When was the last time we were able to appreciate what's around us? We're always busy and have something "more important" in our minds, right? We all know this is not supposed to be the way but we are always constricted to just b like robots and follow our day-to-day routine. We don't always have the luxury of time. In the past few days, where I have time for myself, where the city is far away, where someone does the food and the apartment/hotel, and no schedule to follow but to be guided by the instant interest, I was able to see what's around me and enjoy a bit. For some of them, I was able to take some remembrance and they are below.

"People who are naturally happy appear to have a lower risk of developing heart disease or dying from heart attacks, according to a 10-year study from Canada." That's what I read from bloomberg.com. The solution? Don't worry so much, enjoy life and you'll live it longer..

Life cannot be perfect. And that's the beauty of it. We always want everything perfect and it's difficult to achieve and we get frustrated. Nature itself is not perfect, look at these photographs, they are not perfect but they don't stop being lovely, aren't thy?

Not eating rice for quite sometime, I decided to prepare myself a rice mix. I usually don't make rice mixes and everytime I make them, they're always experimental in nature. Lucky they always end up yummy.:-) This time, the rice mix with Mexican vegetable mix and ground beef end up perfectly. The rice were not sticking and the taste was delicious. Below is how the rice mix came through. I looked online if there's a similar one to what I cooked but I could not find one. I think there's no really strict rules in cooking: as long as edible and yummy, that's it! What do you think?

It was a fulfilling yummy meal with my rice mix. :-)

Pasta meals can be both quick and yummy and can be also healthy as well. Below are some of my pasta mixes that are worth repeating. They're yummy, easy to prepare and only takes longer in boiling. The good thing? As one boils the pasta, that person can o something else at the same time. In the end, only a couple of minutes is wasted.. The 3 dishes listed below were practical mixes as we don't live in Italy, otherwise we would have the original ingredients or created something else that's abundant in the province during a particular season. One example is the broccoli, we used to turnip back in Italy but we do not have any idea where to look nfor turnip near where we live in the Netherlands. The dishes below is more like "be practical and adapt"...

Homemade Own Pasta Dish 1: Farfalle in salted anchovies with tuna in olive oil.

Homemade Own Pasta Dish 2: Penne with Courgette and Ham in Cream.... Yummy (not as healthy as the others...)

Homemade Own Pasta Dish 3:

Food can be prepared in simple ways yet the dish can be amazingly yummy! What we need when preparing them or in cooking is only a bit of spices and patience.:) Yes, I just have that experience with this braised-grilled dinner. It's a simple combination of beef slices and potatoes but they are a great mix. The preparation was not that complicated. After all, the beef are already sliced when purchased while the potatoes, I had to peel of course.

The beef, while seasoning (salt,pepper,etcetera), I also made pocket-like slices and inserted some minced coriander into it. It's to enhance/regulate the smell. I use coriander for this purpose, especially with grilled or fried chicken (mostly drumsticks).


What I did with the beef, to make it more tasty, is to braise it first. Adding a bit of water if needed to reach the desired level of tenderness. While doing it, I make sure that it does not lose its taste, adjusting the salt and spice level as necessary.

Once tender and all liquid are gone (or semi-dry of its own juices and/or water), I added olive oil in it. It will make it into abit of fry, then I transferred it to the grill for the final touch.

The potatoes are semi-boiled and similarly, spiced,seasoned and with olive oil. I put them together andput them in grill. The final result is a juicy, delicious, tender beef mixed with equally tasty potatoes! Great dinner with a glass ofred wine! Buon appetito!

What I like about this food? Obviously it's healthy as it is with fish and vegetable. It is also incredibly delicious. And this was only an accidental discovery. The dish is supposed to be of turnip tips with salted canned anchovies and pasta but we could not find this vegetable here in Netherlands so we had to think of a substitute. To make the story short, we thought of broccoli! And hooray! We never expected that it would come out this yummy. You want to learn the good stuff of broccoli.

I used to like this dish more, pasta with ham and mushroom and cream, but now I prefer the one with broccoli.

The dish is very quick to prepare as well.

1. Boil broccoli (put minimal amount of water to not take the taste of broccoli). You may mix with salt to flavor or pepper or chili depending on your palate. In the meantime, boil your pasta of choice.

2. Drain the boiled broccoli. Place oil, then add garlic (optional) and onion in separate pan and then when ready, add conserved anchovies. After, mix the broccoli with it. Adjust seasoning to suit your palate and also the level of "crookedness".


3. When the pasta is at al dente, drain it and mix with the broccoli and anchovies. What you’ll get is a tasty mix of deliciousp asta.See images..