Friday thrifts

I spent a fair amount of money on these things that I don't necessarily need. I didn't even intended to, but I ended up at a couple of thrift shops on Friday and now I have these.
The clothes were cheap and I figured I could use some good cotton around the house, even if I wasn't going to wear them. The striped shirt on the right reminded me of these Ikea tea towels, but mine are going to be more colorful. Underneath that are two shirts for casings just perfect for a couple of pillows we found here at our new place.

The white coffee cups are great and they're kind of a combination between these two.

image via                                                                                                   image via

I decided I want a shelve (or could be two) to showcase these and I'm hoping we'll take a trip this weekend to a couple of hardware stores and see what we can find. I don't care if the owner wouldn't want us to drill a few holes in his walls. Really don't. I have limited space for my kitchen ware as it is.

Been on my mind for a while now

 {Lidls'croissants in a tube - French week}

 {breakfast: warm croissants + honey}

{Lidl random ad - Mexican week}

I have such a weakness for Lidl products. Being such a cook-aholic, I consider them fun and exciting.

Of course, I should be buying local, from the farmer's market, especially, should be supporting the local market, buy foods that are not packaged and not brought from abroad, made with god knows what. I know this very well, I believe in that and I will want to support that in the future. I really do.

I get my basic stuff like flour, sugar, oil, canned goods and such from Kaufland, Billa or eventually Carrefour. I love Auchan for their bulk section, where you can get your nuts, seeds, dried fruits, tea, coffee, pasta and so forth. I just love that you can get any quantity you want, you can see them there, I don't know, I just do. Of course, it would be even better if you could come with a reusable fabric bag, or a jar and not have to use plastic bags. That would be insanely amazing.

These are good for your grocery shopping.

But. There is a but.

But when you want something else, something special, maybe half baked, or just something to go with what you already plan on cooking, you (or just me) go to Lidl. 

I love their diverse weekly products. I like that after a while they go on sale because nobody buys them. I regularly buy their greek yogurt, asian cooking sauces, noodles, tortillas, a tortilla chip dip once in a while, if it's something special.

 R says that their nonfood products are pretty decent. Like, for example, a few months as the biking season was opening, they brought a lot of cycling stuff, saddles, lights, helmets, and lots of other things. They have hardware tools, kitchen tools, sewing machines, sewing kits, gardening tools, and lots of other stuff at a decent price.

I don't like their flowers, neither stems, nor potted. They just feel waxed and too polished and you feel like they've been drugged to get here from some far away place.

I kind of like going there on weekends and get a little something for the week to come. I do enjoy their ad and I scribble on it and mark the things to buy.

And there goes another post about food.

Have a nice weekend

{rainy weather}

Have a nice one!
Guys, you have to go see this if you're in town. Believe me. I went to school today and noticed all those people in the park, figured I should check it out and I was amazed of how pretty all the pots and plates and the rest of the ceramics are. I already saw a few things I want to buy, and I'm going again tomorrow with R and take a closer look at all of them and then decide.
Before this, I hope tomorrow morning I'm going to be able to go visit Adra and Ionela at Sophia, as they're working until noon. I need to get my bike fixed and then Sunday I'm looking forward to R's new bike arriving, get some reading done.

p.s.
this lil'old photo project - it's not just a random thing.I know well some of these bloggers; I love Brian Ferry's still life photos especially, and Pia Jane's are just magical, every time, check out her blog. Oh and this, one year after the 1001, same bloggers.
this illustrated interview with Meryl Streep on beauty, and lots more on the right
her work and blog - check it all out

home/food

It's been good.
We've done a bit of moving around the furniture, cleaned a lot, made the place feel like us. I've already bought a kitchen cart and a rug and a few kitchen ware and we still need a few more things.
It's a one room apartment with a kitchen about the same size as the room, a little hallway and a decent bathroom. It's perfect for us. There's so much space I can't believe it.
The neighborhood is Ok, I guess. There are a few kids around in the afternoon screaming and playing down in the playground, but it's fine.

 My plants are not doing so fine; well, not all of them. The mint and basil are going strong, especially the mint, she's tall and proud. But my ranunculus is not. It's probably because it doesn't get enough sun, because we're facing north and there's no room outside the window for them to sun bathe. It's sad, cause it was going so well and I thought they would make it and I would have beautiful flowers, but no... I still have some bulbs left, and I'll probably try again but I'm not sure it will work.

 {kitchen window view}

 {the main and only room}

{farmers' market buys}

I've been cooking a little since we settled in, nothing new or exciting, as I'm just getting around the new kitchen.

 {mint lemonade}

 {pretty little potatoes}

             {roasted potatoes+ dill/garlic yogurt}                      {tomato soup*+nibbles}

{double chocolate banana bread** - recipe here}

 {mini pizzas***}

 *The tomato soup is a regular around here. The recipe is Jamie's and it's this one. There is another one of his, where he says to add a can or a couple of cans of whole tomatoes - to give it more body and get more of a creamy, less soupy thing. I did not have a couple of cans of tomatoes,and I just needed to get rid of five tomatoes so as to not throw them away sooner or later( we're not big tomato fans). So with five tomatoes I did not make a lot of soup, thus I did not added so much water, plus I skipped the cream/yolk/vinegar part and just added some cream before eating it. Sites everywhere you find this recipe advise you to serve this soup with grilled cheese sandwiches...yeah, in an ideal world. I'm not mocking, sure that would have been great, but it didn't happen.

** Being the first time making this bread I'm glad I did it, but I'm not sure I'll add it to my favorite recipes list, because the combination of chocolate and bananas is just not my thing. Of course, we finished it off in a day after baking it, but that's because we did not have anything else sweet in the house.

*** Mini pizzas cook way faster than a big regular one, so it's good.You'll notice that one is slightly more yellowish than the other. It's because it's been fried before putting stuff on it and going in to the oven. I've discovered this way back a few years in Jamie's Jamie's Italy book (great, great cooking book), but never really got to try it out. My fried pizzas weren't that different from the baked ones but I'll tell you why. I should have made them thinner than the baked ones and then the whole experience would have been different, I'm sure. It was funny, because frying the dough made the kitchen smell like we were making doughnuts. I will definitely do a better job the next time, by making them right.

This was supposed to be a post about our new home, not food, but they're both very important to me, so it's OK.

Couple of weeks back

 {craving hot chocolate on a hot day}

 {snacking outdoors while others works out}

 {Copou - back-lanes}

 {snacking - second time around}

 {shaorma at Warda - pretty good}

{Mai Bine menu}

Whilst looking for an apartment and packing stuff, moving out and then unpacking everything we took well deserved breaks, like bike rides up Copou, meeting up with friends, eating out and even enjoyed a bit of Street delivery on the last night. Cause otherwise you could go nuts.

Copou is the best, and I love it so much, especially walking along the less known alleys where you have the most beautiful houses and gardens with flowers and smells that will make you feel like you're in the countryside. I just keep contemplating them and annoying R with my wishes of owning a house there, even a tiny one.

As I mentioned we did get to spend half an hour on Sunday night at Street Delivery. There was a concert and other stuff and lots of people and it was nice. We shared a beer and a Mai Bine egg sandwich between us and I took a photo ( blurry one) of the menu so I can replicate it at home. It was pretty simple but awesome.

Here!Here!Here!

http://comediansincarsgettingcoffee.com/   - Sarah Jessica Parker

Have a nice weekend

 Yes, we finally moved, so I have a couple of things to share on that matter. We've been settling in along with school assignments, work. This weekend I still have things to put away and other to clean around the house, so that's what I'll be doing. I made reservations for Friday night to go see this movie with a couple of friends, Saturday I'll be cooking a bit, hitting the 'farmer's market' and a thrift shop or two and then some relaxing.
 Have a nice one!

 Here are a few links - "the regulars" I enjoyed around the internet, that I finally got around to save and share with you:
this article from the forthcoming book I can't wait to read
this "infografic"
this fun article on bike locking
interesting people + great apartments here
these handwritten instructions on how to make specific kinds of coffee
this useful article and this also
this dish washing tip I use

the last couple of weeks

I've been using R's cannon and it's great. The pictures end up much more moody and the focus is incredible. I have to play with it more and get to know it better... but they're so much more expressive than the ones my samsung takes...

 {washing salads}

 {lemons}

This week I've went to school once, I think. The rest of the week I worked on a couple of essays for H. But it's been slow... The rest of the time, I've been reading, Cooking, eating, cycling. And still I feel I was in a hurry, and hadn't enough time to enjoy them.

  We've been searching for a tiny flat. I hate this. It reminds me of last year when we were searching and it's never fun. I do hate it, really. We have a month to find one, but maybe we shall be done with it even sooner... we'll see. I've been contemplating on the space in my sister's apartment...

R finished his bike. Took an old one and repainted it and replaced most of its parts and now he has this. Its way more fancy and classic than my old lady bike. But you wouldn't believe how comfortable my bike is (Even R says so often times)- part of it is because of a good saddle i bought while in Italy, R had contemplated on buying one too and didn't and now regrets it.

food wise: I've been oatmealing it again. R takes lunch with him at work: omlette with cheese and a few pieces of bread and something sweet for dessert.
While at my sister's last week we had a special Friday night with homemade pizza inher oven which is grandiose. it really is. We had a drink of leftover drink of lemonade vodka and champagne from the party, along with episodes of the office - were getting really close to the end.

Raw food workshop

 {setting}

 {goodies}

 {walnut milk with rejuvelac}

 {prepping for the pie/tart}

 {natural garnishes}

 {flower topped}

 {veggie sticks}

 { taking notes}

 {taste off}

 {veggies sticks + basil/walnut pesto}

{germinated buckwheat crackers}

Two weeks ago I treated myself with this raw food workshop that took place at CUIB. There are more pictures from the workshop right here. It was awesome and everything I had expected from this sort of thing. We weren't that many, just about 8. There were questions and answers, an open discussion and many tips and methods and reasons on why to try to eat more raw food. Well, it makes sense since everything store bought and fast food today has some sort of taste enhancer or chemical, we get so little nutritious elements into our bodies. By cooking it, even less. So to try to eat as much raw, uncooked and also to have to prepare it yourself seems like the right thing when you want to give your body the right fuel. Plus you don't want to end up like our elderly relatives, taking medicines every single day(to tell the truth, Romanian food is not at all healthy and the recipes are tasty but full of carbs, people used to eat a lot and bad, and everything has to be eaten with bread, white bread... and so on)

I wouldn't go try and do some sort of complicated thing like raw pizza or that sort of stuff, but I will try(very soon, actually) to make some nut milk -starting with almond milk and I would very much enjoy sprouting some beans for sprucing up salads this summer. I shall start off with these two and then see from here.

Right now I am looking forward to move from this tiny place.