Thursday, June 30, 2011

DOLLS (Table Decoration)


Things required:
Lettuce leaves
Orange
Radish or potato (small)
Carrots
Cloves
Pins & toothpicks
For Decoration:
Cherry
Tutti-Frutti
Ribbon
Method:
1. Cut a thin slice from the orange to make it stand on a flat surface.
2. Take a round radish, smaller than the orange and fix it on top of the orange with toothpicks.
3. Make a small cylindrical piece for the neck and fix it on radish.
4. For the face use a small round potato or radish (peeled).
5. use cloves for the eyes and make a nose and mouth from the cherry.
6. Fix the lettuce leaves around the radish to make the dress.
7. Cut thin, long strips of carrot and fix them on the lettuce leaves.
8. Make a hat from carrot and decorate it with cherry (half) and tutti-frutti pieces on the brim.
9. Tie a ribbon around the dress to make it decorative.


In this doll I have used fresh corn.
The dress is from the peels and the fibre is used for the hair.
You can add details to the dress with anything ... cut in the desired shapes and secure with toothpicks or bob pins...here I have used a tomato.

Sending this to - Create N Carve - Fruit & Veg Event

cooking in bali...


Thank you very much for all your lovely comments on my last postI've still got that lovely Bali calm...even my children are saying I've gone all zen!
I mentioned that one of the fabulous things I did when I wasn't writing last week was go to a cooking class at the Casa Luna Cooking School in Ubud...famous apparently...now I know why.
Like the whole writing experience, the cooking didn't let us down either.
We were whisked off to a place that was less a school, more an oasis in the hustle and bustle of downtown Ubud...
 a balinese mortar and pestle weighs between 16-20 kilos and is made of volcanic rock
The school is run by the legendary Janet de Neefe, author of Fragrant Rice (I now have a signed copy!) and owner of several wonderful Bali eating places. I may or may not have sampled a few desserts at Indus just up the road from the hotel :)
We helped make the spice pastes. The lovely staff took over when needed otherwise it would have been two hours in the making, not the 20 minutes it was!
We cooked Chicken Curry, wok fried eggplant, tofu fritters, bean and coconut salad (that was impossible to stop eating), spicy anchovy and coconut sambal, and sago pudding.
 our fantastic and very funny cooking teacher Udeh (not sure if that's how you spell it)
I haven't asked for permission to publish any of the recipes sorry, but I'll surely be trying some of them out this weekend.
I’ll let you know how I go. 
In the meantime, you have a top weekend. You deserve it :)
all images: a tranquil townhouse

Religious architecture in Iran: Madrasehs or Religious Schools

Reza, our guide, told us about the system of education in the madraseh or seminary as we sitting in the shaded courtyard of Madraseh-ye Khan in Shiraz. If you work hard and are academically talented, you can move through your education quickly. It is all about acquiring a thorough familiarity with a particular body of knowledge rather than taking a set number of classes or putting in a certain number of years. Usually the curriculum involves an advanced training in Shi'a theology and jurisprudence, although a number of other subjects may be included as well. Madraseh grew out of the custom of people gathering at mosques with a knowledgeable Muslim to discuss religious issues. In the Seljuk Dynasty in the 11th century, Nizam al-Mulk created a state system of madrasehs or nizamiyyehs.


Madraseh-ye Khan, Shiraz
This beautiful madraseh was built in Shiraz in 1615 by the Safavid governor of the province, but due to the prevalence of earthquakes, only octagonal entrance hall is original.



             

             

This is a perfect example of the traditional design for a madraseh: a large courtyard with a pool bounded by date palms and Seville orange trees. The courtyard is surrounded by arcades that lead to the students’ rooms.


A Madraseh of unknown name, close to the Public Bath House Museum, Esfahan
We stood outside this madraseh, whose name I never discovered, waiting for our bus. It had a beautiful example of angular Kufic calligraphy in tile work, shown above, and the stalactites on the entrance were some of the nicest I’d seen, primarily because the entrance wasn’t so huge or so tall.

AWARD - 19 ( My Lovely Kitchen )



These awards are from Sadhana Valentina of - MY LOVELY KITCHEN.

She has just completed one year of blogging. Do visit her blog to see some interesting recipes.

Thank you Sadhana for giving these awards. It was indeed a nice surprise for me while I was away on my holiday.


Religious Architecture in Iran: Armenian Churches

The Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church was founded, according to tradition, by Apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeas in the later part of the 1st century. Armenia was the first country to accept Christianity as the state religion in 301. Most Armenian Christians originally settled in the area around Jolfa, in northern Iran, close to the border with Armenia.

Shah Abbas of the Safavid Dynasty forcibly moved 10,000 Armenian families from the area around Jolfa to Esfahan in the 17th century in order to assist him in rebuilding his new capital. They settled across the river in a part of the city which they named New Jolfa. The Armenians were known as being particularly fine craftsmen and, to this day, Reza told us, you want your car mechanic to be Armenian.

Armenian Church of St. Stephanos, outside Jolfa
We traveled by bus from Tabriz to Jolfa, close to the border of the Republic of Azerbaijan, to see this magnificent church and monastery. There is speculation about the earliest construction on this site (founded by St. Bartholomew in 62 AD or by an Armenian king in the 9th century) but the oldest part of the current structure is from the 14th century and most was constructed in the 16th. The setting is spectacular.

The carvings on the outside of the church, including a bas-relief of St. Stephanos being stoned to death, are very well preserved.

The dome is encircled by angels. Look at the similarity of the painted angel below and the carved angel above.

This soot-coated room and dome may have been a Zoroastrian Fire Temple, but it also might have been the kitchen for the site.

The monastery is still under reconstruction but the garden in front of it is beautiful.

Armenian Vank or All Saviors’ Cathedral, Esfahan
The church was begun in 1606 but was largely rebuilt in 1650-53, following the arrival of the Armenian families from Jolfa. The bell tower was built in 1764. The sanctuary, where photography is not allowed, is lined with one gruesome painting of torture and bloodshed after another. I found the paintings oppressive and left to visit the museum.






The most memorable part of my experience at the cathedral was my conversation with a group of young teenage school girls in the adjacent museum.  They surrounded me and started with:
Can we ask you a few questions? Yes.
And continued:
Where are you from? America.
How do you like Iran? It is very beautiful.
Oh thank you. How do you like wearing the scarf? It is the law in your country. I want to visit your country so I must obey the law.
I decided to ask them some in return:
Do you have cell phones? Yes.
Do you talk to your friends on them? Yes.
What do you talk about? Our studies.
Do you ever talk about boys? Giggle giggle giggle. Oh no. We only talk about our studies.

Bucky's New Album Gets an Amazing Review

This is our amazingly talented musician friend who wrote the music for The Blues Circus.  Buckman Coe is so good, it is an honor for us to perform with him.  But don't just take it from me, check out what the Georgia Straight had to say about him:

By Mike Usinger

Buckman Coe has vowed to remain barefoot until he can get a pair of JJ Casuals, the shoes that look like feet.
Buckman Coe
By the Mountain’s Feet (Independent)
Clearly not a man content to have just a single iron in the fire, Buckman Coe keeps plenty busy when he’s not on-stage or in the studio. In addition to being one of those artists who make genre-jumping seem effortless, he’s also, according to his Facebook page, a certified yogi, eco-psychologist, and poet.
If this were 1973, back when singer-songwriters ruled the earth, Coe wouldn’t have much time for side pursuits—with a couple of breaks and a bit of AM radio airplay, he’d be busy cashing gold-record royalty cheques and house-hunting in Laurel Canyon. If that sounds hyperbolic, it shouldn’t, because By the Mountain’s Feet, his second full-length, is really that good. Working with a supporting cast that includes Vancouver music-scene vets Brian Minato on bass, Steve Dawson on pedal steel, and Paul Rigby on guitars, Coe dabbles in everything from down-home Americana to sun-sweetened folk to soul-drenched blues.
Aside from the fact that the dude sounds completely thrilled and blessed to be alive, what stands out are the gorgeous little touches—like the calypso-tinted guitars in the lite-and-breezy “Not So Farfetched” and the molasses-dipped harmonies in the wonderful country comedown “Plot Thick It Grows”.
Because this isn’t 1973, Coe isn’t going to find a ready-made, built-in audience for By the Mountain’s Feet, which sounds like it was professionally recorded at the Record Plant three decades ago instead of in rainy old Vancouver in the 2010s. That’s a shame, because if you enjoy the laid-back likes of Ben Harper and Jack Johnson, odds are good that you’re going to love this unrelentingly positive, completely accomplished triumph.


Buy this man's album!  It has been on rotating on my lap top for a solid 3 days now!

Religious Architecture in Iran: A Zoroastrian Fire Temple and Towers of Silence

Zoroastrianism was the primary religion of Iran from the early 500s BCE. It seems that Zoroaster (or Zarathustra) preached the message of one omnipotent, invisible and creator god, Ahura Mazda, represented by the burning flame in Zoroastrian temples, from as early as 1400 BCE. Life is a struggle between good and evil, darkness and light, according to Zoroaster, in which the good will ultimately triumph. The Achaemenians and the Sassanians proclaimed it the state religion, the priests assumed a great deal of power, and it remained dominant until the Arabs invaded in the 7th century bringing Islam with them. There are only 10,000-15,000 Zoroastrians living in Iran today, according to one set of statistics, mostly in Yazd and Tehran.

Zoroastrian Fire Temple
We visited a relatively modern Fire Temple in Yazd dating from 1940, but, according to tradition, the flame of this temple has been burning since 1174 in various places in Iran. Only the priests are allowed behind the glass through which we saw the flame.

You can see the Zoroastrian symbol above the door. A bird-man holds a ring which symbolizes loyalty in one hand, with the other hand held up as a sign of respect. The three layers of feathers in the wings represent the belief that you should think, speak, and act decently.

Towers of Silence
Up until the 1960s when the city of Yazd started to encroach on the Towers of Silence, the Zoroastrian population of the city carried their dead up to the Towers of Silence in a solemn procession led by a priest, carefully set the body on a large stone slab and left it there to be eaten by the vultures. Because they believed in the purity of the elements (water, earth, air, and fire) they didn’t believe in burying or burning the bodies for fear of tainting the earth or polluting the air.

It was a bleak and sorrowful place and the elderly man with his donkey did nothing to dispel the mood.

Change of Life Style





Senangnye cakap... susahnyer nak buat kan.. especially if wanna change the lifestyle to the healthy one..why.. for person like me who really love food and has been brought up by family who also love to eat... susahnyerrr.... camne yek... badan makin membesar... nak diet.. cam susah jer.. nak exercise..cam xder masa jer... alasan2.. teruk kan?? :p

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Monumental Architecture in Iran: Palaces, Gardens, and Water

Most of the 17th, 18th and 19th century palaces we saw in Iran were used as reception halls and entertainment venues. They have several features in common: they are often set a garden with flowers, fruit trees, and cypresses and with some sort of water feature; and the buildings themselves are quite elegantly designed with pavilions, domes, tile or mirrored work or both, and various other kinds of ornamentation. We saw remnants of Cyrus the Great’s palace, garden, and water channels and ponds, built at Pasargadae around 500 BCE. So this idea of a palace set in a garden with flowing water goes way way back, as you'll see in the following six examples.

Chehel Sotun Palace, completed in 1647, Safavid Dynasty, Esfahan
This is a truly lovely palace. The name means 40 columns: 20 in the actual palace and 20 more reflected in the pool in front. Mirrored stalactites in the front entrance and beautiful Safavid paintings (and two much less refined Qajar paintings) in the reception area of the palace add to the richness and texture of the place.







Hasht Behesht Palace, completed in the 1669, Safavid Dynasty, Esfahan
This palace whose name translates as Eight Paradises, is set in Nightingale Garden. You can see the fellows cleaning out the pool in front of the palace; and we saw others replacing the still-blooming pansies for impatiens.



This palace is not as elegant on the outside as Chehel Sotun, but it is more amusing: check out the tiled story of the man with a fly on his forehead being assisted by his pet bear who is about to throw a large rock at his master’s forehead to kill the fly. No one needs to have the moral spelled out. It is here that we heard the fellow playing his tar in one of the small first floor rooms.


Ali Qapu Palace or Magnificent Gate, early 17th century, Safavid Dynasty, Esfahan
Originally built as a Timurid (15th century) palace, it was enlarged by Shah Abbas, the Safavid builder extraordinaire. A big thank you to the internet for the outside photo of Ali Qapu. You can also see it in the miniature. We paused in the pavilion to look out over Imam Square in the photo to the left.

And then we trudged our way up to the sixth floor to see the Music Room, so named because of the vaults cut into niches in the shape of musical instruments and vases. It was well worth the effort but we wondered how in the world the shah climbed all the steps. Apparently he would have been carried but the narrow twisting of the stair wells makes this hard to fathom.


Bagh-e Dowlat Abad, 18th century, Zand Dynasty, Yazd
I talked about this palace (or house) in connection with the wind tower or badgir. It was built in 1750 by Karim Khan Zand.

Bagh-e Eram Garden, 19th century, with a Qajar palace, Shiraz
This is a beautiful garden. The College of Law of Shiraz University has taken over the Qajar palace and hence it is not open to the public. We wandered through the garden admiring the cypress trees for which it is famous as well as the roses, pansies and other flowers. I loved the nice touches like the light posts. It was in this garden that I saw a group doing calisthenics one morning.

Bagh-e Naranjestan, Orange Garden and Qavam House, 19th century, Qajar Dynasty, Shiraz
The garden here is full of flowers and of people enjoying them and each other. You can see the fountain spouting water. The house was built by an upper class merchant family, the Qavams, who worked their way into government. There are some great examples of “tea house” portraits of Qajar nobles done in tile and the mirrored porch, behind the spout, is truly something. We spotted the Qashqa’i nomad in her bright red and gold dress in this garden.

Golestan Palace or Palace of Flowers, 19th century, Qajar Dynasty, Tehran
This was the first palace we toured on our first day in Tehran. The Qajars moved their capital to Tehran and consequently constructed various palaces and buildings suitably extravagant. We walked past the water in front of the reception area and the mirrored room with an outrageously large throne.

I heard for the first time about Seven Color Tiles. The Qajars introduced “western” subject matter into the painting of tiles, as exemplified in the tile of two women. The Lion and the Sun was the Qajar dynasty’s royal emblem.