The Margherita Cake

Cooking Rockers

We are the Rockers, in our group there are 4 components: Marko, Luca, Giuseppe and Federico! Marko is the Chef who cooked The Margherita Cake, Luca is the Recorder who recorded all the video, Giuseppe is Marko’s helper and Federico is the boss and we decided to make The Margherita Cake as our topic! The Margherita Cake is soft, tasty and easy to do in little time! It was our first cake that we cooked successfully, after making that cake, cooking has become our hobby! We discovered this cake on a Saturday afternoon in summer, we were at Marko's home playing video games and after a few hours of gaming we were hungry, so Luca searched on the internet easy recipes and from a site we discovered the Margherita Cake! Marko already had all the ingredients, so we got started to make it! During the making process we had very funny moments, for example when we divided the egg white from the yolks and Luca threw it onto Federico’s head. Once finished, we tasted it and it was very very good! We were very happy and after that day, every Saturday we meet and cook together tastier and more fantastic food!

To make this cake you need the following ingredients:

- 5 eggs
- 150 g. flour
- 180 g. sugar
- 16 g. baking powder
- 150 g. potato starch
- 90 g. butter
- 1 lemon zest
- 130 ml. milk
- Icing sugar to taste


How to make this cake:
First, separate the egg whites from yolks, then add the sugar with the yolks and finally mix with the mixer for some minutes. After add the butter and amalgamate, sift the flour, the potato starch and the baking powder and slowly add during the mixing. If the mixture results dry add slowly the milk and continue to mixing. Grate the lemon zest in the mixture and stop. Then mix with a silicon shovel the egg white and add it to the mixture delicately. Flour and butter a baking tray and put it inside the mixture and level. Then cook it in a oven at 150°C for 70 minutes, after add the icing sugar to taste.
Then the cake is finished and you can enjoy it!

GLOSSARY
Tasty : a tasty food has a strong and very pleasant flavour
Successfully: having a great result
Hobby: a pleasant activity
Discover: to find information
Flour: finely ground meal derived from wheat, used in baking and cooking
Baking powder: a mixture of powders used to make cakes rise and become light when they are baked
Lemon zest: lemon peel
Icing sugar: it is a type of sugar that is used to make a cake better and good
Yolk: it is the internal part of an egg
Recipe: it is a text where it is written how to make a food and what the necessary ingredients are

THE COIN OF LIFE

Why not?

Curtis Jackson, known as 50 Cent, is a hip hop artist and businessman who became famous for his streetwise raps and rag-to-riches life story.

Curtis James Jackson III was born on the 6th July in 1975 in South Jamaica in New York.  He was raised by a single mother in a broken home family. His mom worked as a drug dealer and she was shot died by an unknown suspect when Jackson was only 8 years old; after the death of his mom he moved to his grandmother’s.  He had a boyhood aspiration to be a boxer, and fought at junior level, but began selling drugs when he was 12 years old. At the age of 19 an undercover police officer arrested Jackson for selling four vials of cocaine; three weeks later the apartment was raided by police where they found crack and heroin. At first he was sentenced to three-to-nine years, but he went to a bootcamp and got his G.E.D. in prison. When he got out of prison 

he stopped selling drug thanks to a friend and he started to write his own songs.

He got his first important contact with the New York hip hop scene when he met Jam Master Jay from the group Run DMC. Jay was impressed by Jackson’s rapping ability and produced and album for him, but it never came out. Jackson also made a false start with the Columbia label, recording an album that was shelved before its release. That album was “Power of the Dollar”.

In 2000 Jackson was victim of a severe shooting incident that left him with multiple injuries. He returned to music after his recovery and made several low-budget recordings with his friends

Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo, as a crew called G-unit. In 2003 he became famous thanks to his first song with Eminem and another one whose title is “Get Rich Or Die Tryin”.

We chose to write about 50 cent's life because he is a model for all teenagers around the world today, who deal drugs to earn their living. 50 cent's life, instead, teach us to follow our dream to become someone important and to be successful.

GLOSSARY

Broken home: a family in which the parents are divorced or separated.

Drug Dealer: a person who sells illegal drugs.

Boyhood: it is a period of a male person's life during which he is a boy.

Undercover: a work that involves getting confidential or secret information

Raided: past participle of “to raid”; if the police raid a building they enter it suddenly and by force in order to look for dangerous criminals or for evidence of something illegal, such as drugs or weapons.

Sentence: it is a punishment that people receive after they have been found guilty of a crime.

Shelved: put aside; it’s when they decide not to continue a Plan or project, either for a while or permanently.

Bootcamp: a centre for young offenders, run in military lines.

G.E.D.: General Educational Development, the G.E.D. is an educational certificate awarded in the United States and Canada which certifies that the recipient has met the minimum requirements necessary to graduate high school.

Easy Apple Pie

The first time I ate the apple cake I was a child.
My mum used to prepare this cake for breakfast (in particular in autumn) and I’ve always loved it because it is tasty and a simple sweet with poor ingredients (almost just apples!).
She prepares it very well and this is her secret recipe…

INGREDIENTS 

• ½ cup butter, softened 

• 1 cup sugar 

• 2 eggs 

• ¼ cups all-purpose flour 

• 1 teaspoon baking soda 

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

• ¼ teaspoon salt 

• 1 ½ cups shredded peeled apples (about 2 medium apples) 

• 1 Cup chopped walnuts

• Cinnamon ice cream


STEPS
Heat the oven to 175°.
Then, in a large bowl, beat butter and sugar with the electric mixer (on medium speed) until it becomes light and fluffy.
After that, beat the eggs one at the time.
Cut the apples and put them in a large bowl.
Stir in vanilla, flour, baking, soda, cinnamon, salt, apples and walnuts.

Mix the dough and put it in a bowl.
Then, bake the cake for 40/45 minutes or until the thoothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
Finally, cool 10 minutes longer the cake and serve warm with ice cream.
I suggest you vanilla or cinnamon ice cream.

GLOSSARY
Recipe: a set of instructions for making or preparing something.
Teaspoon: a small spoon used to stir tea and coffee, eat dessert, etc.
Cinnamon: a sweet-smelling spice made from the inner bark of various Asian trees of the laurel family.
Walnut: an edible meaty nut with a hard, wrinkled shell.
Stir in: o mix.
Toothpick: A small, pointed piece of wood, for removing food particles from between the teeth.

Green Day

I.B.C.

The Green Day are a U.S. rock band founded in 1986. The band is composed by: Billie Joe Armstrong (guitar and voice), Mike Dirnt (bass and secondary voice) and Tré Cool (drum).
The Green Day are among the top-selling groups in the history having sold more than 85 millions discs all around the world. Also the Rolling Stone magazine has put them in the “new immortals” list; “new immortal” is a list of artists defined as the legend of the music history . The historical newsweekly “Billboard” has ranked them at the 4th place in the chart of the best alternative artists of all time. In addition the band has won 6 grammy awards so far and on 18 april 2015 they were introduced in the rock and roll Hall of Fame.
One of their most famous albums is “American idiot” published on 21 September 2004; this album was put in the 500 best albums by Rolling Stone magazine, at the 225 place. Till 2012 it sold 14 milions of copy. The main topic of the album is the attack addressed to the “american idiot”: the band criticizes the american paranoic life-style where everything passes through the media and they brodcast what they want you to believe.

Among the polemic targets of the Green Day there is the usless war in Iraq that caused thousands of deaths. Another theme is about a rebel guy who wants to do whatever he wants and to be free. One day he runs away from home, but at the same time he is very confused and falls into the trap of drugs and alcohol. Then he starts thinking about suicide; finally he is helped by a girl he falls in love with, at this point he tries to understand what to fight for and what he reallly wants for himself.
The song we like the most is “Boulevard of broken dreams” and it talks about the rebel guy and his mood after his last hangover when he realizes that he will always stay alone if he runs away from the problems by taking refuge in alcohol.

Lyrics
I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don't know where it goes
But it's only me, and I walk alone
I walk this empty street
On the boulevard of broken dreams
Where the city sleeps
And I'm the only one, and I walk alone
I walk alone, I walk alone
I walk alone and I walk a
My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
Till then I walk alone
Ah ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah ah
I'm walking down the line
That divides me somewhere in my mind
On the border line of the edge
And where I walk alone
Read between the lines
What's fucked up and every thing's all right
Check my vital signs to know I'm still alive
And I walk alone
I walk alone, I walk alone
I walk alone and I walk a
My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
Till then I walk alone
Ah ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah ah
I walk alone, I walk a
I walk this empty street
On the boulevard of broken dreams
Where the city sleeps
And I'm the only one, and I walk alone
My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
Till then I walk alone

We chose this song because it sounds great but also for the meaning: it makes you understand that life will always be troubled and, to feel better, you will have to deal with problems instead of avoiding them.

GLOSSARY
Avoid: to keep or stay away from something
Target: aim, goal; a person or thing at which an action or remark is directed
Criticize: to judge or dicuss about the merit of faults of something
Meaning: it’s what the song’s lyrics talks about
Hangover: the aftereffects of drinking alcohol
Broadcast: to transmit programs on radio or tv
Mood: it’s an emotional state in a particular time 
Theme: it’ s a subject of a talk
Newsweekly: it’s a newspaper published every week
Top- selling: something that is extremely popular, usually sold in large quantities

Albanian music

The music has always been a very important chapter in our life. Music has always existed in the world.
Every population has a form of music that it has evolved over time.

There are many types of music: pop, rock, metal, classic, rap and even folk. If you think that you have listened to all genres of music, you are wrong because probably you haven’t listened to our music… Our Albanian music!

The most popular music in Albania is folkloristic music. This type of music is very antique and it has been handed down orally. Albanian folk music is proudly represented by ‘’shota’’ band, with the most famous soloist Shkurte Fejza.

Albanian music represents a set of different traditional kinds of music, from Balcanic music (with its particular rhythm) to many other Turkish and Western influences. In Kosovo there is a type of Balcanic traditional rap: we call it ‘’tallava’’. Besides, you can even listen to a mix of Macedonian and Albanian songs with Eastern rhythm. It’s a very funny and appreciated genre, especially during weddings.

The characteristic instrument of Albanian music is definetely “çiftelia”.

It is a musical instrument with two strings. It is typically played in popular music. The word “çiftelia” actually comes from the Albanian language “çift” (double).
Nikolle Nikprelaj is one of the most famous person that plays this instrument. The lyrics of popular music usually talks about heroes and love. This instrument is best used by elders because they don’t want to lose their traditional music, so they like to teach young people how to play the çiftelia. Recently, indeed this instrument is played by young people to keep traditions alive as you can see in the following video.

After that, the çiftelia is usually played with “tupani”. It is known as one of the oldest rhythmic instruments comes from Asian countries.
It’s a cylindical drum made of leather. It works with a rod, with a set of traditional instruments.
This musical instrument has deserved place in popular Albanian music; without it, popular dances can not be immagine. Indeed the drum can’t miss in Albanian weddings. The “tupan” is an alarming and informative tool, used to inform the people of a neighborhood that the marriage was about to begin. Thanks to his thunder the neighbours could realize that there was a wedding and this automatically meant to be invited to the wedding dinner.
This has happened because there was the lack of communication tools.Finally, in Kosovo, we find modern music that comes from the Western countries. There are others kinds of music too, such as pop, hip-hop, rap, rock and jazz music.
Currently, the kind of music young people mostly listen to is Rap.

GLOSSARY

Handed down => transmit over time, through generations.
Lyric=> are words that make up a song usually consisting of verses and choruses.
Çiftelia => music instrument, with plucked cordes, the most characteristic thing: only 2 cordes.
Tupani => it’s a cylindical drum made of leather. It works with a rod, with a set of traditional instruments.
Folk => genre of music that develops traditional thems starting with peasant protests and popular generally.
Tallava => albanian music style
Elderly => is a person that i san old age. This person is considered old, when has over sixty-five years
Neighborhood => the inhabitants of the same street you life.

...That unforgettable taste!

Several years ago I ate a special sweet on my favourite day: Christmas.

I still remember the unforgettable taste of that sweet called Bakllava!

The Bakllava was in the center of the table. Its golden color made me drool. That sweet always makes me think of my homecountry: Kosovo!
The Bakllava was hot, but I blow it over and put it in my mouth. It was delicious. I could feel my mother’s love at every single bite I had. It was not the first time I ate Bakllava but that one had something that made it unique and unforgettable.

INGREDIENTS

400g phyllo dough
300g walnuts
200g butter
200g sugar
300ml water
4 eggs

PREPARATION

Melt the butter in a pan and allow it to cool. Butter the pan then put a first layer of phyllo dough mixed with sugar, start brushing with melted butter and egg and put it over a second and a third layer always buttering them. After the third layer put the walnuts and restart the process. Every three sheets of phyllo dough insert a layer of walnuts until the phyllo dough begins. 

Bake at 180° for 30 minutes. Meanwhile prepare the syrup with sugar and water (at medium heat and mix constantly). Once cooked, pour the syrup on the Bakllava, let it cool down and cut into small rhomboids... and enjoy!

GLOSSARY
Bakllava: traditional Kosovan sweet;
Sweet: having a taste similar to that of sugar, not bitter or salty;
Pan: a metal container that is round, used for cooking things on top of a cooker;
Phyllo doughy: flaky, tissue-thin layers of pastry used in backed dessert and for appetizers;
Mix: to combine so that the result cannot easily be separated into its parts;
Sugar: a sweet substance especially from the plants sugar cane, used to make food and drinks sweeter;
Butter: a pale yellow solid food containing a lot of fat that is made from cream;
Egg: the oval object with a hard shell that is produced by female birds, especially chickens, eaten as food;
Walnuts: a nut with a slightly bitter taste and a series of folds in and a hard shell;
Syrup: very sweet, thick liquid;
Rhomboids: a type of flat shape with four sides in which the sides next to each other are not of equal length but the side  opposite each other are;
Drool: to allow saliva (liquid in the mouth) to flow out of your mouth;
Blow it over: when an argument blows over, it becomes gradually less important until it ends and is forgotten;
Pour: to make a substance flow from a container, especially into another container, by raising just one side of the container that the substance is in.

BURRITO ON THE ROAD

The burrito is a kind of food that belongs to the tex-mex cuisine. It's a popular street food, especially in the USA. Over the years this food has met the taste and the lifestyle of each person, for example the vegans and the vegetarians.
Initially the street food was created for the lower society class’ demand.
Nowadays it has updated and focused on different cultures, following the tradition and the quality of products. Street food also permits the people to taste food during a simple stroll around the city.

The burrito consists of a large wheat flour tortilla, generally filled up with bovine meat, chicken or pig then closed to obtain a thin roll.
Every city has a different interpretation of the classic recipe. The filling includes also other ingredients like rice, beans, lettuce, tomatoes, guacamole and cheese. In the USA there are principally four popular versions: the classic tex-mex, the San Francisco's, the San Diego's, and the Los Angeles' one.
We want to propose you the authentic Mexican recipe.

Preparation:
In this recipe, we will use beef loin, which you will slice into thin slices.

Cook separately meat slices in a bit of olive oil and a pressed garlic clove. Add salt and black pepper to the meat slices and cook until medium-done; store for later.

In the same frying pan add the diced tomato to the hot oil. Once the tomato has started to melt down, drop in the previously diced onion and garlic. Cook for a few minutes and add the rice (which has already been cooked), the beans and the meat.

Now sprinkle your mix with cumin and coriander, and stir well. Taste seasoning, add salt and pepper if you wish.

Chop the lettuce into thin slices. Then place a wheat flour tortilla on a plate and spread two tablespoons of the meat, rice and beans mixture we previously did, then place some lettuce over and then sprinkle some cheese on top. Fold the tortilla into the typical cylinder shape, then cut the burrito in two. Serve with guacamole and some hot sauce.

We hope you will enjoy our article… let us know through your comments.

Glossary
Beef loin: it's a part in of the back of the bovine
Filling: all the ingredients that fill sweet and salty preparations
Guacamole: it is a Mexican sauce made with avocado, lime and salt
Lower society class: poor people
Roll: thin material rolled on itself to obtain a cylinder shape
Seasoning: the ingredients like salt, pepper and spices used for add flavour to the food
Slices: part of something, generally food, cut in thin stripes
Sprinkle: to put a bit of an ingredient on a dish, for example, to sprinkle spices on the burrito
Stir: mix one or more substances, for example, to stir the sugar in the coffee
Stroll: to walk in the outdoors
Taste: to eat a little quantity of a dish to check the flavour
Tex-mex: it is a fusion of Texan cuisine and Mexican cuisine
Melt down: transition from the solid state to the liquid state, for example, the ice melts down at 0°C and becomes water
Wheat flour: a type of flour made with a cereal; you can use it to make bread, pizza and pasta              

People help people

Three years ago I felt the most lonely and messiest person in the world.

I was in a dark period from which I couldn’t get out. I had my heart broken, I didn’t smile anymore, I wasn’t the same as before.

On a gloomy afternoon of three years ago, I was going to the train station.

I was listening to music and looking down, when a boy smiled at me and I did the same.

Just a smile, nothing more.

                                                    

A year after, in October, I saw him again: it was another bad day. On that day I was so sad that I was crying. I was going to the train station and I thought I would have loved to meet the mysterious boy, but I had almost lost hope.

He passed next to me and I immediately recognized him. We didn’t talk and we both had a very sad face, but we knew we needed to talk together. I went for the train but a few seconds later the mysterious boy turned to me smiling: I realized that he had recognized me as well.

I got on the train and I haven’t seen him since that day.

I tried to find out who he was to thank him for helping me with just a simple smile. Since that day I think that sometimes there are special bonds between people that don’t require words.

Sometimes pain get people together.

People help each other without knowing it: that boy helped me without saying a word. He helped  me with a smile.

 

Glossary

Lonely: alone, a person who stands alone

Messy: disordered, a confused person who doesn’t put things in order

Gloomy: dark, a day without sun

Smile:  to assume a facial expression indicating favor and fun

See: to view something with the eyes

Lose hope: be sad, see negative

Recognize: to know, to see someone among many people

Find out: to get an information

Bond: a relationship among people

Food Tour Menu

Hi everyone!

Welcome on this blog!
Today we would like to propose this menu: the FOOD TOUR. In this menu we will present some dishes from different countries.
We will take you around the world!
Enjoy this recipe and this particular taste!

First dish: Rice with Saffron

The saffron rice is a typical dish of the north of Italy. This rice can be enriched with mushrooms, sausages or speck.

“Risotto Giallo” in Italy is a synonym for richness and cheerfulness, because saffron was a very expensive ingredient in the past.

Recipe for 4 people

Average time: 25 minutes cooking.

Ingredients:

280 g of rice;
40 g of butter;
½ onion;
½ glass of white wine;
1 saffron bag (0.15g);
40 g Parmesan;
1 L Broth.

How to prepare it:

                     

                                Peel and finely chop the onion and brown it with 30 gr of butter in a pot until they golden.

Merge the rice and make it toast in the condiment.

When the rice has golden, add white wine and hot broth. Stir the rice constantly and at the same time add the hot broth to avoid drying the rice.

At half-cooking, add the saffron bag (previously dissolved in a cup of hot broth) to the rice.

After cooking (about 20 minutes) remove the pot from the fire, add a butter nut and parmesan and keep it stirring.

Wait a couple of minutes before serving saffron rice in the dishes, so that the rice rests and the flavors get stronger.

Glossary
Brown: to make or become brown
Parmesan: a variety of Italian cheese. Parmigiano-Reggiano is commonly grated over pasta or stirred into soup and risotto
Saffron: an orange-coloured condiment. It is a very expensive condiment. It was probably first cultivated in or near Greece
Golden: to make something become gold-colored
Stir: to move a spoon or other kitchen tool around (a liquid or another substance) in order to mix it thoroughly
Dissolve: to become incorporated into a liquid so as to form a solution.