Oh, for Pete’s sake! I cannot believe I did this. See, I am stupid. There. I said it. I switched the Swapmania dates in what’s left of my mind, putting it on today as opposed to FRIDAY – WHICH IS WHEN IT WILL BEGIN AND WHICH IS WHAT WE HAD ALL AGREED UPON.
sigh. le sigh. el sigh.
I’m feeling persackly like this 
this image is from one of the funniest threads I’ve read – evah – on Basenotes
So….since I am woefully unprepared with a post, let me tell you what’s going on in my world.
a. 
I am falling in love. With Jubilation 25. Again. And again, it’s thanks to the body cream. I’d always admired it but from a respectful distance – I wore it often but just couldn’t seem to unwrap all the layers. The body cream is the perfect gateway drug to the perfume. As with Epic, it allows my mind plenty of time to investigate the nuances. For those of you who are a bit overwhelmed by the line’s opulence but know you would love it...if only….the body products really are the way to go.
b. Ditto Frederic Malle’s Iris Poudre. Couldn’t stand the perfume. Then I tried the body cream. Now I’m buying both. Just as soon as I hit the Lottery.
What I’m reading: Well! I’m all over the place, since my bestie dragged me kicking and screaming into the New Millennium, getting me a KINDLE for Christmas and loading the little bugger with 300 books! Malcom Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, Molly Birnbaum’s Season to Taste are currently occupying my eyeballs, to great delight.
What I’m Cooking: Not a damn thing. But I did promise you guys the homemade Hostess cupcakes recipe but I can’t find it right this minute and the clock is ticking so here is the recipe for my green curry, which is about the only thing I can taste these days anyway.
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
Yield: 1 cup (enough for 1 large curry)
Ingredients:
- 1 stalklemongrass minced OR 3 Tbsp. prepared frozen or bottled lemongrass (available at Asian stores) – you can also used dried (I get mine from The Spice House to use as an emergency backup – if you do use the dried, put it in a tea ball or some muslin and steep it in a little bit of simmering water or stock – otherwise you’ll get these gritty bits in the curry)
- 4-5 green chilies, sliced (Thai green chilies OR jalapeno) – I use jalapenos because I grow them and the smaller the hotter, as you prolly know. I like it HAWT, so I use a lot of little ones.
- 1 shallot, sliced, OR 4 Tbsp. minced purple onion
- 4-5 cloves garlic
- 1 thumb-size piece of galangal OR ginger, thinly sliced (or you can just chop it up and throw it in the FC with the rest of the stuff, like I do)
- 1 cup chopped fresh coriander/cilantro leaves & stems
- 1/2 cup fresh basil
- 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp. ground white pepper (available in most supermarket spice aisles)
- 1/2 tsp. ground coriander
- 3 Tbsp. fish sauce; Vegetarians: substitute 1 Tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 tsp. shrimp paste (available at Asian stores); Vegetarians: substitute 1/2 tsp. salt
- 2 Tbsp. lime juice
- 1 tsp. brown sugar
- 3-4 Tbsp. coconut milk (enough to blend ingredients together) – if you are not around some coconut milk a bit of unsweetened, shredded coconut in either regular milk or some chicken broth will do the trick just fine. When I’m in a huge hurry I just throw all this stuff in a blender/food processor with some store-bought pesto and Blam-ola !!! The perfect curry sauce.
Preparation:
- Place all ingredients in a food processor, chopper, or blender.
- Process well to form a fragrant Thai green curry paste. Taste-test it for salt and spice. If too salty, add a squeeze of fresh lime or lemon juice. Add more chili for more heat. Your curry paste is now ready to be used. You can bottle up any leftovers and keep it in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Freeze thereafter. ENJOY!
So that’s my quick story.
What’s yours? What are you wearing today? Reading today? Eating/cooking/drooling over today?
Good morning, all
As usual with posts of this nature, I’m printing out the entire string for the recipes and reading suggestions. I have learned from past experience that I absolutely cannot go wrong with either if they come from this blog. :x
Today I’m wearing Faberge Flambeau which feels right at home with the cat’s eye reading glasses I picked up recently. They are very trippy, but fun.
I’m just beginning A Dance With Dragons, the latest of the Game of Thrones books. I have been so enjoying this series that I’ll hate to see this last book end.
I was actually home for an entire weekend, so I did some stock-the-freezer cooking – chili, mini scotch meat loaves, lasagne, even made two batches of cookies (freezing them as individual dough balls so I could fish out 3 or 4 and bake them when the craving struck). Rockne, my setter, lay on the kitchen floor having a nose-gasm from all the cooking smells.
I would’ve, too. Move over, Rockne!
The Posse is an incredible source for stuff, innit? Some of my best book recs and recipes come from you guys.
Must investigate Game of Thrones – at this rate I’ll be the next-to-last person on earth to read it (El O will be last, as it is not Popular Mechanics or Applied Science or whatever…/:)
xo >-)
SOTD is Ambre Sultan which goes perfectly with the chilly weather.
I am currently reading Barbara Kingsolver’s The Prodigal Summer, which I am absolutely loving. It’s the first book in ages I haven’t read on my beloved Kindle.
Cooking: My New Year’s Resolution was to learn to bake bread, so I made my first white loaf at the weekend and am insabely proud of it, my entire family were sent pictures!
I am looking forward to my first ever swapmania on Friday, will be joining in from the UK…
See you on Friday!
I send food pics, too!! Just sayin’
xo >-)
Wearing Eau de Camille that I received today from Fragrancenet… Is it possible that it’s turned?? It smells weird! I’m so disappointed! It smells like the faintest idea of what I remember EdeC to smell… *and* it also smells weird. I’m hoping I’m just not in the right mood… :(
And I’m reading Isabel Allende’s Island Beneath the Sea, I really like it.
As for eating, I think I’m going to serve myself a second bowl of chips to counter the EdC disappointment…
That’s an excellent idea! I hope that bottle is okay and you are just have a Wonky Nose Day!
love Allende. Used to read her a lot but got out of the habit. Must get back in…
xo >-)
Today I cooked Bean Soup with cornbread thanks to the book I’m reading A Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. Want to get out of date and learning to cook what I already have in the fridge and pantry, but I still love my fragrances, :x
Bean soup is always good. Ditto cornbread! That’s why Floyd made cornmean, imo!
xo >-)
Wearing a Hayward Enterprises dupe of White Patchouli.
I recently started doing the no-poo baking soda ACV thing. The family’s appalled but the cats seem to like it. I notice a lot more feline sniffing of my hair, possible because the ACV rinse makes me smell like a salad. Or they’re trying to tell me to just use shampoo.
Made oven-baked breaded ‘fried’ chicken and boiled potatoes. I was very peturbed about the potatoes, because I just got a fresh bag on Friday, only to discover that most of them were bad.
Not even obviously bad–the kind of bad where it looks okay on the outside, but as you peel it, more and more is veined in black, and it soon becomes clear the whole thing is no good. It took me twenty minutes to find enough good ones to make a meal.
Most of my reading these days is non-fiction. Various news sorces, mainly. Or else vintage Stephen King–his stuff from the ’70s and ’80s.
Anyone else craving a milkshake? I want a giant milkshake, a really good one, with whipped cream on top. Ah, well, if wishes were fishes… :)
oooh. miiiiilllllkshaaaake. Chocolate.
But could I have a malt instead? There’s this place in St Louis, Crown Candy Kitchen, that makes the best chocolate malt on the planet. They have a malt challenge (5 malts in 30 mins). If I were of a suicidal bent I just might try it some day.
But I’m not.
But I could be….:-?
naaah…
xo >-)
Mals, so sorry you’re still rage-y :(
Wearing Prairie Nymph all down my right arm and vintage Arpege extract all down my left: I sprayed until dripping, in both cases, and went out to heave yet more piles of leaves into yard-waste bins (now on to borrowed ones from neighbors – 7 total; collection is tomorrow. Oof!)
Just finished reading Elinor Lipman “My Latest Grievance” (also enjoyed the Lacks story, appalling though it is in many ways). Have piles of books from library, including the Elizabeth George book male has out; but picked up the Lipman for 75 cents at the thrift store, and… well, we know how that goes.
Today I’ve cooked nothing, and my beloved phoned to say he’d already eaten. Yesterday, though, I made him dinner of mushrooms in garlic butter; herb-roasted chicken; cauliflower in cheese, nutmeg + black pepper sauce; and haricots verts. Am currently making my own slow way through a very cold bowl of frozen blueberries with cream – a cheat’s ice-cream – which I made the mistake of leaving for a moment to answer the phone. One of the cats showed a definite interest (well, OK, he was licking the cream); and yes, I am still eating them.
Of course you are! Cats are a bit delicate and take awhile to wipe out a bowl, whereas if you have a Rottweiler with a lustful heart, your blueberries and cream iz GAWN! 😮
Arpege extrait is beautiful!!!!
xo >-)
Life is very sucky here at the moment, despite the lovely weather. (Nobody’s sick or anything, it just… sucks. I have rage.)
Wearing Memoir Woman and Dune and Mariella Burani. Dune is a weirdie for sure – it was my sister’s, way back when, and I was forbidden to wear it at the time – but I see how it would appeal to her. Very wearable for a weirdie, too. And I’m still puzzled by all these reviews that say Memoir Woman is merely a pastiche of alllllll the other Amouage scents, nothing distinctive, because I Cannot Figure It Out. Got compliments on it at the Mart of Wal yesterday, though. Could be that I am not all that familiar with the entire Amouage line… I love Lyric, like Ubar a lot, enjoyed Epic, haaaated both Jubs, felt like one of the Egyptian pyramids walking around wearing Gold – Memoir, while absolutely Not Me, is gorgeous and I love it.
Only cooking boring kid-friendly stuff lately: roast beef, hot dogs, lasagna, baked chicken. Gaze has taken to putting Texas Pete on everything (the kid HATES CHEESE, how freaky is that? someday I’m gonna have his DNA tested to make sure he’s mine).
Not reading anything this week. Listening to old CDs (yeah, yeah, all the kids have iPods but I don’t), working on novel. Well, okay, I’m picking my way through Elizabeth George’s Write Away again, but no novels. Basically, I hate everything this week.
I am smug that you now love Iris Poudre. Ha. Am almost convinced to go retry the Jubies… almost.
But what I really, really, really want to know is, How did you get a snapshot of The CEO?
Rut-row!! One of THOSE weeks, huh?
Don’t have ‘too’ much rage, okay? Step away from the axes.
That’s what I always do. 😉
You know your Amouages just fine. Not everybody has to love them all (I hate Honour like a mongoose hates a snake). I will have to revisit Memoir. I don’t have much memory of it!
Make some good hot chocolate. A dollop of brandy. A how shower and early to bed. No axes. Maybe a little glaring. But no axes, okay?
xo >-)
Hi Anita! I slathered ed my little sample of Jub 25 cream last night so we are on the same wavelength! Today was a Nocturnes parfum and edt day. Gonna check out that basenotes link when I am able. Xxoo mary:d
smooches, baby! That Jub25 is KILLAH, innit? Just ….oooh, soo slickery-good!
YOu will howl when you see the BN link.
Hope we’ll see you on Swapmania!
xo >-)
Dear Musette – You are making me feel BIG LUST for J25 Body Cream, and I have enough scented moisturizers to last beyond Kingdom Come! Cooking’s hit rock bottom since I became full-time mom, stem-mom, and worker. The latest for me – beef stew. Love, love, love it – though your curry’s making me drool as well….
That would be – step-mom. No idea what a stem-mom might be…
A keen gardener who talks lovingly to her flower and plant babies?
LoL!
That is a mom made from stem-cells. And love. 😡
Just like a step mom (minus the stem-cells).
You can throw some curry fixin’s into beef stew, jazz it up a bit, if you get tired of the regular version (can one get tired of the regular version…..:-? methinks not)
anyhoo – J25 body lotion is every bit as luscious as the body cream, scentwise. Amouage does not stint on quality in their products, that’s for sure!!!
xoxo >-)
Yes, and cheaper and easier to use as well! It’s good to know – Thx!
Cooking? frozen pizza. Reading “Snobs” by Julian Fellowes and wearing the Fresh grapefruit thingie, it’s spring here.
It’s fake spring here – 60F. I’m in Jube 25 but could just as easily be in Pamplemousse Rose, it’s so warm!
xo >-)
Ooh you need my Dilled Seafood Pasta Salad recipe if you are having warm weather! :-)
Ooooh, that sounds good. Love seafood, love dill, love pasta!
Isn’t that the same guy tht writes Downton Abbey? How is the book?
Wearing vintage Coty Imprevu. Threw a pork loin in the crockpot with some Fresh Ginger Ginger Ale, apples, raisins and onions. Reading Back To Work by Bill Clinton, (I’d vote for him again.)
I’ll be over for dinner in a couple of hours, okay? 😉
I’d vote for BC again, too!
I have a little scrab of Imprevu around here….:-? must investigate..
xo >-)
I’ve had a bottle of it laying around for a while. I picked it up thinking I might try and swap it but after wearing it today I’m wondering what was wrong with me that I haven’t worn it more often?
I rarely swap my vintage Cotys for just that reason. They do hold their own across the winds of time.
xo >-)
Woody, leathery, chypre…hmmm what’s not to love? Why do I have all these beaucoup $ bottles on my fb list when I have this sitting around in a drawer? I have a very skimpy swap list, if at all. I succeeded in minimizing the unnecessary this past year.
yeah, but S’mania is fun, no matter what you have. Heck I swapped for cookies and hats! It’s just a fun time all around, imo, even if you don’t end up swapping a whole lot!
xo >-)
Hey Musette, I managed to get your cold/flu/sinusitis/whatever, so I can’t smell much of anything. SOTD is Ava Luxe Venezia which is strong enough that I can faintly smell it.
Reading: I love my Kindle, but damn Amazon for making it so easy to buy books for it! ;-) I have a couple of books I’m reading at the moment: The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta (interesting premise, but not going where I thought it should) and Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose.
“Cooking”? Does that involve using the range? I am a terrible cook who comes from a long line of terrible cooks, so I had the good sense to marry a wonderful cook. Sometimes, that has interesting repercussions – in this case, when we remodeled the kitchen a few years ago, he replaced the old range that I sort of knew how to use with one upon which I can truly only boil water. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. **insert arms-crossed guy here**
[-(
( he is a useful little guy, innhe?) 😉
Years ago (almost before the Internet took hold, iirc) there was a truly hilarious story in Food and Wine about a non-cook learning to cook (she’d divorced her chef-ish hub and was now learning to cook with her new love, also a non-cook). It was a delightful story and all ended well – but in between it was kinda skeery! ;))
Sorry about the sinusitis! :(( Here’s hoping it goes away quickly!!!!
xo >-)
ps. I love Stephen Ambrose
SOTD is TDC de Bachmakov. It’s nice, but I get just a pretty generic green floral – nothing like the fab reviews I keep reading. Perhaps it needs to be sprayed.
Just finished reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. I’m not usually into non-fiction, but this was great. Deciding what to read next. I do have a nook that is full of stuff 9and a full bookshelf as well), so I’ve got lots of choices.
Been kinda lazy with cooking lately. Had some stomach ick last night, so just had a yogurt smoothie, english muffin and ginger ale. Made a ton of soups lately, mostly of the lentil variety since it had been chilly here in SD (relatively of course). Tonight will probably be boring chicken and broccoli stirfry with brown rice – our go-to mostly healthy weeknight meal.
Hers (and her family’s) is a heartbreaking story, innit? Such a gift, albeit unknowingly given, and such dismissive greed…
I find all the TDC scents work best sprayed. I am a huge Charmes and Leaves fangirl but find it doesn’t work that well dabbed. Same with Balkiss, bless her heart.
Nothing boring about chicken and broccoli stir-fry – we live by that one, too! I throw some ground Grains of Paradise in for a bit of diversity!!
xo >-)
I really liked that book. It is strange to say i liked the book when oF course what happened to Henrietta and her family is a true tragedy! I learned so much from the book though.
oh, no! I totally get what you mean. Her story and the excellence of the book are not required to be as one.
xo >-)
I’ve been wearing the hell out of Sonoma Scent Studio’s Champagne de Bois. The aldehydes and the sandalwood just GET me. And no, that is not a horrid combination. The aldehydes give the wood a delightful effervesence-and isn’t that just a great word?!
Doing a lot of ‘escapist’ reading, much of it of course forgettable but will recommend Glen Duncan’s “The Last Werewolf.” Kind of horror, kind of what Interview with a Vampire was to blood drinkers and all in all, an arresting read.
And here’s my recipe for you. Keeps the cold and wind away.
Pumpkin Curry
1 1/2 qts. peeled, 1 1/2-in. chunks pumpkin (Sugar Pie is what I used) or other orange-fleshed squash (from a 3-lb. butternut or acorn squash)
About 1 tsp. kosher salt, divided
3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
1 onion, halved and cut into half-moons
1 or 2 red or green serrano chiles, minced
1 cinnamon stick (2 1/2 in. long)
20 fresh curry leaves or 6 dried bay leaves
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
1 can (14.5 oz.) coconut milk
1 cup salted roasted cashews
Optional-I add cooked Chinese long beans, green bell peppers (sauteed) or okra to this for color. Don’t turn your nose up at okra; try it in a curry.
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Steamed basmati rice
Preparation
1. Sprinkle pumpkin/squash with 1/2 tsp. salt. Heat 1 tbsp. oil in a large nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat. Brown half the pumpkin in oil, turning once, 6 to 8 minutes; reduce heat if pumpkin starts getting dark. Transfer to a bowl and repeat with 1 tbsp. oil and remaining pumpkin.
2. Heat remaining 1 tbsp. oil meanwhile in another large frying pan over medium heat. Cook onion, stirring occasionally, until deep golden, 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer half to the nonstick frying pan and reserve other half in a bowl.
3. Add chiles, cinnamon, and curry leaves to onion in pan. Cook, stirring often, until curry leaves are very fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add turmeric, cumin, and remaining 1/2 tsp. salt and cook, stirring, until spices are fragrant, about 1 minute.
4. Return pumpkin to nonstick frying pan (with onion) and add coconut milk. Bring to a boil over high heat, then cover, reduce heat, and simmer until pumpkin is tender, 5 to 10 minutes. Stir in cashews and lemon juice, and add more salt to taste. Top curry with reserved onion and serve with rice.
Yum!
You said it!!! I love making non-meat dishes with heft (and if they are hefty enough, El O doesn’t notice the lack (or diminution) of meat! That….oh, yum!
And that book sounds great! I am the Queen of escapist reading. My life is challenging enough. I don’t need to borrow more, y’know?
xoxoxo >-)
And ‘effervescent’ is one of those giggly words! It’s impossible to be in a bad mood when you say effervescent!
xo
Hi, Posse! First of all, Ms A, I have neglected to send you my sympathy and best wishes for a fast recovery from your sinii/smell/taste issues. Sounds truly awful – big hugs.
Wearing Christian LaCroix Tumulte Pour Homme in all it’s cedary wonder. Just finished reading 11/22/63 by Stephen King, which was a departure from his usual but a suspenseful page turner. Funny note: my bff had this tome sent to me to read after hand surgery. It was over two months before I was able to hold it; that is one massive hardback. As to cooking, we have been on a curry kick so I look forward to trying your sauce recipe! DH has perfected a delicious curried tofu that he puts in omelettes. It’s spicy and hearty and warms you to your toes.
A,
Thanks for the kind wishes. It’s slowwwwly getting better. This warm, moist weather is helping a LOT! It’s nearly 60F here!!! No forced-air heat and I’ve been outside more than in for the bulk of the day – my siniii are LOVIN’ this!!!!!
Second, =)) on the BFF gift, bliess his/her heart. That sounds like something I would do!
That curried tofu sounds almost as yummy as the Tumulte pH!
xoxoxo >-)
Will be wearing Tabac Blond parfum.
Reading The Art of War on my Chistmas present Kindle :)
Cooking/eating nothing at the moment, and thinking hard about what to do about breakfast… DH just now informed me we’re out of eggs, after I suggested he make us french toast. Le sigh, indeed ;)
That BN thread is hilarious, but dang, I feel a little sorry for the poor gal who unwittingly had that awful picture taken.
Your curry looks fabulous! I’ve never tried to do my own curry paste. I’ve got a recipe somewhere for panang curry that I really should buck up and make. I’m always worried about the authenticity of those, though; sometimes there’s no distinguishing between a red and a panang, which clearly means one of them wasn’t done right…. :-?
You got one, too? Kindle is my New Best Friend, especially as I tend towards hardback books – and those can be a pain to schlep all over town.
That is an awful picture, innit? When I saw what was dangling around her calves I nearly fainted. But she must know how that looks…..right? =((
My ONLY requirement of curry is that it taste good. I doubt this one is any more authentic than any other, though it tastes close to my favorite Thai rest. curry…but who’s to say if THAT is authentic.
Best part of curry, for me, is throwing all of the stuff in the blender and grinding and mashing until it tastes and smells the way I want it to – which is what makes it so easy!
Art of War. Classic!!!
xo >-)
Musette that basenotes thread was really funny and kinda gross at the same…
SOTD is Tom Ford Santal Blush… which I really really like, but I think most do not.
As for cooking, I did my cooking marathon on Sunday..you know how it is, working full time, two teenage boys, a husband…so I made turkey meatloaf (almost gone already…I modified an Alton Brown beef meatloaf recipe and it is really good!!), sausage and peppers and chicken pot pie. I am going to have to try your curry recipe. It sounds yum!!
Sweetie, I live your life (minus the boys – luckily both of those behemoths are off on their own now) – but I cook for the week as well – running the biz, plus the house, plus the dogs, plus….there are no alternatives here (no restaurants) so I’m stuck with 6 days a week, minimum. Getting it all ready at the beginning of the week means I don’t pull out an axe and chop the stove in half, come Thursday…y’know? :-w
God Bless Alton Brown, is allz I got to say! ^:)^
xo >-)
I lurve me some Alton.
Wearing PG Praline de Santal (I’m loving a lot of the Parfumerie Generale line these days), reading Soulless, by Gail Carriger and just made Pork Ribs Braised in Mango, Lime and Coconut (braising is my new food related obsession).
Lisa D, the Pork Ribs sound really good. Do they taste sweet?
Tara, the pork ribs are sweet, yes, and I make them even sweeter by adding in some coconut sugar at the end, when they come out of the oven and I’m reducing the braising liquid. With the reduction, and the caramelization of the sugar, what I end up with is a nice, sweet and sticky glaze. What’s really great about the recipe is that it uses these inexpensive cuts of pork, called country style pork ribs (the kind with bones), which come out surprisingly good after slow cooking. The recipe is from a cookbook called All About Braising, by Molly Stevens, which I really like.
Yum.
Yes, tell us how they taste!!!
xo >-)
You succeeded Musette, I first went over to basenotes to have a look at that “beast” and saw some other creatures I took pity on also. That poor woman with the wardrobe malfunction??… dreadfull really.
By the way I find MKK to be a kitten of a scent, now for some beasty vintage Schocking I could ad some images but then again I won’t.
I looooove Schocking, so there!
Cooking? Very lazy woman tonight (me) throwing all sorts of vegetables in a wok pan + some spices and scampi (never goes wrong)
SOT : Diorella at 06 am – Black Cashmere at noon and Jalique half an hour ago (combo’s not to be repeated but Diorella persists & wins!!)
Reading : Budapest Noir by Vilmos Kondor
I would like to participate for the swap but those ghastly overseas shipping problems will probably ruin it??
Couldn’t you people start :” The Smelly European Flock” or sth.?? LOL :d
I am in the UK so look out for me at Swapmania! :-)
Aha!! There’s probably also Austenfan if I remember correctly (Holland?)
Perhaps we should add a small flag to our posts?
Will look out for you FragrantWitch, nice of you to reply!
And dinazad and ines, both of whom I’ve had great swaps with. Also, Abyss who I’ve ‘spoken’ to via email.
There are less of us but we are here and I’ve had a couple of great swaps with people happy to post from the US!
I don’t have much to offer up this time, but just wanted to pop in and say I am happy to ship overseas!
Am scribbling down the names, thank you!! And you too tammy!
folks ship o/s all the time during the ‘mania. So come on down!!!
I love Shocking.
I love scampi.
btw – I don’t know if that was a wardrobe malfunction or if there just isn’t any way to contain that part of her body? All I know is, that photo made me want to run for miles and miles…and never look at a chocolate cookie again.
But I got over it. I figure longer walks and better moderation will do me just fine. (and some more yoga and cardio and situps)
:-< xo >-)
Dunno if I’m allowed to say this; nor whether, if I am, this is the place (gap / spot) in which to say it; but, although I’m based in the US, I’ll actually be in France between Feb 11 and 24. If anyone European wanted to swap with me, therefore, we might yet be able to work out a somewhat less expensive deal… just a thought.
Sure you can say that! You know Swapmania is coming up on Friday so you can set up your swaps with any info you need/want to share! I actually think that’s an excellent way to set up some o/s swaps, just in case you wanted my opinion :”>
xo >-)
OK, ta, dear!
I am currently drooling over my organic fruit and veg box ( which was delivered yesterday) – I seriously look forward to it and squeal a tiny bit when I open it. I know, I know….sad. I just love deciding what to cook and then getting stuck in! Also inhaling the smells of blueberry buckle and violet tea cupcakes emanating from my kitchen. Yum!
Reading: Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell and also The Undertaking by oh-no-forgot-his-name ( an American poet/undertaker- I watched the Frontline of the same title on PBS and was warmed and devastated in equal measure by some of the stories).
Wearing: Costume National 21 and testing Vetiver Sacre
Violet tea cupcakes!
Would you like the recipe?
Yes! and nothing sad about the squeal on that box! Heck, I was squealing myself – and it’s not even my box!!!
xo >-)
I’ll email you! :-)
Yes! Violet tea cupcakes…wow
Wearing: Bottega Veneta.
Reading: Just finished Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s “Shadow of the Wind”. Starting on Richard Gordon’s “Nuts in May”, which promises to be suitably fluffy reading.
Cooking: I actually managed to carbonize chicken soup. Apart from that I’m living on Asian instant noodle soups, since I can only taste hot and salty right now.
My local yarn shop has a sale right now – I spent my lunch break drooling over mohair, silk, merino and bamboo….
:(( I feel your paiiiin on the chicken soup. Also the no-taste. Do try the curry – it does cut through the inability to taste and deposits some intriguing sensations – it won’t be as nuanced as it would be were you not illin’ but it’s better than a poke in the nose with a sharp stick! 😉
I don’t knit but my best friend (she of Kindle fame) does – we went to a yarn shop a few weeks ago – I was agog and very intrigued…but I doubt it will happen with this >-). I can barely make the bed! Knitting seems like one of those things that works in theory – but all I’ll end up with is hundreds of dollars of yarn stuffed in bags. :-< xo >-)
Shadow of the Winds is a great book. Very interesting.
Wearing: Jolie Madame EdT;
Reading: still reading the fabulous manuscript for Deborah Harkness’s upcoming novel, Shadow of Night;
And I made a fantastic Portuguese kale-and-potato soup last weekend.
And I, my dear, am coming to YOUR house for dinner! :d
xo >-)