Mis fotos

       Today I would like to talk to you about a very popular saying, that perhaps you have listened anytime but you do not know its meaning. This is the saying: “Andar con pies de plomo” = Walking with feet of lead (literal translation). But, in English, I think it is so: "to be careful around something".

      Like the classic divers, whose shoes were covered with thick pieces of lead, so that their steps would suitably settle in the underwater bed, in the same way, metaphorically speaking, this refrain indicates that, when circumstances dictate so, proceed with due care and with the utmost caution. For example: Careful! In that case, precaution is very little and you have to be careful around something.

Two divers on underwater bed

      Well, I hope that you have liked this saying.

     Until my next post, kind regards,

Luis.

Sponsored by Costaluz Lawyers.

Please click below:

       Today, I would like to show you an interesting news: “Dialnet, the largest scientific portal in Spanish, reaches a million complete texts”.

      Dialnet, considered the web portal with the largest database of scientific content, in Spanish, in the world, reached, in 2017, the million full-text documents that can be consulted by its 1.7 million users, has detailed the University of La Rioja (UR)—in the north eastern Spain--. In a note, it added that one million documents, to complete texts of Dialnet, supposes 20%, one of every five, of all the documents, that can be consulted by its users.

The portal od Dialnet

      Dialnet, promoted in 2001, from the UR, is currently a cooperative project involving libraries, in Spain and the world, and supports open access to scientific literature, in any of its manifestations. This portal is managed, since 2009, by the “Foundation Dialnet” of the UR and offers publishers the possibility of hosting their publications, in this database, according to some protocols, which guarantees the retrieval and access to these documents, from various academic searchers of all the world.

      By document type, the greatest proportion of full texts are doctoral theses, with 51% available to full text, more than 29,000 theses;  followed by magazine articles, which already represent 24% of the total, about 994,000. Of the more than 9,900 journals currently referenced in Dialnet, more than 4,100, which is 42%, offer their articles in open access through Dialnet, either hosted on the servers of this portal of the UR or linked to their own Webs

      By subject, the documents, related to the Humanities, Social Sciences and Psychology and Education, are the ones that are offered more, to the full text.

      Dialnet has reached a million full-text documents, thanks to the effort of the collaborators, since, for example, they link documents to their original sources, review and correct broken links. This has made it possible, for 2016, to increase, by 25 %, the number of full-text documents, housed in Dialnet, compared to 2015.

      Well, I hope that you have liked this news.

      Until my next post, kind regards,

Luis.

Sponsored by Costaluz Lawyers.

Please click below:

      Today, I would like to show you a very special breakfast in southern Spain: “The miller breakfast”. If you want to watch a video about it, please click below:

http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/aqui-la-tierra/aqui-tierra-desayuno-molinero/3865740/

Rafael Cuenca (Guadajoz Consumption): “Let's see, Lucia, the first thing you do, when you wake up, in the morning, what is it?”

Lucía Mbomio (a reporter of “Aqui la tierra”): “Have breakfast. And what is the name of the typical breakfast here?”

Rafael: “Miller breakfast”

Lucía: “Fantastic…..What this breakfast includes?”

Rafael: “Well, look ... it includes the typical muffin….”

Lucía: “What else it includes….?”

Rafael: “Cod ..., who likes cod, or olives .... Lacks the oil, which is in the mill ...., go for it .....”

Lucia: “Very well…Ala…, at your service, boss .... my mother .....”

………….music………….

Lucía: “Rafa: now I intuit the reason of the name "Miller breakfast" .... tell me .....”

Rafael: “Yes, because, in the past, the millers had breakfast with its oil…..”

Lucía: “With this breakfast you could hold on all day .....”

Rafael: “At least until lunchtime, of course”

Lucia: “I understand the bread, the oil and the olive; but regarding the cod, not so much .....”

Rafael: “Cod, because there is a cod industry, here, a drier of cod, one of the most important in Andalusia”

Lucía: “Well thank you very much for everything and, nothing, it has been a pleasure to have breakfast with you”

Rafael: “What's up ... you are not going to get away with murder……..now you have to make the bread that you are eating”

Lucia: “Come on…let´s go to make it…., I take it, do not ruin itself….”

….music……

Lucia: “Let´s start, if it seems well to you….”

Rafael: “First, we are going to pour salt, sugar ...., yeast mother ...., water .... and flour ….”

Lucia: “And what about the yeast?”

Rafael: “Well, halfway through the kneaded .......”

….music….

Lucia:  “And how is it possible for such large bread to weigh so little?”

Rafael: “Well there it is ...., because it is a very tender mass, very much in water and it stays with that amount of eyes, that is the inside of the crumb ....”

Lucia: “What do we call eye?”

Rafael: “But, these holes, that are seen…”

………….music…………………..

Rafael: “When the dough is already done, it will be left in rest, about half an hour”

………….music…………………………

Lucia: “From what I notice, in the texture, it would have been fermented, Right?”

Rafael: “Yes, after half an hour, it has already doubled its volume ..... Now it is being chopped, each muffin ....”

Lucia: “Is this a muffin, alone?”

Rafael: “That would be a muffin”

Lucia: “Look how much it grows later .... And the form is a little crazy, , luckily for me,  Right?”

Rafael: “Yes, it is a very tender mass and it is very difficult to stay all uniform ....”

Lucia: “Hey, And why is so big the muffin from Castro del Rio?”

Rafael: “Because it is a winter muffin ...., to give calories .....”

Lucia: “And now what about with this ....?”

Rafael: “In an hour and a half, this would already be doubled its volume and then it would already be in the oven .....”

Lucia: “Well, then I have finished my work. Look, Rafa, how I am, that I have become fine........”

Rafael: “But we have still lacked a detail ....., come with me .....”

Luicia: “Oh, Yes.., which one?”

Rafael: “Come with me….”

…………….music………………………..

Rafael: “This has always been a land of vine and olive .....”

Lucia: “So we have to get a couple of drinks .....”

Rafael: “We have to get a couple of drinks .....”

…….music………………

Lucia: “Now, with the wine, yes that would be complete and forceful ....., What about our bread?”

Rafael: “But yes, Lucia, here is your part ....., after twenty minutes, baked”

Lucia: “Well it is not bad ..., Right? ....., come on, I say, to be the first .......”

      Well, I hope that you have liked this video.

      Until my next post, kind regards,

Luis.

Sponsored by Costaluz Lawyers.

Please click below:       

        Today I would like to show you a curious news: "Biscuits made with coffee grounds, a powerful source of dietary fiber antioxidant".

      Effectively, scientists from the Food Sciences Research Institute (CIAL), a mixed center belonging to the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) and the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), propose the use of coffee grounds, as a sustainable natural source of antioxidant dietary fiber, which helps prevent chronic non-transmissible diseases.

Coffee grounds

       A study, just published in Food Chemistry, confirms that consumption of this type of fiber has associated health benefits, such as prevention of gastrointestinal diseases, whose pathogenesis is associated with oxidative stress; in addition, they recommend a high consumption of dietary fiber, to achieve a better control of energy metabolism.

      For this reason, the CIAL is working on the development of a food formulation, based on the coffee grounds. Specifically, this research group, led by Dr. Mª Dolores del Castillo, proposes its use in the production of bakery products, pastries and confectionery, such as cookies, bread and breakfast cereals, among others.

      In the article, the scientific team describes the process followed for obtaining the cited ingredient. As raw material, they used coffee grounds, derived from the industrial production of instant coffee, and they studied the physicochemical properties, thermal stability, resistance to the gastrointestinal digestion process and food safety of the coffee fiber.

      The results, that they obtained, indicate that residues generated during the instant coffee brewing process are a sustainable natural source of insoluble dietary antioxidant fiber and also of other components of nutritional interest, such as essential amino acids or low glycemic carbohydrates. Therefore, this research group has used coffee grounds as a food ingredient, in cookies, for human consumption.

Cookies with coffee grounds

      "The cookie formulations studied, which also include other functional ingredients, such as low-calorie sweeteners and fructo-oligosaccharides, respond to the demands of nutritional and sensory quality of current consumers and present potential to reduce the risk of noncommunicable diseases, such as obesity and Diabetes", explains the doctor.

      By the moment, 'in vitro' studies indicate that these cookies have less caloric power and have the same satiating capacity, as cookies made following a traditional recipe, with added sugar. "The antioxidant fiber of coffee stimulates the secretion of satiating hormones", adds the researcher.

      At present, they are working to obtain new data, to complete the endorsement of this by-product of the coffee industry, as a food ingredient for human consumption.

      Well, I hope that you have liked this article. At least, I think that it is a very curious research.

      Until my next post, kind regards,

Luis.

Sponsored by Costaluz Lawyers.

Please click below:

        Today I would like to show you the recipe of a very good dish, which I have eaten in my home, many times, since I was a child. It is a "Veal round with peppers". Well, I have to clarify that in my home that meat was made in a pressure cooker and without peppers; but it was very good.

      These are the Ingredients, that you need to cook this dish: 800 grams of round or sirloin of beef in a piece. 1 onion. 2 green peppers. 1 small spoon of concentrated beef broth (I prefer Bovril, which is meat extract and I like its flavor). 1 glass of white wine. 1 tablespoon flour. Water. Olive oil. Salt.

      I advise you to put a hairnet around the meat, like in the next picture:

       The first thing to do is to put salt in the meat.

      After that: heat oil, in a frying pan, and brown the meat; when it is browned, put it in a baking dish.

      Peel and cut the onion, in strips or very chopped, if you prefer.

      Clean, wash and cut the peppers.

      Pour the onion and the peppers, in a frying pan, and stir everything with a wooden spoon until browned. 

        Add the flour and mix; incorporate meat juice  --or Bovril-- , the water and the  wine. Give a boil and pour everything over the meat.

      Heat oven to 200 degrees, during  5 minutes; put the meat and bake it during 30 minutes. And this one must be the result:

The meat with green and red peppers

      Remove the meat and cut it into slices.

      Place the slices in a platter; pour the sauce, with the peppers, above, and serve, accompanied with mashed potatoes. 

      To make the mashed potatoes, I would like to give you an advice: since I do not like the milk flavour, I make the mash with olive oil. What I do is: in a plastic bag with handles  --the bag does not need to be very large--,  I put 3 or 4 potatoes, but small  --the number of potatoes depends on the people to eat--.They have to be wet, --even I put some water in the bag, but very little bit water--; I close the bag, by the handles, and put the bag inside the microwave. I put it 5 minutes, at maximum power; then I will see how the bag inflates and deflates, continuously. I take the bag out and open it and I poke the potatoes, with a fork or a knife, to check if the potato is soft. If it is so, I peel the potatoes and I crush them, with a fork, I pour salt and olive oil, and I put the purée into the microwave and I heat it during 3 minutes.

      Well, I hope that you have liked this recipe and hope that you want to try to cook it.

      Until my next post, kind regards,

Luis.

Sponsored by Costaluz Lawyers.

Please click below:

       Today I would like to talk to you of an interesting news: "Bronchiolitis is the most frequent cause of hospitalization in children under one year".

      The fall in temperatures brings the proliferation of respiratory diseases such as bronchiolitis, which mainly affects babies and it is often a collapse, in pediatric consultations and emergencies. Not surprisingly, it is the most frequent cause of hospitalization, in children under one year.

      It is a viral infection of the lower respiratory tract, which "becomes inflamed and narrowed, so that it is difficult to pass air and an inflammatory obstruction occurs", as the specialist, Carmen Temboury, at the Vithas Nuestra Señora de América Hospital of Madrid, has explained.

Nuestra Señora de America Hospital

        Unlike bronchitis, which can occur at any age and affects the bronchi, to large airways, bronchiolitis affects the terminal bronchus and bronchioles, which are the final airways, with small size.

      Between 60% and 80% of the cases are due to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and, although it affects children under 2 years of age, it can also infect older children or even adults, resulting in catarrhal disease. However, infants less than three months old, it may be severe, especially if they have respiratory or cardiac disease or if they have been premature.

      The infection is transmitted by respiratory secretions, cough, sneezing and also, indirectly, by contamination of the surfaces. In fact, this makes the risk of contagion in nurseries very high.

      "Respiratory isolation and handwashing, as well as cleaning measures, are important", says Dr. Temboury, who acknowledges that tobacco and pollution can also aggravate the course of the disease.

      The diagnosis is mainly clinical and initially it is followed by a catarrh of highways which, in 2 or 3 days, also affects the lower respiratory tract, producing cough, fever, secretions, progressive respiratory distress, tachypnea and decreased oxygen saturation in the blood. In addition, it causes difficulty feeding and rejection of the doses, in the case of babies.

      In many cases, hospitalization is necessary, especially in children under three months. In these cases, the frequency and labor of breathing, the colour of the child and the difficulty of feeding are aspects that guide the pediatrician, about the need for admission, with the help of oxygen saturation and gasometry.

      The treatment is symptomatic and aims to maintain the hydration and nutrition of the child and improve oxygenation, and the infection does not produce complete or lasting immunity. "In the case of infants, reinfections and sequelae, such as recurrent bronchitis and asthma, are frequent", Temboury has emphasised.

      Well, I hope that you have liked this article.

      Until my next post, kind regards,

Luis.

Sponsored by Costaluz Lawyers.

Please click below: