NewLife - Blog Posts
Fan fact about the waystones on the smp. If they had a certain hammer mod they could dupe the waystones. I only know this because on old smps we had both of the mods and I would dupe them so I don't have to make them from scratch. The hammer mod was called Vanilla Hammers. But I am not sure if this bug has been fixed. Also if you are curious about the waystones they use. They are just called Fabric Waystones.
#art#color #nurturelife #nurture #fetus #baby #dandelion #plants #heart #life #newbeginnings #newlife #mothernature #ju4y #nature #greeneyes #black #stars #trees #forest #cateye #catsofinstagram #eye #cat #paint #paintings #painting #nightsky #night #blue #bluecolor #artist #beautiful #satisfying #saturday #noon #inspiration #motivation #light https://www.instagram.com/p/BwNZcDsHP7L/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=o4gsjyhymv9p
New life
Such a rush housemoving, gone like a storm.
Our new life has started, looking at the sun freshly. We'll do our best！
新生活
怒涛の引越し、嵐のように過ぎて行きました(*≧∀≦*)
新しい生活、太陽の見え方も新鮮です。
心機一転頑張ります！
それにしても、サカイ引越しセンターの心のこもった早技は凄かった。感謝感謝。( ^ω^ )
Nueva vida
Una mudanza tan apresurada, que se fue como una tormenta.
Nuestra nueva vida ha comenzado, mirando al sol con frescura. ¡Haremos lo mejor!
Old ways won’t open new doors. (Try to approach things differently to have a better understanding. Plus less stress than doing it over & over!) ⚬
Finally opened a passbook account with debit card at PSBank. This symbolizes my sincere dedication to really save money and to build up on my long term dreams and plans. I just hope and pray that things will go my way and that God will guide me more. As what they say it is never to late to start life again at the age of 28. Indeed a sign of growth and blessing. Happy Monday everyone.
Eggplant Parmesan
Now, how mouthwatering delicious does THAT look?
HOMEMADE Eggplant Parmesan!
When trying to figure out what recipe I wanted to try cooking for my first blog post, I could not think of anything. I was WAY overthinking it. I didn’t want anything too boring or too simple, but the fact that my cooking has been on a little hiatus I wasn’t feeling overly daring in the kitchen quite yet either. I kept putting it off and putting it off. The idea came to me when I was flipping through my mail and came across some coupons. Me wanting to live a more balanced and full life, being better with my money is definitely at the top of the list. So I decided to actually take a look instead of just throwing them into a drawer, never to see the light of day again. I saw some coupons for fresh produce and saw that eggplant was on sale for JUST 98 cents! Now i’m not sure how good of a “deal” that is, being that I have never bought an eggplant before but 98 cents sounded pretty good to me. Then I realized, I had all of the ingredients at home needed for eggplant parmesan, except for the star of the show….THE EGGPLANT. So I snipped my very first coupon and headed to the store.
This was PERFECT to make for my first recipe because I was being frugal with my money (Great Feeling!!) and I would be cooking something that I have never made before. Although picking out the eggplant was a little intimidating (there were all different shades of purple going on) I bit the bullet and just chose one. I mean hey if something went wrong, anything smothered in cheese and delicious marinara sauce cant be too bad right?
Now, it was time to get cookin’
My adventure in the kitchen with the eggplant parmesan has now begun :)
First step on the list was to slice the eggplant into slices and salt both sides. Ok, I can do that, CHECK! As I read on, the recipe said to let the slices sit in a colander for an hour for all of the liquid to drain out. BUMMER! I have to be honest, my first thought was to just skip this step and move on. I can be a little inpatient and hey I was ready to move on to the fun and messy part, dunking those slices into the egg wash and breadcrumbs. But I wanted this eggplant parmesan to come out perfect so I did as it said and I waited…and waited…and waited. Man those slices were SWEATING! I had no idea how much liquid there was in an eggplant. Glad I didn’t skip this step, it seemed important ;)
Now the FUN part! As I went to whisk the eggs and milk together for the eggwash I realized I did not have any milk. Again my mind went straight to “Its just a half a cup, lets just SKIP the milk i’m sure eggs will be fine. But I wanted this to come out perfect so off to the store I went for a second time. It was a bummer having to run back out but I found a way to see the positive in it. My supermarket is having that monopoly sweepstakes giveaway game going on and I am only one more ticket away from winning a million dollars. This milk could be my winning ticket!! Everything happens for a reason right?
Sadly, still not a millionaire. But back to the eggplant parmesan, now with the milk to make this a truly winning dish at least ;)
Now, I know I said earlier that this was the fun part, but honestly this was more intimidating than picking out the eggplant. I have never really fried anything either but I survived! My eggplant slices came out fried to a perfect golden brown. Except for the first one…the burnt one that is strategically not shown in this picture. These fry up fast, so be sure to keep an eye on them not to make the same mistake I did with that stubborn first one ;)
I carefully constructed the layers of marinara sauce, eggplant slices and cheese in the baking dish. Maybe a little too careful, this step took me 3 times as long as it probably should. But like I said earlier I wanted this dish to come out perfect. I even got a little daring by adding spicy Italian sausage and crushed red pepper flakes to my marinara sauce. Popped it into the oven and I can honestly say to my SURPRISE….
THIS DISH CAME OUT PERFECT!
Following the recipe step by step and deciding not to skip anything really paid off! ;) This is definitely a dish I would make again and I can now check off eggplant as something I have conquered successfully in the kitchen. Absolutely delicious.
INGREDIENTS
1 large eggplant, sliced into ½" thick slices
2 tbsp kosher salt
1 ½ cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
3 eggs
½ cup milk
4 tbsp vegetable oil, for lightly pan-frying
3 cups marinara sauce
2 cups shredded mozzarella
1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
Handful of fresh basil leaves, chopped
INSTRUCTIONS
Salt both sides of your eggplant slices and place them in a large colander in the sink. Let the liquid drain for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
When your eggplant slices have finished draining liquid, brush off the excess salt.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In 2 bowls, add breadcrumbs to one and whisk eggs and milk in the other. Dip both sides of eggplant slice into milk/egg mixture then cover with breadcrumbs, shaking off the excess. Place on plate or large baking sheet.
Heat a skillet over medium high heat and add 1 tbsp. of vegetable oil into the skillet. Once the skillet is hot, add two eggplant slices at a time to the skillet and cook on both sides until golden brown, remove and set on a large plate lined with paper towels. Repeat with 1 tbsp. of vegetable oil for every 2 eggplant slices.
In a large baking dish, add 1 cup of marinara sauce to the bottom of the dish. Add a layer of eggplant slices then use about ¼ cup of marinara sauce to top each of the eggplant slices. On top of the eggplant slices, sprinkle a generous amount of mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese. Repeat the layers until you run out of eggplants slices. Top the casserole with more cheese before you place in the oven
Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly and brown on top. Use the broiler for 5 minutes to get the cheese nice and brown (keep a close eye on it not to burn)
Serve hot and top with chopped basil
There once was a middle-aged writer, that had a dream of writing the best book in the world. Then he, much to his surprise, discovered that such a book had been written. Even several of them, depending of who was asked. And, even more surprised, (he might have been a little stupid, just a little...), he remembered that he actually had read what he himself thought was the best book in the world. So what to do? He decided to go to the place where that certain book took place. And write what could be a continuing. Or something similar; just as long as it had something to do with that worlds best book... That couldn't go all wrong, now could it? He decided not. And began... Oh, and that the place, the country, was his personal paradise, was just a lucky coincidence. Right? Right... #foreignfriendguesthouse #lisbon #portugal #writingplace #prose #personalparadise #bestofportugal #beginning #lifevalues #alive #friendlypeople #aroomwithaview #azulejos #azulejoportugues #arrived #newnovel #newlife #amonthinparadiseandthenayearintheoppositeandthesecondbestbookintheworldshouldbewrittenorokthethirdbestillsettlefor (Usual one-off hashtag...) #udenfilter #mantelmomento (And the pic even isn't good, but here it begins... And many more to come!) (her: Foreign Friend - GuestHouse)
Untitled by Ivana Stojakovic Via Flickr: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/istojakovic" rel="nofollow">www.facebook.com/istojakovic</a>
Different platforms have been offered, and thanks to the people in those settings and self-confidence, I’ve been able to grow. This is personal. But believing in the self is the most important tool one has to create change: in society, in your community -your beautiful and fierce community- in your mind, body and soul.
Black Moon is in Libra and is the best moment to set intentions to start new life projects, explore deep love and self-love.
This picture of Mother Water captured in Portland, Maine frames this transition so beautifully.
What More Can I Give?
After I returned from Canada in 2014 I knew already then that my next adventure would be in Europe. Even after my long time passion for Montréal and the French speaking Canada and the wonderful experience I had while living there.. I didn’t see the return or going to Americas, Australia etc. worthy of hours of paper work for Visas and work permits which I might not even get! Especially when you think that as an european I have 28 countries to choose from where I can live and work freely.
I started planning my departure last winter. Mostly from the financial point of view and decided the summer season being perfect time for my move since I could get my full vacation pay and to have been able to save enough money by then.
So how to choose the DESTINATION? It’s better to have several options in case something goes wrong with your first choice. When travelling always have a plan B! After googling for Finnish speaking jobs on several job boards I ended up with PORTUGAL, IRELAND and MALTA. Spain and some Western European countries were also possible but they had less customer service openings in Finnish so I focused mainly on these three. I also had some friends who’ve lived or live in these countries who could give me answers about living and working in there. This is the part where you gotta be realistic. Even though you’d love India as an holiday spot, are you set up for the everyday life in there? Practical things matter as much as the attitude you’re doing this with.
“I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m on my way” - Carl Sagan
I had already found out about the most common recruiting companies (MGI recruitment, Morgan McKinley etc) and companies (Teleperformance) out there so I would have some sort of idea which ones to trust. Couple of applying situations during the winter taught me that MAY (1-2 months before my availability date) would be more ideal because no one posts an add about job 6 months before opening.
To look for the jobs I used basic multilingual job boards but especially LinkedIn which I upgraded it to Premium (first month free trial). Especially on LinkedIn it was easy to check the company, employees etc. backgrounds. Despite of the work I did to find out the company’s background and whether it was even real or up to its reputation – there’s no guarantee that you still wouldn’t be screwed over. But I do trust my instincts (if it feels wrong - don’t do it!) and I do try to find out as much as I can in advance to avoid unpleasant surprises – and then you just go and hope that the bumps on the road wouldn’t hit you too hard.
Same thoughts I would wanna share also about the safety in general. Especially after this morning’s news from London… you always stop to think about this stuff but unless you’re moving to Afghanistan or in some other country with high rate of crimes and killings, there’s not much you can do about it. You just have to believe that you’re safe by using common sense. You can have your hundreds of check lists, be paranoid, stay in and never go to a big event but frankly I just don’t believe in it. In the end whatever you do in life, you buy a house or you have a kid – you need to have the courage and faith that things will be okay.
“Pray when you feel like worrying. Give thanks when you feel like complaining. Keep going when you feel like quitting.” - Dave Willis
Once I started my active search things happened with a quick pace. Basically in two weeks from pressing the ”apply” button for the first time I had created several useful contacts across Europe (networking!) and nailed a job offer from Ireland and Portugal. Several interviews, language tests, all of been done. The first one I declined basically because of the pay wasn’t enough. After taxes (which are quite high) and accommodation and everything else necessary (the price range is similar to Finland) there wouldn’t have been much left. And I do recommend of finding these things out! How much do you pay taxes? How much does a cup of coffee or a room in a shared flat cost? These are pretty crucial figures in every day life and especially when living abroad you do wanna do things just to ENJOY life and not just the necessary ones to survive.
PORTUGAL was my first and the most potential choice since the beginning. FIRST of all the culture and the language are similar to Spain where I’ve done trainee and exchange periods and where I could see myself living and adapting to the way of life. I could really fit in! Secondly there is somewhat heavy selection of jobs for Finnish speakers in customer service area. I would survive! Third and forth, many jobs are located at the capital area with more international atmosphere and services etc. which I appreciate. Despite of living expenses being always more expensive in the capital area than in a smaller city, still in Portugal the price range is fairly affordable. It could be fun! Also the job description and the pay ain’t bad.
And after this looong prattling, if you did make it untill here...if it isn’t clear enough already for someone - I AM GOING TO LISBON! Heading out on June 30th with no return date! The blog is reopened as a traveling blog what it originally was now that my life will be worth writing for! More posts with funny titels (LP inspired) to come!