Useful history lesson.

What is chocolate? Surely everybody know but for clarity...

Chocolate is a typically sweet, usually brown, food preparation of Theobroma cacao seeds, roasted and ground, often flavored, as with vanilla. It is made in the form of a liquid, paste or in a block or used as a flavoring ingredient in other sweet foods.

Etymology:
The word "chocolate" entered the English language from Spanish.How the word came into Spanish is less certain, and there are competing explanations. Perhaps the most cited explanation is that "chocolate" comes from Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs



History:
Chocolate has been prepared as a drink for nearly all of its history. For example, one vessel found at an Olmec archaeological site on the Gulf Coast of Veracruz, Mexico, dates chocolate's preparation as early as 1750 BC. On the Pacific coast of Chiapas, Mexico, archaeological site provides evidence of cacao beverages dating even earlier, to 1900 BC.


By the 15th century, the Aztecs gained control of a large part of Mesoamerica and adopted cacao into their culture. They associated chocolate with Quetzalcoatl, who, according to one legend, was cast away by the other gods for sharing chocolate with humans, and identified its extrication from the pod with the removal of the human heart in sacrifice. In contrast to the Mayans, who liked their chocolate warm, the Aztecs drank it cold, seasoning it with a broad variety of additives, including the petals of the chile pepper, allspice, vanilla, and honey.


Until the 16th century, no European had ever heard of the popular drink from the Central and South American peoples. Christopher Columbus and his son Ferdinand encountered the cacao bean on Columbus's fourth mission to the Americas.

While Columbus had taken cacao beans with him back to Spain, chocolate made no impact until Spanish friars introduced it to the Spanish court. After the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs, chocolate was imported to Europe. There, it quickly became a court favorite. It was still served as a beverage, but the Spanish added sugar, as well as honey, to counteract the natural bitterness.


Milk had sometimes been used as an addition to chocolate beverages since the mid-17th century, but in 1875 Daniel Peter invented milk chocolate by mixing a powdered milk developed by Henri Nestlé with the liquor.In 1879, the texture and taste of chocolate was further improved when Rudolphe Lindt invented the conching machine. Besides Nestlé, a number of notable chocolate companies had their start in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.


What is conching? I was always wondering what it means while I watched on television Lind's advertising...

The penultimate process is called conching. A conche is a container filled with metal beads, which act as grinders. The refined and blended chocolate mass is kept in a liquid state by frictional heat. Chocolate prior to conching has an uneven and gritty texture. The conching process produces cocoa and sugar particles smaller than the tongue can detect, hence the smooth feel in the mouth. The length of the conching process determines the final smoothness and quality of the chocolate. High-quality chocolate is conched for about 72 hours, and lesser grades about four to six hours. After the process is complete, the chocolate mass is stored in tanks heated to about 45–50°C until final processing.

About cholocale could be write indefinitely.
I hope that you take a fancy to this lesson of history. :)

Unfortunately I dont have any sweets in the house now. NOTHING! :((((((((

Zdzisław Beksiński

 

The person that I would like to introduce to you is Zdzislaw Beksiński.
A prominent painter, photographer and sculptor.
He was born on 24th February 1929 in Sanok, and dies in 21st Februar 2005.
Studied at the University of Technology in Cracow on faculty of architecture.
While he was studying married his love Zofia Stankiewicz.
In the near future was born their only son, Tomasz who, like his father was an artist but associated with music.

I chose Beksiński because of his creativity and masterpieces, not for his personality.
His works should see everyone although because they are one of a kind.
His style is difficult to define, he called it a variation of Baroque or Gothic.

As a young artist worked in photography.
Today Beksiński is rarely associated with black-and-white photos,
but it was of them started their careers.

Another form was for the young Beksiński sculpture.
It was a purely abstract sculpture, performed mainly of metal, wire and sheet metal.
There were created reliefs and masks.

 

 

 

After some time passed, Beksiński passed to the next form of expression - drawing.
His drawings were first half abstract.
Then he went to pure figuration of the full eroticism, sadism and masochism atmosphere.
Characters in the picture were mostly naked bound and enslaved
Often appear deformed little boy tied and bound.
These drawings in prudish Poland Ludowa could not be shown differently than special shows.

 

 

In 1964 he began to paint. Definitely broke the avant-garde and fully devoted himself to painting fantastic, visionary carefully pictorial with oil paint on hardboard.

He never named his paintings and claimed that each viewer can interpret them in any way.
One of the periodic his creativeness was named fantastic realism period when he painted disturbing images of a surrealistic, nightmarish environment.
Some argue that the nightmarish images are the artists dreams.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An important but unpleasant moment in his life was the death of his family.

Zdzisławs wife, Zofia, died in 1998; a year later, on Christmas Eve 1999, his son Tomasz.

He was a popular radio presenter. Committed suicide. Beksiński discovered his son's body

 

Zdzisław Beksińki was murdered in his apartment in Warsaw at night on 21st February 2005.

The killer stabs 17 blows with a knife.

 

In 2001, the artistic achievements Beksiński bequeathed to the Historical Museum in Sanok, who during his lifetime gave about 300 of his works. After his death, the Museum received about 20 of his last paintings, about 1000 images and graphics, as well as the entire property

 

One of my dreams is to visit this museum. Maybe someday Sanok will be on my way.

 

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  

 

http://www.beksinski.com.pl/Zdzis%C5%82aw_Beksi%C5%84ski.html

if it does not work you have to click the mouse on the center of the screen.

 

http://www.beksinski.ovh.org/

 

 

I hope I was able to encourage at least some of you to take a look to the link

 

 

 

 

 

Skołdzia sorry I did not write about you, but just being cool is not enough. xoxo

 

 

eat ate eaten

In Poland and around the world habits about eating have very changed by years.
People keep getting faster lifestyle in which there is no time for celebration meals as before.
In old times, a meal with the family was an indispensable element of the day,
nowadays people are too busy for long meals, and they eat in a hurry often worthless food.
Family Sunday dinners have replaced by the stylish restaurants, trendy food and friends.

Through the haste in which people live are increasingly choosing fastfood, by which they're obese.
Next they are buying passes to the gym or fitness, additionally get tired of a healthy diet, and later again begin to eat unhealthy.
Most of us can't refuse such a kind of food. A quick, cheap and easy you can fill you up to the full.

When it comes to me I like to eat very very much. Even though I look like a stick, sometimes I eat 5 chocolate bars at a time, or in mcdonalds 4 cheeseburgers... I do not know how I do it and sometimes I wonder if I have a tapeworm. As most I often reach the junk food but I definitely prefer to cook at home.
And I do it quite often. When I'm alone in the house there is no point in cooking for one person.
So I often cooked for my boyfriend, grandma or little brothers when my mom is tired.
Usually all praise what I cook but sometimes I make a mistakes like recently when I baked patatoes and it was baked for 5 hours and was still raw!

In view of I very like sweets greatest joy makes me baking cakes and pies.

My favourite is Brownie. Easy and quick to do. And very sweet what is the most importatnt here.

Ingredientes:

• 300 g dark bitter chocolate (70%)
• 225 g butter
• 3 eggs
• 275 g suggar
• 135 g flour
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt

Realization:

• Preheat oven to 160 degrees. The form with dimensions of 20 x 30 cm smear grease and lecture baking paper.
• Third the amount of chocolate (1 tablet 100g) scrub on a grater with coarse mesh and allowed to stand in the refrigerator.
• The rest of the chocolate break  and then is dissolved in a saucepan together with chopped into pieces of butter over low heat.
• Whip eggs with vanilla and sugar.
• I add the chocolate mass and time for a while I mix on low speed.
• I add the sieved flour, salt and gently and thoroughly mix into a homogeneous mass (you can use mixer on low speed).
• I translate into prepared pan.
• Sprinkle with grated chocolate from the refrigerator. 
• Bake for 20 minutes. Take out of the oven and allowed to stand until completely cool.

¡buen provecho!

About the beginng of The New Year.

First of all i would like to tell that I hate New Years eve as much as Christmas eve.
Perhaps this was the reason for which i didnt write previous blog task.
However, the new year is a new start for many people.
Its a chance to start in all over again. Obtain a new clean white sheet to jot down.

I also believe on it but not always it succeed in my case.
I had hope that this year will be better than the previous but already I failled at the beginnig and there is nothing to speak of.

I have created a lot of the resolutions and targets but certainly I'll conk because of my laziness.
> Why do people often give up their resolutions by March or April?
Who knows... so I dont even begin.

> How do people in your country celebrate New Year's Eve? 
For young people only counts great party with friends, fun and alcohol.
For people who already survived several New Year's Eve... may depends on them the association of the family or likewise as younger party all night.


All other questions lose their meaning by this that I hate New Year's Eve
Although it could not stand alone in the house so I invite some friends.
That was the one of the dangerous decisions and I wont do something similar never again in my life.

Unfortunately I cant say nothing else about this topic.
I hope that the next subject will not be about Valentines Day ;)