Cinnamon biscuits

Just the other day I bought this cookie stamp because I couldn't resist. It is so cute! Naturally, I immediately started running around our kitchen in an attempt to find the perfect biscuit recipe. When I was a kid there was this Lord of the Rings frenzy as the movies were released and my friend once brought a recipe for lembas. It was basically a cinnamon biscuit so I knew it would fit my purpose. I found it but it contained coffee and some other stuff so I took something out and added something in and it worked! I hadn't known it would work so I started with a small amount of it to test it. Therefore, the following ingredients are good for filling one baking tray at the most (with the thickness of the biscuits about 4mm and diameter around 5cm) - it depends on the size of your tray and yadda yadda yadda - I made about 30 biscuits from this one batch:

• 3 spoons of butter
• 1 egg
• 8 spoons of brown sugar
• 12 spoons of flour (You can go healthy and try whole grain or just plain ... just do not use that self-rising flour. Uprising is not a good idea here. We've seen in Shrek how evil these biscuity types can be. So no rising of the flour ;-)= )
• 1 spoon of cinnamon

Once this all was mixed together I put it in the fridge to rest for an hour (or overnight, it doesn't matter). By the way, you recognize that it is ready when it stops sticking to your fingers. That is the right time to put it in the fridge or just start baking. If it's still too sticky, add flour. If it doesn't hold together, add butter. 

Then the funky part begins. Some people make a small sphere out of the pastry and then stamp it. I, however, chose to cut out circles and then stamp them so that it would be more precise. And it would have been had I had the right size of the cookie cutter. Mine was a bit smaller than the stamp so it wasn't to my liking. While you are trying to figure out how to make the best design, preheat your owen for 175° Celsius and then bake for about 20 minutes (depending on the thickness).

What you can see in the picture is two types of stamps. There are the plain ones with just stamp on it and then there are the brown ones - I dipped the stamp into cocoa powder before using it so that the letters would be more visible. You chose which one is better. Just have fun with it ;-)=

And here is the healthy whole-grain version with honey instead of sugar. I also smeared an egg on the top of them after I took them out of the oven to make them glossy. The stamping was done with more cinnamon so that everything looks kinda like worn leather medals. Haha! My favourite version so far...

50 Shades of Red ... part 3

I realised I haven't done this for a while which is a shame because the red lipsticks keep adding up in my make up box and I really need to sort them out in order to find my perfect red. Or a couple of reds, because let's face it - one is simply not enough. There is the one for autumn, the one for winter, the one for that sweather I wear, etc... I think  you get the picture. So, let the hunt continue!

This time I chose to take a look at Oriflame and Essence. I think some of the Oriflame lipsticks are discontinued so you may not be able to find them anymore. That is my personal hell. Falling in love with a product which was just a limited edition and is never coming back...

So, let's take a look at the infamous sheet of paper I made out with to see what today's issue of our series brings:

More swatches:

Starting with Essence. I think the lipsticks are good for you if you are afraid of colors. They are very balm-like and therefore the color pay-off is very limited. I think of them as tinted lip balms rather than lipsticks. In that case, they are good. You eat them up just like you eat any lip balm and have to reapply them often. But for the price and feeling that your lips are nourished, why not... You may also be surprised by the glitter pieces in them. Not all of them, though (Almost Famous is glitter-free, while Rockin' Red and More to Love have it). But that is the basic line. Essence introduced a new line quite a while ago and those lipsticks are killers. They are only a bit more expensive than the original line (which is still very affordable) yet don't have the same structure. They are less balmy, the color is truer to what you see and it stays surprisingly long. Sure, the first meal will kill it but you won't have to reapply after and hour of plain speaking like you would have with the balmy ones. So thumbs up for the new line (Dare to Wear in the following picture).

Oriflame also offers different types of lipsticks varying in price and quality. However, (usually) the higher the price the more likely it is to last. The creamy cheaper ones don't stay and have less pigmentation than the more expensive ones. I always buy them in sale so I am not sure how much they normally cost  but I do know that I never even think about buying one for the full price, so... I think it would make me angry if I bought Cherry Cashmere for the full price because it doesn't last much. But the color is beautiful. It's a dark red with gold shimmer and looks natural (if that can be said about a red) on the lips. But the creamy structure just sucks. Carmine and Red Devotion, on the other hand, are long-lasting and the colors are "in-your-face" reds. Cosmo and Radiant are just "meh" (I've been using this word too much lately, sorry).

I have my favourites in here but with this never-to-be-seen-again policy the manufastures so often bring I must give them up once I use them up because those beauties aren't gonna be here. I weep for humanity. Really. So, let's just see one more picture and call it quits. 

Charlaine Harris: Dead Ever After

I really have no idea how to write this. My goodbye review. I mean I hate when some series go on and on forever never reaching “finale grande”, however, I also hate them ending because I wouldn’t have bought all the books in the series if I found them a complete waste of time, right? And this bitter-sweet feeling is all I have left for Sookie Stackhouse who has entertained me since my puberty.

It’s been almost ten years since I bought my first copy! I want the end as well as the next new thrilling story! I was totally puzzled this summer when I went to buy my new story about Sookie and found out this one was the last one. Somewhere along the way of writing my diploma thesis (on vampires, of course) I had to stop reading most of the books I usually read and I had to focus on the couple of books my diploma thesis was about (reviews coming, don’t worry). And after finishing my thesis I felt like not reading about vampires for some time. And then I thought the best way how to get out of my vampire fiction reading slump would be starting with something I always like. Something I knew would be a sure thing. And instead I got despair and confusion. I was given THE END. It took all my control not to look at the cover to stay spoiler free. I chose my team long ago and I really didn’t want to know. But at the same time I wanted to take a look at the last chapter first (someone once wrote about doing it every time he/she felt like the book was becoming too emotional to handle and I sneered at the confession but now I must admit this idea crossed my mind ... and fortunately flew away before I grasped it).

I mean, come on! All the books were written in the first person narrative and now new storytelling techniques are introduced? Really, as far as the style goes this book is the best one. I hate when they save the best for the last.

Storywise, I’m not so sure. There’s been better in the series. But maybe it is only because my mind was shadowed by this whole end thingy plus as I’ve already said, I’ve picked my team and it didn’t win! I hate when religion beats true love. 

So, good bye Sookie, I may re-read the series though during long boring winter nights just for the heck of it. The series was interesting and just because the end sucks for me doesn’t mean it sucks on the whole and that it is illogical. It isn’t. I saw it coming but I just hoped it would wind up a different way.

GENRE: mystery

FANGS OUT: entertaining

FANGS RETRACTING: now just a memory, one gets nostalgic just thinking about it

TOTAL SCORE:

#1

Words, listen lonely
Soul, the one and only
Pain, dying sorrow
Love, for tomorrow
Hate, will subside
Anger, on a tide
Hope, completely lost
Life, at the highest cost.

Rubber Ducky Frenzy 5

I thought I was done with my collection when I posted the last article, however, I've totally forgotten about giants and a dwarf. Two really big ones and one really tiny (which even glows in the dark), that is. So this is my full collection for the time being.

Horní Cerekev

During my four years of high school attendance I commuted daily so I spent countless hours sitting at bus or train stations. However, those hours spent in the waiting hall at the train station in Tábor brainwashed me. I clearly remember the voice in the loudspeakers announcing arrival of the train with its last stop in Horní Cerekev. I remember my friend and I trying to picture the mysterious place with so many trains having it as their destination. We promised ourselves we would one day go there and see it.

We finished our high school, managed to get even higher education and this year, after what seems like an eternity of not mentioning our goal, we finally set a date to get there.

I intentionally did not make any research prior to going there. I only googled where it was on the map and when I saw only 1700 residents occupied that locality I shut the computer down not trying to disappoint myself sooner than necessary.

Upon our embarking the very small local train an older man with apparent hangover got on asking us if this train went to a certain town. Since we only knew the final destination we were not sure and looked puzzled. He couldn’t understand our lack of knowledge saying he fell asleep in a candy shop (since when do candy shops have booze in stock?!) and now he was not sure he was on the right train. So weren’t we.

When the ticket collector took a look at our tickets, he asked us if we really went to Cerekev. We had to assure him that was our intention. The journey was long and after some while, when we were near our destination, I thought it would be better if I relieved my bladder since I was unsure of having the opportunity to do so elsewhere. This was my first time in this type of train so I was a little bit confused by all those buttons I had to push before entering the toilet area (where are the old school doorknobs when you need them?!) which got me to even more tricky situation (not unlike the situation from a dream every now and then I have when I’m sleeping with a full bladder) because as I turned around to close the door there was absolutely no button! I was futilely trying to find it to close the damned door so that the other passengers would stop looking at me! Oh, I was so close yet so far away from reaching my goal. Fortunately the conductor saw my struggle and told me to turn around and look for it near the mirror. I mean there, really? Not by the door but on the wall opposite to it? In a crooked universe it makes sense – as you enter you don’t have to turn around but still...

When we hopped off the train we did not know where to go since the station seemed to be positioned in the middle of nowhere. So as anyone who doesn’t have a clue we pretended to be absolutely certain and followed discreetly some random people hoping they would lead us toward the centre and not deeper in the forest.

I do not have to mention how everyone was turning their heads as we were passing by. Strange girls in a strange town, what a sensation! As we passed the post office, an urge to send postcards to our homes arose. Yup, but our window of opportunity to do so was only for four hours (before we had to catch a train home) and when do they have a lunch break there? Yup, you guessed right. So we headed into ice-cream shop/newsagents where they provided us with both stamps and postcards. The dude selling it to us was casting suspicious glances toward us not knowing why we chose this town for our trip.

We walked around the square and then reached one end of the town, so we turned back and looked at the other end. Still time to kill. So we decided to take a lunch break. So, the one pub near the square held deer hearts, pig liver and other gross stuff as their specialties so we decided to go to a 5 star hotel (what is such a big luxurious thing with beach volleyball and mini golf areas doing in the middle of nowhere?) and pay a decadent price for our lunches. The food was decadent as well. But in a really baaaaaad way. My friend’s vegetable couscous was tasteless, my pasta with salmon included cheap hard pasta (yup, al dente and cheap stuff don’t go together), very dry pieces of a once-frozen salmon with skin still attached (was it too daring from me to expect in a 5 star hotel surrounded by lakes to actually get a fresh yummy fish?!) and on the top of it all, there was some kind of sauce which reeked of raw potatoes. I mean, seriously?

Still time to kill. So, we decided to go to the town hall/museum/library/info center. The guy in the info centre, which is situated by the desk in the library, stared at us in wonder when we said we wanted to see the museum – the paper and plastic models of various stuff. He said women usually didn’t come there to see it, and then, after the first wave of shock disappeared, he willingly talked about the models (about one third was his doing anyway). When we were walking away, he asked us to take a pin and drive it into the map to pinpoint our hometown – he was curious how many pins and how far he would get with this. Another wave of shock came as he stared at my friend’s pin. She really lives that far away?! Omg, omg, omg, how is that possible? How did she get in this godforsaken place? We really had a blast.

To make a full circle, we went back to the place where the guy sold us the postcards. He couldn’t believe we were still there. So he sold us ice-creams and told us that we could have gone to the castle (it was locked for the public when we were wandering around) but the owner, a really old artist, usually let people in if they asked since he did not mind having company for a moment. Heck, he just couldn’t have said this piece of info before, could he?! I mean, a tour of the castle and a possible art exhibition? It could have been fun. But our time was running out and we walked to the station marveling at our weird unforgettable trip.

So, what to do next time? Take a dart and throw it at a map? We shall see...  

Oh, those culture days...

Every now and then I suppress my hatred for cities with their streets filled with too many tourists who take up all my personal space I value so much and give it a try. I have to - all the culture happens there so I must call my best friend and see all the cool exhibitions.

This time we could not wait to see Tim Burton’s stuff. Oh yeah, after watching Nightmare before Christmas over and over again since our teenage years (plus his other works, of course) we were almost ecstatic about the idea of pleasing our eyeballs even more with the genius of Burton’s crooked mind.

But to make it worthwhile, we decided to go to other exhibitions as well. So, ehm, here we go. Or rather there we went.

The first to visit was a some kind of culinary exhibition promising to lead us through the stages of kitchen development through time. Yup, it goes like this: the cavemen eating cadavers and other kind of gross stuff, then bam! the fire is not just for warming us up, then bam! the middle ages and bam! the kitchens out grandmas have then bam! unwanted advertisement rooms “cleverly” designed by some booze producers to elate a false feeling of history and them bam! up the stairs into a modern kitchen, history of Czech cuisine depictured on posters and yet another smug display of what to buy when it comes to cutlery. It was too short, too stupid and the fact that the guide (yup, not even a guide can lift your spirits) gave us a sample of boozeless mead probably infuriated me a little further. So unless you are threatened, don’t bother going to the Gastronomy Museum – it’s just a waste of your time and money.

Next, we went to the Choco Story Museum. With our mood so down after the first exhibition even a roadkill smeared with chocolate could have make us happy again so I had a feeling this would be awesome. That was BEFORE they made me pay an astrological entrance fee. After that I was determined to see this through entirely different eyes. My expectations were super high. Of course, this was even shorter, with a video anyone can probably find on youtube. It included a short demonstration of how to make chocolate candy – one of which was given to each of us which again, was good, but made us angry because ONE PIECE OF CANDY IS SIMPLY NOT ENOUGH! So we marched into the store of this museum and when we saw the prices we knew why just one candy. If you are a tourist and they tickle your taste buds with one piece of chocolate, you don’t know that the shop underneath is a trap. You are probably bad at comparing your currency with Crowns so you buy yourself a chocolate bar or something more and think you are finally satisfied while you totally made the evil person in charge of this museum happy. But after the Gastronomy Museum fail this seems more likely to entertain you.

Well, third time is a charm, right? Thank goodness for finally reaching what we wanted. Burton’s exhibition with its numerous rooms filled with beautiful drawings, films and 3D art ensured we finally found our little piece of optically-pleasing heaven. For this, I have no words, it was everything we expected and more.

And lastly, since there still was time to kill, we decided to take a look at Czech modern art – the lady who sold us the tickets told us to hurry, for the tour has already started. That seemed promising. Until we heard the guide. I mean, I get that you have to start somewhere when you are new but you should not let the others see your insecurity. You should definitely not look around the room trying to find the painting you are talking about (hint, you are standing right next to it, for god’s sake!), you should not mix up the artist’s names and you should not read those little notes on the wall next to each painting (we can read, we don’t need a “commented tour” for that!). So after this shock we tried to mentally shut down our ears and just read all those notes ourselves and strode out of the room in record time. The paintings were beautiful (I wish I could get closer look at Toyen but I just couldn’t bear it anymore).

Over all, it was a good day. I mean spending time with friends is always quality time no matter how shitty place you go to. At least there’s a lot to talk about and to remember, ‘cause let’s face it – I will remember the bad stuff longer than the good stuff.