Avocado and Roasted Tomatillo Salsa By Martha Rose Shulman

Photo Credit: Andrew Scrivani/NYT

Looks scrumptious. Oh, how I miss those tortilla chips. I would toast but not char the tomatillos, chili, garlic and onion. Charring might be a disappointing flavor. I know that seems to be the main idea of the recipe, but I simply hesitate. I am also not sure about toasting garlic without peeling first, seems odd, but we could give it a try. I also use a food processor vs. a blender. And add a spritz of lime to the mix for flavor and to prevent browning.

Ingredients

• 1 pound tomatillos, husked
• 1 to 2 serrano chiles (to taste), stems removed
• 1 medium garlic clove, unpeeled
• 1 slice white or red onion
• ½ cup chopped cilantro, with stems
• 1 medium avocado
• Salt to taste

Preparation

1. Heat a heavy cast-iron skillet or griddle over medium-high heat. Place tomatillos in pan and toast until charred on 1 side, about 10 minutes for a medium or large tomatillo. The color in the middle should be fading from pale green to olive. Turn tomatillos over and continue to grill until charred on the other side, about 10 minutes, but not for so long that they burst. Transfer to a bowl and allow to cool.
2. Place chile(s), garlic clove and onion slice in skillet and toast, turning often, until chile is lightly charred and garlic is charred in spots and softened. The onion should be lightly colored on both sides but not charred black (that will make it bitter). Remove from heat. Peel the garlic and transfer, with the onion and chiles, to a blender. Add tomatillos and any liquid that may have accumulated in the bowl.
3. Add remaining ingredients to blender and blend until smooth. Taste, adjust seasoning, and serve. International New York Times Cooking

Matisse, Kandinsky works get Dutch debut in Van Gogh Museum exhibit By Janene Pieters

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam just opened an exhibition with special pieces from the famous Merzbacher Collection, which has never been in the Netherlands before. It includes works from artists like Henri Matisse, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Wassily Kandinksy and focuses on how these artists were inspired by Vincent van Gogh. The collection, owned by Werner and Gabrielle Merzbacher, is known as one of the finest and best private art collections in the world. According to the museum, the Fauvists in France and the Expressionists in Germany were inspired by Van Gogh’s “Colorful, dynamic and emotionally charged paintings” in their search for ways to make their art more powerful and evocative. “The personal quality of his work strengthened their desire to express their deepest feelings. These pioneering artists were looking for freedom in form and color. In their search, they went a step beyond Van Gogh.” A total of 14 works are featured in the exhibition, titled Van Gogh Inspires Matisse, Kirchner, Kandinsky. It opened on Wednesday and can be enjoyed in the museum until November 27th. NL Times

Quake: at least 120 killed, hundreds injured and towns razed

Sant'Agostino, Amatrice
Rieti, Lazio, Italy
Photo Credit: shutterstock.com

(ANSA) - Rome, August 24 - The provisional death toll from an earthquake that hit central Italy early Wednesday has risen to 120, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi told a press conference in Rieti. The toll may rise, he said, adding "now is the time for tears, prayer and emotion" and vowing swift and successful reconstruction. "It will take a long time to handle this emergency", he added, saying cabinet would take the first "immediate" measures Thursday morning. The 6.0-magnitude quake flattened mountain towns between Lazio, Umbria and Marche. Some 64 people are known to have died in the village of Amatrice near Rieti alone. The earthquake, which struck at 03:36 local time and was followed by a second, 5.4 magnitude seism at 04:33 between Umbria and the Marche, was said by civil protection authorities to be "comparable in intensity" to the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake in which over 300 people died. A few hundred were reported injured and an unspecified number of people were still missing as of the early evening on Wednesday. About 200 aftershocks were felt, the strongest of which had a magnitude of 4.9 on the Richer scale. Renzi visited Amatrice where he met with the head of the civil protection agency and the infrastructure and transport minister, Grazinao Delrio. There were reports of "apocalyptic scenes" with many collapsed buildings in the towns and villages affected. Rescuers had difficulty accessing the area due to landslides and damaged infrastructure. Many people were saved by rescue workers who used even their hands to dig out survivors, including an 11-year-old boy whose calls for help from under the ruins of his home and a 43-year-old whose legs were stuck under rubble for hours. United States Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday called Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni to voice condolences to the Italian government and confirmed the US's readiness to respond to any requests for help, echoing a similar offer made to President Sergio Mattarella by President Barack Obama. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed his condolences and the pope said he was "greatly affected" after hearing the mountain village of Amatrice was razed to the ground. L'Aquila Mayor Massimo Cialente said 250 temporary homes built after the 2009 earthquake were available for the newly displaced. The Rieti provincial chapter of Italian blood donation charity AVIS has put out a call for people to donate blood for the injured. Mayor Stefano Petrucci said 2,500 people had been displaced from their homes. The national emergency fund has 234 million euros that will be used for immediate aid to earthquake-stricken towns and villages in central Italy, the economy ministry said. life in italy Photo DONATE to Italian Red Cross

“I hope the Spanish government lets me stay until I die” By Cristina Vázquez and Heather Galloway

Photo Credit: wallpoper.com

Post-Brexit, British residents in Spain are uncertain whether to go home or apply for citizenship

It’s 10am and, although Llíber has the third-largest non-Spanish population in Spain, few of them are out and about yet. Almost all of them live in free-standing houses with gardens, scattered around this attractive town of around 1,000 inhabitants, nestling in wooded hills some 15 kilometers inland from Calpe, in Valencia’s Alicante province. Most are pensioners, and on the morning of June 24, the day after the British electorate narrowly voted to leave the European Union, their futures in Spain suddenly became uncertain. For a start, their savings and pensions had dropped in value overnight due to the devaluation of the pound, while their right to vote in local elections was no longer assured. Around 300,000 Brits live in Spain, according to official data, a third of them in Valencia. And most of them are now extremely apprehensive about what the future holds. “Most of them say they’ll leave here in a coffin,” says Dora, who works in the local chemist and helps those with limited Spanish with their prescriptions. Seven hundred of the town’s 1,100 inhabitants are foreign, with the British community making up the majority. At the heart of the Marina Alta district, Llíber is particularly attractive to foreigners, says farmer Toni Morán, who also mans the telephone at the local health center. “It’s not too cold and it’s not too hot,” he says. “It’s also just 20 minutes from the beaches in Calpe, Benidorm, Moraira and Xàbia, and the land isn’t as expensive as down on the coast.” Since the Brexit vote, however, there are more and more signs going up to advertise properties for sale along the coast of Alicante. Of course, some were there before Brexit, and some of those selling are British pensioners aged between 75 and 80 who want to get back to Britain and their families because their partner has died and they don’t want to be alone in their old age. But Suzanne McAllister, who for the last five years has been a member of the town council on behalf of the Popular Party and whose duties mainly involve sorting out paperwork for her fellow British retirees, is not keen to go home. “If necessary, I’ll apply for Spanish nationality,” she says, adding that most who would like to stay are leaning toward the double-nationality solution.

Brexit “lies”

A native of Leicester, McAllister is angry with those who supported Brexit. “In the campaign for the referendum, a lot of lies were told,” she says. “The immediate consequence has been the weakening of the pound and, in spite of everything, they keep telling us it’s temporary and that it will get stronger again in a few months. But we don’t have a crystal ball.” Brits living in Spain will lose their right to vote in local elections when Brexit becomes a reality. “In Valencia, Murcia and Alicante, there are a lot of town councils with British people serving on them,” says McAllister. “Something has to be done.” The process promises to be a long one. David Wicks, a 71-year-old English pensioner, says he is not about to make any drastic changes. He’s one of the few Brits to be drawing a Spanish pension and says he’s not overly concerned about his own situation. “Whatever happens,” he says, “Spain is home. I hope the Spanish government lets me stay until I die.” Wicks says that while Britain has become increasingly xenophobic in the last few years, many of the staff in the health service are foreign, to the extent that he believes it would collapse without them. Lorrie Harkness, 67, says she will apply for Spanish nationality if she needs to, adding she would like the United Kingdom to leave the EU as soon as possible rather than waiting until the end of the two-year withdrawal period, which she says is simply extending the uncertainty. “We can’t just wait and wait,” says Harkness. who is dubious about the UK’s ability to maintain a reciprocal agreement over health and the pensions agreement as it stands. According to Harkness, the UK could have tightened immigration controls years ago and didn’t. Now she thinks it’s too late. “People go to Britain because they get financial support they don’t get elsewhere,” she says. “Everyone wants to live there. Of course they do.” EL PAÍS Photo

Lasagna With Steamed Spinach and Roasted Zucchini By Martha Rose Shulman

Photo Credit: Andrew Scrivani/NYT

You may think of lasagna as a rich, heavy dish, but it needn’t be. There’s no need to compensate for the absence of a traditional Bolognese sauce by packing these casseroles with pounds of ricotta and grated cheese. Some of each of those elements is welcome, but I cut the usual amounts by half in this recipe, and it was plenty satisfying. You can get ahead on lasagna by making up big batches of marinara sauce and freezing it, or in a pinch use a good commercial brand. The noodles are no-boil, which really makes these lasagnas easy to assemble. They can be made ahead and reheated, or frozen. Featured in: Layers Of Flavor: Lasagna With Roasted Vegetables. Martha Rose Shulman is the author of “The Very Best of Recipes for Health.” 

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 medium zucchini, cut in half crosswise, then cut lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick slices
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 pound bunch spinach, washed and stemmed, or 1/2 pound bagged baby spinach
• 3 cups marinara sauce, preferably homemade from fresh or canned tomatoes
• 8 ounces ricotta cheese
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons water
• Pinch of cinnamon
• 7 to 8 ounces no-boil lasagna
• 4 ounces (1 cup) freshly grated Parmesan

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Toss the zucchini with the olive oil and season to taste with salt and pepper. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and top with the slices of zucchini. Place in the oven and roast 8 minutes. Remove from the oven, close the oven door and, using tongs, flip the zucchini slices over. Return to the oven for 5 minutes, or until the zucchini is tender when pierced with a knife and browned in spots. Remove from the oven and reduce the heat to 350 degrees.
2. Steam the spinach for 2 to 3 minutes above an inch of boiling water, just until it wilts. Rinse briefly with cold water, squeeze out excess water and chop coarsely.
3. Blend the ricotta cheese with the egg, water, cinnamon, salt and pepper. Set aside.
4. Lightly oil a rectangular baking pan. Spread a small spoonful of tomato sauce to cover the bottom of the pan. Top with a layer of lasagna noodles. Top the noodles with a thin layer of ricotta, then a layer of zucchini and spinach, a layer of tomato sauce and a layer of Parmesan. Repeat the layers, ending with a layer of lasagna noodles topped with tomato sauce and Parmesan.
5. Cover the baking dish tightly with foil and place in the oven. Bake 40 minutes, until the noodles are tender and the mixture is bubbling. Uncover and, if you wish, bake another 10 minutes, until the top begins to brown. Remove from the heat and allow to sit for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
   
   Nutritional information per serving: 422 calories; 20 grams fat; 8 grams saturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 7 grams monounsaturated fat; 63 milligrams cholesterol; 42 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams dietary fiber; 419 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 22 grams protein. International New York Times Cooking

The Kremlin Opens to the World as Putin Orders Greater Access By Howard Amos

Photo Credit: townsofusa.com

Tourists are to glimpse many areas of Russia's hidden political heart for the first time. For much of the Soviet period, Moscow’s Kremlin was heavily guarded and shrouded in mystery. Few people apart from high-ranking officials or foreign dignitaries ever got the chance to pass through the gates built into the towers along its redbrick walls. The rare visitors that made it inside were struck by its “terrifying emptiness.” Some restrictions were lifted with the fall of the Soviet Union. But a set of eight new decrees signed by President Vladimir Putin earlier this month means previously off-limit areas of the seat of Russian political power are likely be opened to the public in 2017. “The Kremlin has been sacred, closed, secret and locked for most of the last 150 years,” says Catherine Merridale, a British author who has written a history of the buildings and their inhabitants. “Opening up the Kremlin has a huge psychological impact.” The decision by Putin is expected to be popular among ordinary Russians and is likely to fuel an increase in the number of tourists visiting the already busy site, which is the official residence of the Russian president. According to decrees published Aug. 1 there will be an extra tourist route through the Kremlin including access to a new archaeological museum where visitors can see the remains of the Chudov Monastery and Ascension Convent, which were destroyed by the Communists in 1929. Public access points are also slated to be installed in the Spasskaya Tower on Red Square, which houses the famous Kremlin clock, and the Borovitskaya Tower on the complex’s opposite side. An ambitious 2014 plan to rebuild the Chudov Monastery and Ascension Convent — two of Orthodoxy’s most important sites — has apparently been abandoned. UNESCO ranks the Kremlin as a world heritage site, and may have objected to new construction. The remains of the two holy buildings were uncovered earlier this year after the dismantlement of the Presidium building, which was built in the 1930s and formerly housed the Supreme Soviet. “There have been some very valuable archaeological finds ... people assumed that these things had been destroyed forever,” says Konstantin Mikhailov, the founder and head of Archnadzor, an activist organization that helps preserve and safeguard historical monuments. The exact timeframe for the implementation of the changes is unclear, but Putin ordered officials to prepare logistical plans by the end of this year. Apart from two centuries when St. Petersburg was the capital, the Kremlin has been the heart of religious and state power in Russia — and provided the living quarters for Russian leaders. Many of them have sought to leave their mark on the geography of the Kremlin and highlight the more politically expedient aspects of its history. The latest plans are likely to be personally associated with Putin and his 16 years at the top of Russian politics. “There is an interest in history among the leadership of the country and, in particular, the history of the Kremlin,” according to Mikhailov. Soviet leader Josef Stalin ejected most senior officials from the Kremlin after the 1934 assassination of high-ranking Communist party official Sergei Kirov, which ushered in a period of official paranoia and mass killings. Stalin’s successor, Nikita Khrushchev, opened the complex to the public in 1955 as he pushed back against heavy-handed repression. But restrictions on access were re-introduced under Leonid Brezhnev less than 20 years later. “People remember the Kremlin as terrifying and empty,” says Merridale of the later Soviet period. Before the 20th century public access was much freer, and the Kremlin was traditionally considered something of a thoroughfare; this was lost after the 1917 revolution. “People love the Kremlin in the sense that they love the sight of the golden towers. But at the same time you can’t love it because you can’t have it. Their sense of the Kremlin is more abstract,” Merridale says. [....] Putin’s Monday decrees also contained an order to look into the possibility of conducting extensive archaeological research in the eastern part of the Kremlin in 2017 and 2018. Mikhailov said that if the plans are realized they will be the most significant excavations in the Kremlin since the 1960s. The Moscow Times Photo

Charity duck race for hearing-impaired children to be staged Sept. 10 in Bucharest

Photo Credit: Rotaract Triumph

A charity race for children with hearing impairment or loss, called the "Rotaract Triumph Duck Race", will be staged in Bucharest City on September 10. Organisers say in a press statement released on Tuesday that 5,000 rubber ducks will compete on Dambovita River in a race that will change the lives of children with hearing impairment or loss. In Romania, there are nearly 400 children born each year with hypoacusis, with 15 percent of them suffering from severe hearing loss. Children diagnosed with hypoacusis will hear sounds from the environment very faintly or [not] at all. "Besides its medical effects, hypoacusis has serious consequences on the emotional wellbeing of children in their families — the children do not know the sound of their parents' voices — and in society — as these children become timid and withdrawn, unable to express themselves and display emotions in the most natural way possible, thus being captives in a world of silence. Many of them stand very great chances of recovery, but everything is conditional upon an essential requirement: wearing hearing aids. Even a child with severe hearing loss can learn how to speak if he or she has a hearing aid and is in an environment conducive to recovery," the statement reads. Rotaract Bucharest Triumph, the organiser of the charity race, is inviting people to get involved in the project by sponsorships or donations or by taking part in the race. Racers can register for the run online at www.cursaderatuste.ro, with a 10-lei donation allowing running one duck. There is no limit to the acquirable ducks. AGERPRES (RO — author: Madalina Cerban, editor: Andreea Rotaru; EN — author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Simona Klodnischi) Photo credit: Rotaract Triumph
AGERPRES