tips

Towards the end of the month of November we decided to have some Mac and Cheese, but like the real deal. And yes, there is a non-real version too. So I asked A to search for the recipe as I never made this and I tend to just whip some dishes up, with no recipe and the result is not always good, as you can imagine. 

One of the things I need to improve is my willingness to follow recipes and the presentation. Sometimes I'm also under the impression the taste is not the one I imagine it to be. Since we have no reference point, we just have to think the food tastes good. However, the good news is that I plan on cooking more in 2019, even if I won't share everything I cook.

Enough babbling, on with the recipe! 

INGREDIENTS:

• 250 g macaroni;
• 125 g (real) butter;
• 150 g cheese - we used a local cheese called "telemea" 
• some salt 
• some ground black pepper

METHOD

Boil water with some salt, and add the pasta. Let it boil according the instructions on the package - usually some 10 minutes. 

Dice the butter and shred the cheese. This way, the butter will melt faster. 
When the time is up, drain the water, add the butter and the cheese and mix.

Let everything in the pot, on the fire for 2 extra minutes, then turn off the fire. 

When the time is up, add the black pepper on top. You can eat it right away, but better wait some 5 to 10 minutes so it will cool down a bit, with a lid on top. 

Let me tell you that this was the best pasta I had in a very long time. This is why I decided to share this recipe with all of you. Also, if you never tried Mac and Cheese before, this is a great chance to try it out. I know some folks prefer to make recipes that have been cooked by others before, and that were successful. 

Earlier I mentioned I used the cheese telemea. It's a Romanian cheese similar to feta, if I'm not mistaken. You're better off learning more about it from its Wiki page. It's usually salty or very salty, though less salty varieties have been made too. Nowadays, most telemea cheese on the market is made of cows milk, probably because it's easier to come by. 

© Charly Cross 2013 - present. All rights reserved.

I haven't posted a recipe in a very long time, i believe. I think it's time I shared something - a salad this time! It's easy to make, pretty good for the upcoming holidays, delicious in my opinion, and is also vegan friendly! 

Well, ok, what I'll share is not vegan friendly because I used eggs, BUT keep the eggs out and you can safely enjoy it! If you're wondering why I had to specify this is a Romanian version of the salad, is because Google showed me a different type of salad when I searched for the name of this dish. 

I'm not exactly sure what's the story behind this salad, all I know is that it's pretty easy to make, and that it's never enough. 

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 kg potatoes
• 200 g black olives (for color; use seedless ones)
• 200 g pickles
• 1 red bell pepper
• 2 eggs (you can skip them for a vegan salad)
• aromatic herbs  - parsley (fresh or dry), dill (i skipped it)
• some salt and ground black pepper
• oil and vinegar

This is the list of ingredients for a basic salad I found on a Romanian website. I know some people add more stuff in this salad. One of the most common ingredients is sliced onion, but you must know we don't eat it. Other ingredients I noticed were shredded cabbage, raw cucumbers (along the pickled ones), and pickled beet, and the salad becomes a bit pinkish. 

Do not add any type of meat in this salad, because then you'll make something else. 

METHOD

Start by peeling and dicing the potatoes. Then throw them in a pot with water, and place on medium heat. Don't forget to add some salt - I used some pink salt, not that it really matters, but we were curious. I boiled the potatoes for some 30 minutes, but I don't think I had 1 kg.

The next step is to slice or dice the rest of the ingredients, including the olives and eggs. Don't forget about the other ingredients you want to add. 

Next, when the potatoes are done, rinse them with some cold water, and mix them with the ingredients. Of course,don't forget to add oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and the herbs. 

Look at those vibrant colors! This salad is eaten usually by itself or sometimes maybe with steak or chicken. There's no need for bread when eating this dish. You might need to eat other dishes before or after it to feel completely full. 

I hope you like it if you make it!

© Charly Cross 2013 - present. All rights reserved.

As you already know I like doing things with my hands. I like coloring, or I like "improving" my clothes like I did these pants. 

The jacket I decided to embroider is off white, and from H&M, but from at least 2 years back. I doubt you'll still find it - when i bought it, it was sales season. I also haven't seen anything similar anymore. This jacket is pretty long, as it reaches below my butt. Its fabric also feels sturdy, and doesn't really let the wind through. I wish it had a hoodie - maybe I can MAKE one in the future? LOL. 

So the jacket has 4 large pockets on the front. The 2 on the chest have a flap, while the ones on the lower part have a bit of a different shape. I thought the jacket looks too plain and that I needed to do something to cheer it up, give it a bit of a fresh air. What better way to do this if not with some embroidery? And not just any type of embroidery, but specifically Romanian.

So i searched for something in the book with Romanian embroidery I own and I also searched online. And I found the above design, completely black, originating from the Moldova area. 

I can only remember finding it on a Romanian online book store, and they were showing pictures of a few pages from inside the books they had listed. And U copied the model on paper. 

I had no idea to start to embroider the design. It looks easy enough, especially if only one color is used. Another problem was the fabric as it is woven, but it uses a special type of weaving that makes it hard to count the threads. And if there's one thing to know about Romanian embroidery, is that it counts the threads in order to make a pretty, even design.

I decided to put the paper on the pocket, and to proceed with sewing through the paper. I didn't want to break the paper, at first, but i really had no idea or indication anywhere, on how to do it. 

As you can tell from the image above, it worked pretty well. Except for when i was done,and i had to break the paper. Can you guess what happened? The thread was loose. If you'll look carefully at the next 2 pictures, you'll see what I mean.

Since I already embroidered one pocket, I had a better idea on how to proceed with the design, on the next ones. I didn't take pictures, but I'll try my best to explain if you want to reproduce it - but please give credit to the Romanian people.

If you'll use a fabric on which counting the threads is easy, it's even better. You basically need a 20 * 20 grid, as there are 20 rows and 20 columns.

If you use 2 colors:

Start with any of the red squares, but not the middle one. You embroider 2 rows of 2 crosses, then jump to the design in the corner that would be above it, and embroider in the same direction. When done, jump to another square, then another corner, then another square, then the 3rd corner, another square, then the one in the middle, and then the last corner.

You'd have to turn the fabric almost with each jump from the corner to the square. A lot of turning would happen when working on the second color as well. 

If you look closely, you'll notice 2 rectangles that intersect one another. I found it easier to work on them if I stat with the longer section, then the edge, then the shorter section, then jump to the next longer section, and so on. 

If you use a single color:

I suppose that for when embroidering in a single color, the design would be easier, since you'd have to work on rows. I didn't want to work it all in black because I thought it would look too austere in a way. 

As you can see, i managed to finish the embroidery. It was pretty easy too, once I got used to it. But of course I also cheated a little bit. With the design copied on a different paper, i poked holes with a pencil, to mark the fabric with a visual guide. 

I didn't cheat perfectly, as you can probably tell. The crosses are not all the same size and are not perfectly aligned either. It took me 4 days in total to complete, with just a few hours per day. I'm pretty happy with the design, i think it's cute and cheerful, and that it looks quite authentic. I have nothing to compare it to, so i'll just stop here.

See you guys!

© Charly Cross 2013 - present. All rights reserved.

We all know we live in a highly consumerist society, or era better said. This can easily be said about technology, clothes and even food. 

Technology these days is poorly made ON PURPOSE to be replaced often. Why do you think Apple releases a new iPhone every 6 months or so? their excuse is: "we added a little fix" or "we improved this little thing," and so on.

The same can be said about clothes - at least about what we call fast fashion. Except their excuse is "that you MUST keep up with the trends." There are of course several other aspects in our lives where we're told "this season you MUST buy this or that in order to impress" and the list goes on and on. 

You know what? you must not keep up with any trend! you must not impress anyone with newly bought stuff either! 

You know what? I've had it! a long time ago. And as a result I did all I could to stop buying new items. At least on full price. There are only a few exceptions, because I can't find everything discounted or as second hand. I also started sharing with A coats, shoes, scarves, tshirts - mostly because that's all we can share, since A is much tinier than me. 

Below are some of the stuff A gave me - i chose to show you 3 pairs of pants. One of the pairs is pink and thick sweat pants, which is one of the most recent "gifts". The oldest is the pink silk pair with an over-sized upper part, while the black pair are some ripped jeans for which i must lose some weight. 

I started buying clothes only when there are sales, or from discounted boutiques - so basically the stuff other people didn't like anymore. Let me give you some examples below: 3 pairs of jeans from an discount outlet and 2 tshirts on clearance from a known store (fast fashion, which I'm not very proud of, but I figure that sometimes it's ok if there's an item that we really really like. it's more wasteful if the stuff gets destroyed, in my opinion, and a shame for the work of someone.) 

And yes, 2 of those pairs of jeans are identical, because they fit me so well, and they are so comfortable. The material and the seams seem of pretty good quality as well, and the price was unbeatable - 10 lei a pair! (about 2.5 USD?) The darker large pair is also made of a good quality fabric - thick and heavy, and not stretchy at all. I thought they're designer, but i think they're fakes. Meh! 

I also checked the clearance section of another fast fashion store, but the men's section. I found 2 pairs of jeans that i really like how they look and feel. See them below as well, in the 3rd picture.

I also got some clothes and footwear for free, from a "swap shop" event I found on facebook. There's a jeans jacket, 2 pairs of boots, and some tshirts.  A got a few dresses as well, and a flannel shirt. I'll include a pic of a few of the items, not everything. 

One of the tshirts I got had a few holes in it, that I didn't see when i chose it. I didn't think much about them, and I decided to mend them somehow. 

Speaking of free stuff, remember my post about the expensive stuff I simply found? That's another way I fight consumerism. or by using facebook groups like freecycle, where people give away for free, the items they don't need or want anymore. 

I mentioned earlier I mended some clothes. Luckily, these days fashion is very permissive and allows patches over patches as well as destroyed garments. 

On the tshirt with little holes, I used some clear nail polish to prevent the holes from getting bigger. Then i proceeded to sew on, by hand, some small patches or (printed) ribbon. The ribbon was used as a tag on some other item A got from another outlet (i think). 

Another way we saved some money and fought consumerism, was to share some of the clothes we own.  The easiest is to share the jackets and the shoes, like in the picture below. But granted, we can't share all the shoes nor all the jackets. 

The home clothes and socks are other items we share, just because it's more convenient this way. 

I want to hear from you, how do YOU fight against consumerism, and if you have any other tips for me. :)

© Charly Cross 2013 - present. All rights reserved.

Lately, I have heard many people saying "i'm so woke" or "he/she/.. is so woke! wow, i'd like to be like that".

However, there are a few steps to take to become "woke" - and gosh, can I not use this word? i can't staaand it!! Anyways. What does it mean to be "awaken" actually? hmmm, the way I see it is a state of mind in which the person:

• is somehow above all the mundane things and events,
• these don't affect the person anymore, as they feel unimportant
• sees the deception of the world 
• (the individual) feels wiser as a result
• feels that what matters more is related to spirituality, food for the soul, prayer, meditation
• may try to change their eating and shopping habits 
• may act more level-headed

There might be other aspect and features I didn't mention here. Others might find another "definition" to the term. 

I don't have much more to say as intro, so let's see the steps. Oh, it will take some time until you become "awaken," so be warned. I can't tell how long, as each person is different. 

STEP 1

Give up your TV, radio, news paper, and all the magazines. WHY? 

They're tools of mass brain washing. If this sentence made you laugh or scorn, perhaps you're not ready to awaken. And there's nothing wrong in that, as not everyone is meant to awaken. Please read this article I wrote about how annoying commercials are, and maybe you'll give this step another thought. 

You probably know that all the traditional media mentioned above transmit news that is approved (especially in certain countries), sometimes made up (yea, fake news does happen), and through the programs and articles they present and the manner they do so, they try to influence your opinion and tell you how to think. - and yes, i also try to do this through my blog, i'd like to think that because i have only the LORD and my conscience to answer to, i don't do things out of malice, or for my own gain..  i'd like to think someone will find my writings somehow useful.

But i'm going off topic there. The mentioned media can also decide how much to disclose of the info they have - hence 'fake news' can easily happen. The practice can also be called misinformation of the masses. 

If you have subscriptions to publications that are a must for your job, then keeping those should be fine. 

One last thing here - if you think you were only checking for the weather/zodiac/[insert whatever] segment, you could surely find a free app for it. But haven't you wondered why isn't the weather forecast always accurate with what happens outside? or the daily zodiac?

By the way, you'd also be saving some money by giving up the items i mentioned here. yay or nay? 

STEP 2

Get off of all your social media! WHY?

Social media is closely related to mass media. But that's not everything there is to it. Social media is also filled with a lot of negativism, and toxic people. These two aspects alone are enough to stop you from awakening.

This is especially true for those individuals who react in an intense manner to most things they see or read. These people somehow feel that what they just saw or read has an impact on their own life. Although, on another hand, these strong reactions could actually be a signal that the person is quite ready to awaken. 

The thing is that some folks might fall under the pressure coming from their friends, no matter they're on or off line, because they're that easily influenced. Giving into that pressure, that can be more or less obvious, could mean they won't "wake" as fast or as easily. 

Again, if your job is somehow related to social media, then this step can't really be implemented. Perhaps, just try to limit your online presence as much as you can, by having dedicated time slots for specific activities? I don't know.

STEP 3

Start researching and learning! WHY?

Do you know how those "awaken" people became so? Mostly by studying and reading. They study and read everything they can get their hands on. They do give the impression their preferred subjects are philosophy, religion and spirituality, politics, conspiracy theories, and on and on.

A person that reads a lot can only become wiser and smarter. It's really as easy as that. Don't be surprised when at a point you'll feel like you have nothing in common with your friends anymore, as this may happen at some point.

I think this is about it. some 3 easy (enough) steps for you to consider if you want to be a "woke" person. 

© Charly Cross 2013 - present. All rights reserved.

This post also doesn't need more explaining. If you want to be a writer, you need a better vocabulary. Hopefully this post will be of help, and a starting point. 

I generally use a popular search engine to find synonyms to words I noticed I "abused" in my writing. 

DISCLAIMER: i don't own these pictures. they have the Tumblr page I found them on, on them.  

Does someone have a panic attack? this is what you can do to help, and even make others like you.

Disclaimer: Pictures are not mine! I found them on Tumblr and i forgot their creator. I'm pretty sure they won't mind me sharing. 

2016 was one of the worst years for us. But there have been some nice moments as well. 

I need to remember the good parts of that year, as means to help myself heal from its dark periods. 

Some people .... especially motivational speakers as well as some spiritual gurus say you have the power to change not only the present and the future, but also the past. 

In practice, changing the past is impossible as not even God turned back time when the world was messed up - he just erased and started anew. 

The secret to changing the past/present and future, is to change our perspective of events we've been through or we experience. At the same time, any new experience must be compared to the past ones, and imagine the outcome when we take a certain course of action. 

For instance, if we know we can't help getting really drunk at parties, and that during a very drunk state we do stuff we regret, it would be wise not to go to parties. When the past is involved, when we have events we don't like, we should try and concentrate on the nice[r] or better events that happened at around the same time - like I'll try and do here.

I had a bad period before May. On the 13th we went out to the mall. I don't remember what we did there but we surely tried to relax a bit. 

Seeing the time stamp on the picture's details, i think we wanted to watch a movie. And checking to see what movies were released before then, Allegiant is the only one we could have been interested in at that time. [it takes a while for the new movies to make it to Romania, and i know we saw this series in theaters.]

I remember really liking the decor with these rainbow umbrellas. They were hung at the Starbucks Coffee entrance, in the parking lot. I think it was a sunny day, and the light made them appear more colorful. 

The next day, at about the same hour, we went to eat sushi uptown. 

Let's just say i really like sushi, i don't mind the wasabi one bit, despite my stomach, and im not grossed out by raw fish either .. nor the thought of eating it. 

The restaurant was pretty expensive in my opinion, but im not the one to like to spend a lot of money on a single item. 

Sadly, A didn't really like the sushi there. Somehow we also struggled with the chopsticks despite me having tried using them before. 

The restaurant's name is Yoshi. It reminds me of a movie i watched some 5 times already, and i really like - Bunraku. 

The same evening I also saw a store with high end decors and other items for the house. 

I like animal print, however, seeing it on a bathrobe or towel, i think it's a bit too much. I do like the wall paper though. The plain towels aren't that bad either.

Since they say those are made by Cavalli, i won't even try to imagine the price-tag. Let's not forget the up-town area is pricier than most others. Which is another explanation for the prices at Yoshi.

A few days later we went out again. We had a coffee at McCafe and then we walked along the river. I believe that's a flat white - I used to like it so much. <3 Hmmm, maybe I should try it again. 

I also remember that when it opened, McCafe baristas were trying their best to make really pretty designs on the cappuccinos. I don't think they are doing it anymore. Also at the time I was pretty addicted to coffee. These days I still drink coffee, but only in the morning. I'm trying to convince myself to give it up. 

I think it was at about that time that I started paying attention or being more interested in the traditional Romanian crafts and decors, as McDonalds had on the menu a limited time type of offer with some specific Romanian street food. It's pretty good, but can make one nauseous if it's not cooked well. And it has garlic, but almost everyone and their mother really likes it. I didn't try the Mcds' version, but I think it's better at the fair vendors where it's a common dish.

You guys have to remind me to make a post about all the coffees I drank over the time and to display all the pictures I took.

"A" remembered there was a pretty nice store somewhere uptown, called The British Galleries, if I'm not mistaken. I have no idea if the store is still open, though. 

The place had really cute things to sell, and was set in an old type of building. The merchandise was cute stationery, various items for the many rooms in the house, including kitchen and bathroom, and even souvenirs. 

We didn't buy anything, but we took several pictures there. I always wanted to show those pictures to the world, but I somehow never got to. 

The store was near Victoria Square, as seen in the first 2 pictures below. The last 2 pictures are from the street on which that shop was.

The next day I was returning home from somewhere. On my way I saw this shop with interior decors. The stuff was rather pricey, but there was a really pretty plate in the window. See it below. 

These days. the store closed down for some time. I think it happened sometime in 2017, towards the end of the year. I can't recall anything else opening in its place.

Then I have 2 pictures from 2 places I don't recognize. I also don't remember anything regarding what were we doing there. I think the weather was pretty hot though. 

All I can say is that they're taken on 2 separate days. But somehow I didn't take any other pictures between these two, judging by their names which are actually numbers. Enjoy!

Then It seems that at the very end of the month we went to a cafe. I believe I had a lemonade - read here why. The same day I saw a really cute car, I believe you call it a Beetle? Clearly I had to censor its registration plates, but even now I think it's really cute. 

I think that revisiting the year through these images and memories, did help a bit in purging the negative memories out.

© Charly Cross 2013 - present. All rights reserved.

It doesn't matter you're a woman or a man - cover up! 

I'm not a Muslim and i'm not any other type of extremist religious person, so before you bash my words, please read my 2 most important reasons I urge EVERYONE regardless of gender, race, religion, and skin color, to cover up. 

What are you supposed to cover up? hair and skin. Hear me out!

By covering up your hair and most of your skin, you protect them from pollution. If you live in a city, you're aware of the levels of pollution on the streets. If you live out in the country side, you might want to skip to the 2nd reason ;) 

Sure, not everyone is made the same, but whatever skin and hair issues you may have, they can get worse when exposed to pollution. Dust and smoke get attached to our skins and hair, especially when our faces become oily towards the end of the day, most of the skin becomes sweaty throughout the day especially in summer, and so on. 

We're then getting home and we have to use various chemicals to remove all the stuff our hairs and skins collected. Sure there are many products that use natural ingredients, but let's be real - not everyone can afford those, or pays attention to buy them. Most of us need to buy really aggressive cosmetics that leave our skins and hairs really dry, and in turn we need other products to help moisturize them back. 

These products are pretty bad for out skin, hair but also for the environment. Maybe by covering up, we won't need such aggressive cosmetics, nor in such a large amounts. However, this need is influenced by other personal factors that you can't ignore and that i'm not aware 100% aware of.

The sun does a lot of good but a lot of bad as well. Doctors say that you should be fine as long as you wear sun screen when you go out. Truth is that CLOTHES are the best sun screen - as long as they're not transparent. 

Sun screen usually needs to be reapplied, usually leaves a sticky sensation on the skin which can attracts more dust and pollution on your skin. 

The sun doesn't avoid some people - just because you're a person of African descent, and your skin is as dark as coal, it doesn't mean the sun won't burn you. It also doesn't mean you won't get skin cancer - not that i wish cancer on anyone, for i don't. You could be a dermatologist and still get it. 

Skin cancer can be a small dot on your skin, can look like an ingrown hair. But I'm not a doctor so you better go talk to one, or do more research on your own. As you can see from the experience of  that dermatologist, cancer can appear on your scalp too, if your head is not covered. 

You thought I'm done? not yet. 

REASON #2 - PART TWO: PREVENT PREMATURE AGING

If you're a woman you may want to look young for as long as possible - maybe men want this too, but i haven't seen as many as i saw women. 

Sun exposure doesn't only increase the chances of getting skin cancer, but also ages. Have you seen the truck driver with half face looking like an 80 year old man and the other half looking about 60 years old? His real age was 69 at the time of having his picture taken. Read more here. 

The clear message from this man's picture is that the sun ages a person and that being somehow covered prevents that. 

CONCLUSION:

Cover up! Cover up if you want to increase your chances of staying cancer free for as long as possible, and for looking younger for longer, without the help of bad cosmetics or plastic surgeries. 

© Charly Cross 2013 - present. All rights reserved.

I have to post this, because for the first time I managed to roast eggplant in a way that worked, is healthy, and I actually enjoyed eating. Oh, and yea! It's vegan friendly! 

So i had these eggplants [aubergines] about to go bad. So wondered what to do with them. Roasting them sounded really good. Here is how I did it!

Ingredients:

• eggplants [as many as you like]
• condiments [i used black pepper, basil, and thyme]
• some salt
• some cooking oil [unflavored is best]

I first washed and peeled the eggplants. Then I sliced them as evenly as i could - i'm really bad at this task. Their thickness was about 1cm - i didn't measure.

I realized that using a long-bladed knife helped a lot with this task. 

I used the brush usually useful when baking, to lightly spread some oil on my baking pan. 

I realized that the baking pan is quite important - I had some non-stick types, but they burned by foods as they were too thin, and the non-stick coating peeled. 

The pan i used this time is thicker and rather shiny, but I can't tell what type it is, or what it's made of. All i know is that i can scrub it quite a lot and it won't peel. It's not really enamel either, or at least i don't think it is enamel. 

After I sliced the eggplants, and after i had lightly oiled the pan, I placed as many slices of eggplant as i could in the pan. I then tried to smudge a bit of oil on each slice, and sprinkled with salt and the condiments, and then i put the pan in the preheated oven. 

I let the slices stay for some 25 to 30 minutes, and then i flipped them over. I proceeded to still let them cook for some 15-20 minutes. 

Unlike with the non-stick pans, the slices did NOT stick to this pan - they did stick to the non-stick ones when i tried the recipe before. I have no idea how it happened. All i know is that i got rid of the so called non-stick ones, but mostly because they started peeling.

I cook with gas, hence fire, and this may be a reason for my previous attempts at roasting to turn into failures. Vegetables turned mushy, or burned. I guess this baking pan is specially made for cooking and roasting with gas. 

Bottom line is that if your roasts are not like the expectation, try to change your pan - it might just do the trick.

(c) Charly Cross 2013 - present. All rights reserved.