Saturday, May 21, 2011

Te Tai Tamariki update


Firstly I apologise for not sending an update to you earlier.  We have only recently got access to the computer, then it took some time to get it to work, it having taken quite a tumle.  This is attempt six to get this update out, hopefully it will work this time.

87 Victoria St. was badly damaged on February 22, but everyone got out safely.  Thanks to The Children's Bookshop an access plan was developed that allowed one person from Te Tai Tamariki into the building for two and a half hours to remove whatever could be salvaged.  Rosemary Bonkowski was the brave volunteer who donned the fashionable high viz vest and hard hat.  It was a relief to find the Quaky Cat exhibition safely hanging on the walls.  Rosemary managed to rescue Quaky Cat, all of our original artwork, the computer, the chairs and our acquisitions catalogue.  Unfortunatel y the map drawers, the office furniture and the posters and cut-outs that we have been accumulating from our exhibitions had to be left behind.
 The boxes of books that Trevor Agnew donated were retrieved at the last minute with help from the contractors from Smith Cranes who had made access to the building possible.  Rosemary is to be applauded for taking on this rescue mission as the inside of the building was very messy and the safety of the staircase compromised.

87 Victoria St. has now been demolished, but this is not the death knell for Te Tai Tamariki.  We have stepped back a year in that we are homeless again, but progress had been made in other areas during that year and that has not been disrupted.  We still have our collection and community profile and can continue building on this.  Currently a couple of opportunities  regarding space are being investigated.

The Trust has recently received $25,000 from Scholastic NZ from sales of Quaky Cat.  Our thanks to Scholastic for making this possible, but we would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to Gavin Bishop as the donation is actually from him, the money being his share of the royalities from sales of the book.

We have heard that some of you have lost your homes in the earthquake and our thoughts are with you.  Stay safe and take care of yourselves.
 Watch out for our next bulletin which, I'm sure, will relay exciting information regarding the next era of Te Tai Tamariki's development.

Mary Sangster
Secretary
Te Tai Tamariki: New Zealand Children's Literature Charitable Trust tetaitamariki@gmail.com

Oink

Sunday fluff special

Kitten tries to kill workman


YouTube link.

Little chicks squabble over worm


YouTube link.

Also available with added Yakety Sax.

Here's a ferret stealing underwear


YouTube link.

Three albino baby raccoons found in Canadian house

A wildlife control company made a rare find on Thursday after they were called to a Scarborough home to remove a litter of raccoons - three of them albinos. Brad Gates, owner of Gates' Wildlife Control, said they had been called by Jay Zheng, who saw one of the albinos in his house.



"Mr Zheng and his family weren't sure what they had because of the white animal they saw in the garage," said Gates. His technician Scott Liddle believed they might be up against a skunk after hearing the family's description. Instead, they found three white raccoon kits and another with normal markings. The litter appeared to be six to eight weeks old and in good health, although the albinos were smaller than their 'normal' brother.

Gates said two albinos were found in the attic; their mother was found taking a "break" from the heat of the attic on the rooftop. Albino raccoons are uncommon - about one in 500,000, according to Gates' research. Three in one litter - that's extremely rare. "I think you take that (statistic) and it's exponential as to the odds of that happening," said Gates.

YouTube link.

His company has only encountered two cases of albino raccoons in its 27-year history, and each time it was only one in the litter. Gates said they rescued the animals by hand and put them in a release box, which was later placed on the roof to be reunited with their mother. "She'll take one by one to another safe den that she has set up in the neighbourhood," said Gates.

Homeowner, Mr Zheng, also made his own video of the albino triplets.

New Zealand bar offers half-price beer for dead rabbits

A Wanaka bar has taken to helping deal with Central Otago's rabbit plague by offering half-price beer to patrons who bring in dead rabbits.

Bullock Bar manager Margo Johnston said the bar would offer half-price jugs to anyone who brought in four rabbits. "Hopefully it will eradicate a few rabbits from Central Otago farmland," she said.



Queenstown Lakes District licensing agency inspector Mary Rose Fitzgerald said she had contacted the bar with concerns about the discounted drinks and how the rabbits would be disposed.

Ms Fitzgerald said there was no legislation that prohibited the bar from holding the event and she did not feel the bar would cause a nuisance by holding it. The bar would put measures in place to make sure the rabbits would not become contaminated, she said. The dead rabbits are expected to be turned into dog food.

Missing cat finds owner during TV interview

An Alabama woman thought she had lost nearly everything when a tornado tore her house apart. But miraculously, nearly a month later, she was reunited with a beloved pet she feared was gone forever.

Judy Pugh rushed to her hallway with her three cats when she saw debris spinning in the air and as the roof blew away a wall fell on top of her. Judy escaped with black eyes. But says she would have been sucked away by that tornado if weren't for that very wall. Her house is gone.


YouTube link.

But that doesn't matter to Judy. She has what she loves. Two of her cats survived. The other, Cadie, hadn't been seen since the storm. But Judy didn't give up hope, looking every day for the last three weeks for her lost friend. Unbelievably during a TV interview, Judy's friend of 10 years came out of nowhere.

Cadie made it through the tornado, heat and cold without food or water for nearly a month. Judy says, "I've got Cadie. I've got Cadie. I'm at the house. I wish she could talk. She could tell me where she's been."

Cat saves rejected wolf-cub

An abandoned wolf-cub has turned to an unconventional mother figure at a Siberian zoo. A cat took over mothering responsibilities from a female wolf, who rejected her offspring.

The pup was born in late April and, despite the little wolf being in perfectly good health, his mother refused to feed him just four days after his birth.


YouTube link.

In order to save the wolf-cub zoo workers had to come up with an unusual solution. They gave the cub to a cat who was feeding her own kittens at the time. The cat immediately accepted the cub and started to lick and feed him.

Zoo workers said that the little wolf is doing fine in his new family, but developing more slowly than his siblings. The cub is being constantly monitored by the staff.

Woman revives baby kangaroo with kiss of life

An Australian wildlife carer has given the "kiss of life" to a baby kangaroo. Lisa Milligan said the "pinky", which was found by a roadside, was lifeless in her hands before she breathed air down its tiny nose and mouth and massaged its heart with her thumb.

"It was gone for all love and money. It wasn't breathing. It was icy to touch and rigid," Ms Milligan said. "But I kept going and after 15 minutes, it suddenly barked, which is what they do. And it started turning from a lifeless grey colour to perfect pink again."



The four-month-old joey, now known as Bernie, was brought into her Wildlife Rescue Centre near Kilmore on Monday. "It was brought in by a man who found it on the road next to its dead mother, who had been hit and killed by a car," Ms Milligan said.

"He told me he had dragged the mother off the road so his daughter would not see it on her way to school the next day, and it was then that he had seen the joey lying nearby. When it got here, its arms were stiff and rigid, almost frozen to its body. I told him it had gone, that it was too late - and he left. But I kept holding it in front of the heater, massaging its back and heart with my thumb while breathing over its mouth and nose, and suddenly it coughed, or barked."

Do penguins fall over when watching aircraft flying overhead?

There is a long-standing myth that Antarctic penguins flip over at the sound of passing planes. Unable to right themselves, they risk dying a terrible death.

Back in 1982, British pilots in the Falklands allegedly observed the phenomenon as they flew over penguin colonies. They said the birds would topple over as they lifted their heads to watch the planes fly by, then penguins were left on their backs by the thousands, unable to right themselves.


YouTube link.

But in 2001 scientists concluded that they wobbled but didn't fall down.

Now in 2011 a team from Russia Today have gone to great lengths to verify the story once and for all.

'Killer' spider forces family to flee home after emerging from bag of bananas

A family fled their home in terror after opening a bag of bananas and finding what appeared to be a deadly spider. The Ryan family discovered the arachnid while unpacking their groceries after a shopping trip. Mother-of-three Mandy was able to grab a picture of the spider from a safe distance before it scurried away in the kitchen. When experts initially suggested it could be a Brazilian wandering spider – a species which can kill with one bite or trigger spasms – the family was forced out of their Crosby home and into alternative accommodation.



Mum, dad and their three young children moved to a hotel and are now in rented accommodation. While other experts now believe the spider could be harmless, the family remain too scared to return home, seven days later. The family left their College Road North house last Thursday and brave dad Darryl went back on Tuesday night to find it.

He said: “We were there for two hours and we didn’t find it. We looked everywhere and in the cupboards. I’m going up the wall with this. It’s madness what’s going on.” Mr Ryan wore protective clothing during his search and used a car wing mirror attached to a fishing rod to try to search every nook and cranny for the spider. He was with Ben Hayden, who runs local pet shop Lounge Room Lizards and Aquatics.



Mr Hayden said: “The only way to say for certain that we have got it is to catch it dead or alive.” A Merseyside Police spokesman said: “Our wildlife officer was liaising with the head of the ethnology department at Liverpool Museum to try and identify the species.” But a spokesperson for Liverpool museum’s ethnology department said it wasn’t possible to be sure of the species of the spider just from the photograph. The spider is still at large.

Toy tiger causes major alert

A stuffed toy animal led to a large-scale police operation in Southampton and stopped play at the Rose Bowl cricket ground. The alarm was first raised by a concerned member of the public who believed there was an escaped white tiger hiding in a field near Hedge End. Officers were sent to the scene along with a helicopter and thermal imaging cameras, at about 1600 BST on Saturday.

When no body heat was detected police moved in and found a cuddly toy tiger. A police spokeswoman said officers had responded as if it was a real incident, close to junction seven of the M27. Hampshire police enlisted the help from animal experts at nearby Marwell Zoo, who offered advice and were prepared to send a team with tranquiliser darts to overcome the tiger.



The Rose Bowl said a game between South Wiltshire and Hampshire Academy was stopped for about 20 minutes before they were given the all clear to continue. Golfers at a nearby golf course were also told to go indoors. A police spokeswoman said: "After a brief stalk through the Hedge End savannah, the officer realised the tiger was not moving and the air support using their cameras realised there was a lack of heat source.

"The tiger then rolled over in the down draft and it was at that point it became obvious it was a stuffed life-size toy. This incident will definitely be the highlight of our day. The CCTV footage convinced us all we were dealing with a real tiger. It's not often an incident leaves our staff with a smile on their face and it just goes to show the diverse type of incident we are called to deal with." Hampshire police said the toy was being treated as lost property but they were investigating whether it was a hoax.

Crispy Tempe Fried (Tempe Goreng Garing)

Crispy Tempe Fried Tempe Goreng Garing

1 Tempe
1 garlic clove
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper powder
seasoned flour or just ordinary flour
water
cooking oil

shattered the garlic clove with salt and black pepper
slice tempe into 7-8 pieces, arrange them in a bowl
add the delicate seasoning (garlic, salt, black pepper) into the bowl

pour water till all tempe awash, wait 15 minutes
spread the flour in a plate

heat the cooking oil, take the slice tempe, cover it with flour, then deep fry them till the colour change into golden brown. Ready to serve.

Crispy Tempe Fried (Tempe Goreng Garing)

Crispy Tempe Fried Tempe Goreng Garing

1 Tempe
1 garlic clove
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper powder
seasoned flour or just ordinary flour
water
cooking oil

shattered the garlic clove with salt and black pepper
slice tempe into 7-8 pieces, arrange them in a bowl
add the delicate seasoning (garlic, salt, black pepper) into the bowl

pour water till all tempe awash, wait 15 minutes
spread the flour in a plate

heat the cooking oil, take the slice tempe, cover it with flour, then deep fry them till the colour change into golden brown. Ready to serve.

Assorted American Food

Assorted American Food


Caribbean nutrient civilisation combines the form of Dutch, American Indian, African, French, Chinese East Indian, Spanish, and Indian cuisine. These nutrient civilization were acquainted by earlier migrant. Over the yr assorted migratory population have developed their unequaled nutrient style that mostly correspond the regional nutrient civilisation.

Caribbean’s are caring of cereal and they fix assorted dish using it. A grain readying is uncomplete without a tasty attendant. Generally assorted type of sauce and bean are savored along with the cereal. Although grain is a basic fare of the Anguilla, yet the pedagogy of readying varies from part to another. Peas, bean and coconut are unremarkably used for flavorer the grain. The xanthous and brownish colored cereal is chiefly used as the bedside bowl.

Caribbean cuisine can vaunt of big figure of tracheophyte and tasty food readying. Goat food is savored throughout the Anguilla with much phantasy and adoration. French Caribbean, Jamaican, Guadeloupean, and Haitian population savour kid meat. Caribbean kid food lather has been agreed the rubric of National bowl of Montserrat. This tomato established kid food sweat is too the allograph bowl of St. Kitts and Nevis. Other than kid food, breadfruit, dark-green pawpaw or pappaya, and dumpling (droppers) are the other substance used in the readying of the lather. Similarly Callaloo is a famed greenish bowl which is savored and favored throughout the Caribbean island. Vegetables like pod and other greenness are used in the readying of the bowl. Anglophone Caribbean, or Cook-Up or Pelau is another democratic food bowl which is enjoyed throughout the Caribbean Islands. The heavy ingredient like longhorn, pouter pea, poulet, saltfish, or veggie are used in readying of the bowl. Other than that kid dish and volaille is democratic throughout the Anglophone Caribbean island.

Caribbean’s are affectionate of crisp and savory feel and most of the dish are leant towards either of these feel. Caribbean’s mostly utilization the leaved over meat to ready several dish and they crampoon it with crisp spice to do them tasty and appeasing. Caribbean’s usage allspice, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and lime to flavorise their nutrient preparation.

Caribbean’s are too affectionate of food and assorted dish are set using elasmobranch, shellfish and conch. A fried elasmobranch butty is served throughout Trinidad and Tobago, other than that cascadura bottom-dweller and crab preparation are besides famed throughout the Anguilla. Similarly conch readying is savored throughout Haiti, Bahamas and Belize. Deep fried fritter is regarded to be the allograph bowl of these island.. The batsman for the friedcake is fixed by combining softened food, pastry and flavouring.




When I wake up with a hangover, the first meal I want to have is usually some eggs and hashbrowns. Something about this meal is comforting no matter what time of day.

Called my boyfriend and we headed over to this cafe on Sutter x Leavenworth. I don’t know the name but it’s cheap and close by. It’s definitely not the best, but again, it’s cheap. And when you’re hung over, I do not want to travel far.

There are actually two on the corner of Sutter x Leavenworth. Right across from each other. One is called Hanh’s (north side on Sutter) and the other…? The two ways to differentiate the two is either calling it “Not Hanh’s” or the “Korean or Chinese one.” Hanh’s is owned by Koreans so they not only have American cuisine, but also bibimbap. While “Not Hanh’s” has American food and also fried rice, broccoli beef and other assorted Chinese dishes. The epitome of variety in SF!

I ordered 2 eggs sunny with hash browns and 4 (very) burnt pieces of bacon. It comes with a side of toast but opted out. Greasy and a hung over cure, all for only $4.50.


58 Twinkies, a pound of Guacamole, a bag each of Nachos, Doritos, Cheetos, and Chex Mix, and other assorted American treats, totalling 24,374 calories and 1,285 grams of fat. All for only $86. Wow. They even made a blimp.

It's A Lazin' On The Couch Kind Of Day

Commonwealth Writers Prize 2011 - Winners announced in Sydney



They are Aminatta Forna - Best Book for The Memory of Love and Craig Cliff - Best First Book - for A Man Melting






The results were announced at The Sydney Writers' Festival. For the full story click here.

Sainsbury's: your new local bookshop?

According to The Bookseller magazine, Sainsbury's is the UK's chain bookseller of the year, 'an alternative place to buy and browse'. Maybe - if you're only in the market for books about Michael MacIntyre and Madeleine McCann

Ball and chain ... a Sainsbury's store in Barnstaple, north Devon. Photograph: Alamy

Do you know which bookseller is the best in the country? 

According to industry bible the Bookseller, it's Sainsbury's. It gave the supermarket a gong (with the marvellous title of the "Martina Cole general or chain bookselling company of the year award") for "reinvigorating book zones, increasing book sales by more than 33% and attracting new book buyers to the market". In the Bookseller write-up, one judge was quoted as saying: "We should celebrate the fact that they are embracing books and offering people an alternative place to buy – somewhere they can spend time browsing as well as buying."

Browsing? In Sainsbury's? I decided to check it out. Yesterday I cycled along to my local branch and had a good look over the literature on offer. I wouldn't dignify that activity with the word browsing, however: it took me more time to find the book section (tucked away next to shelves filled with WD-40) than it did to decide I didn't want to buy anything it was selling. There were a handful of recipe books, a top 40 chart (select titles: Kate Morton, The Distant Hours; Mary Burton, Dying Scream; Felix Riley, The Set Up; Michael McIntyre, Live and Laughing) and a small section dedicated to a book about Madeleine McCann. If pushed, I could have walked away with The Fry Chronicles; otherwise there was nothing I even wanted to pick up. And I looked at every book. I even counted them: 88 different titles. That's more than Heinz's 57 varieties. But fewer than the different types of cheese available in the same shop.

Most depressingly of all, the children's section was limited to one small row at ground level. It looked about as thrilling as – well – a supermarket shelf. Selling children's books should be about selling excitement and wonder. The bookshops of my childhood were beautifully decorated gateways to mystery and adventure. It's sad to think that my daughter's generation may have no more attachment to choosing their next read than to choosing a tin of beans, and that books will be lumped in with the general boredom of cleaning products, potatoes and checkouts.

So much for "celebrating" browsing. Perhaps I'm romanticising too much. It's easy to be snotty about the books in Sainsbury's, and to complain about their lack of range. The chain could reasonably argue that it gives people what they want and does it well. If people wish to read about Michael McIntyre, that's entirely their choice. If it annoys sanctimonious media types like me, so much the better.

Genuinely troubling, though – and a matter of hard fact rather than emotion – is that the way supermarkets sell books is damaging to most of the publishing industry. Nearly all the books on offer in Sainsbury's, for instance, were priced at two for £7. That's less than the price of a ready meal for each book. Once you've factored in the costs of editing, proofreading, typesetting and production, how much does that leave the author per copy? Not much. How much profit does the publisher make? Not much. How much could a small specialist press hope to make at those prices? A colossal loss. Only a very few books can hope to become economically viable.

The future of the library

Seth Godin's blog


What is a public library for?
First, how we got here:
Before Gutenberg, a book cost about as much as a small house. As a result, only kings and bishops could afford to own a book of their own.
This naturally led to the creation of shared books, of libraries where scholars (everyone else was too busy not starving) could come to read books that they didn't have to own. The library as warehouse for books worth sharing.


Only after that did we invent the librarian.
The librarian isn't a clerk who happens to work at a library. A librarian is a data hound, a guide, a sherpa and a teacher. The librarian is the interface between reams of data and the untrained but motivated user.
After Gutenberg, books  got a lot cheaper. More individuals built their own collections. At the same time, though, the number of titles exploded, and the demand for libraries did as well. We definitely needed a warehouse to store all this bounty, and more than ever we needed a librarian to help us find what we needed. The library is a house for the librarian.


Industrialists (particularly Andrew Carnegie) funded the modern American library. The idea was that in a pre-electronic media age, the working man needed to be both entertained and slightly educated. Work all day and become a more civilized member of society by reading at night.
And your kids? Your kids need a place with shared encyclopedias and plenty of fun books, hopefully inculcating a lifelong love of reading, because reading makes all of us more thoughtful, better informed and more productive members of a civil society.
Which was all great, until now.
Read the rest at Seth's blog.

New judges and eligible countries announced for 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize



HONG KONG – Judges for the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize were announced Friday with a BBC Special Correspondent, the author of Slumdog Millionaire and a Pulitzer Prize finalist, all set to judge the best of Asian fiction from 2011.

The three judges for the fifth annual Man Asian Literary Prize are:

Razia Iqbal
Razia Iqbal is a Special Correspondent for the British Broadcasting Corporation, having previously been the BBC Arts Correspondent reporting on a range of arts and culture stories from around the world. She currently presents the flagship news and current affairs programme, Newshour, for the BBC World Service. Since 2010 Ms. Iqbal has hosted the Talking Booksprogramme on the BBC News Channel, interviewing a range of authors including Sir Salman Rushdie, Hanif Kureishi and Ian McEwan, as well as serving on the Advisory Board of The Festival of Asian Literature in London.

Ms. Iqbal was born into a Punjabi family in Uganda, and graduated from the University of East Anglia in the UK. Razia Iqbal will be the Chair of Judges for the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize.

Vikas Swarup

Vikas Swarup is an Indian diplomat and writer presently serving as India's Consul General in Osaka-Kobe, Japan. His debut novel, Q&A (2005), tells the story of how a penniless waiter in Mumbai becomes the biggest quiz show winner in history. The book has become an international bestseller and translated into over forty languages. The novel has adapted for the screen as Slumdog Millionaire, directed by Danny Boyle, which picked up eight Academy Awards including for Best Picture in 2009. His second novel Six Suspects (2008), also set in India, has been optioned for a film.

Vikas Swarup was born in Allahabad, India and joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1986.

Chang-rae Lee

Chang-rae Lee is the author of the novels Native Speaker (1995), A Gesture Life(1999), Aloft (2004), and most recently, The Surrendered, which was a 2011 Pulitzer Prize Finalist. His other awards and citations include the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, the American Book Award, the Barnes & Noble Discover Award, ALA Notable Book of the Year Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Literary Award, the Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award, and the NAIBA Book Award for Fiction.
  
Chang-rae Lee was born in Seoul, Korea and emigrated to the United States when he was three. He was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, Yale, and the University of Oregon. He is a Professor in the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University, where he teaches creative writing.

Chair Judge Razia Iqbal said, “It's common for people involved in prize judging to talk about it being a privilege. And it is. Hundreds of thousands of novels are published every year. And writing is largely a solitary activity; once published, the reading experience can be a very private experience. Sharing the excitement of that private affair is something I am looking forward to immensely, with the Man Asian Literary Prize. It is a relatively young prize, but one which is already punching above its weight. And that is because it is opening worlds. It's not news to the region, but to the rest of the world, Asia is the new kid on the block. And I am very excited about sharing what my fellow judges, Vikas Swarup and Chang-rae Lee think about the stories coming from one of the most vibrant regions on the planet.”

The 2011 MALP longlist will be announced this October, the shortlist in January 2012 and the winner in March of that year.

New eligible countries

This year the Man Asian Literary Prize has increased the number of countries from which writers are eligible to enter. The new countries are Iran, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, taking the total number of eligible Asian countries to 35.

Professor David Parker, Chair of the Board of Directors, said, "Our shift to published novels has given a huge boost to our aim of bringing global attention to the literature produced across the Asian region. In 2010 for the first time readers and reviewers took the opportunity to read and compare the Man Asian Literary Prize long and shortlisted books long before the winner was announced."

The winner of the 2010 MALP was Chinese writer Bi Feiyu for his novel, Three Sisters published by Telegram Books and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

As a result of winning the Man Asian Literary Prize, Three Sisters sold out in bookstores in Hong Kong and Beijing, with two thirds of sales from Telegram seen in South East Asia. The prize-winning book was reprinted by Telegram Books, and re-stocking orders were received from several large UK distributors, including Waterstones, Foyles and WHSmith Travel.

Ashley Biles, Sales Manager for Saqi Books on behalf of Telegram said, "For very good reasons booksellers like book prizes, readers do respond to such recommendations. Another advantage of prizes such as the MALP for Telegram and the author is that Bi Feiyu's reputation has been raised and I would expect shops to core stock both Three Sisters and Bi's first novel Moon Opera.”

Jenna Johnson of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, US publisher of Three Sisters noted a large uptake in media coverage commenting that,  “The award has been a wonderful way to get the word out even further about this fascinating book.”

Submissions for the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize are now open. Online entry form at www.manasianliteraryprize.org

Red-Headed Daughter

Momma's little girl is a readhead. Sometimes. I can't quite make out why it happens from time to time. Usually, Daughter Daisy produces orange blooms just like Mom. Once in a great while, Mom will come out with a reddish bloom, but nothing as committed as this.

To market, to market, to buy...


Strawberries! I love berries, can't wait for the rest of the berries to appear.

FRESH onions, not spring onions. Tender onions without the papery skins. I'm intrigued.

Spring means lots of salad greens, including special ones like tatsoi.
I, as an Asian, am ashamed to say I have no idea what it is.

Fresh peas! In a completely different league from frozen peas.

Beautiful pillowy heads of lettuce

Radishes blushing pink and prettily

Free range eggs. My kitchen staple.

And some other photos of beautiful food:

Artichokes. I heard they're a pain to prepare, but oh they are gorgeous.

Spider crab. Ugliest creature I've ever seen but I heard it's delicious.

The skinny new carrots of spring

Goat's cheese. Don't ask me why there's an orange one.

Saag Aloo Pie. I got some tips on how to make it (: Time to get creative with my saag aloo?

Enough said.

I love working at Pimlico farmer's market. And gosh, I love spring.

This is part of Simple Lives Thursday.

i want it!

i really want it again, but i can find it no more... so saad. dont you think this shoe is very gorgeous?

go, eat some foods at Malacca

assalamualaikum. it's saturday! :)

apparently, lack of updates lately. heh. now i'm back to last year, working again, and, i spent more than 12hours to wake up, drive, working, and drive home again. i got some 'mytimemoment' from 8pm-6am daily, IF i got no urgent stuff to settle down. so far so good. alhamdulilah.

and so. last tuesday kan wesak day, so i decided to go for a date dgn en barney sy. last weekends x smpt jumpa, and ptg skit baru keluar. sbb rehat2 dlu kan. then i ingt nak jln dkt2 je, area wangsa maju jerrr, pastu ends up tgk movie pun xde yg best, then, cek duit, and terus shoot to malacca :P



barney + panda.


1st destination - Alor Gajah. sila mkn cucur udang. murah, banyak & sos sgt sedap!


small open food court. lots of customer.


2nd destination - melaka jonker walk. the most popular spot.


siapa yg 1st time dtg, sila naik beca dia. gempak hiasan dgn lagu hindustan!


thank you sbb drive + layankan last minute plan! :)


one of the museum.


more to explore.


finally, a must-go-place, 3rd destination -
asam pedas. this, is dkt, errr, lupe. alor gajah jgk x silap.


nasi + telur masin + papadom + veggie.


asam pedas ikan pari!!! the best. this was actually the main purposed utk pergi melaka :P


safely arrived home b4 12am, it was raining heavily on our way back to KL. and esoknya kerja balik. oh btw td bangun pagi, pergi jogging dgn mama, kak sally, cik, and pergi pasar tani. semangat kan? ngee. esok pun mybe pergi jogging lg. abah sebok main golf this weekends. eheh. till then, have a nice weekends!


Dumplings: like little Humpty-Dumptys

Note:  I've been nominated for Babble's 100 Top Food Blogs!  I have 21 more votes to get into the top 50.  If you like what I've done here, would you follow the side link to Babble and vote for me?  I am on page #2 "Snippets of Thyme"


It's always fun to bake cookies with your kids. However, when you have teenagers, the sands of tradition shift somewhat.  Somewhat? O.K., they shift greatly.  Would  teen parents agree?  So many good changes come with having teens in the house like "Sweetheart, can you run to the store for milk and eggs?"  

They are  wanting to feel independent.  They crave traditions but want to break free at the same time.  I thought I would lure one of my kids into the kitchen by proposing we make something that seems exotic and foreign to our table.  

It worked.  I had a great afternoon making one of my daughter's favorite foods - dumplings.


We love all types of Asian foods.  I do, however, feel intimidated to recreate these dishes in my kitchen. I saw these dumplings on a food blog that I admire, Almost Bourdain, and decided this will be our first foray into Asian cooking.









Ginger root, like my beloved vanilla bean, is becoming another scent that tickles and delights my nose.  Fresh ginger is now a must in my kitchen.  I always fretted about buying a ginger root and then not using all of it and throwing it away.  I learned recently that you can freeze ginger and use more of it as needed.  Cool.


The filling was a combination of pork and shrimp.  This was an unusual pairing for us but these little bundles have a delicious flavor.  Making the petite dumplings was a good pick to do with my daughter. At this point, making cookies can seem a bit childish.  The dumplings have all of the "cuteness" factor of cookies but look exotic, foreign, and sophisticated for a teen.



Folding them was so easy and fun!  We giggled over the little pillow bundles that piled up.  We reminisced about when we lived in Japan.  So many times we gathered with our Japanese friends and made all sorts of origami flowers, birds, and shapes.  


Folding the little dumpling wrappers around the filling seemed daunting at first.  We carefully followed the step-by-step directions that Almost Bourdain included in her blog post.  After the first few awkward looking dumplings, we clipped along watching them pile up ready to be boiled.



This could become a new tradition in our house.  Dumplings are quick and easy to make but most of all, they are fun to assemble!  They could easily be made ahead of time and just pulled out ready to boil when guests arrive.  









Szechuan Red Oil Wonton  Recipe
Makes 24 (Serves 6)
Ingredients:
24 wonton wrappers
2 tbsp chopped spring onions
Wonton fillings:
150 g pork mince (or 75 g pork mince and 75 g chopped or minced prawns)
1 tbsp chopped spring onions
1/2 egg, lightly beaten
1.2 tsp grated ginger
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp Shaoxing wine
Dash of white pepper
Dipping Sauce:
3 tbsp Szechuan chilli oil
2 tsp minced garlic
5 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp Chinkiang black rice vinegar (Snippet's Notes:  I couldn't find this "black" variety so I used regular rice vinegar and they tasted good)
1/2 tsp ground Szechuan pepper
1 tsp castor sugar


To Make Wonton Filling:
Mix all ingredients until well combined.


To Cook Wontons:
Heat a big pan of water until it's boiling. Drop a few wontons at a time and cook for 3-4 minutes until the filling is cooked (Dumpling will surface and float on top of the boiling water). Remove and set aside to keep warm. Repeat until all wontons are cooked.