Cream of Mascarpone Dessert

Ok, this is soooooo delicious, but SOOOOOOOOOOO DELICIOUS that you will forget soon enough that you are about to gulp a gazillion calories in one go. Trust me, it's worth it.

And it's so easy to make it that even though you are not a wizard in the kitchen this recipe will boost your self confidence to explore more.
Here it comes:

You will need:

4 eggs
100gr. of sugar
250gr. of mascarpone cheese
Dark chocolate or cocoa to decorate

Separate the egg whites from the yolks and mix them together with the sugar. Stir everything with the help of a mixer until the cream is compact and smooth. Add the cheese, and stir everything (I use electric whisks, but feel free to use a wodeen spoon for it. Excellent arm workout!).

Add chocolate on top to finish everything. If you want to make it even better you can put raspberries on top to decorate. Put it in the fridge for an hour and it's ready to go.

Enjoy!!!

PS: mascarpone and eggs together do not last that long, so make sure that you'll keep it refrigerated in a plastic box for few days. But I guarantee you, it won't last that long, once you have tasted it :)

Recipe: Orange Risotto

University is finally done. That means that I can now go back to writing for leasure and not just for duty. Not sure how long this will last but hey, let's seize the day for now :)

I just got back from Italy. Jet lag does not leave me alone and I woke up stupidly early in the morning. Well, let's look at it in this way: at least now I have time to enjoy my books (I just finished two fictional readings that are really worth it, but I will post about this later) and, most of all, I can enjoy my cooking! It's been a while since I have been busy in the kitchen, too much studying and traveling, so time to go back to it now.

Those who know me are aware about how much I love baking, at the moment though I am not into it as such. It is summer, it is hot and this temperature shall stick with us for a while, so why not not concentrate on yummy, fruity and, OF COURSE, vegetarian dishes? As I mentioned, I just got back from Italy.

So here's something my friend and former colleague suggested me a while ago: Orange Risotto.

Here's how to make it.

Ok people, first of all- Ingredients:

1 Orange
1 Lt of vegetable broth
50g of butter
1 Onion
2-3 Tbs of chives
30g of grated parmesan cheese
White pepper (as long as you like it. Usually I am quite generous in my doses, but it's up to you). 350g of rice (the arborio type,the one for risotto, yes)
A pinch or two of salt
A glass of white wine (dry is better, chardonnay kinda thing)


Wash the orange well and peel the skin with a potato peeler, but be careful not to get the white part off as it is bitter as poison.

Dry the orange before you start peeling it, or it'll go nasty on your fingers (it did on mine, ouch!)

Squeeze the orange, and keep the juice on the side for now. Cut the zest into tiny little stripes, and let them soak in boiling water before draining. Let the little stripes dry and keep them on the side for now. Chop an onion and let it stirfry in a large pan together with the butter.

Add the rice, and let it toast for few minutes. Add the wine, stir the whole thing, and then add the orange juice. Stir, stir and stir. After that add the broth, time to time. Keep adding the broth until the rice is cooked, and keep stirring. It is important as that is how the rice doesn't get sticky and mantain a nice consistancy.

Add the zest, the parmesan cheese, the pepper and the chives. Serve and enjoy it :)

Please do let me know your feedback if you decide to try this recipe. It is easy, perfect to impress someone ;) and vegetarian.

A shipwreck at the HK Art Festival: The Tempest.

Ok, here we go again.

HK, like every year at this time at March, opens the doors to its cultural events. It's time to shout again hat we have culture and art spreading around town and HK is no less than NY or London or Milan.
From the Art Walk to the Art Festival via Rugby 7's (hang on, that's not cultural....but people just love to assist at parades of built apes in shorts who perform in front of a boozed up careless audience- give them a couple of hours and every chance of sensible conversation will be lost forever- of course! C'mon, who wouldn't be up for it?)we have the chance to say that in this town something actually CULTURAL goes on. Oh thank God, thanks thanks thanks, for a moment I thought I was living in a seedy city where all it matters was moneymoneymoneymoney....oh, thank goodness I'm not there!

The HKAPA gets packed with tons of boring bankers, lawyers and businessmen who don't give a hoot about theatre and cultural events but they just have to appear or, eventually, show their faces.
It's saturday night and we wait to take our seats and enjoy the performance of The Tempest; Sam Mendes, Academy Award for Best Picture in 1999 for American Beauty makes his debut in HK with one of the last pieces of the Theatre Master William Shakespeare.

The show starts, and after few minutes you start to realize how blank and plain the whole thing is; scenes too long, not a particular intense work on the actors, it felt like no one actually bothered to dig into characters and scenes work.
It was not an easy play to deal with- it was one of the last Shakespeare's work, and this fact emerges from his lines- of course Genius, Master of the Master, the First One of the Bunch and still, terribly human. At that time, Shakespeare was done with his work and he was slowly switching himself off.

However, if you describe to put it on because suddenly you realize you have an incredible vision with it, you should think about your poor audience who:
1) first of all, need to pee(2,5 hours and no break);
2) don't want to have a yawning competition and pay 600 dollars for that. In 40 minutes time I have probably stood up 5 times in order to let people get out. Sorry, but I hate being disturbed when I watch a show (and this lines also apply to my line above, about the restroom needs).
3) need variations, in style, in acting, no matter what.

Sam Mendes, winner at the Academy Awards 1999 with American Beauty, truly and utterly failed his experiment in front of his Sino Audience because too busy showing himself off on stage- yeah, sorry guys, at the end of the day, that was HIS Tempest, and no one else.

And now I think about those poor boring sods that appeared at the event just to give themselves a tone. If you've ever thought that theatre was boring, and then you came to watch this one, I might have to agree with you fella;not only boring, but also hideous and expensive.
However, I have good news for you, pity you'll never be interested in hearing that, but I'll tell you anyway.
There is something out there that it's called Community Theatre, and even though some shows that you might get to see are really crap, on the other side some others are really good- so good that they could have been easily on stage tonight even for less money.
These shows are on throughout the whole year and all those guys who perform for no money but only for their passion and desire would be happy in just having a full house, with loads of different people, like tonight- bankers, artists, lawyers, parents, unemployed people, teachers and simply, performances lovers.
Pity it will not happen.
Shame.

Moon Tiger

With her last few hours of her life connected to a beeping machine, Claudia gets through various moments of her life again, re-living all those incostant yesterdays, memory after memory.
Annoyed by the come and go of friends and relatives, Claudia goes back to her childhood and to the incestuos and obstreperous relationship with Gordon, her brother.
She sees once again her daughter's childhood, a daughter too different and far away from her mother, feeling once again their detached relationship still ernriched by a different type of affection.

A lifetime love, louder and stronger than anything else in the world, destroyed by what men created throughout the years of the world, something vile and adverse.

A British correspondant in Egypt in the early 40's, Claudia is a strong, obstinate, competitive and charming woman who is dealing with an unfair and merciless war.
A war fought by children, young victims who belong to an uncertain faith without nothing to lose apart from their credo in their homeland.
A Homeland in desperate need for them, that makes them completely forgotten afterwards.
The story of a woman who has laughed, cried, believed, fought, lived. Moon Tiger is the incredible adventure of a fabolous character who lives in all of us. Exciting, full of charm, sorrow and regrets, Penelope Lively shows us from close a war that does not forgive and a real love that never dies.

Hot frames to go

Sure you do remembers those classic Ray Ban frames already made historical by the Blues Brothers or Audrey Hepburn?
Now they are back for the Spring Summer 2010 with a very special edition called Rare Prints- a all new version of the two models Wayfarer and Clubmaster. The first of the 2 styles introduced is called Flowers and it comes in very bright and flashy colors, while the more audacious Subway1 shows off the New York subway map. Funny, huh?
News are not over: for those fashionistas who are particular skilled with the arts and crafts and at the same time crave for a special but different idea, the special package called Ray Ban Wayfarer Colorize Kit is taylor made for them. Anyone can create his/her own frame using stencils and colors on a blank frame- why not?
Ray-Ban Wayfarer were created by Raymond Stageman in the 50's and since then they've always been a classic. Check it out gals!
http://www.ray-ban.com/colorize/

Pearl necklaces, guns and charleston at crack of Sunrise in a hot Milan day.

The other week, while my husband was on call at SPCA, I had the chance to take a look to this pile of second hand books down the lobby, while the night was still long and we had plenty of time to kill.

Let’s think about it, with 20 bucks you could allow a puppy some nice lunch as well as an interesting book for yourself: sounds like a deal to me!

My curiosity got tickled by these chronicles of fashion history throughout the red carpet-

Made for Each Other.

The first chapter focuses on the roaring 20’s, its heroines of silent movies as well as those movies who made, at that time, a huge difference.

One of them is certainly Sunrise by F.W. Murnau; uncompromising director, an internationally respected artist who would bring kudos to the academy, or, at least, someone thought so.

Full of chemistry, style, drama and comedy, Sunrise involves shadows, betrayals and revelations. Starring in this enchanting plot is the Academy winner Janet Gaynor, a 5 foot gaunt figure with Snow White eyes.

Sunrise is the synthesis of those days in the 20’s; the post World War 1, the blossoming of the jazz music, the moody and anti conformist flappers. I have seen this movie many years ago, in a hot and humid day in Milan. A lazy day, no plans at all, plenty of time to kill after my graduation, my bicycle carrying me around town, street after street.

A silent movie is shown these days in a tiny movie theatre nearby Cadorna, and the title attracted me so much (Sunrise, well, Aurora, was my nickname back in those days) that I decided to get in and treat myself .

The Roaring Twenties. Romantic, fantastic decade where opportunities were possible

and dreams were not just a though but could be seen as well.

Fashion was not only a mood, but a real status used by man and women to stay who they were and what they wanted.

Individuals and icons have inspired the rebellious attitudes and styles of millions: from Gloria Swanson and Louise Brooks, with her lovely black bob adopted by Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction, to Coco Chanel and her timeless creations. Elegant, versatile, knowing what women wanted, Chanel was the right person at the right place throughout the whole century, and in no time she turned to be a style icon “guru”.

Once the excess of materials, frilly laces and constraints of the past were just a mere memory, she introduced durable fabrics usually reserved for men's work clothes, beads and embroidery to decorate her clothes and other accessories fleshed out her "simple modern" look.

Her Garconne Look became a signature adopted by the flappers of half the world; loose waist line, beaded necklaces, heavy make up and halos of Chanel n. 5 became routine among those modern women in the UK and US.

The short hairstyles completed those new and rebellious outfits: from the “bob” to the “shingle” and “the dutch boy”, girls started cutting their hair to be different from their mothers and to state their own independence- Louise Books bobbed haircut and Clara Bow’s short wavy hair become the signature towards a masculine, thus uber feminine, look.

Cloche hats completed the outfits that moved on the steps of Charleston and Jazz- Juxtaposed to the flappers, the Gangsters style took over in pin striped suits and Fedora’ s hats; accessorized of a gorgeous car, as well as a shotgun and an equally gorgeous woman, this “dangerous look” became popular not only among the real gangsters but also among actors and celebrities. It all started with the passage of Alcohol Prohibition (Volstead Act) in 1919, and as a consequence, America became a powder keg of organized crime.

The men and women with the guts and means to break the law stood to gain and they also became the superstars of film and novels; Characters like F. Scott Fitzgerald's Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby, or James Cagney's Tom Powers in the great gangster movie The Public Enemy became the well-dressed icons of 1920's mobster culture.

The Twenties. A dreamy era towards a dreamy future where everything seemed possible and achievable. God, we need some of it nowadays.

I used to have a blog and I've stopped blogging....I guess I had experience a brain storm among the two languages I am able to speak. Suddenly, I realized I've missed writing, and I decided to do it in English this time except in rare occasions.

This blog focuses on trends, theatre,costumes, books, music, food, culture and anything I feel like talking about- Would love to hear from you all, so stay tuned!!!

Love,

NGW