floating world

autumn baking

This weekend was perfect autumn weather. Sunny, cool and crisp, with just a bit of wind. We went into the city to visit the little zoo next to the aquarium, and took Ali for a ride on the monorail. That has to be the most pointless form of transport ever, but very good for entertaining toddlers. It was perfect weather for cooking too - I made Anzac biscuits (because it was Anzac Day) and ratatouille, and experimental cheese and vegemite scrolls.

And thanks for the pomegranate tips, especially the pomegranate-opening video. We ended up eating most of it plain, and the rest stirred through baked, spiced cauliflower with goats cheese. Ali was very suspicious, but I loved it. Yum.

adventures at the supermarket

When I first moved to Japan I used to think of my grocery shopping missions as supermarket roulette. I couldn't read  Japanese, so I was entirely reliant on packaging to guess what I was buying. This led to many amusing (in retrospect) mistakes, like the time I bought something that came in a carton with a cow on it, assuming it was milk, and poured it in my coffee only to discover that it was drinking yoghurt. My illiteracy encouraged total brand loyalty, because if I bought something once and it turned out to be the thing that I hoped it was (like milk!), I would continue to buy the same brand religiously.

When buying eggs I always chose the most expensive sort, because I thought that would ensure that they were free range. Then Mark (who speaks good Japanese) came to the supermarket with me and noticed that they were actually special eggs with extra-yellow yolks, designed for dipping sukiyaki and shabu-shabu meat into. After that I bought the second most expensive eggs, which had a picture of a happy chicken on them.

Sometimes not being 100% certain what I was buying was frustrating, but it definitely made supermarket shopping much more interesting, and it was ridiculously satisfying when I came home with everything I wanted. As I slowly learned more Japanese some of the mystery evaporated, so I began to buy one new thing each time I was at the supermarket - something I hadn't tried before, or that I didn't recognise. It was fun to pick up a new kind of sweet (there can never be too many kinds of mochi, as far as I'm concerned) or an unfamiliar seasonal vegetable, and then try to work out what to do with it when I got home. I ended up stumbling on some really tasty things, like myouga and dried persimmons and chocolate tofu.

Back in Sydney, being able to read all the labels has taken all the surprises out of supermarket shopping. But there are still plenty of things that I haven't cooked or eaten before, so I try and pick up something new every now and again. Last week's experiment was tapioca.

I used it to make a dairy-free lemon pudding from this recipe. I imagine that the frogspawny texture wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, but I liked it and so did Ali. Next I want to try this pudding, which looks like the perfect comfort food for cold weather. This recipe for Indonesian style sago (sago gula melaka) looks delicious too.

My next mystery item: pomegranate. Any suggestions?

things i like about succulents

(a) their silvery grey colour

(b) their geometric leaves (petals?)

(c) they are tough

I am not the most attentive gardner. I value plants that can thrive without too much attention. And so succulents are the perfect plant for me. My mum got me started - she has a big urn of them. She brought over some of the little ones, we stuck them into pots of earth, and I put them in a spot on the balcony where they get sun and rain. And that is it. Now the pots are densly packed with little ones popping up everywhere. I pull out the excess, put them in new pots, and they start off again. They are magic.

squishy squashy

Bianca inspired me to make a batch of playdough. It is my favourite kind of child-entertainment: quick, cheap, easy and portable. Making it, and the hot salt smell, brought back memories of my mum doing the same thing on rainy days. Ali has been having lots of fun with the cookie cutters, making balls and pretending to eat it. The pink and yellow blobs in the photo have now morphed into a kind of orange, so maybe it's time to make some more.

haori

My haori arrived in the post from Japan last week. It is so beautiful.

The silk is shibori dyed, and incredibly soft. The basting threads are still in place, which means it's never been worn.

I'm going to wear it with a short denim skirt + paper crane top + black tights + flat camper boots. Or thin knit jumper + skinny jeans + coral ballet flats. I like having something interesting that I can throw on top of what I'm wearing just as I leave the house, which minimises the chance of getting covered in weetbix and cat hair.

I would never have dared wear a haori in Tokyo. I would have felt conspicious and out of context there, as if I was wearing a lab coat to the opera, and probably attracted baffled looks. And confirmed suspicions that those gaijin are a funny bunch. But in Sydney no-one knows that they're meant to be worn with kimono, by old ladies, and so I think I can get away with it as an Akira-sque jacket.

pillowcase dress

This is an unused IKEA pillowcase that I picked up from Vinnies for $2 + some scraps from this dress + ric-rac. I cut the closed end of the pillowcase open, cut some dips for the underarms, added the yoke pieces, finished the arm holes with bias tape and trimmed the bottom with ric-rac. The long sides of the pillowcase became the side seams of the dress. Because the body is just a slightly-gathered rectangle it is pretty boxy, but hopefully in a "60s-shift-dress" way, not a "Hello-here-I-am-wearing-a-pillowcase" way.  Because that would be a bit weird.

  

beautiful music video

This is the video for the Neko Case song " People Got A Lotta Nerve". Isn't the animation beautiful? (The song, too). I saw it on Rage today and it grabbed me right from the beginning because of the knitting. The delicate, dark, whimsical style of the drawings is so appealing. And I love the wallpaper.

It was done by Julie and Paul Morstad.

mary and max

I saw a preview of Mary and Max last night. It was very sweet. I have a soft spot for animation, especially claymation. And the director, Adam Elliot (he introduced the film and answered questions afterwards) explained that the whole film was made in-camera, with no digital special effects. Most impressive. I think my dream job (or one of them) would be making the clothes and props for this kind of film.

today I...

- booked flights to San Francisco (yay!)
- had my stitches taken out and a whooping cough booster (ouch!)
- baked chocolate brownies
- ate roasted sweet potato with cottage cheese and sweet chili sauce for lunch
- made piles of fabric for future projects
- ordered a haori from Japan, to wear as a jacket this winter. With denim mini skirts and flat boots.
- made a mosaic from my flickr favourites (see here for links to the original photos). Based on this I like flowers, orange, deer, patchwork and polar bears.