So I hope your Christmas was magic and blessed with family, friends, love…and good food! On Christmas Eve, Rich and I had a quiet dinner together. We put all our presents under the tree and bought a bottle of wine to celebrate. I think with the excitement of having our first tree this year, we may have got a bit carried away with the presents. Although half of the presents under the tree are for his family too:)

In the evening I prepared steamboat for dinner, we had slices of meat, vegetables, tofu and noodles to simmer and cook in our hot pot broth.

We ate so much! After dinner, we sat by our tree and gave presents to each other. Rich spoiled me with so many gifts! I will have to do a separate blog post on it because it’s just so awesome.

On Christmas Day we went down to his family’s place and we had more food and presents! I’m always amazed at how much effort people put into Christmas over here. Growing up in Asia, Christmas is just like an extra public holiday. It isn’t as festive and merry (although we do decorate the streets with tinsels and lights and occasionally put up the Christmas tree). More often we just have a quiet family dinner and maybe attend Christmas Mass at the local church. We never gave out Christmas presents at home, it just wasn’t a tradition at my house. But I can see how excited people get over here at Christmas time, especially Richard and the boys. I guess to him this is like his family tradition and he’s grown up celebrating Christmas in a loud and merry affair. The wonderful thing about this occasion is that there’s a lot of giving and sharing…and a lot of family and friendship bonding.

Ok, I’m sure by now you’re just itching to see some of the wonderful gifts I got this Christmas

A duck teapot from my sweetest friend Niina. She also gave me a gorgeous vintage casserole dish with a warmer stand (I will share that in my next post).

A gnome painter kit and cutest planter from my lovely friend Allana. Some gnome picture books from Richard.

Another gnome from my father-in-law and a new chili plant. My vegetable corner garden is coming along quite nicely this Summer.

He also gave me a new planter with some tomato plants!

Everything is just so awesome and everyone knows me so well! I always get excited when I receive gardening or kitchen gifts! Thank you so much for celebrating Christmas with me this year!

Hey mum…the treats have arrived! Vielen dank!

To those who are wondering about the contents in the box, they are German Christmas cookies. Every year my mum spoils us with this stuff!

The brown flat shaped gingerbread is known as Lebkuchen. They are usually rectangular or round in shape, and coated in chocolate or white frosting. They have a sweet and nutty taste and smells like allspice

Lebkuchen is made with honey, flour, sugar, eggs, hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds, candied orange and lemon peel, marzipan, and spices (cinnamon, ginger, aniseed, cloves, pimento, coriander, cardamom).

My favourite biscuits out of the lot are the Spekulatius. They are thin and crispy with a buttery and allspice taste. The biscuits are formed by traditional hand carved cookie molds. Each biscuit has a beautiful imprint and intricate pattern. They are almost too precious to eat! What are your favourite Christmas treats?

I made spaetzle with meatballs and mushroom cream sauce on Richard’s birthday.

Spaetzle is a popular dish in Germany. It’s a cross between a curly pasta and a small dumpling. Before we left Stuttgart, mum bought us a spaetzle maker so that we could make our own homemade spaetzle! It was much easier than I thought and also, very delicious and fresh!

Basic Spaetzle Recipe (serves 2 people)
2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk

Mix the flour and salt. Combine eggs and milk and stir into the flour mixture. The batter should look and feel like a pancake mix. Wet and sticky.

Place the spaetzle maker on a large pot of boiling, salted water (there are different kinds of spaetzle makers out there, mine looks like a flat cheese grater).

Pour the batter onto the spatzle maker and spread the mixture through. The dough will fall through the sieve and into the boiling water.

When the spatzle floats up the surface it means it’s cooked. Gather the pasta quickly with a large spoon, drain and serve with your favourite sauce.

Spaetzle is declicious with melted butter and melted cheese, or served with any meat dish, gravy, cream based sauce or even plain! Enjoy!

Today was a wet and windy day and I was feeling really cold (and lonely) in the shop…

I decided that maybe the shop needed a bit of sprucing up, so I chose a “spring green” theme and started decorating our shelf display. I love that our pop-up shop has such a diverse range of products, it inspires me…just being part of this talented collective.

When I got home, the green theme rubbed off on me so I made a quick salad for lunch, and treated myself to Kerri’s Yo-yo biscuits…served on my Stangl Magnolia green plates.

It’s taken me ages to find a set of plates that I love and these vintage dinnerware from New Jersey are all hand painted individually and made between 1952 to 1978. Unfortunately Stangl Potteries have closed so I’ve been sourcing online, the rest of the Stangl dinnerware, in particular this Magnolia collection. I’ll share more pics once I’ve managed to collect the complete set!

We did end up having tea at our place. Niina dropped by and we had a light lunch.

2 mushroom and chopped walnut rissole, 1 chickpea and sweet potato rissole, 1 pot of Russian green tea with maté and lemon grass, a tub of freshly picked cherry tomatoes, Abhis gluten-free bread with flax seed and rice and Abhis rosemary and olive loaf.

Painted with Acrylic and pencil on Arches watercolour paper.

I painted this piece while drinking a tea blend called Marco Polo and listening to Collapse Under The Empire.

This painting is of course inspired by my love for tea drinking. The idea came about from a random sketching session with Niina during our last shop shift. She was the one who suggested I draw a chicken teapot..which sounded crazy at first, but the idea grew on me and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. So chicken + tea = cute chicken teapot!

Before I met my Welsh husband, I was hardly crazy about tea. Once we started dating, I realised how much tea he consumed. I also learned quickly that he MUST have his morning ritual of tea + milk + toast or I would suffer the wrath of a grumpy bear! In fact, his whole family drinks tea around the clock, which is probably a very British thing.

Over the years we have sampled and bought various tea. One of our favourite things to do is to brew a pot of tea after dinner and sit down and unwind. I usually take mine black, without any sugar or milk.

So to all the tea lovers out there including Niina, this piece is for you. Here’s to lots of happy tea drinking!

Stay For Tea is available to purchase in my shop. Pop it in a 5×7 frame and enjoy your original cuppa:)

Two of my favourite things.

I’m so glad my colleague friend took me to Abhi’s Bakery in Fremantle. The shop is filled with the most delicious aroma of homemade bread and pastries!

I had a bit of trouble deciding on what to buy so I bought a loaf of Wholemeal Five Seed; which is packed with sunflower seed, kibbled rye, linseed, crushed soy and crushed wheat. I also bought an orange poppy seed gluten-free cake and a polenta and sultana loaf (which did not survive the trip home for photo taking).

Later on in the day, I wrapped up some orders for my lovely customers.

These orders are extra special because all proceeds from the sale will be donated to my friend Julie-Ann Twigg who was involved in a horrific plane crash. Julie-Ann is currently in intensive care and sadly her daughter Jacinda and the pilot did not survive.

I’m acquainted with Julie-Ann through Etsy and blogging, and she has always been very supportive of my art and business. When I first heard the news, it affected me deeply and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Luckily I am comforted by those who know Julie-Ann and everyone has rallied on in support by organising a treasury sale.

You can also donate to the Twigg Family Appeal at any National Australia Bank branch or see the Hindmarsh Shire website for direct deposit details.

Please support generously and keep Julie’s family and the pilot’s family in your thoughts and prayers. Love and blessings to you all. xoxo

A few of my favourite things…

Gnome in a pot

Rainbow rag rug

Baked claypot chicken rice

A smiley Babushka lamp

What are you loving this weekend?

I’ve discovered that my husband has a hidden talent in the kitchen! He has strong hands. Good, strong, baker hands! It all started with the pancake batter, I noticed that he could whisk it quite fast into a smooth batter.

So I put him onto the task of making simple flat bread. In the past whenever we made bread, I would either under-knead or over-knead the dough and the bread would end up a little too tough and chewy. But my husband, seems to have mastered the technique of kneading the dough in a quick, strong and efficient manner.

Last night we cooked dhal for dinner and rich made some naan bread for dipping. He made the bread all by himself. This is coming from my klutz of a husband who can’t tell the difference between light soy sauce and dark soy sauce, or sesame oil and olive oil, or name all the herbs correctly in our garden.

But as you can see, bless him…he makes good bread! It was baked golden brown on the outside and when you pulled it apart, it was all soft, light and fluffy in the inside!

Richard’s homemade Naan

Makes about 6-8 medium naan
300g plain flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp brown sugar
4 tbsp milk
4 tbsp plain yogurt
15g butter

- Place a baking sheet on the tray and preheat the oven to its highest setting.
- Mix together all of the dry ingredients. Make a well in the middle and add wet ingredients with 85-90ml of water. Combine by hand and knead quickly until smooth.
- Pinch off small handful of dough and roll into a teardrop shape. Place onto the hot baking sheet and cook for two to four minutes until spots of brown appear on the surface.
- Brush the surface with butter and serve hot.

There is little sign of Autumn in Perth as it’s still unbelievably hot over here! On hot days I’m always clueless on what to make for dinner, though we try to cook something light and simple.

A few days ago, I sampled some rice paper rolls from a local cafe and tried not to balk at the price. If my mother had been there she would have been adamant at making our own rolls instead.

So I did that today…mostly with ingredients from the fridge.

Ingredients for filling:
1 cup of cooked shredded chicken
1/2 cup of thinly sliced capsicum
A handful of fresh mint leaves
A handful of fresh coriander
2 tablespoon of fish sauce
2 tablespoon of lime juice

A packet of Vietnamese rice paper rolls.

Other optional ingredients that you can use or add:
Thinly sliced carrots, chinese cabbage, beansprouts, tofu, prawns, chopped nuts or vermicelli noodles to fill up your rolls.

Mix the ingredients well.

Fill a tray or shallow pan with warm water. You don’t have to use too much water, just enough to submerge the rice sheets.

Place one rice sheet in the water for 20 seconds, then gently lift the sheet out and place onto a tea towel. The tea towel helps to absorb the extra moisture. Be careful not to oversoak your rice sheet in the water for too long, as it will get soggy and difficult to handle.

Top your ingredients onto the rice sheet. Make sure the tea towel is laid on a flat surface which helps with rolling your rolls.

Serve with your favourite dipping sauce.