Obscure Journey

"generic" pound cake recipe

Publié le 24 Novembre 2013 par Charly C.

Catégories : #baking, #tips, #Cooking, #dessert, #food, #sweets, #recipe

Hello world~~~

You might have many great pound cake recipes, and I cannot wait to find more. There are a few ingredients needed, just a few steps, and then, BAM! baking and voila!

I'll give you guys the quantities for a single loaf and the ones for 2 loafs in parenthesis, if you like it and want to try it again ;) This recipe doesn't need baking powder because the eggs and oil make it really fluffy.

not my picture :( it belongs to its maker

INGREDIENTS

4 large eggs (7 medium eggs)
1 cup sugar (2 cups)
5 tablespoons water (7 tablespoons)
5 tablespoons oil (7 tablespoons)
some salt
1 cup flour (1 1/2 cups)
vanilla, lemon, or other flavoring you like
cocoa (if you want it marbled)

METHOD

Pre-heat the oven and prepare your baking tray.
Mousse the eggs whites.
Place the sugar in a pot, pour the water over, and melt the sugar over some heat (like on the stove). Make sure you get a syrup like looking ingredient and that you don't burn it.
Pour the above syrup on the mousse and mix well.
Pour the salt over the egg yolks, mix with a fork, and pour over the meringue above. Mix well.
Add the oil and mix well.
Add the flour and mix well.
Add the flavoring and mix well.
Pour the mix in the tray and bake for some 30 minutes. A toothpick should come out clean if you prick the pound cake in the middle.

MARBLED CAKE

Follow the steps 1 to 8.
Pour the mix in the tray saving some 2 or 3 tablespoons of batter over which you pour the cocoa. Mix well and then pour on top of the rest of the batter with a left/right motion.
Bake it like above.

the cocoa mixture on the left. use a teaspoon to 'cut' the batter, to have some cocoa IN the pound-cake

You can further decorate your pound cake with any topping you like. You can also add raisins, nuts, or other dried fruits.

Bon Appetit!

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Making soup? Easy!

Publié le 18 Novembre 2013 par Charly C.

Catégories : #Cooking, #soup, #recipe

Winter is around the corner in this city. The weather is still mostly sunny, but it’s cold. There is no better excuse to warm up with some warm home-made soup, is there?

Now I want to share with you a soup recipe I made and liked. I called it an “all-purpose” soup, because you can alter it to any type of soup. It’s like a basic soup that is eaten as it is, or turned into a chicken soup, and so on. Before you read on, I have 2 warnings:

I’m allergic to onion and garlic, thus my foods never have these ingredients.
I didn’t measure almost none of the ingredients, and I wanted more soup, to have some the next day. Making soup is no exact science for me.

frozen mixes are a good alternative, if you don't want to make the soup from scratch

INGREDIENTS

2 liters of water
3-4 medium potatoes
1-2 medium to small carrots
1-2 small bell peppers
1/4 cauliflower head
salt
any other ingredient (vegetables or condiments) you can think of that would work in a soup

METHOD

Turn the stove top on, throw the salt in the water in a large enough pot, and put the pot on the fire.
Peel the carrots, dice them and put them in the pot. The water doesn’t need to boil, there is enough time.
Peel the potatoes, dice them to bite size and drop them in the pot.

Clean the peppers, chop them and put them in the pot.
Clean the cauliflower, chop it, and drop it in the pot.
Add any other vegetable you selected above. Any condiments should be added some 10 minutes before you stop the fire.
Let boil. It took my soup 45 minutes to completely boil.

MAKE A MEAT SOUP

Separately, clean any type of meat you want in your soup. Dice the meat and fry it in a pan with little oil. Grilled meat works fine too. The important part is to cook the meat well.

When the soup is done, put some meat pieces in a bowl and add hot soup on top for a serving. You can cover the bowl for some 10-15 minutes and then serve.

Meatballs work just as nicely, but make sure they’re properly cooked, like above.

This “all-purpose” soup is great for families in which some members don’ t eat meat while others do. My soup is red because I had put some 2 or 3 tablespoons of tomato sauce. These are added towards the end, with some 10 minutes before you turn off the fire.

Bon Appetit!

this entry was edited in May 2018, with pictures taken at various times.

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Using the public transportation in Bucharest

Publié le 10 Septembre 2013 par Charly Cross

Catégories : #advice, #bucharest, #buses, #commuting, #public transportation, #subway, #tram

Bucharest has a very goo public transportation system, this allowing you to reach any area you're curious about, with ease. There are many more bus routes compared to the routes of the trolleybuses, trams, and subway. They'll usually leave you right next to your destination or within walking distance.

So the easiest way of reaching Downtown is by public transportation and while I read that some countries have some bus routes free of charge, this is not the case in Bucharest. In fact ticket inspectors come to check your ticket quite often. The fare for one way, is 1.3 lei for the above the ground routes, no matter how far you go... I guess this is about some US .50 cents? If you're caught without a ticket, you must pay 50 lei (about 11USD).

most commonly seen tram

Speaking of tickets, we don't use those anymore. Instead we have some cards that can be loaded with either trips, monthly passes, a combination of the two, or a certain amount of money (not more than 15 lei). They're the size of a regular bank card. To recharge, you need to find an open "ticket" booth - all of them accept cash in lei. Only some of them accept credit or debit cards. Below is a closed bus ticket booth near my [uptown] place - it used to close at 2PM and it's not opened on weekends.

Using the public transportation in Bucharest

Let's be clear, a charged card doesn't mean you paid your fare for the trip, unless you have a monthly pass. You're supposed to pay for your fare as soon you get on the [trolley]bus or tram. All the public transportation vehicles have some orange machines like the one below and all you have to do is put the card as close as possible to its front and dark circle. A green light and a BEEP will tell you you've been successful. A really loud and long BEEP with a red light will tell you an error occurred and you have to try again. Multiple charges are not possible by default, but you can pay the fare for others that are with you. This is done by pressing the button labeled 2 for as many times as possible.

from instagram: 2nd pic by @eduardintaiul [that's not the bus card]. 3rd pic by @nr137. 4th pic by @dracon1312.

from instagram: 2nd pic by @eduardintaiul [that's not the bus card]. 3rd pic by @nr137. 4th pic by @dracon1312.

As you can see, there is a screen too where various messages are displayed in Romanian. If you were successful in paying for your trip, you should be shown how much money is left on the card - sometimes the message is too fast. Sometimes, error messages are shown, like in the 3rd picture above and this usually means you can't even attempt to pay for your trip.

It seems RATB [the company operating the public transportation above the ground] likes to repair their machines with tape. They still work though.

We used to have this type of tickets. pic by @alexandrapoate on instagram.

If you go out late in the evening, you might risk not having a ride back. However, we have a few night buses go all over the city every 30 minutes, but not between 1 and 3am. The fare to ride them is the same as for the day routes. Make sure you get in the correct bus: the N123 bus for instance will not go to the same place as the daytime123 bus!

creepy old tram seen at night. used for maintenance.

This article was edited on Feb 16th, 2018, but originally posted on September 10th, 2013.

Very old tram by @transportcivilizatro on instagram

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