Iuliana Cosmina » Miscellaneous

Sep 03 2016

Paste creative cu urechi de urs și spanac

Category: Miscellaneous — Iuliana @ 13:54

(For non-Romanian readers: this post is a pasta recipe that I invented myself and I was asked by a friend to post it here. If any of you is curious about it, comment and ask for a translation. I am really busy and I can’t do it at the moment, but I will do my best in case one of you asks me to.)

De multe ori am tendința să merg la cumpărături deși aș putea sa gătesc ce am prin casă și așa ajung să am dulapurile pline de provizii de care uit. Așa că azi am schimbat foaia și am încercat să improvizez ceva cu ce aveam prin gospodărie. Și mi-au ieșit niște paste demne de Master Chef. Așa că am decis să vă împărtășesc rețeta. Nu știam ce nume să le pun ca să le patentez :D așa că m-am legat de ingredientele principale: ciuperci urechi de urs și spanac. Așa că asta e rețeta mea de Paste creative cu urechi de urs și spanac.

Ingrediente

4 căței de usturoi (minim, eu am pus toată căpățâna)
1 morcov
3 linguri de ulei de măsline sau orez
o mână de ciuperci urechi de urs deshidratate
un ardei roșu mic (sau o jumătate dintr-unul mare, ideea e, tăiat cubulețe să fie aproximativ o mână)
1 linguriță sos pesto
10 frunze de busuioc tăiate mărunt
100 g tăieței din orez (Tao-Tao din Carrefour)
o mână sau două de spanac
parmezan la discreție, praf sau dat pe răzătoare
o mână de stafide sau goji berries (opțional)

Pași de execuție

Într-un castron se pun la rehidratat ciupercile urechi de urs. Se pune apă călduță cât să le acopere și încă vreo 2 cm. Trebuie să stea la rehidratat cam 1 ora și vor absorbi destul de multă apă. Dacă vi se pare că nu este îndeajuns de multă apă, mai adăugați. Ideea e să nu o absoarbă pe toată.
Spanacul se spală și scutură bine de apă și se pune la congelator. (Vrem să înghețe să devină casant, ca să nu ne chinuim să îl tăiem)
Într-o oală cu fund gros se pune uleiul și se aruncă peste el morcovul și usturoiul tăiat mărunt ( eu am folosit robotul). Se pune capac pe oală și se încălzesc la foc mic.
Când începe să sfârâie, se învârt de câteva ori cu pauze apoi se aruncă peste ele ardeiul tăiat cubulețe. Se lasă la rumenit în continuare.
Când vi se pare să ardeiul este puțin pătruns, adăugați ciupercile urechi de urs cu tot cu apa rămasă și adăugați stafidele, lingurița de sos pesto și sare după gust.
Se amestecă bine și trebuie să rezulte un amestec destul de lichid încât să se poată înmuia tăiețeii. Dacă nu este destul de lichid, completați cu apă și amestecați înainte de a pune tăieței. Amestecați bine să fiți siguri că tăiețeii sunt bine acoperiți cu sos și lăsați 2 minute pe foc cu capac, pentru a se înmuia bine.
Când tăiețeii au devenit transparenți și flexibili, scoateți spanacul și adăugați-l. Dacă e destul de înghețat se va sfărâma destul de ușor cu o spatulă. Amestecați bine și lăsați 1 minut cu capac, pentru a se pătrunde bine spanacul.
Adăugați două linguri de parmezan și busuiocul și amestecați bine până se topește parmezanul și pastele încep să se lege.
Luați de pe foc și serviți cu parmezan.

Ale mele cam așa arătau:

Merg servite și cu așa ceva:

Tags: food, inventive, pasta, pesto, spinach

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Aug 18 2016

Happy birthday to me!

Category: Miscellaneous — Iuliana @ 12:00

I just had a chat with my mom. Apparently I was born at 03:00 AM. I’ll just leave it here for future use. :)
The images below were sent to me by two colleagues. I’ll leave them here as well, in case next year will not be as great as this one. :D

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Aug 18 2016

The adult me

Category: Miscellaneous — Iuliana @ 0:50

When I was little I imagined that the adult me would be a perfect wife and mother. All I wanted for my future self was a family better than the one I had. Because that’s what I thought that people should have, that seemed to be the path for everyone. So I could not imagine myself doing anything else with my life but having a family, being a wife and a mom.

But here I am, more than 20 years later, living alone with a cat and feeling quite content about it. I hear people talking about their family life, about their children and for a moment I feel a little bitter that I cannot offer any input about that. I imagine them for a moment in the comfort of their nice cozy homes full of love and morning light and feel envy. For a moment I wish I had all that. And then reality comes back and I realize that because of my current situation there is little chance of me ever having it and my best chance of mental survival is to accept this.

It is not about age, it is about the fact that I never stayed too long in a place to form connections with people. This wasn’t always my decision, but the last time it was. And I chose a small city, where people get married early in their lives. I chose a small company with most people working here a lot younger than me. And we tend to fall in love with people we get to know well and feel comfortable to be around. And this kind of relationship evolves in environments like school and at work. I lost my chance in school, because I was too busy studying and preparing for the career I have now. And at work… well I do not feel comfortable mixing pleasure with business. My other passions are reading and sports and a lot of other loner activities. So you see, my context does not allow for me to form this kind of relationship. And I’m ok with this; I have other advantages, like absolute freedom for example.

The only moments when I yearn for a cozy house that’s full of love and morning light is when I meet some people that I am attracted to. Because all that makes sense only if there is somebody else to share that with. But from my previous experience I know that people that I am attracted to, they are either bad for me or not meant for me.

I hope I am an adult now, people around me probably see me as crazy, immature or complicated, I might be a little bit of all. I have my moments or sadness, I have my moments of joy. I have moments when I wish my life would be different and I have moments when I am so content with my life I that I expect the end to come, because there can be nothing more than this. I might not know exactly what I want all the time, but at least I know for sure what I do not want. That’s enough for now.

Happy birthday to me!

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Aug 01 2016

To The Moon And Back

Category: Miscellaneous — Iuliana @ 11:37

I first heard this song in 1997 and it was love at first chord. As you probably know by now I love guitar and I love meaningful lyrics and this song has them both. Watch the video, read the lyrics underneath and then continue reading.

The video you just watched is the one I first saw. It is raw and seems cheap, but I love it more than the US version that you can see here. I loved the song when I was barely a teenager because all I desired was for a ticket to a world where it would have been acceptable for me and Bogdan to be together. But he is gone now, this year it will be the 15th I lived without him. And I am living my life trying to keep the little of him I can alive: his sense of humor, his way of looking at things in a lightly manner, like nothing was too serious and everything could be achieved, every difficulty overcome, his way of smiling by lifting up the left corner of his lips and the most important his trust in me, that I can do anything if I just work hard enough because I am smart and have a lot of willpower.

I will always love that song because it is representative for the way I am. Because my parents had their difficulty in expressing their feelings, I am shying away from human affection. I yearn for it but I can’t recognize it in people. Love is red, so far I have been color blind. The journey to find love is complex and intricate and if there’s a map for it, nobody told me about it.

But like I said before, the hope to find your soul mate, leaves you only on your death bed. Nothing can take it away, and unless I die tomorrow, I have a lot of time to fix my eyesight and start seeing red.

Stay safe, stay happy!

Tags: Savage Garden

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Jul 31 2016

The duality of human mind

Category: English posts,Miscellaneous — Iuliana @ 21:37

No matter how hard we try, any of us will always be a shady combination of what we want to be and what we really are. Of course we want to be good, disciplined, rational and open-minded. But instead we end up having our moments when we are mean, lazy, hard-headed and fixed in our beliefs.

There is this duality of human nature, this contrast that is solved only when we die. Before that, we struggle between what we should feel and what we actually feel and between what we think and what we must do.

Society has a lot to to with this too. Education and schools try to shape your mind and thoughts to fit is own purpose, and the purpose of a society rarely coincides with the purpose of the individual. If the purpose of society would match the purpose of the individuals, we won’t have so many people reaching their 30s without knowing what they really want to do with their lives, torn between what it feels right and what they are told is right.

Acceptance is the answer, but you have to go through a lot of shit to get there. You have to have your heart broken. Your dreams have to be broken. You have to kneel down and cry your heart out and give any hope of happiness being anything than a word in the dictionary. And from all those ashes, from all that bitter pain acceptance and a little “not giving a fuck” attitude will be born. That is the starting point of the real you. If you are lucky this will happen earlier in your life and you will get strong and learn to survive and play a society that is civilized only by name. If you are not, this will happen later, but still, it is better than you dying bed. Because, no matter how late you wake up, all it matters is that you do.

Wake up and start being you! The version of you that feels right. Other versions of you will creep up from the past. A glass of wine will get them out of their graves and shake you. But do not lose your way. The past cannot be changed, but the future is decided by your present. Live the present as if tomorrow never comes. I’m not saying not to make long term plans, but in working on fulfilling them try to leave each day as if it would be your last. Because one day, it will be. And when you draw your final breath and when life is rapidly scrolling in front of your eyes, the conclusion should be: “Sure, I’m dying, but daaamn that is a life well lived!”

Stay safe, stay happy!

Tags: life

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Jul 26 2016

The world today…

Category: Miscellaneous — Iuliana @ 9:01

… is scary.

What happens now in Turkey is the gruesome birth of a new islamic state. It is terrifying, it is horrific, it is above all sad. Because we have struggles as a society through the dark ages, we have records about what happens to humanity wen we let ourselves be guided by fear and violence. And we’ve learned nothing. I just read an article this morning about Erdogan’s regime torturing and raping people. This is not what a leader does. This is what a sadistic dictator does. We are in the 21th century, we have some basic guidelines of what a person should or should not do, how a person should be punished for his or her actions. Being tortured and raped is not in any of these guidelines. These are the measures taken by someone weak that cannot gain followers by being a good leader and that is why he resorts to terror. He may hold the power now, but history will not forget nor forgive him. He will be known as the second Hitler. He will be trashed, any trace of him will be erased and his children will be killed or forced to live in exile, forever bearing the shame of sharing the same DNA with a gruesome dictator.

Where is EU now? If Turkey was a member of EU, it would have been blasted into oblivion by now. I am not condoning violence, but EU is standing by and watching as this bastard, this crazy person is torturing and raping people. We have drones and we have state of the art weapons and we cannot end this guy and his acolytes? We should blast every Turkey governmental building down and I am sure the secret services know all the possible hideouts of this bastard. Let’s blast them all down and let’s turn collateral losses into heroes, that have sacrificed themselves for the good of many. History will forgive EU leaders or this, but it will never forgive them is they stand by and to nothing.

Leaders of Germany, Brussels and France, you have been too kind to people that shat on your kindness. It is time to stand up and protect your citizens, the ones that pay your taxes, the ones that chose you to lead them. Or else history will not forgive you either. You will be mentioned as weak and incapable leaders . Merkel, you were called the Iron Lady. Where is that Iron now, has it been turned into mush?

Like I said, I do not approve violence of any kind. I try to avoid it and I stay away from it as best as I can. But I know not everybody is like me, there is a religion that approves killing people not sharing the same belief and there are persons that are have no respect for the rules of this society we’ve struggled to build. I do not approve of violence, but sometimes, to get somewhere you never been before, you have to do something you never did before. Removing these destructive elements from society would benefit the ones that want and prefer to be civilized. No torture, no raping, just kill and clean. And no grave either. Make them disappear and just keep a record that they existed and why the decision to remove them was taken, so the future can learn form this.

We are preparing to explore space and we are doing serious technical advances towards building an AI. We should be scared of aliens and AIs not people.

I always loved Star Trek, because of the ideal idea of society that was supposed to be our future. A society without currency, borders or religion, where people and aliens of all kinds and races lived together in harmony. I really thought that was the direction of this world. I never though I would live to see it heading to a second dark age.

I am sad my friends, I am sad and I am disappointed in humanity. And I am sad and disappointed in myself because I ended up thinking that a little violence is justified to prevent more violence.

Try to stay safe, stay happy!

Tags: dark ages, sad days

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Jul 25 2016

Nerd meets world

Category: Miscellaneous — Iuliana @ 18:59

When I was young I never thought myself as a nerd. I never considered myself smart enough, nor had the passion for learning new things. For me it was all about survival. I was a poor girl, from a poor family (Bohemian Rhapsody reference :D) so there were not many ways to ensure myself a nice life. Learning seemed the easiest for me. I have have turned my brains into a resource and used to the maximum. I am still doing that.

Problem is, I have let some parts of myself stall. I never paid to much attention to my social skills or the way I look. Nature helped here a little, because I’m not what you would consider ugly, even without makeup as long as I keep myself clean and kempt, I am pretty to look at. But social skills – I have none. So I’m adult and a nerd now, crap! I am so insecure and suffering from acute social anxiety, that a whole day of work or interaction with people almost puts me into depression. I fake it and I make it, but the most comfortable I feel between my 4 walls and that is the place I cannot wait to get to in the evening. My fortress of solitude. My empire of tranquillity. My citadel of loneliness.

And as time goes by I realize that this is going to bite me in the ass at some point. Because human interaction is fun, and humans need fun to keep themselves mentally sane. And fun, oh well nothing is more fun then interacting with the opposite sex. And this is where I have a huge problem, because obviously I have no idea how men function, what makes them tick. Sure I was involved in some relationships, I know how they function, anatomically speaking. But their minds are a mystery to me. They seem to have no bloody logic.

Then there is this little thing of me having no bloody filters. Everything that I think I speak. Or struggle not to and most of the time I fail miserably. If I manage not to speak, then you can read it on my face. I am not kidding, my face hides nothing. If I’m happy my whole face lightens up and I smile fully using my eyes and eyebrows too. If I get angry you can see my face getting darker, my eyebrows changing shape and my cheeks become stern and serious. If I’m sad, well, just don’t look at me, because you will get depressed.

Also, when it comes to interaction with men I have two speeds: still and light speed. Meaning, when I like one, I either do noting and this kinda happens when I don’t know what he feels or I do everything if I am sure the attraction is reciprocated. (Yes, literally everything!) As you can probably imagine this is not good, because people are not comfortable with change. Imagine having someone by your side that changes feelings like a girl changes clothes. Freaky, right? But that is me, or that was me, because I’m running an experiment now. As I managed myself to wake up every morning at 6, as I disciplined myself to not eat everything I like in revolting portions I will educate myself to allow someone into my life little by little.

It’s a challenge to do this and I am so thankful for my busy way of life that will actually allow such an experiment to succeed. If this works, this will be a new psychological wall that I will be able to blast into oblivion. And if it does not work, oh well… there will always be a next time.

Stay safe, stay happy!

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