishing the university to fulfill one of my dreams. So it was settled that right the next summer my friends and I would go. And so we went!

Day 1

We arrived in the afternoon and missed our hostel twice. Really, we walked past twice before I took out the good old navigation in my phone and was led there. There was a tiny logo of our hostel on the wall with the doorbells but  none above the door (it's not like we expected a neon sign blinking at us but something slightly bigger would sure help). Anyway, we got there and a very helpful guy started telling us all about Barcelona since we confessed it was our first time there. That's where we got lost. His English was fine but the speed! Oh my.. So we were nodding and nodding and finally got a map and the keys to our room. It was small and cozy. But accommodation hardly matters when you are somewhere for sightseeing so we decided to kill the afternoon by walking down Passeig de Gracia and La Rambla to put our map to perspective. 

Now I must stop here and tell you a little story. Before going to Barcelona I told everyone and all the people who had been there told me about how they got mugged or almost mugged. There were stories about opened bags, torn purses, muggers in parks and on the trains and even one about a dodgy-street Asian restaurant and tourists in the freezers for organ harvest.

Now, we can continue. So we are going down the most famous street and I'm clutching my money and camera and purse and I definitely look like a tourist. I pay for souvenirs, keep any eye on the zipper of my purse, pull my camera out, put back in... and when I emerge from the thick crowd and want to take a picture of Christopher Columbus, I reach for my purse and find the zipper open. And for a little while I'm screaming in my head that I'm an idiot and should have listened to all those stories and so on. But you know what? Everything was in place. I just forgot to close the purse when I was putting my camera there.

So we walked around the harbor and winded up back on La Rambla for dinner. Oh yesssss, paella and sangría. There is nothing funnier than getting half a liter of it at the end of a tiring day - I haven't been intoxicated by just one glass in a long time. One funny thing we noticed there was that the waiters ignore you. I have no idea what signal you are supposed to do to catch their eye but sitting there with an empty glass would make any waiter back home come to you and ask you about the next drink. In Spain you are just sitting there with an empty plate and an empty glass and no one cares. You try futilely to make eye contact, resort to not so subtle waving and still it doesn't give them any clue. Or it does but they are in no hurry to come. And that pisses me off because the tip is included on your bill. I wouldn't give anyone such a big tip for such a terrible service! But here you have no choice...

When we finally got to our hostel on our happy feet we realized the downside of having our room with a view to the street which crosses Passeig de Gracia and which has a pub right underneath. Oh, those noisy Spaniards! They come out at night and keep finding the most noisy objects on the street onto which they repeatedly throw other noisy objects while talking loudly.

Day 2

The Rain in Spain... That was unexpected. It rained good half a day and the only shoes for rain I had were flats. Have you ever tried to walk 17 km in flats? I tried and it burned the soles of my feet which made my trip very painful for the rest of the week since a new blister appeared each day on those burned areas. 

But back to the beginning of our rainy day. We took our map and set off for Sagrada Família, then we wanted to go to take a look at Torre Agbar, walk past the Triumph Arch to the Picasso Museum and get lost in the streets of Gothic quarter. Well, we somehow missed our turn in the rain and found ourselves way too north of Sagrada in a surreal part of the town where there are things made of cardboard as a decoration. But after some time and after some members of our group finally found a shop with umbrellas (it was too late anyway, they would get runny nose) we got to Sagrada. And there were tourists everywhere. And the lady from the ticket office told us the tickets would get us there in the afternoon. So we just stared at it from the outside and walked toward our next goals. Needles to say that we arrived at the Picasso Museum and the little street in front of it was one giant queue so we didn't get in that afternoon either. But we walked the street of the old town and found a nice exhibition about Gaudís life (Walking with Gaudí) which was very helpful because later when we visited his buildings, we saw them through totally different eyes. By the way, there is Catedral Basílica right next to it where the queue is shorter and you can get up to the roof. And there are geese in there, too. Or ducks I can't tell the difference. But they are real ;-)= 

We decided to go to a tourist office to buy tickets to Sagrada, Parc Guell and Picasso Museum in advance since we knew the queues were not for us. These tickets for three adults were obviously too much for the dude in the office because he accused me of hating him (yeah, too much work on the computer clicking) and when some of us wanted to pay for the tickets by card and some of us had cash, I thought he would commit harakiri on the spot. 

We proceeded to the St. Josep market to buy dinner. We came across Organic is Orgasmic veggie burrito stand and bought two burritos. And by burritos we thought we would get two burritos. Instead we got burritos with a lot of things on the side. Like chickpeas, lentils or neon green and pink pasta. And as we had to get through the crowds on La Rambla, everyone was staring hungrily at our loads.

Day 3

At first we had to go and buy tickets at the train station for our Friday trip to Figueres since our attempts to buy it on the internet failed. Right down the Sants station there is Industrial Park (smaaaaaal) and Joan Miró park. Our map with touristic highlights showed a sculpture by Miró so we assumed there would be more than what we dubbed A COW. It's a woman with a bird, by the way. And the park is full of palm and no statues.

This day was about Sagrada Familia anyway, so we hopped into subway and disembarked on station called Sagrera. It's 2,5 painful kilometers away from Sagrada. Remember the blisters? Oh yeah, they were getting bigger and bigger. But Sagrada was worth the pain. My jaw literally fell to the floor when we came in. Words can't describe the beauty of it. See, I always thought Gaudí was using too much color, too much ornaments but seeing it in real light and with my own eyes it all looked very natural. So we spent more than hour just drinking the main chapel in when we spotted a queue. A queue in Barcelona always leads to something good. So we waited and then we got to the employee who told us to get SPECIAL tickets for the tower lift. Annnnd of course they were all sold out. The frickin' tourist office hater didn't tell us about another tickets for the towers. Seriously, what's wrong with him?

Anyway, our day ended by walking west of La Rambla to find a spot with something I thought was a cat, my friends thought it was either a bear or just a made-up animal. The picture in our map was too small for identification but we found it. And it was a cat.

That day we put our postcards into one box and all the recipients go their letter in the span of TWO weeks! I mean how is that even possible?
But back to the main thing - we were hungry for some food and spotted a sushi restaurant where the sushi master was preparing it right in front of us. That was cool. Our friend who eats neither chicken nor fish didn't have such a blast over his boring bowl of noodles but hey...the majority wins. 

Day 4

We started at 10 am in the zoo. We only had 2 hours to go through it before we had to be at a different entrance which led to the metro so that we could go to park Guell where we had to be at certain hour, of course. What's the main attraction of the zoo? A white Gorilla. When do most exhibits with such rarities and funky animals open? Later than the zoo opens, actually, at the time when we had to be on the other side of the zoo. And let's not talk about the enclosures which were closed for construction. Like, most of them. And whenever no one knew what animals to put in an empty space, they put flamingos in. A total waste of 20 Euros, trust me. 

But getting in park Guell (into the paid zone) was great. Again, there were those queues and it was hot and there were these people walking around with plastic bags shouting they had cold water. Funny. Oh, and the park is so huge! We even got up to one hill with a spectacular view of the city and there was a crazy man in leopard leggings playing his guitar and singing a song in his own language. This is actually very nice in Barcelona. The musicians. Especially in the subway. There are long corridors leading to the trains and the air is dense and doesn't move. See, in Prague we go to the metro to cool down because the air is cold and moves. In Barcelona you will be in your personal hell. And these musicians are willing to withstand it. Amazing.

When we were leaving park Guell we came across Gaudí 4D experience. Neither of has had ever been to such a thing so we waited (only an hour) for the 15 minutes of unknown. Really, they spray you with water and shake you and make you think birds are brushing your legs. That was fun.

Day 5

Dalí, I'm coming for you! We got to Figueres by a super fast train AVE and had to get our bags go through a security check just like at the airport. And when we got out of the station in Figueres something started to feel odd. It smelled bad there and suddenly we had the urge to slap ourselves. Because some insect started to eat us. So we hurried toward the town center to find something I had dreamt of for so long I never thought I'd see. But here I was, in front of the museum Dalí himself envisioned and saw open. Again, awesome things are hard to describe so let's just say I had my fan girl moments there. And didn't want to go home. But I had to. 

Otherwise, Figueres isn't really a town for the whole day trip. There is nothing (if you don't count those archeology and yoghurt museums and a tiny park and some touristy stuff which lives off Dalí - like Dalícatessen LOL). 

On our return we felt a little bit thirsty and found a cocktail bar. It was funny when the bartender brought our cocktails and then a tray with gummy sweets. We all felt like laughing at them and thought we wouldn't eat them but somehow they disappeared because they went disturbingly well with our cocktails. Oh, and we each had only two because after the two we again started to feel a little bit tipsy and hurried home.

Day 6

Since there was a guy in our group we had to cut him some slack. Art isn't his thing and we decided to go to see the Olympic park area. During the breakfast we noticed black clouds and he assured us there was no rain coming because that's what his phone told him. So, what beautiful pictures we took when we were going up the hill in the Montjuïc furnicular! It was raining cats and dogs! And we had no umbrellas. When he wasn't looking, we made a pact that if he took out his raincoat (of which we were sure he had with him) we'd kill him. And bury him in the park. Fortunately for him he didn't take the coat out and we are not wanted criminals.

As devious as we are, we let him think this was his day, but there is Miró museum right next to the park so we accidentally found it and had to see it. Then we went to see the Magic Fountain in the daylight (only to return at night to see it perform) and took a detour to some Spanish village where they wanted us to pay entrance fee so we walked away disgusted. I also walked away limping but that's my blister martyrdom. The last stop of that day was the Stadium, you know, football. So we saw that. Not that the female part of our group was happy to walk so long from the subway to see it. But then we went on an open bus excursion to see all the sights we visited during the previous days. Some were nicely light up (Torre Agbar) and some we couldn't almost see in the dark (most of the cathedrals).

Day 7

We were totally destroyed from walking so we decided to spend a couple of hours on the beach (again, walking some kilometers there and back) to get red and then fly home. And our flight got delayed and we had to amuse ourselves on the airport during the night (hint - no shops are open, just that creepy vending machine with soup is demanding your attention). But despite the pain in our legs we had great time and fell in love with Barcelona.
Meanwhile at the airport: We were waiting for the check-in desk to open and the only three vacated seats were next to a very intoxicated group of Swiss guys. They were fooling around... whatever. With small or no bags they obviously just had one day to spend in Barcelona on the beach (they were as red as lobsters) so the sun and alcohol did its deed. We tried to not to look at them since the drunk usually get weird ideas but then... then one of them approached another one from behind and tugged his shorts down. Apart from being flashed by the stuff not even the sun gets to see, and unbelievable amount of pebbles and sand spilled out of the guys' shorts. Everyone just stared at the heap. How?! And why? And how come he hadn't noticed? It must have been so uncomfortable :-D This was definitely the most amusing thing at the airport ever.