Kiki Stryke: inside the shadow city

All of Laseles like reading, and we would like to share some of those enjoyable books and not so known. Let's start with our first book review.
This is Lema's favourite book of all the ones she's read so far, even more than Harry Potter and that's a merit on itself.
But let's start with the first book review from Laseles:
Kiki Strike, inside the shadow city is the first book of a series that follows the adventures of a group of teenagers and their not so typical adventures.

'Life will never be the same for Ananka Fishbein after she ventures into an enormous sinkhole near her New York City apartment. A million rats, delinquent Girl Scouts out for revenge, and a secret city below the streets of Manhattan combine in this remarkable novel about a darker side of New York City you have only just begun to know about…'


The story is told bu Ananka, what would typically be classified as a bookworm. What can she do if her parents collect so many books at their house that  would make any library jealous? When she is 12 years old discovers a secret passage to an undergound forgotten series of tunels that go all around Manhattan. And she is not the only one; a little pale girl called Kikie Strike also was there. Together and with the other Irregulars, a group of exgirl-scouts with out of the ordinary abilities, will explore the misteries of the shadow city.

This is a short introduction but sincerly, I've skiped the 95% of the story. I don't want to make spoilers and take away the pleasure of discovering what it's really going on.  This book is so special and unique thanks to its inteligent humour, that differentiates it from the rest of emo teenager books that Twhilight has put into fashion.  The Irregulars come as a much needed fresh air to teenager books.Enjoing the out of normal characters, their evolution, etc. Everything is written perfectly by  Kirsten Miller, the author of such an amazing book and a very curious and interesting person in itself. Kikie Stryke is oriented to a female teenage reader but, really, anyone will enjoy and have fun with the adventures of the Irregulars.
Unfortunately, in Spain it has become a great challenge to find this book in any book shelf anymore. In the United States on the other hand, the fans of the series will be able to enjoy the third book  in no time. Let's see if people start here with the Kikie Stryke mania soon.


For more information on the series: http://www.kikistrike.com/
For buying the book and finding more reviews on this book: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/187753.Inside_the_Shadow_City

Seguimos con vídeos interesantes. Este es el doodle que Google dedicó a Freddie Mercury el día que hubiese sido su cumpleaños. El vídeo apareció hace ya un tiempo, el 5 de septiembre de 2011, pero sigue siendo tan rememorable como el primer día.  

Books, tea, and some rainbow cake (or maybe chocolate cookies) and dreaming.


The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore from Moonbot Studios on Vimeo.

Swallows marauding from the book to the sky. Words woman.

This might not be an usual entry for us. Just watched this video today and called my atention. I am quite inspired now, maybe I will upload my draws some day.
Hope you like it.

Una sola noche/ Just one night

Esta vez sí. Ni 5 noches ni una semana, solo una. Y mucho chocolate.
No estaba dentro de mis planes volver a gorronear hasta marzo. Pero surgió. Y ya se sabe, una cosa llevó a otra y al final acabé dándome cuenta de que era por la noche y volvía a quedarme a dormir a casa de Lema, Loma y su compi. Así que acabamos cenando mientras hablábamos de My Little Pony (aclararé: es la nueva afición de Lema, así celebra sus 19 años). Sí, tan horriblemente pasteloso (especialmente comparando con nuestros desayunos hablando sobre Jack el destripador, Manson y otros asesinos en serie) como parece.
Pero, de nuevo, las indirectas ejem-Les,gorrona-ejem, acabaron haciéndome sentir un poco culpable. En fin, os lo pagaré con donuts, chicas, lo prometo. : )

Pastel de queso al limón / Lemon cheesecake

Aquí presentamos la receta de uno de los mayores pecados capitales. Estáis avisados, el pastel de queso no está hecho para quién quiera estar a dieta. Eso sí, está buenísimo y se hace enseguida.

Ingredientes:
Para la masa:
1 1/2 una taza y media de galletas maría molidas. Esto son unas 15 galletas.
5 cucharadas de azúcar
5 cucharadas de mantequilla

Para el relleno:
500g de queso fresco; entiéndase queso estilo philadelphia o parecido.
1/2 taza de azúcar
1 cucharadita de  vainilla o azúcar avainillado si no se tiene vainilla.
1 taza de gelatina de limón
1 taza de nata montada. Si ésta ya lleva azúcar, no se añade azúcar al relleno.

Preparación:
Se pone a hervir una taza de agua donde se echará la gelatina cuando hierva. Se deja enfriar.
Mientras, se enciende el horno a 175º. Se trituran las galletas. Se pueden triturar con uno de los accesorios de una minipimer o parecido para que quede muy finito.
Se mezclan las galletas con el azúcar y la mantequilla. Si hace falta se le añade un pelín más de mantequilla para conseguir que se haga una bola si se presiona la masa. Se   pone en el molde sin extender y se pone en el horno  3 minutos para que la mantequilla se derrita y se pueda extender más fácilmente. Se saca del horno, se extiende la masa y se vuelve a hornear durante 5 minutos más.
Cuando se saca del horno, con una cuchara se aplasta la masa por los bordes para evitar que se escape el relleno. Reservar.
Para el relleno, se mezcla el queso, el azúcar y la vainilla. Cuando esté bien mezclado, montamos la nata y añadimos la gelatina aún líquida. Por último, se mezcla la nata. Se sirve en el molde encima de la masa de galletas y a la nevera. En un par de horas, cuando haya endurecido, se saca del molde y listo.
También queda delicioso con mermelada de cualquier fruta del bosque, especialmente de arándanos.

English
Here we have the recipie of one of the greatest sins. We have warned you, this is not recomended for people going on a diet. Nevertheless, it is delicious and really easy to do.

Ingredients:
Base:
1 1/2 cups of maría style coockies. These are around 15 coockies.
5 sp. (spoons) of sugar
5 sp. of butter

Filling:
500g of fresh cheese, meaning philadelphia style spreading cheese.
1/2 sp. of sugar
1 t.sp. (tablespoon) of vanilla or vanilla flavoured sugar
1 cup of lemon jelly
1 cup of whipped cream. If it has already sugar on it, we do not add sugar to the filling.


Recipie:
We voil a cup of water. we add the jelly, disolve it and let it cool down.
Heat the oven up to175º. Meanwhile we pulverize the coockies with a blender topulverize them.
Mix the coockies with the butter and sugar. If needed add a little bit more of butter until you can make a ball of the mixture by presing it togheter. Now, put it into the backing tin and into the oven for 3 minutes. Take it out to extend the base.  Let it in the oven for 5 more minutes.
When we take it out of the oven, we press the base on the sizes with a spoon, be aware of burning yourself, as to not let the filling out. Let aside.
For the filling, we mix togheter the cheese, sugar and vanilla. When it becomes an homogenious mix, whip the cream, add the jelly, mix it and lastly, add the whipped cream. The only thing left is pouring the filling on top of the base in the baking tin and let it cool downo inside the fridge. Around 2 hours later it will be ready to eat.
This is also delicious with any berry jam on top, specially the blueberry's one