Londoneri: a Croatian recipe

I believe this is going to be the only English result for "Londoneri".

Londoneri is not a properly cake, just a Croatian sweet to be served in small rectangular portions as big as half a credit card (cut on its lenght). It is a very rich recipe and you wouldn't eat it so much at once, but it will taste fine for three days. It is perfect for a tea with friends and to offer as a cold dessert over a buffet dinner.


This was a recipe my granny used to do and I clearly remember its taste back in the time, when I was a kid. Luckly she wrote it down on her recipe book. She just forgot to state the baking details, so this first attempt didn't go as I hoped but it was a lovely sweet and it tasted just like I remembered.

Here you are the recipe of Londoneri.

For the base:
400 g. of flour
280 g. of butter
140 g. of white sugar
5 yolks

Stir the ingredients for the base in a bowl and lay it out in a rectangular mould (I used a 24 x 28 cm silicone mould). Do not make edges, lay it evenly.
Spread a veil of marmalade over the base - avoid flavours that are too sweet, peach or apricot is ok - and bake for 5-6 minutes at 180°C. The base should be half cooked and the marmalade smooth.

For the top:
5 eggs whites
280 g. of finely minced almonds (not peeled)
420 g. of sugar

After you put the base in the oven to semi-bake, start to prepare the top.
Beat the eggs whites until stiff
Mix the stiff whites, the minced almonds and the sugar with a spoon.

Take out the base from the oven, lower the oven temperature to 100°C.
Put the top on the base and bake again for 40-45 minutes.
You're done baking once there is a thin crust over the top. The inside of the top should not be dry (and believe me, with so much sugar it would be hard to get dry).

Serve cold in small rectangular piece of 2,5 x 4 cm.


This is how it should appear after you're done baking. As you can see, I used a silicone mould. I could get around 30 londoneri from it.

Videocracy - Italy has been sinking since I was born

I haven't been blogging very much lately, also because during summer there is tons of fun stuff to do outdoor and I already spend most of my day at the office in front of the computer (like now).

I just want to post here the trailer of Videocracy, a documentary (which is different from a fictionary movie) about Italian video-informations over the past 20 years, describing Berlusconi's rise to power.
It has English subs. There are no actors, all the characters are real. The man speaking in the car is Fabrizio Corona, a photographer who took pictures of celebs and then blackmailed them.
See how he describes himself...

Jeez, where are the Allies? Someone please rescue us!

Throttle Valve Control For Fission Heated Simple Closed Cycle Gas Turbines

The best way to lower construction and operating costs is copy the successes and avoid the failures of other projects. That is easy to say, hard to accomplish. As I dug into more details about combining atomic heat with Brayton cycle gas turbines, I opened my research aperture as wide as possible so that I could find out what made both simple cycle combustion gas turbines and light water reactors

Missing granny

My paternal family came from Fiume (now Rijeka, HR), a town where several cultures and populations crossed and lived together. Nothing can replicate my grandma's kitchen, its taste, its consistency and flavour. I still remember some of her dishes, but a lot I forgot, too.
Now I am surfing to look for Croatian recipes because the only Croatian recipe book ever written in Italian is odd - I have it. It doesn't even mention quantities, temperatures and times.

I have to try to do Pasticada which is basically a roasted meat sauce with big pieces of roeasted meat, used as a sort of mixed dish together with gnocchi. My grandma served it like this, although I found several different pictures and way to serve it.

Seeking Simplicity, Finding Complexity

More than a month ago, I concluded the second installment of the Adams Engine™ story with a comment about needing to go earn a living. I had no intention of letting the story go dormant when I wrote that. Sometimes life gets in the way of a good project. I got pretty busy during the period leading up to the 4th of July and kept meaning to get around to telling you more about the Adams Engine™

Italian politics stink

It's not a case that I never met a foreigner that loves Berlusconi. Therefore I am starting to believe that there should be some sort of blindness among the Italians, and they are unable to see what is going on and re-elect the Little Dwarf (as the opposition calls him).

Recently there has been a sex scandal involving "our" President. Some goodlooking ladies from the South declared they were paid to attend Berlusconi's dinner in an institutional building. They said they flew from Puglia to Rome to sit at the table with Mr. B., that there were about 30 ladies all dressed in black, and that Mr. B. entertained himself with them.
They saw the main moments of Mr. B.'s political career, like him meeting important people, all accompanied with the hymn of Mr. B's parties "Meno male che Silvio c'è" (Luckily Silvio is here). The ladies all moved their arms with the music, and Mr. B. gave them precious little gifts such as bracelets, pendants, necklaces,...

As you know, Mr. B. is sort of Murdoch in Italy: he owns most of the TV channel, of the magazines and newspapers. As he is in charge as the political leader of Italy, he now holds control even of the public televisions (other 3 channels).
All of his TV channels never reported about the sex scandal, and of all the 3 main public channel, only RaiTre talked about it during the News.

The Vatican is coming strictly at him, so Berlusconi said (to one of his magazines, of course) that these girls are paid from his opponents and that he has never ever paid a woman, because "it would be no fun".

I happened on a page on facebook against the very-righty newspaper "Libero", of Berlusconi's camerade.

In red "Sex in the ballot boxes"
in big "We are all Berlusconis"
in Italics "Not to lose these last elections, the Left Party focus on the bed affairs. But Italy is tolerant. Anyway, only a few can cast the first stone."

...

In the meantime one of the girls involved in the scandal was burglared of all her clothes (anybody remembers Monica Lewinsky?) and another one's car took fire last night.

We're one but we're not the same - Nokia N97 comparison price

After just a few weeks from the Nokia N97 release I compared the various prices of this piece of technology&design.
Prices are taken from Nokia Online Stores.

Nokia Online Store US €503 ($699)

Nokia online store UK	€ 590
Nokia online store DE	€ 649
Nokia online store FR	€ 699
Nokia online store IT	€ 599

note: the Freanch version includes a bluetooth earphone.