Once upon a time, back in my Indigo days (for new readers this term can be explained here, here, and here), I had employees. One of them was a young girl named Jo. Not only was she one of the best darn employees I could have ever wished for, but she has since become a fabulous and dear friend. The other day while looking through old photos and knick knacks I happened upon this postcard that I remembered she had left me one afternoon at the shop. From memory it was attached to a little gift, and I remember thinking how serene the image was, and then bursting out laughing when I turned the card. I just had to share it with you…

The gift of her card made my day, and the gift of stumbling upon it still makes my day. Dear Jo, you are a treasure.

xx

There is something about me and pastry chefs.

For some reason in my career, I find myself drawn to recipe writers who are ex-pastry chefs, their food and culinary vision making me jump up and down, giddy and light headed, as I lick my lips and salivate at the thought of how fabulous their latest creation will look with various stylish accoutrements I have in my props cupboard.

Right now, in the (blog)house kitchen I have exactly someone who fits the above description – whose creations make my mouth-water just to read the title of her latest materpiece, let alone her photographs and stories about how she came up with the recipe. And who secretly, I hope to work with one day to publish a book of her sweet work.

Please welcome to the (blog)house, recipe writer extraordinaire and author of the scrumptious blog called Cannelle Et Vanille, Aran Goyoaga…

To get you familiar with Aran’s recipes, here is one of my favourites, her champagne and pink grapefruit sorbet…

with lemon emulsion, lemon streusel and red currant jelly…

Here in the (blog)house kitchen, Aran has shared four of her favourite recipes with us, so get on in there now to take a look, but be prepared as you will want to grab your spatulas and bowls the moment you lay eyes on her photographs.

Thank you Aran, I am so pleased you are here, I do hope you enjoy your stay in the kitchen, and please don’t worry about cleaning up – Alfred will be happy to tidy any mess (because I know he likes to lick the bowls!).

Enjoy.

xx

When I finished my degree some ten years ago, I made a pact to myself that I would produce one artwork per year, no matter what else I had going on in my life. I kept this up and although it was a struggle when I had my stores and styling work, it was very satisfying. This canvas above is one of them, and i completed it about 5 years ago. It stands approx. 2 metres by 1 metre and it is mixed media, with mostly acrylic, charcoal, and pastel as well as rose petals. It’s called ‘two to tango’ and I’m not sure what you might see, but it is two seahorses intertwined, back to back – one seahorse is in the wing of the other. Inside the two seahorse bodies is a woman’s figure bending backwards, with her hair cascading down to her feet. The writing on the bottom left says, “So I have a story to tell. It starts with love, that is, accepting suffering with your heart”. This is a reference to the Chinese character I have in the centre of the image which means ‘love’. But in Chinese, there are two loves I was taught – one without the heart symbol in the middle, and one with. True love, or ‘accepting suffering with your heart’ is with the heart (‘xin’) symbol which I included here. This symbol which I was taught about by a Chinese calligrapher many years ago, was an inspiration for many artworks over the years.

Seeing this artwork again the other day brought back lovely memories. My parents have kept it in a room above the bed I used to sleep in. Water reflections from the pool dance on the ceiling and instantly reminded me of my own dancing water reflections on the ceiling of le petit bateau in Amsterdam. It’s funny how the symbol of water seems to run so prominently through my life.

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Up next: Food glorious food! A new guest is about to arrive in the kitchen, so copy down Rach’s recipes while they are still up, and get ready for some more delicious recipes to come! You are gonna love this talented lass too, I just know it.

“It is my belief that whereas the twentieth century has been a century of war and untold suffering, the twenty-first century should be one of peace and dialogue. As the continued advances in information technology make our world a truly global village, I believe there will come a time when war and armed conflict will be considered an outdated and obsolete method of settling differences among nations and communities.”

His Holiness the Dalai Lama

thanks bob, this quote just might be my favourite thus far.