Latest news with #dinner
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Trent Alexander-Arnold takes first step of Real Madrid high-wire act
On Tuesday morning the Miami Herald carried a story about a Local Man arrested in Florida's Polk County for breaking into a stranger's house to make himself dinner and have a bath rather than going home to face his wife after an argument. The Local Man, who has no criminal history, was apprehended just as he was settling in for a relaxing soak. He has since been charged with burglary. So on balance, and while an entirely tempting, innovative option, this is probably not the way to go. Advertisement Pressure makes diamonds, as online graft-influencers like to say. But it also makes the average human yearn for a little quiet space. That same Tuesday morning Trent Alexander-Arnold, who could probably also do with a break from the white noise, was taking his second Real Madrid training session in the 32C (90F) heat of the Gardens North County District Park, a hundred miles south-east of Polk, and in a team where the entire experience can at times resemble an unceasing spousal argument. Related: Messi drink launch affirms Spanish as new lingua franca at Club World Cup | Barney Ronay Madrid are the most relentlessly exposed football club on the planet, huge even in a place where it feels at times as if nobody actually knows the Club World Cup is going on just up the road. Towards the end of the opening ceremony on Saturday a Fifa-branded wailing wall of hope was wheeled out on to the pitch at the Hard Rock Stadium, trailed by a gaggle of children, who then solemnly implanted 32 lighted bricks bearing the badges of every competing club. The big screen lingered on one badge only, the Madrid emblem, drawing huge, shrill cheers from a crowd that had to that point seemed interested only in Lionel Messi doing his Elvis in Vegas act. Welcome to the world, Trent, as we may now call him, a place where every moment is public, every second in the branded nylon out there to be hungrily consumed. Advertisement The Hard Rock Stadium is also the venue for Madrid's opening game against Al-Hilal on Wednesday in the brain-mangling heat of a (frankly insane) 3pm kick-off. Before then it is to be hoped there is space to take a few breaths, because this will surely be the most scrutinised pre-season debut any footballer has faced, globally streamed, instantly consumed and analysed. In America the sun rises every day, as Ronald Reagan pointed out, accurately. But it tends also to bring quite a bit of light and heat with it. There is something else, too. For all the hype and hopeful talk, one thing is true: the evidence is that he will probably fail. This is not a criticism, more an assessment of the balance of facts. There are also competing positives. Madrid have a huge wealth of talent plus a very good new manager. The early sessions with the team have been encouragingly moreish. The chat among the Spanish journalists who follow Madrid is that Trent has tended to trail after Jude Bellingham 'like the new kid at school', and there was something tender about the first glimpse of Alexander-Arnold in the rondo, out there surrounded by all those faces, Luka, Kylian, Vini, trying to control a ball on plastic grass, like some recurring anxiety nightmare. But his own verdict was encouragingly plain: 'It's high quality, the ball moves very fast. It's a lot different to what I'm used to.' And the optics are good. He's a proper athlete, not just a mobile passing brain, impressive physically, with a grace and power that aren't always evident on TV. Trent in sleeveless Madrid training gear looks starry, handsome, easy in his movements. Advertisement Speaking Spanish early on is also very smart, the hala Madrid-la stuff, the serviceable accent. The 'rebranding' as Trent is a nice idea, a New Me, a post-breakup reinvention. Trent12 posing in front of Madrid's massed European Cups looked disarmingly relaxed. He has already lifted that pot you know. He has already done terrible things to Barcelona. The new kid has moves too. But there is also one great unanswered question. Is Alexander‑Arnold actually a transferable commodity? He is both a very good player and a very strange one. This is not like bolting on an orthodox centre‑half or a goal-sniffing No 9. Alexander‑Arnold was brilliant for Liverpool in a highly specialised role. And there is so far no evidence, aged 26, that this can be transplanted. All of his professional success has been for one club under one manager: Jürgen Klopp's Liverpool, that system, three hard-running midfielders inside him, empowered to lean only into his strengths. The Arne Slot season was decent, so-so, a fudge. Either side Alexander‑Arnold has never played for any other club, never managed to succeed with England. He has only been his best self in one shirt, under one manager, at the club he grew up with. It is easy, from this starting point, to see only the darker clouds. Klopp drew extraordinary returns out of Alexander-Arnold's creative, high-precision passing. But we remember also the tendency to switch off, the good, competent defending interspersed with moments of no defending at all. Some will suggest no Englishman has ever really succeeded at Madrid, aside from Steve McManaman, a different kind of player, and probably David Beckham, El Jefe de Miami. Advertisement There is another more structural problem. Madrid don't just have a new manager, they have an entirely new type of manager. In Xabi Alonso the club of vibes, energy, imperial freedoms, have appointed a hard systems coach. Basically, Kylian is going to have to do things now. How's that going to work out? This is also nuanced. Alonso is not an aura-dad in the Carlo Ancelotti mould. He's also not a pure number-wanging technocrat. He's a blend of these personas, a super-cool systems guy, aura and numbers. He's got nice tailoring. He's also got an iPad. For all that, two things are undeniably true. First, the Madrid squad is not instantly suited to replicating the Bayer Leverkusen style, which featured exceptionally disciplined pressing, learned patterns, brutal periods of running and resilient defence. And second, Alonso obviously knows this. He knows the club and the players. He knows the task here is not to go Full Amorim, to adapt and integrate. For all the pre-analysis nobody actually knows how Alonso is going to embrace this point of tension. Like Trent he faces the associated challenges of the step up to this stage, a manager who will basically spend his first few months trying to juggle a bowl of fruit while also putting out a minor kitchen fire and making soufflé for 500 paying guests. Advertisement But there are also good points for Alexander-Arnold in this. Much has been made of Alonso's Leverkusen formation. But at its best this was only ever really a starting point, an armature for a controlled fluidity, rotation, drilled overloads. And the fact is that wing-backs/full-backs were key to that success. Alonso drew his flank players into the central rotation. He had dribbling on one side, passing smarts on the other. Perhaps the best early model for Trent in Madrid is as a kind of right-sided Álex Grimaldo, freed up to use his creative passing, to spark the transitions, to move into the centre. It is clearly also a good thing that Mbappé will start on the left. Nobody has been able to make him run backwards. But perhaps Trent can make him go the other way, his excellent diagonal passing into the Mbappé channel an obvious point of interest. Madrid's new No 12 is very, very good at providing creative direction for speedy players in front of him. Make the midfield work, make those players fit and understand their roles, and there is an opportunity for some pretty decent chemistry here. The only real issue is time. As in: you don't get any. The same goes for margin for error, forgiveness, latitude, even when the urge to crawl off and hide in someone else's bathtub is at its most profound. This why even the opening act in Miami feels vital, the first step in a high‑wire act, and a first chance to prove the Trent identity, always a little butterfly-ish, can flourish in that unforgiving heat.
Telegraph
3 days ago
- General
- Telegraph
Parmesan-crusted chicken fillets
Very quick and very popular with children (and teens). Serve with a green or tomato salad (or both) and wedges of lemon. Overview Prep time 10 mins Cook time 12 mins Serves 2 Ingredients 2 medium-large chicken breast or thigh fillets (or you can use 4 small ones) 50g Parmesan, grated 70g white breadcrumbs 50g mayonnaise 2 tbsp olive oil, or as needed 10g butter, or as needed lemon wedges, to serve (optional) green salad or tomatoes and basil, to serve
Telegraph
4 days ago
- General
- Telegraph
One-pan steak with mushrooms, peas and greens
Steak can feel like quite the luxury, so I love it when it's on special offer and I can make a relaxed dinner that still feels special. While I'm not against the steak-and-chips combo, the colour of the peas here along with the other green veg helps to lift the crème fraîche and mustard – with the natural juices, they make a sauce with minimal effort. Overview Prep time 10 mins Cook time 35 mins Serves 2 Ingredients 400g steak (sirloin, ribeye, hanger or skirt all work well) 2 tbsp olive oil 500g chestnut mushrooms, sliced 1 onion, sliced 250g cavolo nero, spring greens or kale, shredded 250g frozen peas 1 tbsp Dijon mustard 200-300ml crème fraîche Handful of chopped parsley, to garnish (optional) Method Step Rub the 400g steak all over with ½ tbsp of the oil and then season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Set aside. Step Dry fry the 500g sliced mushrooms in a large frying pan until they've released their liquid and it has evaporated. Step Drizzle in 1 tbsp of the oil and continue to fry the mushrooms until browned a little. Step Remove the mushrooms from the pan, leaving behind as much of the oil as possible. Step Fry the steak in the pan, cooking it for 2-3 minutes on each side, depending on how well cooked you like it. Remove the steak from the pan and leave to rest. Step Add the remaining ½ tbsp oil to the pan, then stir in the sliced onion and fry for 6-8 minutes or until beginning to brown. Step Stir 250g greens into the pan along with the mushrooms and 75ml water. Fry for 3-4 minutes or until the greens have started to wilt. Step Slice the steak into strips and add to the pan, along with any liquid released.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
My friend won the lottery. She then made it a point to give back to the people who had been kind to her.
A close friend from college messages me on Facebook to hang out. She took me out for dinner and paid for everything, and gave me a gift card. She had won the lottery and wanted to give back to people who had been kind to her. It started with a Facebook message. "Hey," it said. "I'm going to be in your area soon, and I'd love to see you and your family. Pick your favorite restaurant. Price doesn't matter." It was from an old friend. We'd been close in college. Then life happened. We moved, changed, and grew up. The connection faded gradually, like a song fading out. Every now and then, I'd see her name in a comment or a like on a photo. A flicker of recognition, then silence again. When her message arrived, it felt like opening a letter from another lifetime. I read it twice, and then I chose a restaurant. I gave her the address of a local restaurant — the kind of place we reserve for birthdays or anniversaries. Cloth napkins, candlelight, and a wine list as thick as a novel. My friend arrived with her wife and child. She hugged me like we'd just seen each other last week, and then she started ordering. Appetizers, entrees, desserts. A round of martinis. Then more appetizers, more laughter. She waved off the prices like they were a nuisance, a background hum. The table filled, and so did the space between us. We passed plates, clinked glasses, and talked like old friends who had finally pressed play on a paused story. When the check came, she didn't flinch. She simply handed over her credit card. Then she passed me a generous gift card for the same restaurant. I held it in my hand for a second; the gesture was so unexpected and so generous that I didn't quite know what to do with it. I looked at her. "OK, what's going on? Why are you doing all this?" For half a second, doubt tried to creep in. That little inner voice that questions kindness too freely — What's the catch? I wondered if this was leading up to a multi-level marketing pitch. She just smiled. "I won the lottery," she said. She didn't mean metaphorically. She meant the literal lottery. It wasn't private island money, she said, but it was enough that her family would never have to worry. Enough to redraw the shape of their future. But instead of disappearing into luxury, my friend had done something quieter and, to me, more extraordinary: she made a list of people who had been kind to her, people who'd made her life feel a little less heavy. "I just wanted to do something good for the people who were good to me," she said. "And you were good to me." That was the part that undid me. Not the meal, not the gift card, not even the wild, dazzling fact that she'd won the kind of money that would change her life. It was the remembering. The fact that, when she looked back on her life and traced the outlines of kindness, my name surfaced. Until then, I didn't know I'd been a light, even a small one, in someone else's sky. We're often told that kindness should be given without expecting anything in return, trusting that it will matter in some way. But what a gift it is to know that it truly did — to be remembered not for your accomplishments, possessions, or status but simply for being kind. I wrote about the experience on Threads, thinking it might touch a few people. Instead, it bloomed. Stories poured in from strangers, sharing what they'd do if they ever came into money. The responses weren't about big, flashy purchases. They were about generosity: paying off a friend's student loans, surprising a single mom with a year of groceries, sending a teacher on vacation. It was affirming that people still believe in taking care of one another, and even just the fantasy of it was enough to bring people together. The thread warmed something in me I hadn't realized had grown cold. In a world where the gap between the ultrawealthy and the rest of us seems like a canyon, this felt like a bridge. That night with her has stayed with me, not because of how extravagant it was, but because it was intimate and thoughtful. It's my reminder that kindness lingers. When we left the restaurant, the evening air felt warmer. My family walked a little lighter. We talked about the food, but mostly we talked about my friend and about what it means to tell people they matter. That moment planted something in me. A quiet vow: to remember the people who've held me up, even in fleeting ways. To reach out before the moment passes. To let others know they were significant. Because sometimes the most extraordinary thing isn't winning the lottery. It's realizing you were someone worth remembering. Read the original article on Business Insider
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Woman Walks Out of Family Dinner After Future In-Laws Say She Is 'Second Place' to Fiancé's Ex
A woman walked out of dinner with her fiancé when his family made a comment alluding that she was "second place" to his ex The Reddit user notes that his family has not gotten over her partner's previous relationship, which ended years ago Now, her future mother-in-law is texting her and telling her she overreacted to what was meant to be a "lighthearted family moment"A woman is wondering if she was in the wrong for walking out on dinner after her fiancé's family called her "second place" to his ex-girlfriend. In a post on Reddit's r/AmIOverreacting forum, a 30-year-old woman writes that she recently had a less-than-pleasant experience at her future in-laws' house, leading her to storm out. At the start of the post, she explains that she and her 32-year-old fiancé have been together for three years, and he was previously engaged years before they started dating. "I've never had any issue with that, it ended long before I met him, and he's always been open about it," she writes. Though she's confident her partner has moved on from his ex-fiancée, his parents seem to be the ones struggling to move on. "His mom still keeps photos of his ex around 'because she was like a daughter,'" the Reddit user explains. "I've let a lot of little comments slide. Until last weekend." What was meant to be a lighthearted dinner quickly turned sour when her fiancé's dad stood up and asked to make a toast. "It started normal, but then he said, 'We weren't sure you'd ever move on after Claire left, but hey, sometimes second place is still a win, right?'" she recalls, noting that "Claire" is her fiancé's ex. "Everyone laughed except me. My face just burned," she recounts. "I put my fork down, got up, and left the room. My fiancé followed me out, apologized, and we left." Though the poster feels like her reaction to the jab was justified, her soon-to-be mother-in-law chastised her for leaving. "Now his mom is texting saying I overreacted and ruined a 'lighthearted family moment,'" she writes. She's now wondering if she may have been too "sensitive" over the comment, asking if she should've let the situation slide. "It's not like I'm jealous of the ex, but I don't think I'm wrong for not wanting to be called a consolation prize," she explains. Read the original article on People
