Hi!
Quickie message to say that there are only two more market days this year, the 12th & the 19th. And then I’m going to take most of January off like I always do every year.
So, if you wanna sample some Coco&Me cakes & chocolates (aswell as my creamy hot chocolate drink!), don’t miss your chance, hop on down to Broadway Market in the next two Sarturdays!
Hope to see you there! xoxoxo
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ps: I know, I know… I’ve been slack with posting blog entries! Like always, there’s loads to write about – but never the time…
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Since my last post, I’ve managed a second-degree-burn on my right wrist. The culprit was the cheese cake that I always rave about. I dropped it as I was getting it out of the oven, upside down, & the hot cake wrapped itself on my wrist. It hurt like hell, no joke. The burn is about 5cm, & the skin peeled off & it was really raw for a long while… I’m afraid that it’ll leave a scar… which will be ultra annoying because it’s a place where it is so visible…
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(The absolutely gorgeous smell of gingerbread cookie fills our living room!)
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On a lighter note, here’s a picture of an IKEA gingerbread house I decorated with my boy. We just copied the decoration design that was on the box! LOL! And instead of icing, I just melted & piped white chocolate. The little bambi next to it is my new addition to my ever-growing animal theme collection. It is made by “&K Amsterdam” & it uses real lamb fur! I got it at Selfridges department store & they had the bigger Mummy n’ Daddy version too. I was in the store for about a good 10 minutes contemplating getting those too, arranging it side-by-side, picking it up & down, but in the end I just got the ‘child’ one only. I kind of regret not getting them now though… I might have to go back!
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Really looking forward to Christmas – how about you?
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(Meeaaoow…)

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Here’s a belated picture of this year’s Jack o’ Lantern for Halloween.

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I TRIED to carve a cat this year, complete with the body, but, when I realized that the cat’s eyes are suspiciously looking similar to “the eye” in Lord of the Rings, I kind of lost interest in finishing the project…
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The more I look at it, the mouth looks like that of the cheshire cat from Alice In Wonderland, a little vampire touch with the fangs, & it could look X-massy too, what with it’s snowman bod… LOL! One confused Jack o’ Lantern this year then! Oh well, I tried didn’t I, & they say that’s the important part…, right…??

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Anyways, did you have a wonderful Halloween?

I couldn’t go to my favourite A’s fang-tastic party this year because our little one got sick at the very last minute before leaving// It was a shame because I just love going trick-or-treating with the kids… Let alone missing the Martha-esque home-entertainment that A is famous for… You wouldn’t believe what a downer that was! – Then again, atleast our son got to go though! It would’ve been a real shame if he didn’t.

I managed to hurt my ankle pretty bad…
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It actually first started to hurt about 2 months ago.
At the time I decided enough’s enough, I didn’t like the Chubsy-Ubsy in the mirror, so I went on a diet. – I jogged everyday & ate low calorie & healthy foods. I would read every food label for calorific content, & do a bit of maths to make sure I am within the daily set limit. (by the way, did you know that baby biscuits make a really tasty low calorie snack?)
And every time I jogged, I could push myself a little further than the previous day & I loved that feeling of accomplishment. But being an obsessive character that I am, when I decide on something, I have a tendency of doing it excessively.
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Two weeks of that went by. But one morning, when I woke up, my left foot hurt. I thought that I sprained it perhaps, so I put jogging on hold (& subsequently the low-cal healthy eating too…!) but never saw a doctor about it. Besides, I am so busy with the children & then the stall work, I didn’t give it much thought despite it hurting.
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I know I know, now I feel pretty silly about leaving it unattended like that. Because last Sunday morning, as I got out of my warm bed & ran to the toilets, I pulled on the sore muscle big-time. Like, BIG-time that I couldn’t walk… This finally made me go to the doctors though. I was told it’s Achilles Tendonitis, a sports injury. – I never thought I’d be suffering a SPORTS injury of all things!
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So guys, no Market this week, I’ve gotta rest my feet. But hopefully next week okay?
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I seem to be having a string of bad luck this year.
– Two weeks ago my iPhone got nicked in the bus which made me very upset. Like, why steal? Did they look through the family pictures on it? Don’t they have any guilty conscience? It was an invasion of my privacy & I felt uncomfortable & insecure for a while. It was also new, after having the last mobile for 8 years.
– Just before the Summer my laptop got broken by my son spilling a mug full of tea… I had that laptop for 5 years & I was proud of it.
– Our Dvd player got broken by our little one.
– Earlier this year I was pretty ill too.
– And now this.
Maybe I read too much in to this, but in terms of yin and yang, this year feels rather yin. I can only hope next year is yang.
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(Children’s story book: “ノンタンのたんじょうび”) 

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I love this book. 

In this 1980 Japanese children’s book titled ‘Nontan’s Birthday’, a white cat called Nontan receives a surprise birthday party organized by his friends.

“I wonder what they are doing?”

Sensing something is up, Nontan tries to get a sneak peek at what his friends are up to but fails to see anything as they shut the curtain!

At the end, he is invited in to the house to find the table full of cookies shaped like him!

“Woow! Amazing! Me as cookies! Thank you!” 

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((Lucky cat. I wish somebody did a surprise for me like that too!))

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The inside front & back pages has a really good cookie recipe that I want to share with you. It is ultra simple to make & its taste takes you back to sweet memory of childhood.

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Nontan Cookie Recipe (with my extra notes): 

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Ingredients:

> 80g of room temperature unsalted butter   
> 80g of castor sugar   
> 1 egg   
> 200g of flour   
> 5g of baking powder
> extra flour for dusting the surface

> raisins/ nuts/ etc for decoration optional

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Method:

• 1. Cream the room temperature butter in the mixing bowl (cream it to the extent of it being as soft like mayonnaise).
• 2. Add the sugar & thoroughly mix until very airy & very creamy.
• 3. Mix in an egg.
• 4. Sift in the flour & baking powder to the mixture & fold it in. (Here, don’t be tempted to over-mix. Stop soon as you can’t see the flour. The flour will form gluten & the cookies will not rise as much & turn out tough!)  
• 5. Wrap the cookie dough in cling-film & refrigerate for more than 30 minutes. (It loosens the gluten & the butter within will get solid again. If you don’t rest it the texture & the flavour will be sacrificed. Also, top tip for wrapping it in cling-film is to flatten it so that it cools quicker.)
  
• 6. Flour your work surface. Take â…“ of the dough at a time & roll to 5mm thickness. (You wouldn’t want to roll it out all in one go because it’ll take up space & the dough won’t keep cold.)
• 7. Now have fun & make Nontan shapes. The book has the following suggestions;
  … Cut 5cm squares & use a toothpick to dot a face pattern on it.
  … Shape the dough like a face & use nuts/ raisins as the eyes & the mouth.
  … Cut a cardboard contour of the face & using a knife, cut around it on the dough.
  … Take some of the dough & add cocoa powder. Shape a big Nontan face & then use the cocoa dough for facial features.
• 8. Place on a baking sheet & bake in a pre-heated oven of 180 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes. (Half way through, you might want to change the direction of your tray in the oven so that it is evenly baked.)
• 9. Once baked, take the baking sheet off the tray & cool on a rack.

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My son loves to make Nontan cookies. And I love that he enjoys baking, even if he’s handling the dough ’til it’s melting, or patting it so hard that it is too thin… not forgetting to mention the flour-y mess EVERYWHERE…

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Normally my cookie baking rules are: 

• to measure the ingredients precisely to the gram.
• to handle it less as possible. For example, never roll the same dough out more than twice because the extra flour from the work surface would muck up the delicate ratio of flour. it will also deteriorate the dough.
• to work quickly as possible, so that the butter in the dough doesn’t melt & deteriorate texture & flavour.

But for home-baking with my son, I’ll throw all those rules out of the window any day…!

(Glass of milk, a must.) 

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It was an eye-opener of an idea that he stuck the sprinkles in the holes to create rainbow-coloured facial features. He also gently pressed half of the fluted cutter to emboss a smile!(bottom left)

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& God knows when the last time I sold out without giving any discount…!

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Recently in London, the weather is hot hot hot, reaching 25 to 30 degrees, every day. – It’s proving a bit hazardous for me, as last week, my chocolate tarts melted despite being in the shade of the tarpaulin sheet roofing. – So this week, I skipped making them, & concentrated on making more fruit tarts instead (x1.5 more than usual). This decision obviously payed off! – Phew!! Otherwise, what am I supposed to do with all them fruit tarts??
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I also didn’t make lemon tarts at all because of the eggy-cream which would spoil too easily in such a hot weather. And I made slightly less of the brownies too, because I recently noticed that people seem to lose appetite for gooey chocolate in extreme weather like today. Funny old thing about the relationship of hot weather & food is that even “I” wanted to eat healthily – opting for the veggie salad lunch from a few stalls to my right. I also bought a big bottle of water to keep hydrated.

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Today, MORE bloggy visitors came by – like the American lady from Berlin, mother & daughter who BOTH read my blog, & a Japanese lady. TTTTThank you!!
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Last week I finally changed my mobile, after using the last one for 8 years! (This time I got the fancy new iPhone. C’mon, I deserve it…) My old phone has many old text messages that I couldn’t bring myself to delete – for example, there’s one that was sent from my D when our first child was born & I had to stay over night at the hospital without him. – The one below is another that I kept – sent to me from D all the way back in ’01. I just love the way he spelt coffee! As if like Al Pacino in his gangster movies!!