oh! i am so glad i requested for the clearing of the climbing-ivy that had invested my windows and marred my view into the courtyard garden... for it would be such a pity not to enjoy sucha delightful sight...
alas! all the leaves have now fallen off that beautiful tree with the elegant arrangement of branches and what was once a lovely canopy is now, no more. instead... the crispy fallen leaves are a joy to trample over as i make my way to the supermaket not too far away.
don't you love fall?! i do.
... particularly the changing colours of the deciduous trees....
... and the stark contrast of those with the evergreens...
aren't nature's colours spectacular! alas... it doesn't last much longer... and soon... the bitter cold winter days will be here...
just like my obsession with blueberries... i am also very fond of lavender... i used to think it's an old-women's thing but that impression never really stuck for long... i love lavender for it's scent, for it's soothing properties and for the fact that it looks so pretty, as a herb plant and flower... i once remarked to a friend i refer to as 'happy claire' (because she's so bubbly and makes everyone smile) that i'd love to lie in a field of lavender in provence and she looked concerned. she responded that maybe i won't really want to do that because there will be lots of wasps and bees when lavender blossoms.... sigh...
i guess if i can't fall asleep in fields of lavender, i could bathe myself in its essence... thus, shower gel/bath salts/body-creams/soaps that have lavendula oils and/or dried lavender flower petals have a special place in my wee bathroom... i also have a little pillow filled with dried lavender flowers which i could heat up to help ease sore muscles or simply aid sleeping... i also once kept this recipe for lavender ice-cream in hope that i might someday have an ice-cream maker to try it... i still have it in my silly recipe collection!
and when DSD blogged about lavender cookies the other day... i thought "i want some too!"... and hunted for a recipe which i unwittingly modified so slightly as i tried to follow it last week...
i used dried lavender buds i purchased from a very hippie-tea-house in glasgow many months ago for tea-brewing and shipped it over here... and i also found this lovely lavender infused syrup which i substituted for the light corn syrup in the recipe and very casually added some to the cookie-dough mix too!... i didn't know what i'll do with corn syrup apart from using it in this recipe so i decided to splurg on something i know i will use regularly (e.g. for my tea-consumption) instead...
here is my modified version of Linda's lovely recipe for lavender tea cookies:
for the cookie dough:
- 1 tablespoon dried culinary lavender flowers -- grind with pestle in motar, or crush with a wooden spoon in a bowl.
- approximately 225g unsalted butter -- leave it to cool to room temperature
- approximately 125g brown raw cane sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1 tablesppon Sonoma Syrup Co.'s Lavender Infused Simple Syrup
- 450g all purpose / plain flour
- a tiny pinch of salt
cream butter, sugar, vanilla extract, lemon juice and then the bruised lavender together in a bowl before adding flour and salt to form a soft dough. gently roll the cookie dough into a long sausage form with your hands and wrap it in plastic (cling film etc.) and compress it as tightly as you can in its sausage shape and tie a knot on both ends of the 'sausage'. then lay it on a flat plate or tray and refrigerate until firm. i left it over a day hibernating in the cold.
when ready, preheat the oven to 165degC (or 325degF). on a flat board, unroll the plastic film from cookie dough sausage and slice ~1/2-cm thick discs and place them on a cookie baking sheet(s). bake until they are lightly browned on their edges and remove them to cool on a wire rack before applying the lavender frosting, if desired.
for the lavender frosting:
- 225g icing sugar
- 2 tablespoons of dried culinary lavender flowers
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 tablespoon Lavender Infused syrup (Sonoma Syrup Co.)
combine and toss the icing sugar and lavender flowers in a ziploc bag and leave them to get acquainted with each other for at least a day, preferrably longer...
then sift out the lavender flowers with a fine seive and leave the lavender aside in a container for use to brew a cuppa lavender tea instead of discarding them so soon. to the scented icing sugar, add the rest of the ingredients to form a frosty white spreadable mixture and spread it over the cooled cookies...
i didn't frost all my cookies since i quite like them less sweet but the frosting actually enhances the lavender-taste.... however, i found that the cookies looked boring with the white covering so i tried to give them some identity by carving out patterns on the frosting... (just so i can spend more time in the warmth of the kitchen!)
so there... it's not too difficult really... and they smell and taste lovely... lavender-ly!
i don't know how i became obsessed with them... they were hardly available when i was a wee lassie in singapore... but given how wonderfully rich in anti-oxidants and how lovely they taste... and how beautifully blue they are, who really cares?
blueberries are my all-time favourite of all berries... i don't care much for strawberries, nor raspberries nor blackberries, or gooseberries... but the blues...
according to my new "fresh" food magazine, which i picked up by chance when i tried to get some change to buy some stamps from the automated machine, blueberries rank top in their Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity among fruits and veggies, i.e. super high in anti-oxidants... these molecules help neutralise free-radicals (chemicals that often lead to cell-degeneration when found in access... and this process, termed as oxidative stress, is linked to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's).
i was also amazed to find out that these little berries are good for you in more than one great way! apart from the protective influence of the variety of anti-oxidants that 1) help strengthen collagen, 2) help improve vision (via increased production of retinal -- the precursor to visual pigment; by filtering harmful ultra-violet light via carotenoid-induced pigment growth in the lens and macular of the eye) and 3) help in preventing the formation of leaky capillaries, blueberries are also found to be both anti-inflammatory and anti-clotting.
thus, they are not only great for keeping you looking younger, helping you keep your vision clearer, they also help improve your blood circulation and help reduce your risk of having cardiovascular problems. and as if that weren't good enough, they also have naturally occuring acids that appear to help prevent cervical cancer and protect the womb... and have i already mentioned that they are also said to have antiseptic and antibacterial properties?
my golly... i will never run out of reasons to gobble them now! heee.
and to indulge in my blueberry-lust... i baked a lovely blueberry tart from the blueberry bliss i brought home (and froze) the other day... and i dedicate this to stella who requested it but i am unable to ship it to HK before it all disappeared! ooops.
i used to sing and hum to myself a lot... i sometimes do it subconsciously and often land myself in rather embarrassing situations... in any case, some of my favourite tunes come from The Sound of Music... and here's one of my favourites... the theme song, no less.
The hills are alive with the sound of music
With songs they have sung for a thousand years
The hills fill my heart with the sound of music
My heart wants to sing every song it hears
My heart wants to beat like the wings of a bird
That rise from the lake to the trees
My heart wants to sigh like a chime that flies
From a church on a breeze
To laugh like a brook when it trips and falls
Over stones on its way
To sing through the night
Like a lark who is learning to pray
I go to the hills when my heart is lonely
I know I will hear what I heard before
My heart will be blessed
With the sound of music
And I'll sing once more
~~~The Sound of Music~~~
i managed to coax myself out of the flat to shoe-hunt today... it's quite a lot of effort especially since it is terribly difficult for me to find shoes that fit my skiny pair of feet, moulded by years of ballet dancing and silly ankle injuries from crazy gymnastics... plus, i need shoes that look good with either shoelaces, straps, or straps and buckles to hold them onto my skinny feet... plus, i have a horrible tendency to bring my purchases back on 2nd thoughts... plus, i find shopping rather stressful... plus... i am highly indecisive... sigh! i am indeed the retail-stores' greatest night-mare! (where's my rabbit hole?!)
the sad fact of life is that nothing lasts forever. sigh (but it can sometimes be a positive thing i suppose).
most of my shoes have carried me through sunny and wet days for over 4 years, almost everyday... so the thought of replacing them is heart-wrenching.
meet my brown suede shoes:
i bought them from NineWest just before x'mas in 2000, a few days prior to flying over to michigan for my brother's graduation... i remember having great difficulty deciding between dark brown and camel suedes but was really taken by how comfy they felt (and still feel) and their slim-shape which held my feet like ballet shoes... they looked a lot more charming than they do now, of course... since then we have experienced walking together over carpets of snow, travelled to germany and hopped on grassy pastures, and jumping to avoid rain puddles in scotland... all that fun has undoubtedly worn them down... mum and dad had helped me sent them to a cobbler to have them re-soled (spot the 3 different shades of soles?) but even that isn't able to keep them alive for much longer... these are my friends who will retire soon...
these are my all-time-favourite --- say hello to my Happeee Shoes!
it is most tragic that Dr Martens no longer produces these... they are a classic pair of mary-janes... i love them to bits... wearing them on days that my brown suedes get their snooze... but they are older and getting on with age too... this coming summer might be their 7th birthday! i need to keep them alive for as long as i can... they underwent some surgery twice... i need to bring them in again for some stitching soon before the bit of leather that goes into the buckle starts wearing off too much... these are shoes that keep me smiling when days are grey... and when i feel low and down... they've also travelled far with me... from scotland to singapore to germany to aussie land and back all over again and again, up a few hills, and skipping about in summery days... we all need happeee shoes!!!
meet my new pair of shoes, which i managed to find today at the sale:
they will be my first pair of Timberlands... they seem really comfy and come with in-sole arch-supports and nice flexible outer soles for sporty fun and prancing about in all weathers... i nearly got a pair of Dr Martens' mary-janes again... but i couldn't decide between pinky-red and black and very much wanted something brown... and the pair of Campers i tried on -- although they were in a nice brown colour and felt really comfy -- looked terribly silly and huge on my feet... let's hope i don't run back to the store with these Timberlands for whatever silly 2nd-thoughts i might have... because i do need a pair of new shoes!
this is one of my favourite stationery products when i was wee and still is! Suzy's Zoo is a zoo of lovable creatures created by Suzy Spafford. i still recall that my first ever purchase of one of her wonderful stationery merchandise was a christmas-tree-card-set with fun christmassy stickers to decorate the x'mas-tree-shaped-cards, which i found by chance one x'mas season.... i sent one of them to auntie helena and auncle albert that same christmas season some (oh golly gosh!) 14 years ago?! wow. that was my very first correspondence to them, and my first airmail post to aussie-land! Suzy's Zoo is just lovely-lovely... her creations simply make you smile (check out her fun website by clicking the underlined link!)... i have a few favourites among her many endearing characters: Willie Bear, Emily and Ollie -- the marmot twins, Witzy and his rag-bear Boof.... oh they are all so 'cuddly'... the Wags and Whiskers too... all of them!
..Suzy & friends..
i am sure most of you are familiar with
but have you tasted this?
this is truly gorgeous... containing no trace of cocoa... it's coconut flakes surrounding a morsel of milky cream which encapsulates a whole almond! ...divine.
i keep telling myself that i must write to Ferrero because they seem to have forgotten about this part of the world with their sale of Raffaellos!... meanwhile i am rationing my stock i received from an Easter parcel from Germany..... might just about have enough until i stopover in june/july! wish me luck!
how appropriate! BBC4 is currently airing In Our Time and chatting about the historical development of tea in Britain and how it became a national identity (or more appropriately a daily drug) here.... the 'anglo-saxon domestication' of a Chinese tradition with the 'fusional' ceremony of adding milk and sugar; as well as an obsession that unwittingly led to the inception of the Opium War..... a cuppa tea is indeed a British thing... yet a rather amusing irony about this enthusiasm is that while the Brits may very well drink more tea than anyone in Europe, they have fewer selection of teas in their tea houses (if you find one; they are not very common here, surprisingly) or the supermarkets compared to her European compatriots, the Germans. there are many more quaint little tea-shops where you can get a plethora of all sorts of flavoured teas in Germany....
i have fond memories of visiting Mokka (shown in picture), a little shop in the old part of T?bingen which sells lovely assortments of chocolates, pralines, truffles, aromatic coffees, and most importantly? their own mix of flavoured teas in all different tea varieties (redbush, green, black, sencha, etc?.). tea appears to be sold through tea-merchants here?.i have found it hard not have a good local tea-shop to frequent?for i am quite a tea-addict, if you haven't already realise...even though there is Whittard, they do not really have a broad selection of teas.... and they do not sell tea filter-bags! a must for loose teas! feeling slightly desperate about the tea-situation, i started Goooogling? and found Grey?s Teas and E-teas; the latter has quite a large variety of teas (including tea-filter bags) but even then, E-teas does not appear to stock Lavender tea? nor Blueberry Redbush tea?. both of which are a few of the things i treasure.
