Traffic lights shake

Another of the greatest human inventions has been the traffic light, so on the occasion of the International Inventors' Day, we recommend you to make a traffic light-shake in  honour of two inventors: John Peake Knight, who invented the first manual traffic light in the middle of the nineteenth century, and Ernest Sirrine who improved it by making it automatic.

For this smoothie, full of vitamins, we used fresh strawberries, banana and kiwi: first crushed the strawberries and serve in a glass, let it a few minutes in the fridge in order to increase the consistency. Then add mashed banana, and again let stand a few minutes in the fridge. Finally add the kiwi.
If you prefer a more intense yellow colour, replace the bananas with peaches.

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Inventors cupcakes

To celebrate the International Inventors' Day, on November 9^th, we propose you small cakes shaped of great inventions.

We have chosen two inventions:

The locomotive.

The first locomotive was built by Richard Trevithick in the early nineteenth century. These were steam locomotives until mid-twentieth century.

The bed.

Considered by many the greatest human fabrication, its invention is attributed to Egyptians and Assyrians.

To make the cakes we bought cake bases what we filled with raspberry jam. Finally we decorated them with black and white chocolates.

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Hot-air balloon lamp

A very easy to make decoration, inspired by the International Inventors Day, is a lamp shaped of a balloon:

Tie a cube of the same colour as the lamp up with a piece of cord, and then tie some tissue paper bags to it.

Finally paste some rope strips from the top to the bottom of the lamp and tie them up with the cord around the cube.

The invention of the balloon is attributed to Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier brothers in the eighteenth century. Although, apparently, a few years before the Brazilian priest Bartolomeu de Gusmão invented the first flying machine.

This invention was a revolution in its time, as it allowed humans to fly.

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International Inventor's Day

On 9 November the International Inventors' Day is celebrated in honour of Hedy Lamarr, an engineer in telecommunications and an actress (starred in more than 30 films), who invented the frequency-hopped spread spectrum (that is a method of transmitting digital and radio signals to both transmitter and receiver).

While in the US the Day of National Inventors is celebrated on February 11^th, the anniversary of the birth of Thomas Alva Edison, an entrepreneur and inventor of over a thousand patented inventions, among the best known inventions are the bulb and the phonograph.

February 17^th is the day chosen by Mexico to celebrate the Inventors' Day, in honour of Guillermo González Camarena, the inventor of the colour television.

On April 23^rd, the Inventors' Day is celebrated in Bolivia, and in Argentina takes place the 29^th of September, the latter in honour of José Ladislao Biro, the inventor of the ballpoint pen.

Today more than ever "not everything is invented", so we encourage you to develop and implement such a great idea that you have.

Which is your idea?

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Halloween celebration

This week we posted some recommendations to celebrate Halloween. Here you are the links to all of our proposals:

Do you know how to celebrate Halloween?

Halloween decoration

Bones of Saints dessert

"Brain" shot






                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

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"Brain" shot

The final touch for your Halloween party is a colorful "brain" shot. 

Make these shots is pretty simple but not always the desired result is obtained. The ingredients you need are: vodka, grenadine and Baileys.

Mix vodka and grenadine, stir the mixture with a wooden stick and then pour a small amount of Baileys. The result is a shot with a very similar appearance to a brain mass.          

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Bones of Saint

One of the most traditional sweet for Hallow-eve, the first of November, are the Bones of Saint which consist in small tubes of marzipan stuffed with egg yolk cake.

Ingredients for the marzipan:
200 grammes of sugar
200 grammes of water
150 grammes of ground almond


Ingredients for the egg yolk cake:
90 grammes of sugar
100 grammes of water
6 yolks

Elaboration for 4 dinner guests:

First of all, we elaborate the marzipan: Put the saucepan on the fire with the water and sugar and elaborate the syrup. Once the syrup is finished, put the ground almond and stir until form a dough. Cool and reserve.

In a second step, we elaborate the egg yolk cake:Put the saucepan on the fire with the water and sugar and elaborate the syrup. Then, add the yolks properly beaten and wait until it becomes dense. We should cook over a low heat to avoid boiling because the yolks can separate. Cool.

And finally, on a clean kitchen table, sprinkle the sugar and extend the marzipan mass with a rolling pin. Cut rectangles from the mass and roll it into a special metal tube of pastry. Cool and dry. When dry, fill them with the mass of yolk.

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Halloween decoration

Do you want to decorate your home in an easy and quickly way for Halloween? Here you are our terrifying proposal to decorate your lobby.

The typical colors of halloween are the black (evening color) and the orange (sunrise color). Therefore, put some black and orange balloons and draw your own terrifying figures.

Another decoration that you can make by your own is with white and black foamy. Make a moon with the white foamy and put on it two black bats.

Besides, you can cover the mirror with spider web that you can find in a partyware store and put some spiders in it.

In this case, we used a pumpkin fancy dress to decorate a corner and the front of the table. You can use another accessories as a witch's hat, a coat of vampire, etc...

And one thing that you can´t forget is the basket full of sweets. You will need it to say "treat" and shoo the zombies that can knock to your door...

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Halloween

Do you know how are you going to celebrate Halloween this year? If not, I hope that after this post you already know it.

But first of all, let us tell you a bit of the history of this celebration.  The word "Halloween" comes from the the english expression "All Hallows Eve".

Halloween has a celtic origin with more than 2.500 years old. The 31st of october was the last day of the year in the celtic calendar. That last day was supposed that the spirits came out of the cemetery and take over the bodies of the living to resurrect,  asking for food and cursing. They were victims of spells if they did not do their requests: trick or treat.

To avoid it, the Celts decorated their houses with bones, skulls and nasty decorations so that the dead pass by.

Around 1846, european immigrants brought to USA this tradition. However, since 1920 it was not started to strongly celebrate through the first Halloween parade in Minnesota. 

Now, following you will find different and diverse activities to do in Halloween:

• Halloween run: Are you afraid? Well...run, run! No doubt that this activity is aimed at sports enthusiasts. If you like running, being scared and you are in Madrid, you can´t not miss the next event organized by Runner's World. In the following link you will find all the information related this race (hallowenrun).

• Workshop pumpkins:This activity is aimed for the smaller at the house  in which they will enjoy a lot making their own pumpkins. Sure in many cities and towns in your country this kind of activity will take place so just find it. 

• Fancy dress party: for teenagers and in which you can´t go without an appropriate fancy dress and a scary make-up. In the following link you will find some ideas to find your scary look (makeup and fancy-dress).

• Halloween party at home: Invite some friends at home and terrify them through Halloween stories. In the following link you will find some recommendations (halloweenstories). Besides, in the posts that we will publish during this week, we will help you with the rest of details to prepare this party: decoration, dessert and drink.

And last but not least, do not forget to buy a lot of sweets to be ready when someone knocks at the door and you are asked: trick or treat? If I were you I will say treat....

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Enjoy the fall

This week we posted recommendations to enjoy the autumn. 

Following the links to all those posts:

Five plans to enjoy the autumn

Decor in the fall 

Grapes sorbet 

Chestnut cream with chocolate

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       


  

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Autumn dessert - Chestnut cream with chocolate

If you want to surprise with a great and very easy to prepare dessert, in Autumn we recommend you a chestnut cream with chocolate and caramel.

·   To make the chocolate sheets:

Melt some squares of covering chocolate with a small jet of milk. Once melted, layer it on tracing paper with the shape that you like (we've decided squares), and put them immediately in the refrigerator. Let it cool a few hours.

·   To prepare the chestnut cream you need: chestnuts, milk, sugar, vanilla (or failing that sugar flavoured with vanilla) and salt:

Depending on the portions you want, estimate the same grams of chestnuts than millilitres of milk, a little less than a half of sugar, a pinch of salt and a half of a vanilla pod.

For example, for 500 gr. of chestnuts, you need 500ml of milk, 200 gr. of sugar, salt and vanilla. Add more or less milk to achieve a more or less dense texture.

Take all the ingredients in a saucepan, boil until the chestnuts are tender (when the chestnut can be easily crushed).

Then remove the vanilla pod, and blend the mixture up to achieve a smooth cream.

If you always go in a hurry, you can buy the chestnut cream, it is sold all the year.

·  Finally, prepare caramel and make small decorations to complete the dessert.

Be careful when you prepare the caramel as it gets very hot.

Now only remains to stack the tiers with the chocolate sheets and the chestnut cream.

Enjoy it!

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Grapes sorbet

It's harvest time and we have been lucky enough to receive several generous bunches of freshly muscatel grapes harvested at Santa Cruz de la Zarza, gift of a great couple of friends.

With those, we prepared a sweet grapes sorbet, which we made as follows: the grapes are peeled, the seeds removed, and finally those are mixed with syrup.

·  To make the syrup, you need: grape juice, lemon juice, water and sugar.

In a saucepan add a litter of grape juice, 150 g sugar, juice of a lemon and a ¼ litter of water. Boil it up to achieve a syrup (about 8 minutes).

·  To make the mixture: In a blender, grind a couple of bunches of grapes peeled and seeded with the syrup. Then put it in a sorbet machine or in the freezer. After a few hours we will have a creamy blend that we can serve in sherbet or champagne glasses.

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Autumn decor

Upgrade your home decor and dress it with the colours of Autumn. Evolve toward reddish tones, seasonal mushrooms and romantic forests.

Then we leave our proposal to give an autumnal touch to your home.

To make the set we used a couple of branches of red and green leaves of a Liquidambar, which we incorporate into a pot for bonsais.

Then we included several types of mushrooms, and finally added small aromatic leaves and flowers of different colours, ranging from brown to orange, spread on the whole base.

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Autumn - One season and five plans

We are right in the fall season, and the red and ochre colours fill the streets, and even houses, because it's time to start lighting the fireplaces, softly, not to heat the home, but only because we feel like it, because we are in Autumn and we enjoy those romantic and warm orange tones that only fire of fireplaces or candles is able to provide.

This is definitely one of our favourite seasons, when it is not still too cold in the streets and you can still enjoy fantastic walks outdoors. So we recommend you to go out to enjoy some route through small towns that you have near your town, “armed” with your camera on hand. Discover incredible colours that will give you the feeling of being in a completely different place where you had been in another season.

There are many things you can do there:

1.- Go to gather mushrooms. If you do not know how to discern which are edible and which are not, you can use them to decorate your home and enjoy mushrooms in a restaurant of the area.

2.- Use the chance to buy directly to the farmers seasonal fruits and vegetables, such as pumpkins, grapes, chestnuts, spinach or broccoli.

3.- Enjoy the grape harvest and other wine festivals.

4.- Go cycling the paths fully covered with brown leaves.

5.- Spend the afternoon gazing at the pleasant landscapes that nature offers us.

Nice Autumn!

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