My VegeChristmas

Grandmother's Nativity.
She is very religious

    And so the Christmas lunch is over.

    As announced, it was completely based on vegan cooking. To tell you the truth, my kindred used cheese on pasta and eggs and milk for the dessert, but they were very attentive on all the other dishes. Still, between vegan and vegetarian recipes, it was a very cruelty-free oriented event. Even, at some point, one of my aunts, while eating a soy-based dish, exclaimed: "This stew is very tasty! This meat is so tender!". Se was really convinced that it was a real meat stew!

Cousin and aunt
at work in the kitchen

    The menu was quite varied, and included salt pies as appetizers, along with a common millet salad, a very tasty risotto with mushrooms, a special soybean stew with peperoni, some chicory, and fruits in quantity.

    It's been an ejoyable lunch for everyone, even for the ones most skeptical about the absence of meat. My cousin actually has not resisted to taste a meat roulade prepared by my grandmother for tomorrow, but it was a single, isolated, case.

    I am proud of my family. At least for today ;).

Photo of the table

Salt pies

Soyabean stew

Back to Diablo 3!

My baba's equipment

    After few months I'm back to play some Diablo 3 on PC.

    I was tempted to wait for the PS4 version, but my Baba on the PC account is way too equipped to be left aside to start from scratch. The possibility to play locally with up to 4 friends is very alluring, though, so perhaps I'll buy the Ultimate Evil edition anyway. We will see.

    I admit I have spent some € to buy a bounch of millions of gold from the real money Action House, as the costs have dropped quite alot (around 1,5€ for 50 millions gold!). Sure is that the game seems much easier than I remember. Now I can play quite relaxed up to Monster Power 8, while previously my ideal farming (regarding speed and survivability) was around MP6. Epic loot drops alot, even if crap, for the most part. As always :P. I use a classic Whirlwind build, even if I'm stuck on my 2 handed Skorn, while I discovered the optimizied build is now based on dual wielding. I still kick butts hard though ;) .

    The game is still very fun to play. The multiplayer too has been much improved and is now a valuable experience. By the way, Diablo has been one of my very first favorite games: they say first love is never forgotten, and Diablo 3 is a valid heir to D1 and D2, in my opinion.

    Anyway, my battleTag is Zanfire#2225 : I usually like to play solo, but, perhaps, we can eventually have a run or two together, here and there. So, see you on B.Net !

My baba's build and numbers

May the Christmas be with you!

    So, Christmas has arrived. This month has been tough, in my shop. Despite the business does not shine because of the general crisis that harass Italy, keep open every day is stressful and demanding. I 'm looking forward to spending a few days in total relaxation!

    With the start of the new year, my new apartment will be ready, and I will then proceed to move in. I hope such operation will be quick and painless. I will also need a trip to Ikea to buy some furniture to fill the new rooms, as the new house is much bigger than previous one :D!

    The PS4 is proving to be a great console: quick and agile, although you can clearly see that it is still raw in the operating system, and plagued by some major technical problems. For example, I have not received two trophies for what I have met the requirements: I'll be forced to replay a large piece of the related game in order to conquer my 34th Platinum :/ .

    Assassin 's Creed 4 is really an impressive title, both from the technical point of view and for the fun it provides. The pirate's life is a dream, and the game manages to well convey the feeling of piloting a ship and boarding others! Now I really want to see inFamous: Second Son!

    I managed to convince my family to have a vegetarian Christmas (if not vegan), and tomorrow will be a pleasure to eat at a table not laden with pieces of the corpses of creatures born and lived in suffering! Truly a wonderful gift!

    Well , I hope to publish soon something more interesting than this post: I have in mind an article for additional tips on how to defeat the Legendary Ships of AC4 ( the official guide does not help enough, imho) and a new hook story for Star Wars - Edge of the Empire: Star Wars and the Raiders of the Lost Ark!

    Well, May the Christmas Be With You and Han Claus brings you a Millenium Falcon full of beautiful gifts : D!

    Oh, by the way, Chuck wanna wish you the best of things, too ;) (see the video!).

PS4 remote play through PSVita

Assassin's Creed 4 on PSVita through remote play

    I finally tried the PS4 remote play, and I was really impressed.

    Configuring everything is a very simple procedure, and allows the total control of the PS4 through the PSVita. You'll be able to use the dashboard of the last Sony console with ease and efficiency.

    But the real strength of this feature shines on gaming: I have only tried Assassin's Creed 4 and Contrast, for now, but the result was really excellent. The performances are great, although my eyes seems to perceive a slight drop in framerate. Sometimes it can be difficult to follow the game on the small screen of the PSVita, but it is a very little problem compared to the final results. Even the way in which PS4 joypad commands are simulated is extremely functional: the rear touch panel of PSVita, divided into 4 quadrants, is used to allow you operate the keys missing on the portable console. Personally I am not yet very accustomed to this system, but I think it's just a matter of habit (Yeah, I'm a bit refractory to all this late touch-thing :P).

TV above, PSVita below

    The remote control worked perfectly with the PS4 about 2 meters from the router and the PSVita to about 5, without concrete walls but with wooden doors between.

    Overall, it is therefore a very powerful innovation, in my opinion, that allows you to enjoy your PS4 keeping the TV free for others or lying around in another room (in bedroom, out in the balcony, in the bathroom... Uhmmm, the possibilities are endless!).

Vegan Recipe: Penne with Brussels sprouts

    One other simple but delicious recipe, especially if you like pasta and Brussels sprouts!

    It is quite fast to prepare, as it requires almost only the time of a common pasta (so, around 20 minutes).

Penne with Brussels sprouts

Ingredients

    about 1 pound of pasta per person
    3-4 Brussels sprouts per person
    2 tablespoons of olive oil
    2 pieces of garlic
    A cup of tomato sauce
    chilli
    oregano
    salt

Preparation

    1) Fill a pot with plenty of water, in which you will cook the pasta (regulate the amount based on how much pasta you use). Put the brussel sprouts into the water, after cleaning them a bit. Bring the water to a boil, keeping the pot covered.


    2) In the meantime, prepare a smaller pot to cook the Brussel sprouts with tomato sauce. Put a couple of tablespoons of oil in the bottom of this pot, together with the finely chopped garlic.

    3) When the water for the pasta begins to boil, remove sprouts, let them cool a bit and cut or break them in order to get leaves and small pieces. Fry the garlic until it darkens, then add the brussel sprouts, letting them absorb the oil, and add a bit of salt and chilli. When the oil is well dried, add the tomato and let it cook on low heat, keeping the pot covered and stirring occasionally.

    4) Add salt to the boiling water and throw pasta in. Wait until it is ready, constantly checking the brussels sprouts sauce. If it becomes too dry, add a tablespoon of water.

    5) When the pasta is ready, drip it and add the brussel sprouts all together into the pot, along with a bit of fresh oregano.

    6) Serve and eat !

PS4! It's here!

    It's here! Fresh from Amazon, SDA just delivered my new, Day1 PS4! Can't wait to unbox, connect it and see how PSVita works with this new jewel!

    Assassin's Creed 4 is already prepared near the TV, ready to be played.

    I want inFamous: Second Son as soon as possible, too, and I hope they'll make some super-cool RPG/JRPG for this new, powerful consolle!

    The box is marked with a small blotch of blood, silent witness to the hard work that has enabled me to enjoy my new, blazing PlayStation 4: D

Christmas Showcases

Whole showcase

    Like every Christmas, this year too we put alot care in the preparation of the outer showcases of our store.

    We decided to focus on red, white and green colors, pretty typical for this holiday season (and the colors of the Italian flag too: dunnow if this is a good thing, to be honest :P).

    It was a lot of work to prepare them, since, after attending a course of windows dressing, I have become quite a perfectionist in this field (a bit too much for someone).

    Still, I'm really pleased with the final result, even if I'm still forced to work with some animal products (mostly leather straps for watches). Things will changes in the future, anyway.

    Here follows a detailed gallery of watches window:

Home made Half-Bread

    Today, my girlfriend has prepared a home-made bread.

     To tell the truth, she started yesterday, using a process longer and more complicated than usual, finishing cooking it today.

     It is a bread made with a mix of normal and wholemeal flours. The final product was excellent, despite the interior resulted a little too dense than she expected!

    As for me, I was not impressed by the first sample, but I must admit that, by eating more, it is not bad at all!

Tara the fugitive!!

Little Tara!

    Yesterday (Monday 25 november 2013), during the usual walk with Ennoia, me and my girlfriend came across a breton dog who, clearly confused and afraid, wandered on the streets of my small town.

    Many people have tried to close up to the animal, giving up quickly as their approach was not working. Someone managed to give him a caress, someone else made ​his dog play with the stray one. But no one has bothered to try to understand what he was doing around, alone and restless, without a human with him.

    So, following him for a while, we were able to approach and calm him a bit, and I stayed with her (we realized that she was a female) while my partner went to retrieve a leash to be able to lead the animal to the local police, as there was no identifying mark on her collar.

    The dog proved to be clean, well maintained and very quiet, and she followed us, without any problem, to the police office. Here the cops, after keeping us waiting 45 minutes outside in the cold, heroically managed to recover the device to read the microchip and to contact the owner (ironic mode on...).

    The surprise was great when we found out that the pet's family is my relative!! The world is small, isn't it, especially in towns like the one I reside in!

    In any case, great was the joy in seeing the dog, named Tara, wagging his tail with happiness, excited at the sight of her owner came to pick her up.

    A small misadventure ended well for everyone!

Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag - Black Chest Edition, part. 1

    AC4 Black Chest Edition just arrived! Guys, it's much bigger than I thought! Ennoia too is quite iterested in it, as you can see from the photo ^_^ !

    I peeked inside the chest, but I'm going to open it up later, calmly. Finding a place to expose the whole box will be a problem, as my AC-dedicated cabinet is already full of stuff!!

    Cool. Now I just need Amazon to send me my PS4 to play this game -.-'