Showing posts with label LISTS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LISTS. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

My Favourite Food Blogs

Last year, I made a "learn how to cook properly" resolution, amongst other things. Did I achieve that goal? Not really, no. I'm still relying a lot on recipes. I wish I had mom's cooking skills, so I'd be able to come up with anything yummy even if there were only 3 ingredients in the fridge, but I can't. I still lack the imagination and the confidence to branch out from recipes. However, I've picked up a few things so far and almost everything I've learned came from the Internet. Or, to be more precise, it all basically came from the food blogs I'm about to list below (pictures are linked!). 

annies eats food blog
Ally recommended me this blog (actually, I think she recommended all of the blogs I'm listing today). It was love at first sight. I like to see the recipes' step-by-step, but in pictures. I feel it's more organised. Annie's eats is amazing when it comes to keepin' it straight & short. The posts are all very well written and the pictures are fabulous - so fabulous I have yet to make something look exactly like it looks in Annie's pictures. Aside from that, the blog separates everything into categories - and it has all sorts of recipes. I first went there looking for desserts, but then I tried the salads and some beef dishes and ended up loving everything. The blog has a special holiday category which might come in handy for people who, well, are like me. Oh, I love the blog's beverages category too. And, yes, Annie also shares some vegetarian recipes. (^.^)

gimme some oven food blog
I love, love, love this blog! It's so Sofia-friendly. As in "beginner"/"people who have no idea of how to cook" friendly. It has it's recipe index, which is very organised - you can pick the recipe by course, occasion, diet or even by ingredient!!! How cool is that? I just love people who categorize, heh. Anyways, when my mom was away for about 6 months last year, a lot of the recipes I made came from this blog, because it has many delicious and lighter dishes. It was very hot back then, and when it's hot I a) don't get very hungry and b) get super lazy (which affects the cooking). So I just made the easy recipes, which were all very healthy, by the way. Aside from being a kickass food blog, Gimme Some Oven has two other very amazing sections: DIY and Life, both packed with interesting reads and tips on, well, basically everything. Here's my favourite Gimme Some Oven post.

oh she glows food blog
"Hi, I'm Angela and this is my recipe blog where I celebrate my love for vegan food. In addition to being meat and dairy-free, most of my recipes are free of gluten, soy, and processed foods."  Need I say more? Well, I'm just going to add that oh she glows is also very organised and Sofia-friendly. I think I'm just going to add "organised" to the "Sofia-friendly" label, given that I'm a bit of a neat freak. Anyways, my favourite post is this one, because, well, given laziness and living-alone-ness, I used to make way more than I could possibly eat, so freezer-friendly snacks are always a plus.

I know there are different weight/quantity measuring ways throughout the world, and that is a pain in the ass when it comes to cooking and following recipes. So, in order to help with whatever conversion issues you may stumble across, I suggest that you download the free/printable Baking Conversion Chart from Java Cupcake. Aside from being really cute, it's also very helpful! Get it [here]. On a side note, Java Cupcake is another food blog I like a lot, but since the majority of the recipes found there are dessert ones, I rarely visit it.

Saturday, February 28, 2015

LINKS: February's top 10

I shouldn't be saying "this month's" because I got back home on Feb 12th, after being in Taiwan and San Francisco & spending most of my time being offline. However, since I still had a couple of weeks of uni break & was only going to work one of my part time jobs, I spent a huge amount of time going through blogs and other web pages- which totally compensated my time spent offline. So, going through my latest pins and pocket adds, I found that the most interesting February links were the following ones (they were not sorted by any particular way):

Photo by Blake Little
If you're not quite used to DSLRs or if you're still learning about photography, these sheets will be very useful to you.

Food for thought.

I've been a fan of everything Ali Mese posts for a while now, but this list is just exceptionally spectacular.

Good tips on personal finance. Good publishing timing, too, considering the year's just started.

6. 7 Ways to Practice Emotional First Aid - Personal / Self-help 
Those things that everyone already knows, but never really cared about. They're important. 

As a contributor to Taste of Cinema, I'm going to pick one list each month & share it with you. I picked this one because aside from being a fan of animated films (I'm really picky about them, though), it features Grave of the Fireflies, a heartbreaking, soul-wrenching all-time favourite of mine. 
Grave of the Fireflies scene. Property of Shihchosa, Tokuma Shoten and other copyright holders.
Although this was published in January, I only came across it a couple of weeks ago. BuzzFeed made a very interesting video. Food for thought. 

I don't like it when people make lists and specify a gender. I really don't like it. Makes no sense to me. Anyways, whilst going through this list, I noticed that I'd read most of the books and they were really good. So I'm going out on a limb here & add that men should read some of these books too, because they are awesome. Here are 5 books of the list that I really recommend: 
  • Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
  • Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by Z.Z. Packer
  • Willful Creatures by Aimee Bender
  • Broken Harbor by Tana French
  • A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
  • To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
It was difficult for me to choose an article from the many ones that were written about Graham Moore's acceptance speech. It was more difficult to choose an acceptance speech to pick an article about, since this year's Oscars were flooded with equality/minorities speeches - something I adored, btw. Nonetheless, here's one of the reasons I picked this article for my favourite February links list:
There are days that I can’t see the progress I’ve made. Sometimes, I still feel like that weird, strange, different girl. Sometimes, I still feel silenced, scared, and alone. That’s why I loved what Graham said in his speech. He reminded me that it’s okay to be different, it’s great to be weird, and that I do have a place where I belong. I belong with my family, with my boyfriend, and the handful of friends I’ve found who accept me for who I am. And I belong in this world as much as anyone else does.

What were the most interesting pages/articles you stumbled across during February?

#RIPLeonardNimoy 

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

BOOKS: winter break.

Winter break's over and so are my moments of pure joy. 
(Winter break's during June/July for us)

Here's what I have to say after 2 months without the daily struggle of making my feet march until my university: no amount of time will ever be enough for me to mentally prepare myself to get back to yet another semester Law school. #depressedsofia

Anyways, lemme go straight to the point: here will be listed the books I read these past few weeks. 


The Penton Legacy Trilogy, by Susannah Sandlin - got them on Amazon, using Kindle Premium. It's about this war between the Vampire Tribunal against the residents of Penton, Alabama. Full of action, drama and sexy characters, it was a quite pleasant reading. However, I must add this: it's cheap writing. I don't know how exactly to explain that expression, but that's what kept popping up on my mind while I read the books. If it weren't for my insane lack of curiosity control, I'd probably not have finished reading the first book.


Stephen King's novels - Stephen King is one of my favourite authors. Until the end of the last semester, I'd read everything he'd written, but, due to uni entrance exams and whatnots, I lost track of his novels and hadn't read his latest releases - pictured above.

Divergent series, by Veronica Roth - Watched the movie, got curious, read the damn series, enjoyed it far better than I expected. I don't know how to rate it, so I'll just say that it's way better than Twilight, and somewhat as good as Hunger Games. Or as bad as. Same level. 

Lauren Weisberger novels - I read The Devil Wears Prada ages ago. Then, while going through Kindle Premium, I saw that there was a sequel to it - Revenge Wears Prada, which I missed because 2013 was my crazy senior year. I decided to re-read the first book so I could read the second (as if I didn't have a billion other never-read books awaiting me); read the second & got so caught up in her work that I also read Chasing Harry Winston and Last Night At Chateau Marmont. (I read Everyone Worth Knowing in 2007).

♥ Lauren Weisberger.


Have you ever read any of these books? Did you enjoy them? What have you been reading lately?

Friday, January 10, 2014

MUSIC: 15 most listened to albums of 2013

I always try to keep track of the music scene. I search for new artists to listen to while also keeping an ear out to the ones I already know. In 2013, it wasn't any different. Except maybe for the huge amount of albums my favourite artists decided to release. I bought many CDs, did the whole pre-order waiting thingy, almost went bankrupt - thank goodness for friends who give me gifts. 

Last year, I published a huge post on my fav 2012 albuns. So, keeping the tradition...

- I sorted the albums by the artists' names.

Artist: Ally Burnett 
Album: 27 EP

Artist: A Day To Remember
Album: Common Courtesy 

Artist: Christina Grimmie
Album: With Love 

Artist: City & Colour
Album: The Hurry and the Harm

Artist: Demi Lovato
Album: DEMI

Artist: Fall Out Boy
Album: Save Rock and Roll

Artist: Haim
Album: Days Are Gone

Artist: Icon For Hire
Album: Icon For Hire

Artist: New Years Day
Album: Victim to Villain

Artist: Paramore
Album: Paramore

Artist: Queens of the Stone Age
Album: Like Clockwork

Artist: Tegan and Sara
Album: Heartthrob

Artist: The Devil Wears Prada
Album: 8:18

Artist: The Material
Album: Everything I Want to Say

Artist: Tonight Alive
Album: The Other Side


Hope you guys didn't fell asleep while scrolling down the page! Do you know any of these artists? What were your favourite 2013 albums?

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Some 2014 plans

Finally some free time all to myself. Bye bye, high school. You didn't suck, but you won't be missed. The crazy study routine will not be missed either. Anyways, lemme kick off 2014 right and get on my plans for this year...

(I'd originally written this post in Portuguese, so bear with the portuguese coloured banners on the illustrations. There are English translations, though. -x)
Redo my closet. 
 
Learn a new language.
Learn how to cook properly.
Get a gym membership. Lose weight!!!

Read a ton!


Travel a lot! Go abroad at least once.


Get a new job.


Develop zen habits.


Is it a lot to want to get at least 4 of these plans done by the end of the year? What are your plans?

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

MUSIC: My favourite 2012 songs/albums!

In alphabetical order. Various genres.

Adora - One Word. 
8 tracks. Pop Rock. Available on iTunes. Chicago independent band.
Fav songs: Skeleton, Breaking Branches.
Make sure to also listen to Save Yourself, a great song by them.

All Time Low - Don't Panic. Available on iTunes.
I got so excited when I heard ATL were back to Hopeless Records! 
I love the songs Backseat Serenade (ft. Cassadee Pope) and So Long Soldier.

Ally Burnett - So Close. So Far. 
5 tracks. Pop Rock. Available on iTunes.
You can listen to 3 tracks on Ally's Purevolume page, here.
Fav tracks: Give It Up, We're All The Same.

Eyes of Verona - Chapter 1: The Fight EP. 
4 tracks. Alternative Rock band. EP available for purchase here.
Two songs available for free download, Feed Your Believers and We Are.
Fav. song: Wolves, Feed Your Believers.

Halestorm - The Strange Case Of... -Rock music. 
Available on iTunes.
Simply the album I most listened to during this year. 
I love how this band has matured so much.
If you don't know them, you're surely missing out a lot.
Check out the videoclipe for Love Bites & I Miss The Misery.


Late July - When The Curtain Falls. 7 tracks. Available on iTunes.
You can stream it by clicking here (as well as purchase it). 
Fav. songs: When The Curtain Falls and Not Your Lover.
Perfect for a rainy sunday morning, while laying and procrastinating in bed.

New Years Day - Lights Out  & Do Your Worst singles. Both available on iTunes.
Listen to Do Your Worst and Lights Out and fall in love with the band!

Picture Me Broken - Mannequins. 4 tracks. Rock. Available on iTunes.
Stream the whole EP here.
Brooklyn's vocals in Beautiful Disguise are enchanting.

Stitched Up Heart - Grave. Song available on iTunes.
Make sure to check its videoclip here.


The Pretty Reckless- Hit Me Like a Man EP. 5 tracks. Available on iTunes.
This EP's Make Me Wanna Die Live version is uh-mazing. 
Under The Water and Cold Blooded are really great songs. 
Make sure to check out their new single, Kill Me, too. 

Tamar Kaprelian - California EP. 5 tracks, pop rock. Available on iTunes.
Tamar is one of my favourite ladies on this Earth. 
She's got a sweet, sweet, voice, and beautiful lyrics and melodies. 
Her songs always bring me peace of mind, and I am so thankful for that.
My fav song of this album is California, which is also the album's single. 
Check it out here. Also, check Tamar's fashion blog, Up-Town-Girl.

VersaEmerge - Another Atmosphere Preview. 3 tracks. Available on iTunes.
I love No Consequences. Their new sound is literally Another Atmosphere. 
I can't wait for the full length! 
Stream the new songs here.
Make sure to check out their single Burn, too. 
It's my fav. song of their new music. So far.


What were your favourite songs/albums from 2012?