The Great Gatsby

It is getting close and closer and I just can't wait for the movie to come out, now more then ever. I love the 1974 version with Mia Farrow and Robert Redford, the story, the acting, the costumes, the music, everything is so good so I am so curious about the new one.
Add the fact that I love Baz Luhrmann's movies, find Leonardo DiCaprio to be a brilliant actor and was totally conquered by Carey Mulligan in "Drive" (if you haven't seen this one, do it, Ryan Gosling's abs, can't go wrong) and you get to understand how excited I am, or somewhere close to it because I'm so waiting for this one!! I can't even watch the trailer because I become so nervous.

Hope you enjoy it!

Recycled music

 A couple of months ago I told you about an amazing documentary I watched, "Waste land" (I hope you did/are going to as well). It showed us everyday life of the recyclable-pickers and I have found it rather awareness-raising as well as a great art project.
 Now I would like to share with you another interesting project. This time I'll let the music do the talking.
Enjoy!

Apple strudel (vegan)

This is the one I made recently, with the supermarket puff pastry

 From what I managed to find out on the internet the original apple strudel is vegan, that's why I have it in brackets. This isn't a simplified version which lacks something or has it substituted, this is the real deal.
 Even though it's one of my favorite desserts and my go to hostess gift for dinner parties (and not only) this is the first time I did everything by myself. I would usually buy the puff pastry, reducing working time on 10 minutes. I thought it was about time to take a plunge and get my hands dirty.

Ingredients:

Dough:
-200 g all-purpose flour
-pinch of salt
-1 teaspoon white vinegar
-approx 1/2 cup lukewarm water

Filling:
-3 apples (2 or 4 would work as well)
-2 tablespoons raisins (soaked in the rum and lukewarm water)
-1 tablespoon pine nuts (toasted)
-2 tablespoons demerara sugar (or any other)
-cinnamon (as much as you like, I think it's never enough)
-juice of half lemon
-breadcrumbs if you like, I skipped this

 Mix the flour in a bowl with with salt and vinegar, add some water and start working it. Add more water gradually as you need it, you'll figure out how much water you need, the dough shouldn't be too sticky. Form a ball and leave it covered on the room temperature for half an hour.

 Cut the apples (I peeled them as well) into small pieces, add lemon juice, raisins, pine nuts (I chopped them up a bit), sugar and cinnamon.

 Roll out the dough on a floured working surface, as thin as you can, into a rectangular shape. Spread your filling over the dough and fold the dough. Close the end like an envelope.

Oven for 40 minutes on 180°C.

Sprinkle with icing sugar.

My strudel turned out a bit pale, so I might have put the oven on 200°C as well, will try that the next time.

Girls, season 2 finale

 For all of you who still haven't seen it, stop reading now, watch the finale and then come back!

 For all rest, what was that?!? Even though I am a huge fan of SATC, Gossip Girl and other chic lit shows, I loved Girls because it was different. It wasn't a happily ever after show and television lacked that in this, young girls/ big city context. It was real, dramatic and, sometimes, disgusting, but that kept it real, closer to us. I'm sure there were times when each one of us could have related to one of the characters, at least for what we could have done. It was no fake promises, stockings from Germany or macarons from Paris, less Nora Ephron, more real life. In the last night's episode it felt as if Lena Dunham said 'let them eat cake'.

 As a result we got:
 Marnie and Charlie are back for good. No, no and no! He should have dumped her after everything he's been through for her, she never really cared about him. I simply don't believe in this type of second chances, I'm sorry Marnie.
 Hannah and Adam? Could have predicted that when they left him in the series, but I so don't like it.
 Shoshanna and Ray? One good thing, that girl has to live her life and not being stuck at home with her world-hating boyfriend.

 I was sure Natalia, or whatever her name was, would dump Adam after he got drunk and kind of raped her. Kind of because in this episode, she is still there, having sex with him, which confirms her consent for the abuse scene from the previous episode. I thought that was totally wrong, but if I think about it better, this is how us girls are, masochists when it comes to men.

My opinion on this season finale isn't the best one because it changed my whole perspective on the show, but I'm looking forward to the third season to see what way it will go.