Expectation is a b**** but!!!

It’s amazing the amount of materials we can find on the internet regarding expectations being a whole bunch of negative adjectives, and I just don’t agree with what I’ve been seeing lately.

This is not a new feeling for me, I already gave this its fair share of thought but yesterday again, a friend of mine was posting comments about him being disappointed at someone and about this being his fault as he shouldn’t expect anything from anyone in the first place, and this made me angry, and made me think more about it, hence… here I am.

Come on people! What’s all this negativity all about!?

Obviously, if you don’t expect anything, you won’t get hurt, but helloooo isn’t this the same old issue: if you don’t risk it, you won’t get it! That’s the safe option of living but is it really living if you think of safety before thinking of living the most out of something? If you don’t take a few risks, if you don’t face your fears and yourself, you will most definitely miss opportunities too!

I feel like I am Lapalissading here but isn’t it duh??

We play the lotto or poker and we most probably won’t be a millionaire any time soon, but we keep investing a couple of dollars a day. We date this new guy we’re not sure we’re going to like but we do it anyway because we want to fall in love and live the dream. We send our CV for this great position we would love to get hired for even if we are aware that there will be plenty of other candidates. We buy these new shoes we are not sure we’ll be capable to walk in, but buy them anyway because they are so cute. Isn’t it how life is lived?

Only thing is true in all these negative posts or quotes we can find wide spread in the web, disappointment may occur, that’s the way it is, we can’t have everything going our way, all the time, it would mean that someone is not getting his way all the time too.

What I think is that we shouldn’t – no – we mustn’t rely on others when our own happiness is at stake! We are sole responsible for our choices and what they lead to.

In the end, I think I believe in Karma, do good and good will come back at you, give happiness to someone and he’ll give happiness back at you.

I saw this video a few years ago and I just love it, I hope you will too.

apple compote

A friend of mine had these beautiful apples in her yard and just didn't know what to do with them all. I just thought, there are so many things we can do with beautiful, organic apples, so here is me sharing my first idea: apple compote.

So here is what I did:

I just put in a pan a glass of water and added about 2 kilos of beautiful apples, cleaned of both seeds and skin, cut in cubes.

Then, I tossed 3 table spoons of sugar, 2 tea spoons of cinnamon and 2 tea spoons of vanilla flavor into the pan.

The pan should be covered and from time to time, a gentle swirl will allow you to smell if the balance of flavors is at your taste.

It shouldn't need more than 30 minutes to be ready, and as I enjoy my compote quite smooth, I just mixed it all until the texture was just on the spot.

Needless to say, this is just yummee. Thank you A.

Tips: 

I used 2 different kind so we could taste different textures and smoothness's and I was very nice, you should try. Also, if you have a handful or two of sultanas, I reckon you could just put them in the pan just after the compote is mixed; I would recommend to leave the pan covered a few minutes before splitting it into ramekins so all the sultanas' flavors are released. 

Have it your way, and enjoy!

stuffed tomatoes

This one brings good memories, as my mom used to cook it for us; I just adjusted the recipe to my taste.

I cut off the top of 4 big tomatoes, so it looked like small hats and I cleaned the inside with a tea spoon. Then, I used the same technique for the tomatoes themselves and removed all the flesh. And as tomatoes are so beautifully juicy, my tip is to salt powder them and leave them to rest on a dish face down so all the excess of water would drain out.

On a bowl, I mixed about 500 grams of very fresh mince of beef with salt, pepper, thyme, fresh parsley, a small diced shallot, about a fourth of the tomato flesh finely diced and a egg yolk. And as always, I don't only put my heart in my cooking, but my hands as well ;) It's like my me-touch!

Finally, I filled the tomatoes up with the meat, still using my fingers, it's easier to make sure all the tiny spots are repleted.

I then layer two or three table spoons of a nice virgin olive oil on  a terracotta oven dish and display there my tomatoes topped with their small hats and add there 4 medium size potatoes cut wedgies style with a bit of salt and again dropped some more olive oil. The whole thing then goes on the oven for 30 to 40 minutes, at wish. I personally prefer to have it very juicy. 

I reckon we could also add small dices of mozzarella or fine stripes of bell pepper, or even replace the beef with finely diced veggies like mushrooms and eggplant.

Have it your way and enjoy!