Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad is an American crime drama television series created and produced by Vince Gilligan.  The title is from a Southern colloquialism meaning to "raise hell". Breaking Bad is set and was filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The show originally aired on the AMC network for five seasons, from January 20, 2008, to September 29, 2013.  It tells the story of Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a struggling high school chemistry teacher diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. Together with his former student Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), White turns to a life of crime, producing and selling crystallized methamphetamine to secure his family's financial future before he dies, while navigating the dangers of the criminal world.

Walter's family consists of his wife Skyler (Anna Gunn) and children, Walter, Jr. (RJ Mitte) and Holly (Elanor Anne Wenrich). The show also features Skyler's sister Marie Schrader (Betsy Brandt), and her husband Hank (Dean Norris), a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent. Walter hires lawyer Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), who connects him with private investigator and fixer Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) and in turn Mike's employer, drug kingpin Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito). The final season introduces the characters Todd Alquist (Jesse Plemons) and Lydia Rodarte-Quayle (Laura Fraser).

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The Queen's Gambit

The Queen's Gambit is an American drama streaming television miniseries starring Anya Taylor-Joy based on Walter Tevis's 1983 novel of the same name. It was created by Scott Frank and Allan Scott and released on Netflix on October 23, 2020.

The Queen's Gambit is a fictional story that follows the life of an orphan chess prodigy, Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy), during her quest to become the world's greatest chess player while struggling with emotional issues and drug and alcohol dependency. The story begins in the mid-1950s and proceeds into the 1960s.

The series starts in a girls' orphanage where a nine-year old Beth, having lost her mother in a car accident, meets Jolene (Moses Ingram), a vibrant and friendly girl a few years older than her; Helen Deardorff (Christiane Seidel), the woman running the orphanage; and Mr. Shaibel (Bill Camp), the custodian of the orphanage, who teaches Beth her first chess lessons. As was common during the 1950s, the orphanage dispenses daily tranquilizer pills to the girls, which turns into an addiction for Beth. A few years later, Beth is adopted by Alma Wheatley (Marielle Heller) and her husband from Lexington, Kentucky. After being adopted and adjusting to her new home, Beth enrolls herself in chess tournaments even though she has no prior experience. She wins many games and finally gets noticed by others and develops friendships with several people, including former Kentucky state champion Harry Beltik (Harry Melling), chess savant Benny Watts (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), and Townes (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd). As Beth continues to win games and reaps the financial benefits of her success, she becomes more dependent on drugs and alcohol, and starts to lose control of her life.

SPOILER ALERTS!

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Green Card (1990)

Green Card is a 1990 American/Australian/French romantic comedy film written, produced, and directed by Peter Weir. The screenplay focuses on an American woman who enters into a marriage of convenience with a Frenchman so he can obtain a green card and remain in the United States.

Plot

Brontë Mitchell is a horticulturalist and an environmentalist devoted to the creation of urban gardens and parks on vacant lots. She is anxious to rent an apartment with a greenhouse, but the board of trustees would prefer a married couple as tenants. Her friend Antoine suggests she marry French immigrant Georges Fauré, who needs a green card in order to remain in the country. The two meet at a cafe in downtown Manhattan and after a brief conversation are wed in a quick ceremony at the nearby courthouse.

As a married woman, Brontë qualifies for the apartment of her dreams and, after moving in, she tells the doorman and neighbors her spouse is doing musical research in Africa. When she is contacted by the Immigration and Naturalization Service to arrange an interview to determine her marriage is legitimate, she tracks down Georges, who is working as a waiter. Although the two have little time to get their facts straight, the agents who question them appear to be satisfied with their answers. Georges and Brontë It's only when one of them asks to use the bathroom and Georges directs him to a closet that their suspicions are aroused, and they schedule a full and formal interview to be conducted two weeks later at their office.

Brontë consults an attorney, who advises her she could be charged with a crime if the authorities learn the truth about her marriage. She invites Georges to move in with her to enable them to learn about each other's past and their quirks and habits, and they quickly learn they can barely tolerate each other. Georges is a gregarious slob and heavy smoker who prefers red meat to healthy food, while Brontë is a strait-laced clean freak obsessed with her plants. When her parents arrive at the apartment for an unannounced visit, Georges pretends to be the handyman.

 

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Spezzatino Reale!

With the help of my aunt, here we are, finally, with our home made spezzatino, the stew. Why reale?  Because this perparation is very tasty and.... simply royal!

Also here there are different variations and different tricks, habits, tastes that brings to different results in the preparation of this recipe.   And also here I'll show you my mother's version, made possible with the help of my aunt, my mother's sister.

Both very good at cooking, they used to prepare certain recipes in a way that really lookded identical...

The stew is one of them, but there are other recipes that I will prepare and show on here.

What is very good about this dish is that once the spezzatino is ready, you can let it cool off and put it in the freezer. When you'll want to taste the spezzatino again, it will be enough to take it out of the freezer, defrost it and cook it for another little bit... Not only the flavour will remain the same, but the further cooking will make it even tastier.  Do NOT freeze the potatoes though, only the meat.

This happened to me quite often when I used to live on my own : my mum would prepare dishes like this and stuff my freezer with them. That would give me weeks of autonomy from fast foods and chinese take away restaurants.

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