I know, I know… I’m late! The Swimming World Championships are already over, but I want to write this post to celebrate two italian “swimming fighters”: Alessia Filippi and Federica Pellegrini.

Alessia is a 22 years old girl from Rome, so this year she won in her own city.
Before her 1500m Freestyle race, she said “I’ve got one goal, the gold medal”.
Alessia achieved her objective: she obtained the gold medal in one of the hardest races of the whole Championship.
Here the video of her performance:

Confirming her increasing swimming style, in the second part of the race she left the other swimmers at her back and she went to take her gold medal. It was wonderful to see the entire Stadium inciting Alessia during her final 100m.
Alessia is a champion but she’s also a girl who loves her family and her town. She dedicated her victory to her family, her coach and to every people who helped her to raise her goal!

Federica, a not yet 21 years old girl from Mirano (near Venice), is determined and courageous!
She’s a gifted girl who won her problems with anxiety and mental blocks, which used to make her feel no more able to race long distances.
In Rome Federica demonstrated her courage and strength: she raced her 400m free style winning the golden medal and becoming the first woman in the world to cover that distance in less than four minutes: 3′59”15.
Here the video of her race:

Federica also won the 200sl, and in both the distances set the new world record. She eventually took the prize as best woman swimmer of the Championship.

Two Italian girls, two amazing swimmers and important icons for this sport!

This is my latest post about picnic

We have already talked about this topic in my latest 3 posts: “Organizing a picnic”, “How to prepare a picnic basket”, ” Omelette and Pasta salad for your picnic”.

It’s time to talk about fruit and about desserts!
So follow me in the next lines!

Fruit salad
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Makes: 4 servings

Ingredients:
* 1/2 ananas
* 2 kiwis
* 1 mango
* 2 peaches
* 1 pomegranate
* 4 sugar spoons
* 2 lemons

Procedure:
1. Clean the ananas. Peel and cut it in small pieces. Remember to remove the central part.
2. Peel kiwis, mango and peaches. Cut them in small cubes.
3. In a bowl open pomegranate and shell the seeds. Add the pieces of the other fruits and mix gently.
4. Squeeze the lemons. In a small bowl put the lemon juice and sugar. Mix them.
5. Spill this syrup on the fruit and stir gently. Put on the fridge.

Suggestions:
Before starting a picnic, put the fruit salad on a plastic box and close it well. Put it in your picnic basket or in your cool box.

Apple cake

Prep. time: 1hour 15 minutes
Makes: 8 servings

Ingredients:
* 125g butter
* 125g sugar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2 eggs
* 1/2 lemon juice
* dash salt
* 200g flour
* 50g corn flour
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 5 spoons milk
* 3 apples
* Icing sugar

Procedure:
1. Heat oven to 180°C. Cool butter and cut it in small pieces in a bowl. Mix it with sugar, vanilla extract, eggs, lemon juice and salt. Stir until smooth.
2. Add winnowed flour, corn flour and baking powder. Stir constantly.
3. Peel 2 apples off and cut them in small pieces. Add them to the batter stirring strikingly. Add the milk and mix the batter.
4. Push batter into a greased pan. Peel the third apple and clean it. Cut it in 8 parts. With a fork create small stripes on the back of any apple piece. Put these pieces over top to decorate the cake.
6. Bake 40 to 45 minutes. Loosen side of cake with knife or long, metal spatula; remove from pan. Sprinkle with icing sugar.

Blueberry Plumcake

Prep. time: 1 hour
Makes: 6 servings

Ingredients:
* 300g blueberries
* 120g butter
* 1 egg
* 1 egg yolk
* 120g flour
* 110g sugar
* 1/2 small bag of baking powder
* 1 spoon milk
* dash salt

Procedure:
1. Heat oven to 180°C. Grease bottom and sides of a rectangular pan.
2. Cool butter and cut it in small pieces.
3. Rinse bluebeerries and set aside. In a medium bowl, stir together butter, sugar and eggs (egg+egg yolk) until smooth. Add winnowed flour, baking powder and salt. Stir constantly. Mix the milk. Gently stir drained blueberries into batter.
3. Spread batter in basted pan. Cover with 2 to 3 inch strip of aluminum foil. Bake 30 minutes. Remove the foil for last 10/15 minutes of baking. Cool completely.

In my latest post I gave you some suggestions about how to organize your picnic basket. I wrote also 2 new recipes you can use for a picnic (Bresaola and provolone rolls and Zucchinis croissants).
Now I’m writing other recipes for a picnic.
I use to prepare them for my picnics and I assure you real success with your friend!

Zucchinis and cheese omelette
Prep. time: 45 min
Makes: 4 servings

Ingredients:
* 6 eggs
* 500gr zucchinis
* 50 gr stringy cheese
* 2 onions
* salt
* 2 spoons oil
* dash salt
* 10 leaves basil
* 2 spoons grated Grana cheese
* breadcrumbs

Procedure:
1. Rinse and clean zucchinis. Cut them in small pieces.
2. Clean the onions and cut them in small slices.
3. In a pan, fry the oil. Put the onions and fry them.  Add the zucchinis and cook them 10 minutes. Sprinkle salt and mix.
4. Cut the cheese in small cubes.
5. In a bowl beat the eggs. Sprinkle grana cheese and salt.  Add basil broken in small pieces and mix.
6. Add zucchinis slices and cheese cubes. Stir gently.
7. Heat oven to 180°C. Grease a round or oval pan and sprinkle breadcrumbs on it.
8. Put the dough into the pan and bake 30 minutes. The surface will become golden. You can serve it hot as well as cold.

Suggestions:
An other tasty omelette you can prepare with the same procedure is Mushroom and Potatoes Omelette. The ingredients for 4 people are 4 eggs, 250 gr mushrooms, 200 gr potatoes, 2 spoons oil, 2 cloves of garlic, salt, 2 spoons grated Grana cheese, rosemary branch, parsley, breadcrumbs.
The procedure is the following:
1. Chopping board, mince the rosemary. Wash the potatoes, peel and cut them in cubes. Put them on a bowl filled with water for few minutes. Then dry them.
2. In a pan, fry the oil with 2 cloves of garlic. When they will be golden, remove them. Put the potatoes cubes with salt and rosemary. Cook them 10 minutes covered, mixing once in a while.
3. Wash the parsley and mince it.
4. Rinse and clean the mushrooms. In a pan fry the oil with 2 colves of garlic and parsley. When the garlic will be golden, remove it. Add the mushrooms and salt. Cook 10 minutes mixing once in a while.
5. In a bowl beat the eggs. Sprinkle grana cheese and salt. Mix all the ingredients. Add potatoes and mushrooms. Stir gently.
6. Heat oven to 180°C. Grease a round or oval pan and sprinkle breadcrumbs on it.
7. Put the dough into the pan and bake 30 minutes. The surface will become golden. You can serve it hot as well as cold.

Pasta salad with tomatoes, mozzarella and olives
Prep. time: 20 minutes
Makes: 4 servings

Ingredients:
* 320 gr pasta
* 300gr tomatoes
* 300 gr mozzarella cheese
* 10 black olives
* 8 basil leaves
* salt
* oregano
* 2 spoons oil

Procedure:
1. Wash and cut the tomatoes in small pieces.
2. Cut the mozzarella in small cubes.
3. In a bowl put the tomatoes, the olives and the mozzarella cubes. Add a handful oregano, the basils leaves broken in small pieces. Sprinkle with salt. Mix all the ingredients.
4. Boil pasta in salted water. Strain it and put it in the bowl where you have mixed the other ingredients. Add oil and stir gently.

So have a nice picnic!

There’s so much stuff to remember when you prepare a picnic basket!
First of all, a tablecloth or a cover and some paper napkins…
…plastic cutlery, dishes and glasses…
something to drink: water, juices, coke …and obviously food.

Do you want to prepare an appetizing basket?
I suggest you carry a pie with cheese and vegetables such as the one I wrote in my latest post (Spinach and ricotta pie), a pasta salad with vegetables and cheese and some bread or sandwiches. I love vegetables and fruit, so in my picnic basket you’ll certainly find carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, phennels and also cherries, peaches, ananas slices, melon, apples.
Don’t forget to take something as dessert.

The following recipes are good ideas for a picnic basket, but you can also serve them as appetizers.
I guarantee good results!

Bresaola and Provolone rolls

Prep. time: 15 minutes
Makes: 20 roulades

Ingredients:

* 20 slices bresaola
* 20 slices of provolone cheese
* 2 spoons oil

Procedure:
1. Put a slice of cheese in any slice of bresaola.
2. Roll the slice of bresaola up and create a roulade. Put a toothpick into any roll to maintain it.
3. Put it on a dish and continue to prepare other rolls.
4. Use the same procedure until the end of ingredients.

Suggestion:
You can use the same procedure to prepare ham and mozzarella cheese rolls.

Zucchinis Croissants

Prep. time: 35 minutes
Makes: 8 croissants

Ingredients:

* 500 gr of stretched puff pastry
* 2 zucchinis
* 3 spoons oil
* salt
* 100 gr of ham in cubes
* grana cheese
* 100 gr of provolone cheese

Procedure:
1. Rinse and clean zucchinis. Cut them in small pieces.
2. In a pan, fry the oil. Put the zucchinis pieces and cook them 10 minutes. Sprinkle salt and mix.
3. Cut the provolone cheese in small cubes.
4. Heat oven to 180°C. Divide the pastry in 8 parts. Put in each of them a spoon of zucchinis, a handful of ham and cheese cubes. Sprinkle grana cheese. Close the pastry creating small croissants. Remember to sail the pastry well
5. Bake 25 minutes. You can eat them hot as well as cold.

Suggestion:
For the filling, you can use 8 slices of grilled eggplant and 100gr mozzarella cubes.

This period of the year is ideal for a picnic!
You can organize it on the beach in front of the sea, or on a mountain meadow in front of a lake.
Again you can go in a park of your city…

There’s a lot of delicious recipes you can propose. In the following posts I’ll publish some of my favourite recipes for your picnic basket.

Here’s the first I’d like to suggest:

Spinach and Ricotta Pie

Prep. Time: 45 minutes
Makes: 6 servings

Ingredients:

* 500g spinach
* salt
* 300 g Ricotta cheese
* 100 g Parmigiano cheese
* 2 eggs
* 200 g stretched puff pastry
*3 thin slices Provolone cheese

Procedure:
1. Heat oven to 200° C. Clean and rinse spinach. Put them in a saucepan with water and dash salt. Cook for 15 minutes.
2. Now prepare the filling. In a bowl, mix spinach with ricotta and grated Parmigiano cheese. Add eggs and salt and stir.
3. Lay the pastry on a greased pan. Put the filling on the pastry and cover with the 3 slices of Provolone cheese. 
4. Cover with 2 to 3 inch strip of aluminum foil. Bake 20 minutes. Remove the foil for last 10/15 minutes of baking. It’s tasty hot as well as cold.

Suggestion:
If you have 400 gr of stretched puff pastry, you can prepare a covered pie.
So divide the pastry in half. Lay one part on a greased pan. Put the filling on the pastry and unfold top pastry over filling. Fold and roll top edge under lower edge, pressing on rim to seal. Cover edge with 2 to 3 inch strip of aluminum foil to prevent excessive browning.
Bake 20 minutes. Remove the foil for last 10/15 minutes of baking.

Beyond the remarkable Hulu’s success, Hollywood studios are thinking on new business models for movies distribution.
Lionsgate, Paramount and MGM studios have been working together on Epix: a new ambitious project composed by a TV channel and a website for streaming movies. Thanks to the deals with cable and satellite providers, the content will be available for free and without commercials!
Right now you can see IronMan or Cloverfield without any commercial and with no more money beyond your cable TV subscription!!!

Epix is currently in private beta, available in the US only.

As mentioned above, the business model is based on deals between the three majors and cable/satellite providers, so the Epix TV channel will be available in their basic commercial proposals, without additional costs. If you have a Cable/Satellite subscription with a provider which sells Epix, you can access to the Epix TV channel as well as the Epix web site.
Thus the model is especially interesting for providers which want to sell competitive triple play subscriptions.
Even the web site will provide movies in HD quality (720p).
This strategy may allow Epix enough bandwidth to stream its contents and to the ISP/satellite provider to increase their revenues thanks to their appealing propositions.

As you can read on Mashable.com, the website is spectacular, thanks to a Flash interface which provides many functionalities.
You can select the movies you want and immediately you land on the movie’s web page. So you can watch the movie, read plot details, download wallpapers or photos…

There are also interesting social features… one is called Private Screening: it allows a virtual discussion between 4 people who are watching the same movie simultaneously. They can chat in real time during the movie and about it.

I can talk about services like Epix because I use to try them when I am in the USA… but why don’t the majors launch something like that in Italy too? We’d be glad even if iTunes just opened its Movie Rental service…

Summer is coming!
Playing sports is one of the most popular activities in this period…because beach holidays are closer everyday.
So you can see swimming pools and gyms crowded, and many runners all over the town.

I’d like to suggest you a smart and funny way to play sport: Nike+. It’s a concept launched in 2006 (in Italy in 2007) and now, in 2009, the sales are still growing.

I bought the Nike+ Ipod Sport Kit because of a challenge sent by a friend of mine.
I’m rather competitive so I immediately accepted her challenge. I didn’t own Nike shoes so I bought also a small pouch you can fasten to one of your running shoes, putting the sensor inside it. Ebay and Amazon can help you find it!

With Nike+ you can plan and graph your training! You can set up your training distances, calories burned or speed.

The sensor on your shoes transmits your training data to your Ipod nano, while you’re listening to your favorite songs and receiving real time feedbacks.

After the session you can sync your ipod with the computer and upload your training data to the Nike+ web site.
You can plan your training sessions, decide your goals, participate and create challenges and check your results. This way, you become part of the Nike+ runners community and share with them your passion for sport and your training achievements. You can also create a Nike+mini, which is your personal avatar: it can follow you every time you visit the Nike+ web site.  Look at the left bar of my blog for instance. You’ll surely notice it!

Nike+ is very easy to use: the idea to create connection between sensor, ipod and web site is really successful!

So… what are you waiting for? Run with me!

Ah… I have a suggestion for Nike: my boyfriend is a swimmer and he’d be very interested in something like Nike+ done for track swimming training! I don’t have any idea about how such a sensor could measure space in water… but the challenge to the Nike+ engineers is definitely launched!

Yesterday I had no time for food shopping, so there was nothing to eat at home!
That was a serious issue…
So I decided to ask help to the Internet… mainly to Lifehacker

And I found a very interesting post about Supercook… which I immediately put on trial!
Supercook is an online service based on a recipe search engine. It helps people taking smart decisions about what recipe to cook with the food available at home, picking out from every recipes on the web.
Recipes are grouped by categories: starters, entrèes, desserts.
You can read and cook them and also save those you prefer. Saving a recipe requires you to sign up for a free account: at this point you’ll find your saved recipes in a page named My Account.

Besides, Supercook provides the list of your Recommended Ingredients: based on the ingredients you insert in a page called Your Kitchen, those ingredients are selected in order to pair well with the ingredients you usually have. Basically, if you add tomato in Your Kitchen you’ll read basil in Recommended list.

So…have you just decided tonight dinner?…Nooooooooo!
What are you waiting for? Go straight to Supercook

Summer is coming, so I’ve decided to surf the web for some news about diets and keeping-in-shape. I use to run everyday and I’m committed to eat healthy, but I was searching for further tools to broaden my nutrition and energy-use skills.

My final pick has been Fitday, an american site which reached Italy a few months ago.

I think it’s very useful, but there’s a little warning: you should be unflagging in visiting Fitday every single day, also if you think it’s a little bit demanding… it will help you very much to balance your nutrition and to understand how much move your body!

It will become your food and exercise diary.

You can easily create a free account and start to explore its features. First of all, in the Weight goal tab, you have to fill in your actual weight and your goal, then you can put your deadline. Then my advice is skipping to your body measurements in the Body tab and fill in your datas. After that, you can start to use Fitday.

In the Food tab you can fill in all you have eaten during the day and Fitday will show you the amount of calories you’ve eaten, through a pie chart with the percentages of carbs, proteins and fats. It’s useful to understand if your nutrition is balanced and how to improve it.
In the Activities tab you can fill in all you’ve done day by day… remember to put also your sex activities!
Fitday will calculate the calories you’ve burned. So you have the balance between what you ate and how you burned it!

Fitday gives you lots of graphs and reports in the Report tab. There are reports about your weight progress, your nutrition evolution, your activities and metabolism…
So it’s easy and fun for you to understand if you’re going in the right way and if your health and fitness behaviors are correct.
You can check your improvements day by day and modify your nutrition or your activities if necessary.

Of course Fitday is not magic, so if you want to lose weight you have to engage yourself in diet and fitness programs and you must be relentless… but I think that seeing a graph with your advancements can be helpful and encouraging when you’re trying to reach that goal.

That new bikini is just waiting for you!

“Movies and more” is a new category of my blog, whose purpose is sharing with you my neverending passion for movies.

I love movies and I’m interested in all the aspects which revolve around them. I use to watch movies with my boyfriend, friends but also alone… and I adore the feelings they convey to me.

Watching a movie on TV or at a movie theatre is quite different indeed.

When we watch television we are sitting on a sofa and we can choose the program by remote control. Interactive digital TV allows even a more active experience: you can participate in polls,  play games, read news about your favourite program, use VOD services or your PVR.

The cinema experience is very different. It’s extraordinary how the start of a movie can transform people from isolated parts of the audience to involved participants who watch and live the movie. The theatre darkening and the movie getting started lead the viewer into the story. So he can live the narration as a real story and he can identify himself with the events and the characters. Yes, I know that the identification process is not complete because of the impossibility to interact with the characters and with the movie environment, but the viewer can feel emotions, crying if there are sad situations or laughing in front of funny scenes. With his mind and his feelings he can participate to the story.
There are movies and movies, I mean with some movies it’s easier to identify yourself and with other it isn’t.
But when you can identify yourself with a character, I think you can remember that movie for a long time and talk about it with people.
I have a long list of movies in which I identify myself…

Here’s a few:

Dead Poets Society (directed by Peter Weir – USA 1989)

Wall-e (Pixar – USA 2008)

ET (directed by Steven Spielberg – USA 1982)

The pursuit of happyness (directed by Gabriele Muccino – USA 2006)

The bicycle thieves (directed by Vittorio De Sica – Italy 1948)

August Rush (directed by Kirsten Sheridan – USA 2006)