Rachel’s chilled pandan soufflé, recipe in the kitchen right now…

It’s been a quick shuffle in the kitchen as the two cooks exchange the (blog)house apron and hand over the inaugural wooden spoon. As we say our goodbyes and thank yous to sweet Laura (merci Laura! au revoir! à bientot!), we welcome our wonderful new friend and fabulous food stylist, Rachel Khoo. She and friend Andréa have been busy in their new venture, la cocotte – a wonderful bookstore/mini café in the 11th arrondisment of Paris. Check out some of the books on the la cocotte shelves here.

Rachel aptly calls herself “the London girl munching her way through all things delicious in Paris”. She works with such publications as Elle à Table, and Galeries Lafayette Gourmet, and has kindly created a sweet tooth menu for the (blog)house. It includes that delicious chilled pandan soufflé above, plus her almond milk panna cotta , and scrumptious biscuit poppets! What’s a biscuit poppet you might ask? Well, go in the kitchen and find out! And click here to read her very funny post about biscuit poppets.

I will tell you more about Rachel in the coming days but for now, please make her feel very welcome.

Take it away dear Rach, have fun in the (blog)house kitchen , and make as much mess as you like (Alfred really loves cleaning up!)!

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Rachel’s little blurb about her chosen menu…

“I would happily eat 3 desserts and just skip the starter and main. I’m definately a “pâtisserie-a-holic”. What I love about sweet things is the reaction they get. Mention to someone you’re making some sweet treat and you’ll see their eyes light up immediately. Desserts are meant to be shared. Bake a cake, wrap up some pieces and pop around to your neighbours and you’ll have no problems borrowing that extra cup of sugar whenever you want. So here are several sweet treats which are perfect for sharing but also just as good for curling up on the sofa and eating all by yourself…”

click here to view the menu.

yes. you heard me. i can’t think of ANY better way to celebrate all your hard work for My Heart Wanders, nor a better way to help me unwind and rejuvenate. So come on, get your sarong on, take your towel and sun hat, grab your favourite book and I’ll order the capirinhias! It’s holiday time!!!

First of all, do you remember this photo above? I posted about it here when I was on deadline, writing an article. I couldn’t tell you about it then but guess what, I can now! The magazine has just been launched, so it’s time to spill all…

This place holds a very special piece of my wandering heart. And yes, French Boy has everything to do with it.

I will save the love story for another time but for now, I just want to take you to this special place. A few of you have already been, since one of our favourite bloggers beat me to it and posted about her recent trip there last Friday. How lucky she is to live so close by to this magical place! So for those of you who know who I’m talking about, let’s just pretend this is your first time to…

With thanks to my dear friend and editor, Vanitha Krishnasamy, it is an honour to be part of this first, awesome issue of Holiday. Here is the rest of my article below. And even though the text is small, I promise you will want to take the time to read every bit, it is packed with my absolute favourite things to do on the island.

French boy and I adore the menu at Bonton Resort. THIS is the place to have your caipirinha poolside, then wander into the pavillon for an incredible feast. heaven, I tell you…

We spent 10 days here, staying at Berjaya and exploring around, looking for the best restaurants and places to visit. The main town is very touristy so we stayed away, and in doing so managed to find the island’s best-kept secrets. One of the most fun we had was taking the scooter out for the day. We designed our own tour, stopping just whenever we felt something looked interesting and then exploring, finding a whole world within it. We saw a wooden sign pointing the way toward a mangrove jungle, and since French boy had never experienced mangroves before (wow, i know! country boy!), we headed in. I was blown away, it is the most incredible mangrove forest I have ever seen…

Can you see the monkey?

We found this restaurant called ‘The Seashell Cafe’ – it is just a little walk along the beach from Berjaya. It was fabulous – a beach hut covered in fairy lights, complete with this giant electric guitar…

I know, hilarious! We thought we had died and gone to heaven. Oh I could go on and on and on about our time there. I found so much inspiration. It was a time in my life when my heart was well lost. And it was this place, and this boy, who found it again…

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Holiday magazine can be found in travel agents and on airlines all through Malaysia. For overseas interest, please ask your local travel agent. Holiday magazine is also the proud parent of the Help Keep Our Children Safe campaign, read more about it here by clicking on the campaign logo to the right of the page. And to find out more about the magazine, click here.

What better way to spend a Monday morning than with a little browse through etsy. Here are a few in my favourite items list right now…

I used to stock all natural, handmade soaps in my store and I do miss having such divine bath and body products on hand. But look what I found: Birch Bark’s Star Anise Bath Bar. Blissssssss. This lovely batch is curing right now, and will be sent out at the end of the month. Handmade with love using only natural ingredients by Nova Scotian Sherrieg . She also recently listed me amongst her favourite blogs when she was an etsy featured seller, it was such a surprise, thanks again Sherrieg !

And if I could get away with it, I would label everything in my home. and now that I spotted these babies, my labeling fetish just got fed. I mean people, they’re just four buckaroos! (‘buckaroos’ is aussie for ‘dollars’. well, i’m not sure about that, i actually just made it up.)

Who has not yet figure out that I adore repurposing, rethinking, and recycling stuff? But also that I have a very very picky palate for stylish, classy and well designed things? Well, the above find is your clue. These very sweet ivory poppies for your hair are made from repurposed blouses and are all hand cut by the very talented Betsy of foundling. She has a tonne more of the good stuff in her shop, so go check it out.

I have heaps more in my etsy favourites but good things come to those who wait. So I hope you enjoyed this segment of…

next up: have you packed your bags? have you got your sun lotion? sunglasses? your new lalesso hotpants? no? then get packing, I told you already we are off to my favourite island hideaway, chop chop!! plane leaves in a couple of hours…

Lost for words. This morning I woke up to a rocket-load of incredible submissions, many of which I have not yet had the chance to view. But WOW! The boat is almost flooded with tears. This is so wonderful. I cannot wait to have a look at all the submissions and get them organised for the judges. It will take a little time, and I will reply to each of you as soon as I view your images. But please accept this message for the moment, written to you by my own wandering heart…

This has been so much fun. I’m thinking we might just have to do it again sometime.

read about it here. see inspiration here. send your submission here.

view some of the latest submissions here, here, here, and here. and here!

This is it everyone. This is it!!!! xxx