The visit to Sanrio was because my brother is expecting his second kid in June and it’s a girl. YES! finally! She will be showered with nothing but Hello Kitty from me ^_^ hahaha. I really hope she grows to love it cause I never want to stop giving it to her =p. I knew the Sanrio downtown location would have Baby Hello Kitty. Most places don’t.

Angels Flight is actually this nifty little historical railway. It’s the smallest railway and was built to move posh Victorians from they’re homes to the markets. Back then it cost 1cent one way, today it costs 50cents one way (25cents with metro pass).

Oh! and while walking downtown I ran into this cute little place Four Leaf. I had heard of this place but haven’t had the time to go to it and there it was on my way to Sanrio =). Their crepes are delicious and their boba was perfect. I could eat there everyday! Good thing I don’t live downtown haha.

It was a good touristy day… oh and there was another place I had wanted to try. Lette… they make these awesome macarons… I couldn’t get a picture in time so y’all have to settle for a picture of the box heh. I had a violet cassis, caribbean chocolate, madagascar vanilla, sweet wedding almond, earl grey tea, and rose flavor macarons. *drool* lol Just thinking about them right now makes me want to see if they’re open… which they’re not cause it’s 10pm >_< I have such a sweet tooth.

Shot with Canon T2i 50mm lens.

Hope you Enjoy! ^_^

~Chibi LaLena

His parents had moved out the year before I was born, so he must have had mixed emotions as he cycled past. he would also have passed his old Junior School, Milton Road where he and his brother and sister received such a good education. In family tradition my sister and I went there  as did one cousin, and the children of another cousin. Sadly the school has now been pulled down; it was an example of a typical early twentieth century school architecture and it was a crime (another crime) by Cambridge council to allow it to happen.

Back to the buns… I think Donald would have collected a dozen warm freshly-baked buns and then cycled home where they would be popped in the oven, ready for breakfast on Good Friday  This was the only day at that time that there were hot cross buns in the shops… now they seem to be available all year round, another eroded tradition to mark special times of the year.

Hot cross buns are yeasted dough, enriched with egg and mixed spice and dried fruit, currants give the best flavour. The spice should make the inside of the bun specky and when you break it open there should be a heavenly waft of nutmeg, cinnamon,  clove and allspice. The bun should have a sticky glazed top marked with a cross, either a simple knife cut, or a flour and water paste cross, or using a template when brushing on the glaze.  The cross is obviously a sign of the crucifixion, and the richness of the bun breaks the Lenten fast for that breakfast. Hot cross buns should be served hot, and eaten with loads of butter.

As Easter approaches, and hot cross buns fill the shops, we do a taste-test, buying as many different makes of bun as we can over the couple of months they appear. over the years we have tried all sorts, and really don’t care for the novelty buns flavoured with odd things like Earl Gray tea, or with different fruit like cranberries, or even chocolate chips! Such things are not the traditional hot cross bun. Over the years we time and time again decide that the finest buns come from Lidl.

Bergamot essential oil has been long used as the distinctive flavor in Earl Grey Tea. It is also often used as a part of skin conditioners or moisturizer for its cooling and refreshing effects.  A few drops of this essential oil added to your morning shower can be a great way to not only condition your skin, but also provide a great little pick-me-up.

Like many of the other citrus fruits, the essential oil of the bergamot orange can be used as a great air freshener.  Simply take a cotton ball and add a few drops of bergamot essential oil and then add it to the bag of your vacuum cleaner.  The heat from the vacuum will help release the essential oil into the air and leave both your carpet and room with a nice, fresh- lemony-orange scent.

Also, if you are trying to reduce your overall body weight as part of a new healthy lifestyle, bergamot essential oil may be able to help.  Because of its properties, adding a drop or two of bergamot essential oil to your water at meal time has been shown to both mildly suppress one’s appetite and have a detoxifying effect on your overall body.  It should be noted that this essential oil contains a chemical, synephrine, which is very similar to the problematic chemical found in ephedra, the now U.S. banned weight loss supplement ingredient. Synephrine has been associated with arrhythmias. However, the chemical found in bergamot orange is about 10 times less powerful than the concentrations found in ephedra.  Knowing it is a stimulant, it is often suggested to take in small dosages and with food, to avoid an adverse reaction, even if such occurrence may be unlikely.

The bergamot orange and its essential oil have also been used in alternative medicine as a way to help relieve painful congestion associated with bronchitis or chest colds.  Adding a few drops to the vaporizer during your time of recovery may speed the whole process along.  It can be a great alternative to those who feel menthol is too harsh a scent.

Everything started from a book – Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga, which I started reading for one of my university courses.  The book is not about tea, I have to say, but among other things, I read there a very interesting way of cooking…tea. Since I had nobody to share my incredible finding with, I had to share it in my blog. The recipe is very simple, but I hope you will enjoy it.

How to Cook the Tea a la Nervous Conditions:

1. Boil some water in a medium cooking pan

2. Add some milk (about 250ml), about 4-5 drops of organic vanilla extract

3. Mix and stir vanilla, water and milk for a minute or so

4. Add 2-3 Earl Gray Tea Bags, reduce temperature so milk wouldn’t escape the pan

5. Add some brown sugar – if you prefer your tea with sugar

6. Cook for about 5-6 minutes

7. Turn off the heat and let the tea stay for about 4-5 minutes

8. It’s ready to drink!

9. Optional: If you prefer to drink cool tea, you can add some ice cubes into the tea mix after step 7.

Beefeater London Dry Gin – perfect for James’ Gin Gems

Jubilee Teatime Special

One of the films nominated for the 2007 Academy Awards is The Queen and Beefeater Gin created this cocktail in honour of the movie. Royal-Tea will make a great addition to your Oscar viewing party and is an easy chilled tea drink with an unbelievable clean taste.

Ingredients:

• 2 parts Beefeater Gin
• 2 parts brewed and chilled Earl Gray Tea
• Squeeze of lemon juice
• Spoonful of sugar
• lime wheels for garnish

Preparation:

Pour the ingredients into an old fashioned glass filled with ice.
Garnish with lime wheels

She’s also making me one for my Starbuck’s cups!  I love them so much! Thank you, Em!

I looked at several recipes and combined them into what I thought would make a Limoncello more to my likening – Less sweet and lighter – tasting more like a Lemon Drop Martini.  I made a couple of batches and tried them out on my friends.

The Limoncello has been met with rave reviews!

The biggest difference is that I put in about half the sugar that is called for in most recipes.  Some friends drink it in the traditional fashion – chilled from the freezer, while others have pushed on to new frontiers. One added Limoncello to her Earl Gray tea and another mixed it with tonic.  In any event, I hope you enjoy the Limoncello you create.  I would love to hear about your results and how you vary the recipe or process.

RECIPE:

One Bottle (750 ml) Everclear

One Bottle (750 ml) 100% Vodka – Smirnoff is fine

20 lemons (10 per bottle)

2 cups of sugar (about)

2 cups of water (about)

This is the “to taste part” and it depends on how long the peels are left in during the infusion stage.

PROCESS

Rinse and brush the lemons – clean very well

Peel the lemons – avoiding the bitter pith – I use a vegetable peeler

Combine the peels and alcohol in a large leak proof container with a wide mouth that you can get a ladle in (easier to get the peels out later).

Leave peels in the container for 4 to 6 weeks.

Leaving the peels in the container: You can leave the peels as few as two weeks or as long as four months. After two weeks you will produce a Limoncello on par with what you can buy in the U.S. I like mine with a deeper lemon flavor and leave the peels in about 5 to 6 weeks. Some recipes say to swirl the concoction once a week, others don’t. I swirl every so often.

This is a good time to buy your bottles – go online. You need metal clip top bottles.

PROCESS

It is time to take the peels out of the Limoncello. Use a large slotted spoon to remove the peels. I put them in a large bowl to drain and pour the “drippings” back into the container. Waste not, want not!

Strain the Limoncello – You do this to get rid of the impurities. I use paper coffee filters, a funnel, and a coffee mug, for draining. This part is so sloooowwww. Wet the filter so it does not absorb your precious Limoncello. I change the filter every once in a while, it helps the draining to go a little faster.

MAKE THE SIMPLE SYRUP – 2 cups water to 2 cups sugar. Bring the syrup to a boil and then cool to room temperature.

This is where you tinker with the flavor. REMEMBER – This is half the amount of sugar called for in most recipes.  Sometimes I add a little extra syrup and/or water. 

Combine the Limoncello and the simple syrup in the large container and leave for another week to let the flavors blend.

BOTTLE!!!!!

HERE IS THE BEST PART – Drink your Limoncello and spread the cheer.

Today I woke up at 1:20pm or so and got up and plunked around on my guitar (Gus, is his name, by the way) and then I had a really long shower and got dressed. I really enjoy just being able to go to bed whenever I want and then get up whenever I want.

I watched the two most recent episodes of Once Upon a Time last night. That show is so good, but at the same time it is so depressing. But I love it. My friends and I usually watch it together and we try and figure out what’s gonna happen next and who is who and it’s really interesting. The same thing with Doctor Who. It’s so good and I love the characters, but it always makes me so sad. I cry every other episode and I just wonder if it’s good to be getting so emotionally involved with the people on the screen. I mean, they’re not even real.

I found a video on Youtube and I am trying to learn some neat bars of country that I can use for 80 Days. There is one bit where the characters have made it to the Western U.S. and I want to play some guitar while Isaac plays harmonica. If we can get it, it’ll sound really good. I have some of it down, but I’m not a guitar player as of yet and learning is hard right now. It’ll be really nice when I get better and I can learn more quickly.

So, we got the new movie, Hugo, from Netflix  today. I’ve wanted to see it since I heard that it was coming out. I read the book that it is based on years ago and I really liked it. The book is about half pictures and half words, so it was like watching a movie, almost. If you haven’t read the book, you should really look into it.

And now, since you may or may not be wondering about why there are Samoas in my title there, I am eating Samoas and drinking Earl Gray Tea. Earl Gray is my absolute favourite kind of tea. I’m not sure when it became my favourite, but it is. Earl Gray was just about the only kind of tea that I drank while I was in London. And Samoas are the best kind of Girl Scout Cookies! I like Samoas, Thin Mints, and Tag Alongs the best. I really can’t decide which of the three that I like the best.

Earl Gray tea is what I’m drinking this winter.  I have two different kinds from Upton Tea.   First one is Extra Bergamot Earl Gray which is  tea (usually black tea)  with bergamot oil in it and this one has a lot of extra bergamot in it; very very fragrant.    Upton Tea’s page on this Earl Gray tea   When brewing Earl Gray tea I find that if it’s too weak; it makes awful tea, but if it is strong enough- the tea is great.

Bergamot  oil is  aromatic  and goes great in tea.  It’s the oil from the rind of the little lemon/orange like citrus bergamot that flavors the tea.  The next tea I tried from Upton Tea is Earl Gray Supreme. Earl Gray Supreme tea   This one has Assam tea in it. 

(below is a  photo of an 1873 ANTIQUE VICTORIAN ENGLISH STERLING SILVER BOXED AFTERNOON TEA SERVICE 2nd photo close up of the spoons and tongs for the sugar)The two under the teapot are the sugar bowl and cream jug.

See the small shell spoon?  It is called a caddy spoon to measure the loos tea into the teapot.  Isn’t that neat! and was common in the 1800’s.

Of course these words delighted me and lit up my evening. The few nights before I thought maybe she was staying for convenience sake because her dad occasionally works out-of-town, but seemingly a friday night that wouldn’t be the case and she wanted to hang out. So hang out with nothing over my head we did. The prior evenings we had things we had to do in between her resting etc… I took my Brother In Law and his kids dinner… a dinner my daughter recommended of what they (my kids and my nieces and nephews) call “my Famous Pasta salad” and for my brother-in-law I made Beer Cheese Soup. Broth based with a bit of cheese so maybe it wouldn’t hurt his tummy. Mads helped me make the dinner, cupcakes and we carefully drove everything out to their place. We had a nice but short visit because I was afraid to make anyone sick in their house. When we got home I made her tea and we relaxed and watched some oldies but goodies and had some left overs of what we cooked.

Last night when I got home I was surprised she was still here, so after changing out of my work clothes etc~ I asked her what she would enjoy for dinner. She didn’t really have any ideas so I went back to what we used to do when it was just her and I and we wanted to have a special date night. I got sparkling apple cider, Brie Cheese, Salami, prosciutto, apple and french bread. I lit some candles at the table and we enjoyed and laughed. After dinner we shared a small piece of cake I had purchased at the market and watched a new movie and an old movie. I rubbed her back and tucked her in gently. Where she then declared to me that when she became a mamma she would be the best tucker inner ever….. I hope so.

I hope all these little times we have together don’t fade into oblivion and the stressors of the world or life in general don’t over shadow the little times we share. Maybe not fantastic like Disney Land, but still a memory>

I know she will go home at some point today…. but we have had a great few days. I LOVE EVERY MINUTE Positives for me.

I do… Lots.

Sunday mornings are awesome. He makes me breakfast. Not only is it a super sweet gift from him, but it’s nostalgic for me.

My dad always made a huge feast on Sunday mornings. Eggs, Bacon, Sausage, Pancakes, Biscuit, Milk and Orange Juice. Dad always over did it… but that is what made it so fun. For me, it is a tender memory of delicious smells, sizzling bacon and my Dad’s smile in the kitchen.

The breakfast Cody makes for me is not quite so lavish, but it’s perfect for us. It greets me on Sunday mornings with that same desire to get out of bed and follow my nose.

Earl Gray Tea, Eggs, and Sausage covered in Molasses. Perfect.

I am lucky to have such wonderful men in my life. I am also thankful that once I out grew my father’s home, I found a man to love and provide for me.

Sunday morning breakfast is a wonderful reminder of my blessings.

I love this thing. We got some K cups along with it (was in the box), and we also got some hot chocolate and Earl Gray Tea. It’s so fast. We have it set up to turn on in the morning, so all we do it push a button and we have coffee.

I had iced Earl Gray Tea this afternoon, and it tasted great. I’m still using my Teavana teapot, but it’s a nice switch every now and then. It’s getting warmer here in the desert. We’re already in the upper 80s, so the time for hot tea is drawing to a close. Bring on the iced tea. I’m not normally a fan of iced tea, but if it’s a flavored tea, I like it. Iced coffee is good too. We did a small experiment the other day. We took a coffee K cup and brewed 8 ounces of it, and then added in a hot chocolate K cup and brewed 8 ounces of that, and mixed it all together. Yum! We’ll be doing that again eventually.

So far this week, I’ve been doing great with my workouts. Haven’t missed a day so far this week. It’s only Tuesday, but it looks good. I think my idea of staggering my long elliptical workouts with shorter ones is working out well. My legs are a bit tired today, but I plan on doing one mile tomorrow. I need to remember to stretch tonight, and I should be good to go. Today I did 1.4 miles in 50 minutes. I did my usual thing by splitting up the time. I did 25 minutes, then 15, then 10. Although I split the 15 and 10 minute sections up also. My legs were tired. I did the whole thing though. My feet are tired too. I’m still using the Vasaline trick my Dad told me about, and I think if it wasn’t for that tip, I’d have blisters again.

The miles are really flying by now that I’m doing more than a mile a day some days. I’ve gone a total of 245.8 miles since April 28, 2008. We’ll see how many more miles I can get in before April 28 of this year. It will certainly be more than 250 miles. Perhaps 275? Quite possible.

Here are the last few pictures from the virtual walk site I haven’t shared yet.

Mile 243.4

Mile 244.4

Mile 245.8

Keep on moving!

While the pairing of blackberries and earl gray tea may seem random – trust me on this – it’s not. The essence of bergamot oranges from the tea offers a subtle citrus punch that enhances and compliments the blackberries. I wish I can take credit for this brilliant union, but I got the idea from Annie Bell’s lovely cookbook, Gorgeous Desserts. While Annie’s recipe calls for gelatin, I decided to substitute agar agar for a few reasons. First, I have a compulsive urge to change any recipe I come across. Second, many people stumble across my blog when searching for agar agar recipes. And since I’ve noticed a paucity of homemade (and yummy) agar agar recipes online, I decided to help fill that void.

If you’re interested in agar agar, checkout my other agar agar posts: Blood Orange Agar Agar, Hibiscus Mint, Gelatin Tips and Tricks.

Recipe for 4-cups

• 3 cups water
• 3 earl gray tea bags
• ½ cup sugar (or to taste)
• 2 teaspoons agar agar
• 1 cup puréed fresh blackberries – approx 2 cups whole berries (seeds strained)

In a saucepan, bring 3 cups of water to a boil, and take off heat. Add tea bags and steep 5-minutes, remove tea bags. In the same saucepan over medium heat, combine the brewed tea with sugar and agar agar. Boil for 15-minutes. Stir in blackberry purée. Pour into shallow pan to cool. Once set, cut into cubes.

I am out of the house and sitting outside a coffee shop on Hillhurst. Sitting at a metal table, I’m drinking Earl Gray tea. I’m bundled up in a borrowed leather jacket and my favorite black-and-white scarf. My legs are crossed, my hands nestled in my pocket. It is a clear warm early winter sky. The sun is shining.

My nose is clogged and there’s a tickle in my throat that hasn’t left since the weekend. My skin itches. My joints ache. My whole body feels heavy. I am slow. I am weak. I am tired. I am miserable.

I scowl at the traffic roaring by. I scowl at the laughing teens in their T-shirts and jeans. I scowl at the bright sun beating down at me. I scowl at God.

An old couple is walking slowly across the street. He, bald-headed, is wearing a brown vinyl jacket; his beer belly is poking out of its front. She, much smaller, is dressed in a red petticoat. He is leading her by the hand. They stop and wait for the traffic to cease. She talks to him in a soft voice. They cross the street.

Something about a cold makes me feel alone.

Copyright © 2009 Mark Nishimura

All rights reserved

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