Would you eat lab-grown meat? The idea that once seemed impossible has become reality a while ago, which caused this question to be raised.
     I think it is a great solution for our current environmental problems (imagine: less cows, chickens and pigs = less methane [along with other pollutants] in the air = decrease in global warming + not killing animals, without needing to become a vegan!), but, on the other hand, I'm not sure which chemicals would be used in order to get this meat done, soooo... Let's say I'm a little concerned.
      But watch the video abobe, from the DIY channel, think about it, and tell me in the comments!

~Ally

     Christmas and New Year's Eve are always a good time to drink a little more than usual, as far as I'm concerned. So, in order to get better adquainted with alcoholic beverages of all sorts, today I'll talk about beer and ale.
    Beer can be defined as a fermented beverage made from grains and yeast, and is a popular drink all over the world. There are many different types of beer, although they are usually broken up into two basic categories: ale and lager. The term lager is often interchanged with “beer”, especially outside of Germany, which is why some consumers make a distinction between beer and ale, rather than lager and ale. The difference between beer and ale has to do with the way in which is it brewed, and how the yeast ferments.
     Before hops became widespread in Europe, ale was a beer created without the use of hops, while lager combined hops with the other ingredients. As hops began to pervade breweries, however, this distinction between beer and ale no longer applied. Brewers began to differentiate between beer and ale on the basis of where the yeast fermented in the cask: ale uses yeast that gathers on the top, and lager uses yeast that ferments on the bottom.
     Beer and ale both start out in the same way. Barley or another type of grain is malted, which means that it is sprouted in a moist environment and then dried. Brewers yeast is added and it ferments the beverage, usually very quickly, before the malt has a chance to spoil. Other ingredients such as hops are added to increase the depth of the flavor, and to temper the sweetness of the malt.
     Ale is fermented at a higher temperature, and matures more quickly as a result. The yeast rises to the top as the beer ferments, creating a yeasty froth on the top of the beer cask. Lager is fermented at a lower temperature, and the yeast settles to the bottom as the beer matures. Lagers were traditionally brewed in German caves, which got quite chilly during the winter especially.
     Beer and ale can usually be separated by taste as well as brewing process. Ale has a brighter, rich, more aggressive, hoppy flavor, and often has a higher alcohol content as well. Lager has a smooth and mild flavor with a clear, clean finish. Examples of ale include any sort of beer with “ale” in the name, porters, stouts, and many German specialty beers such as Abbey ales. Lagers include pilsners, dopplebocks, and Oktoberfests. Beer and ale also have different distribution patterns. Ale is found in the Belgium, the British Isles, and many former British colonies including the United States and Canada. Lager is widely served in Germany and other European nations, although some German specialty beers are actually ales. Many consumers have difficulty distinguishing between beer and ale on the basis of taste alone, as many modern breweries incorporate a variety of brewing techniques and flavors in their beers.

~Ally

     As long as you don't use the microwave to make it and put little salt in it, that is. Turns out that popcorn is rich in fibers and antioxidants, which may even prevent cancer! Do it old-school style: in a pan, with just a strand of vegetable oil and you're good to go!

~Ally

     It's actually easier than I thought! Here are the ingredients:
 - 1/3 cup of almonds
- 1 1/3 cup of hazelnuts
- 1 cup of  milk powder
- 1 1/4 cup of full cream milk
 - 3 tablespoons of honey
- 170g of semisweet chocolate
 - 140g of milkde chocolate ao leite
- A pinch of salt

~Ally

     If you ever find yourself in a Bear Grills kind of situation and need protein in order to survive, look for birds' eggs.
    There is no difference in the nutritional composition of those kinds of eggs - all that changes is size and color. That makes all eggs have basically the same flavour, even though the animal's diet may influence it (for example, if a bird eats a lot of fish, its eggs may taste a little bit like fish). The main reason not to eat any kind of birds' eggs is that most of them are not monitored by health authorities. Another good reason is that most species are not so productive as common chikens (which can lay 300 eggs a year, each).

~Ally

      So, off with the energy drinks and in with coffee and tea! Weeeeeee!!!

~Ally

      I'm not sure why I thought he wasn't a real person in the first place. Nevertheless, read on if you want to know more about him and his famous whisky!
     Back in 1819, John Walker was a recent orphan who arrived in the Scottish village of Kilmarnock with his father's inheritance in his pocket. He soon became a partner and later the owner of a thriving grocery store, which was famous by its teas, wines, imported foods... And whiskeys.
    In that time, however, the scotch was an oily and heavy drink, pretty hard to swalow. It was bought from local farms and stored in used wine barrels. John was one of the first men to notice that, depending on the type of barrel and storage time, the whisky became smoother and more pleasant. He also innovated by combining the drinks in a decent way - folks used to exaggerate so much back then that blending distillates was considered a crime! His creation, the Walker’s Kilmarnock Whisky blend, became famous throughout Great Britain.
     John's oldest son, Alexander, learned everything about the distillery and convinced his father to leave the old store behind and focus on making and selling whisky at wholesale. John died one year later from a heart attack, but Alexander carried on the family brand. His 40-distillates blend, created in 1867, was the precursor of the Johnnie Walker Black Label. He also innovated in the design field: so that more bottles could fit in a box, he made them square and, so that more information could fit in the label, he made them diagonal. These changes contributed to make the Johnnie Walker brand easy to be recognized anywhere. By 1920, the drink was sold in 120 countries, becoming the first global brand.

~Ally

     One of my favourite - and, I suspect, every Brazilian - dessert is brigadeiro. Up until today, however, I never knew how it was invented.
     It actually was first made in 1945 because of an election. The main candidates were general Eurico Gaspar Dutra (minister of war in Getulio Vargas' government) and brigadier Eduardo Gomes (a military who worked in the Brazilian aeronautics). Gomes used a very unusual slogan, "vote no brigadeiro, que é bonito e solteiro" [in a literal translation: vote for the brigadier, who is handsome and single], with which - curiously - he whon the heart of many girls. Those girls, in turn, prepared a special candy at home to raise funds for the brigadier's campaign, claiming it was "the brigadier's favourite dessert". After a while, the candy, made with sweetened condensed milk, butter and chocolate powder, came to be known as "brigadeiro".
     Oh, and Gomes didn't win the presidential election. Great consolation prize, though!

~Ally

     Every time I chop potatoes I remember that there is an association between it and the Irish. Today I found out that it is because of the Great Famine, a terrible period that Ireland went through from 1845 until 1850.
     The lack of genetic variation in the Irish potatoe (the Lumper potatoe) contributed to the catastrophe. Given that the country held big areas of monoculture of this tubercle and a huge amount of people depended on it to feed themselves, their families and the livestock, when a fungus stroke, causing the "potato blight" and the loss of three consecutive crops, millions perished from famine and diseases such as cholera and typhus.
     People fled from the country in ships for the United States, Great Britain and even Canada, but many perished in the way. Others were also never able to come back home again, because of the poverty they lived in in the new countries. Such sad time is remembered until today by the Irish folk, in monuments such as the Memorial in Dublin.

~Ally

      My all time favourite flower is Lavender (Lavandula sp). However, I had never tried its tea until today. It's delicious and brings many benefits, some of which are: combating headaches and migraines, intestinal gas, asthma, bronchitis, catarrh, rheumatic pain, influenza, rheumatism, nervous tension and cough, and many other things, as well as restoring the menstrual flow and acting as a sedative.

~Ally