Internalising Things

Those random, inexplicable cravings for highly specific food can strike at any time. The strength of the craving seems to have a direct relationship with the degree of difficulty to obtain the particular food. It’s inconvenient, puts you off whatever you had planned or available to eat, and generally bothersome. Why on earth does this happen?

It can happen on a full or an empty stomach. It doesn't have anything to do with pregnancy. Or vast amounts of time spent pootling around the foodblogosphere (that just makes you hungry far more broadly...). Capricious desires for awkward things to eat are something that have been around since I was a mere scrap of a penguin. There’s only one possible explanation...

It’s the tummy wombles.

Picture: Alison's Cakes

Everybody knows that tummy wombles give you the tummy rumbles.

Never mind those penguins in packing cases – the tummy wombles are the ones making all the hullabulloo...

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Crepe Expectations

There are some bands that, try as you might, you just can't get into. Radiohead is one of those for me - I've never understood the hype. But while nothing will convince me to like the song, this is pretty good...

Picture: One Drawing Each Day on Etsy

I’ve been wanting to try making crepes for a while now. I have very fond memories of my mum’s ham and cheese crepes (a rare but keenly anticipated treat), and would like to give them a go. They fall, however, into the category of cooking with a lot of work relative to the risk of things going pear shaped... this tends to be a deterrent.

The other thing I’d love to do if I managed some halfway successful crepes, is a crepe cake...

Technicolour Kitchen, as always, has a gorgeous version - all the character of something homemade, without even the slightest hint of rustic lopsideness! And oh, all that chocolate... But I might be tempted to try this mocha interpretation, as experience has shown Notebook:'s recipes stand up to a little rustic handling

Picture: Patricia Scarpin

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Relating to a Dormouse

First of all, just to be clear, relating to a dormouse is nothing at all like being related to a dormouse. Sorry, just needed to get that out of the way before beginning. There are times when life might be infinitely more peaceful if I could just crawl into a teapot (preferably not one already occupied by tea) and wait for the chaos to pass. A little like a storm shelter, but cosier and much more picturesque. With a large supply of promising looking books, plenty of tasty things to eat (tea – well, obviously! I’m in a teapot – and crumpets spring to mind, but this now appears to be becoming more Enid Blyton than Lewis Carroll. Now, there’s a literary mash-up I’d like to see – never mind Jane Austen and all those zombies...).

Picture: Apartment Therapy

It’s like a window seat grew a little house around itself... and much more useful than a garden shed. Although it also has rather tardis-like qualities in some ways. What is actually is, is a pigeonnier. And it wouldn’t fit on the balcony, so goes on the list for that alternate reality where there’s an enormous house with a garden... which somebody else looks after...

Picture: Apartment Therapy

But if the real version isn't an option, perhaps you could just have your teapot look the part - this tea cosy caught my eye on Etsy...

Picture (and knitting pattern): Periwinkle Park on Etsy

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Who's Running The Zoo?

Australia is currently in the throes of what just might be the least interesting federal election campaign ever. There's a choice between (practically, really only) two options, both of whom seem to lack anything resembling a policy (even if you close your eyes, squint at it sideways, and consider giving it the benefit of the doubt). Except when it relates to something where a practical approach involving - surely not! - common sense would seem to make sense (let's see now... climate change? Gay marriage?), and then they are united in their ability to bury their over-coiffed heads in the sand, stick their fingers in their ears and shout la-la-la-la. 'Nuff said yet?

Picture: via QB Nets

The only part of the campaign that's offered the slightest bit of amusement (other than the joys afforded by Twitter, whether by witty intent or overly serious happy accident), has involved an assertion of... strategic mispronunciation. Accusations were made that Julia Gillard was referring to her opposition without leaving a space between his title and his surname, resulting in calling him... Mr Rabbit*. Her surprised denial (pretty plausible, given her general diction) only made it all the funnier. And now, any reference to him, by almost anybody, sounds positively lapine.

But Mr Rabbit isn't just a politician**. Oh, no. He's far more than that. He has an Etsy shop, for instance, selling sweet little notions and odds and ends. Can't you just imagine him taking his hand and cheese sandwich to Parliament in one of these bags?

Bag: Mr Rabbit, Sir on Etsy

And he's in his own book, too...

Book: from Amazon

What I really want to know is what the lovely present is... the mind boggles!

* Instead of Mr Abbott, in case anybody happens to read this who isn't in Australia and suffering from over-exposure to all parties. Especially the aforementioned Tony Abbott, with his unfortunate tastes in swimwear.
** Doesn't being called a politician require, by definition, policies?

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Sweet, But Not What I Meant

No, no, no! I said pineapple lumps!

Picture: via Pink Wallpaper

I know it doesn’t work unless you put on a pretty strong Kiwi accent*, but it still amused me on a Monday...

Picture: If You Could See Me Know on Blipfoto

* Quite appropriate, given where they come from...

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Penguin's Patisserie Problems

Sometimes, it's better to look at those beautiful tasty things (or, better, to eat them where you find them) and not to try to take them home with you... *

Picture: Paris Breakfasts

Exlairs... Your (formerly) beautiful and appetising delicate patisseries** which are now a squashed mess stuck to the paper bag. Harrumph doesn’t even come close.

And sometimes, making it yourself just doesn't work...

Picture: Nathalie Derain on Flickr

Macarnons... The ones that just don’t just it. Flat, grainy, asymmetrical or just plain not tasty enough.

* This is a matter very close to my heart, after numerous occasions baking things for others, then realising it's not easily transportable in any container that I possess, without risking it arriving looking as though I sat on it.
** And I mean that in the sense of the items, not the entire shop. Much as it is often tempting to buy an entire shop’s worth of them (but shops don’t get squashed in paper bags... everybody knows that!).

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Hundreds And Thousands... Of Shoes

I might sometimes convince myself that almost everything I want to wear is black... and then sometimes my inner ballroom dancer* escapes. And spies things like these shoes...

Shoes: Kate Spade

Don't you think they'd be good to dress up something black?

There are sparkly Louboutins too, but while they seem a little glitzy, the Kate Spade ones are just like the shoe equivalent of fairy bread. Perfect!

Picture: I Ate Brisbane

* Inner ballroom dancer? Well, maybe it's more the outer one starts dressing like they're on the dance floor. All the time. I occasionally also like to convince myself this justifies a number of potentially questionable fashion proclivities (the line between dresses and tops, for instance, and wearing leggings in a non-gym-related context). I suspect denial may be involved...

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Proposing A (French) Toast

While pondering the popularity of penguins yesterday, I made an intriguing discovery via Design Sponge. It doesn’t involve any penguins* but, even better, it’s chocolate. Just when I was starting to think that intriguing flavourings were only available if you went to Japan, and that it was compulsory to include either bacon or peanuts (or, heaven forbid, bacon and peanuts) in anything combining sweet and savoury...

Picture: Komforte Chockolates, available here

This is remarkable on several fronts (and rears, quite probably). French toast, even given the alarming propensity for people to consider it a sweet dish, is something I’ve never seen combined with chocolate in any way, shape or form**. The ramen could be considered to fall within the ambit of any Japanese food being able to have an alternative incarnation in candy, and the tortilla and lime is perhaps along the lines of lime and black pepper potato chips, or the tendency for some Mexican dishes to include chocolate. Not that those two flavours are run-of-the-mill, just that they’re not quite as fabulous as the thought of French toast flavoured chocolate.
Even including cinnamon, it’s finally an admission that French toast really is savoury... Plus, it caters to cravings for starchy tastes, rather than taking the carnivorous path (like all that bacon!) so often seen when combining sweet and savoury flavours.

And it’s beautifully designed and made in small batches, not done as some sort of humorous gimmick. Did I mention it’s French toast? With chocolate! I’m not always convinced that combining two wonderful foods actually will produce some sort of greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts superfood, but I would definitely be keen to try this out.

I wonder if it would taste better with ketchup...?

Book: from Amazon

* Although, if I had my way, it would involve at least one penguin. Ok, and the other penguin as well. But I suspect he might regard it with suspicion...
** Having said which, if I look, I’m sure I will be hit by a veritable deluge of recipes. There should be some sort of collective noun for recipes... a gluttony of recipes? A hunger of recipes? Hmmm – thoughts for another day...

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Pop It Like It's Hot

I love this bag...

Bag: John Lewis via Design Sponge*

I also love the references to a jolt of colour, after all the pops. Pops of colour make me come over all Denny Crane and want to grab a paintball gun (surely, pops should make me come over all Jerry Espensen, but in this case, the ire of an over-popped penguin knows no bounds, and only Denny will do...).

Hmm, it comes in purple as well. Purple popping penguins...**

Bag: Objects of Design

Unthinkable thought – are Popular Penguins becoming another cupcake? Or another Keep Calm? I really do hope not, but it does raise an interesting question of where that demarcation of popular and overdone kicks in. Perhaps it varies depending on the individual thing – the line for moustaches on sticks*** is definitely closer than for cupcakes. Or for penguins (whether popular, classic, Emperor or otherwise).

It’s probably a sign that I’m far too concerned with what other people might be thinking, but I sometimes feel like I should be carrying or wearing some sort of explanation. It’s not that I desperately want to be thought of as some sort of uber-tastic trendsetter, but when the things that you’ve quietly liked (and been regarded with amusement over) for years suddenly go viral (or postal, perhaps?), it’s a little like the taste version of being gazumped.

Picture: Oversoul on Etsy... couldn’t resist, after writing the title for this post. And it’s just how I am in the kitchen – no chefly asbestos hands around here, unfortunately!

Maybe it should be drop it when it's hot? But I'm not sure I'm ready to abandon things I like just because Other People discovered them.
* The bag has the covers of "Sweet Danger" on one side, and "Dangerous Curves" on the other side... this seems rather apt, as indulgence in sweetness can be the cause of those curves. Although whether they're dangerous to the indulger themselves, or to others, is perhaps a matter for the beholder...
** That really sounds a bit too much like something a fifth-rate superhero might say.
*** Moustaches on sticks seem to be everywhere. At least, if you read any wedding blogs they are. The first time, if they meant something to a couple, then they might have been an interesting and individual thing to do (although I still am not sure why you would). But they are all over the place – eep!

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The Olden Days

The first time I caught myself hankering after something that just didn’t seem to exist anymore (window seats, children standing up for adults on buses, proper cupcakes, trousers for people who go in at the middle... so many things that I’m just not sure which the first one might have been), I realised that I was officially Old. With a capital O.

I came across this mobile idea factory on Etsy recently, and it got me to thinking... (isn’t that the point?!)

Picture: Pearson Maron on Etsy

“Hey kids, when we were your age, you couldn’t just buy ideas down at the shops, you had to grow them yourself.”

“No way mum! Like, from scratch?”

Then again, they could come in pretty handy. Can you take one into an open-book exam, for instance? Or sit one beside you on the couch when all ideas for blogging seem to have quietly escaped in the night?

Whether they’re a statement on having your own ideas, or having them made for you, I like that they stir the imagination a bit. After all, if they can do that and look good as well, that’s pretty much what art is for...

This one just had to be shared as well...

Picture: Pearson Maron on Etsy

There are certainly days when it feels like some extra clouds have been produced (although they tend to be in my head, rather than my apartment). Or the Winnie-the-Pooh kind, where you have your own little personal cloud. Hopefully without bees in it...

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