Fridge Magnet Paper Doll

On Phra Arthit in Banglamphu there is a really cute store selling some fun handmade ladies clothing and accessories, postcards and this, a fridge magnet paper doll. The first time I saw her I knew I had to have her. She brought back memories of childhood holidays on my grandparents’ farm, where my mother grew up.

Why memories of the farm? Because aside from it being a great time to play hide-and-seek in massive mango trees, swimming in rivers and chasing giant bugs it was also a time when we went through all my mom’s old toys. There was a kitchen set complete with tiny oven, her porcelain dolls and, my favorite, paper dolls with lots of outfits to mix and match. I would spend hours and hours playing playing stylist with them.

I’ve been back to the store many times since that first time and finally decided to buy her on our last visit to the area. She came in her own little bag, complete with outfits and accessories.

Now she has a new home on our fridge and I get to play dress-up again. With my fridge magnet paper doll.

 

Decadent Peppermint Crisp Fridge Tart

I was going to do a recipe blog of this fabulous and decadent South African treat, but between a cat lost and found oceans away from here, a bag that needed finishing and preparing for a visit and two days on Ko Samet I did not get to any of that. So for the recipe I followed, go visit Jeanne’s site, Cooksister. She did a fine job of blogging about it and to her goes all the credit for how great mine came out (my boyfriend’s words- not mine!).

I made two tarts, but there was not enough dulce de leche for the second tart, so I whipped up some more cream and mixed in some peppermint essence and peppermint crisp for a truly sinful topping.

Now we are off for two days on Ko Samet. All this holidaying recently have kept us busy and we need a break! I finally finished my sister’s bag that I’ve been promising her for about 7 months and will take it with for a shoot. Expect some pictures next week.

 

Spot the Difference

I’m back from a pretty relaxed trip to Cambodia. Despite some long bus journeys and time spent at embassies and border control, we still had lots of time to enjoy fabulous Khmer food and good cocktails.

In a kind of big move both of us have resigned just before we left for this trip and we are now kind of unemployed/freelancing. It was not exactly an impulse decision, but also not something we mulled over for weeks. It felt like the right thing to do though and I am looking forward to having more time to spend on sewing, cooking, baking and writing. So expect to see some more regular entries here. Starting with some on our trip to be published very soon.

Before I get to that though. Can anybody spot something different in the picture below?

 

About Me

I was tagged, quite some time ago, by fellow South African food blogger, and winner of TWO! South African Blog Awards, Jeanne of Cook Sister! for a Meme. Now I think I’ve mentioned before that I feel a bit awkward about doing these, but at the same time I think I get a little bit of a kick out of it. If only because I really like talking about myself.

So I’ll try to stick to the original as much as possible, but I’ve decided to veer of track a little too.

What were you doing 10 years ago?

Working at my first full-time office job and trying to finish my BA degree. Neither of the two made me very happy.

What were you doing 1 year ago?

Living in Koreatown, LA and exploring the city with Alexander.

5 Snacks you enjoy.

- Meang kham, a Thai snack of palm sugar paste, ginger, lime, chili, peanuts and toasted coconut wrapped in betel leave.

- Raw peanuts and cashew nuts.

- Brie on pear.

- Beskuit, A South African version of biscotti, only way better.

- Chocolate, if it can be considered a snack.

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire

That I guess would depend on the currency. But mainly I guess I’d probably end up spending it all on one thing and that is travel-travel-travel. I’m not good with money. And yes I will try not to be selfish and donate to some good causes.

Five things you like doing

- travel

- lounging around in cafes

- cooking and baking

- travel (not a mistake)

- shopping

Five things you would never wear again

-rugby shorts

-waist coats (probably)

-turtleneck shirts

-piercings

-long hair

Five personal bits of information (here’s where I veer off)

-I wanted to be princess Diana after I saw the wedding on television as a 5-year old

-I played dress-up with my sister’s Barbie when no one was home

-I was constantly sneaking into my Mom’s jewelry box and putting on her bracelets as a kid

-I was the first one of my friends as a teenager to get hair under my arms, I was mortified (if you take the above points into consideration)

-I am… a GUY.

Yep, you heard me. I decided to come out of the guy-closet publicly as I’ve come to realize that there may be some confusion as to my sexuality! The confusion resulted in lots of laughter for me and Alexander (he’s also a guy) and if you have at any point addressed me as a woman, please know that I am not at all offended and must admit to getting a bit of a kick out of the confusion I may have caused.

I know the name of my blog is probably the biggest cause of the confusion so let me explain. Marita is my mother. I’m not sure if she’s completely aware that I partially named my blog after her, but anyways. She’s Marita and I am Bordeaux. Her son.

That’s me (the guy, not the notebook or fort) and that was my Meme. Sorry for not being good at tagging, if you read this consider yourselves tagged and then you can choose to either do a Meme or not.

 

Someone’s Getting Mail

In between everything else that’s been going on I’ve had some time to sew. Here is a sneak preview. I’ll be able to reveal more once I know my friend has received her package.

And now I really have to go. We’re leaving for the airport in 30 minutes and I (yes, me!) have not even packed yet!

 

City Getaway, Bad Friday, Good Baking

My Valentine’s gift to Alexander came a week late in the form of a night spent at Luxx near Silom.

They were fully booked the previous week, so I decided to move the date, which worked out fine because Thursday was a public holiday. We left home around noon and checked into our sexy room early, before going out to explore the neighborhood around the hotel. It was beautiful tree-lined area with lots of neat old architecture and a variety of restaurants serving all kinds of cuisine, from Thai to Iranian.

For dinner, Alexander took me to the incredibly hip and stylish Eat Me. The setting was perfect for a romantic dinner for two and the menu was incredible. Begin with a cocktail menu with items like Bloody Mary made with saffron infused vodka and continue from there. It was the perfect dinner to compliment our stay.

We enjoyed a hearty breakfast in bed the next morning before checking out and heading back to work. It was unfortunate that we had to work Friday, I would have loved to sleep in some more, but it was going to be an easy day with just some grading. Only a couple of hours.

My pleasant mood was spoiled by the discovery that the fee for a re-entry permit for Thailand has gone up by 2000 Baht. Ridiculous and ludicrous. I was shocked and enraged and I still cannot understand some of the buerocratic nonsense we have to put up with to be legal workers. It’s almost as if they encourage people to work illegally and do regular visa trips to pretty destinations like Vientiane in Laos. Ugh!

To top that, my students are doing horribly in their exams, really just terribly. One after the other paper I graded was either a fail or just passed. And I thought this paper was going to be way to easy for them! Luckily all the other teachers I spoke to complained of the same thing, so hopefully I won’t get fired!

We left school at around noon, both of us feeling gloomy and in very bad spirits. While at Tops to pick up some groceries, Alexander began insisting that I bake some treats this weekend, and I could not think of a better way to rid myself that came and clung to me after our pleasant inner-city getaway.

So after lunch, a nap and an old Sex and the City episode I got out a bunch of ingredients and went baking-mad.

First item was a mango bread/cake. I used this recipe (mostly) on Barbara’s blog. I did change the quantities a bit, dividing everything in half. I also did not have any nuts or raisins around so I just added a lot of toasted coconut to the mixture. I divided the batter between two pie dishes and decided to turn the whole thing into a cake. And this was the wonky result…

I know, not very pretty. I do believe I have said before that I am no food stylist, but who cares when it tastes good? And I can assure you, this is very-very yummy. Thanks Barbara! The frosting is a broiled coconut frosting. What you do is you mix 1/2 a cup dessicated coconut with 1 tablespoon melted butter, a tablespoon brown sugar and a tablespoon of whipping cream. Spread this on top of the still warm cake a few minutes before it should be removed from the oven. Obviously it should be watched closely so it doesn’t burn. I spread a layer of lytchee jam between the two cakes, so it’s all very tropical and real tasty.

While that was baking I started on some banana muffin batter, throwing in a handful of poppy seeds just for fun. As soon as the cake came out the muffins went in and here is the result (which we enjoyed for breakfast the next morning)…

And after that, I rested. Enjoying a big slice of cake with some tea while the scent of freshly baked goodness hung around the apartment.

(The pictures of Luxx and Eat Me were taken by Alexander.)

 

V is for Chocolates and Baking Goodies

I got the most brilliant Valentine’s gifts from my boyfriend yesterday.

It came in this super funky and retro Thai-style lunch box. It is a tin affair with stacked compartments, usually filled with rice and meat dishes. I’ve wanted to get one ever since I first laid eyes on them, and now I have one. Lucikly mine did not come with rice and fried chicken (not that I don’t like rice and fried chicken, but as romantic gestures go, they are not at the top of my list).

My lunch box came filled with an assortment of chocolates, cookie cutters, cake decorating goods and chocolate-orange hand cream. Each tray held a different surprise! Isn’t it just too cute?

And now I have a really wicked container for some of my old and new baking accessories.

Looking at all of this it is quite clear what his Valentine’s message to me was. More ‘rommel in die trommel’ for me and more cupcakes and cookies for him!

 

Now Where Was I?

Ah! 2008 is here and for some reason that idea me pretty excited. I hope everybody had a a sweet festive season spent with family and friends.

We had a busy and enjoyable holiday with a friend of Alexander’s coming to visit us for the holiday week. We spent some time traveling around Prachuap Kiri Khan en Petchaburi provinces and showing Tim around Bangkok. Visit I am a Viking for Tim’s excellent account of events and keep your eyes open for some more brilliant photography taken on our trip at Primitive Culture in the next couple of days. I’ll let them do the writing about our vacation as I did not take enough pictures to warrant an entry.

These two pictures were pretty much the only ones taken by me on the trip. The first is of Alexander and Tim enjoying the sunset view from our tent at Lake Kaen Kratcheng, the second is the beach view from our hotel at Aow Noi.

As I mentioned earlier, for some reason I am pretty excited about the New Year. It started very relaxed, we decided to stay in with a movie after Tim left for his New Year’s flight and took Tuesday real easy. And since Wednesday we’ve been back to work and things have been dragging a bit ever since. I was not made for work.

So I think I will have one resolution for this year. To write more often. Write about food, about sewing and crafts, and just some general bits.

I am working on a little project to do some cooking entries on food from the four countries I lived in over the past year- South Africa, Taiwan, the United States, and Thailand. I may also do some entries about some of the countries I visited between these- Kenya, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

Keep your eyes out for these, I hope I will not become terribly lazy and disappoint.

Happy 2008!