Hi… Just a quickie to say that I won’t be doing the market this week & the next because of the house-move.

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Also, I won’t be posting much on this blog & reply to your comments/ emails for a wee while, atleast until the internet connection gets sorted at the new house. But then again…, I can imagine myself going to those WiFi cafés to fuel my ‘blog-fix’, so guys, don’t be too surprised to see another blog-entry here in a much nearer future actually…!

(Pennsylvania Dutch Hex Signs – Beautifully painted folk art to decorate your home. These are symbols to bring good luck to your home. Each colour & shapes used have it’s meaning. For example, hearts mean love, birds for luck & happiness. Tulips for faith, & stars also for good luck. Blue colour conveys protection, white purity, green abundance & red strong emotion.)

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The other day, my dear blog reader/ customer told me of her Indian custom –

“when one moves into a new house – one heats a pan of milk and allows it to boil over, thus ensuring the house will always have abundance.”

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I’ve no attachment to any particular religion but, I love the notion of making a point out of celebrating Life’s important moments. And now that this ritual has been mentioned to me, I’m thinking of doing it once I settle down.

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Quite often you hear the phrase: ‘you are what you eat’, which, I’m sure many of you will agree, is very true indeed. The food you eat has bearing on what your state of mind & health is. –
In a similar sense, I think ‘you are how & where you live’ also, as your habitat reveals the facets of your true being. And so, it is in that respect, that I feel with certainty that starting life in the new house with a food related ritual befits my character!

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Upon researching a bit more about the ‘boiling-over milk’ ritual, I found out that:

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“It is said to be better if the milk falls out to the east of the house. If you know which side of the house is east, then you can direct the froth of the milk towards that side. You have to let only a little milk fall out.”

& that:

you serve that milk to your housewarming guests, either as is, sweetened with a bit of sugar, or you can cook with it to make a proper meal. I’m thinking, maybe I’ll make mine a hot chocolate…

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Upon this research, I noticed there’s many ways of housewarming/ blessing using food. For example, in Russia, there’s the tradition of sweeping the new home with rock salt, which is believed to release negative energy.

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In fact SALT is used symbolically in many cultures it seems. For example, in Feng Shui, to prevent & avoid diseases to come into your house & your life, few grains of salt is sprinkled in rooms, especially in corners & at all openings such as windows, doors & fireplace openings. And then there is the ‘bread & salt’ to be given as housewarming gift signifying that the new family would always have the necessities of life. (tradition comes from an old Russian folk custom).

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Bread & Salt crops up again as a housewarming gift idea – this time from Germanic origin:
Bread so you’ll never go hungry
Salt so you’ll have good luck
Wine so you’ll never be thirsty
Something interesting to remember when choosing a housewarming gift, I think.

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Other noteworthy traditional gifts that one can give are:

– a broom to sweep away the evil

– sugar or honey representing sweetness in their lives

– coin to bring good fortune to them

– plants signifying prosperous life

– candles for light in their lives

– wood for harmony & peace in the house

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In my home country Japan, there is the beautiful custom of giving out soba (buckwheat noodle) still in it’s packet to the neighbours on both sides, & to the house in front of you (and if you’re moving in to a block of flats, it’s apparently advisable to give soba to the directly above & below you too!).

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Why soba? Well, its a playful meaning, as ‘soba’ sounds just like another Japanese word which means “next to/ close to”. Hence, you’re signalling that you’d like to start amicable relationship with them.

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Naturally, I knew of this custom, but, in my case, when time comes, I’m not sure I’d give out soba noodles… – it’ll feel too strange for them, I’m sure! Possibly too intrusive?? So maybe a quick knock on the door or a card through the door??

(Pendant Jelly Lights – Made from vintage jelly moulds, with jelly mould roses and silk covered flex.)

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As faithful readers will know, I am moving to my new house this September. I’ve been extensively looking for sofas, coffee & dining tables. So far I’ve not come across ones that I like (that’s within our budget), but during my search, I did come across many great designs, that’s related to food/ kitchen (+etc), so here’s a snippet of them that caught my attention!

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(Beech Ten Drawer Apple Rack – Made from solid beech, this traditional & useful piece is ideal not just for storing fruit & veg, but makes a lovely storage unit for blankets etc)

(Duncan Mug – Three coffee mugs featuring embossed molds of Custard Cream, Jammie Dodger or Shortbread that reveal themselves as you finish your drink. By Wai-Lian Scannell, London.)

(Oak Roller Towel Holder – Traditional oak roller towel holder made in England.)

(Bespoke Shaker Wheeled Table)

(Original Rainbow Maker – Fill your room with a dazzling swirl of rainbow with clever solar powered device that sticks to the window by suction cap. Direct sunlight turns the motor, and, in turn, the Swarovski crystal rotates, creating beautiful rainbows that dance around the room.)

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Finally, a bit of inspirational link to a House & Garden feature on actress, Chloë Sevigny’s house. She’s got such amazing sense of style… love her…!

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PS:

Last week at the market was superb. What with the weather forecast telling me it’s gonna be hot, I gambled on making extra, & bingo, it paid off. There were tons of people out, enjoying the hot weather that we’ve been sorely missing the whole of last month, & these people were hungry for cakes! I presume most of them were taking it to a picnic or to a BBQ party.
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– AND, guess what guys, after my rambling of poor sales the week before, this time I managed to sell out in record-breaking time of 2.40pm. ;-) Not so bad afterall ei?
The whole day was just wonderful – friends drop by to see me, & then my ex-flatmate girlfriends come by at the end to meet up, & we sit outside the pub basking the gorgeous sun drinkin’ n’ chatting, looking at the market packing up after a buzzing day. D & our son join us after they’ve been to a birthday party, then an old college friend drops by out-of-the-blue too! – I managed to get very drunk after that…

My brother came back from Paris again, & as per usual, brought home 2 huge boxes full of cakes from Sadaharu Aoki! One of which caught my eye was this dinky fruit tart, with a petite pink macaron sitting pretty in the middle. The picture on the right is the cake card with nutty chocolate cream smeared in the middle, which I realized that it was acting as a ‘glue’ to stop the pastry from slipping on the card. Technique to be noted!

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Taste verdict? Delicious. A big tick all round.
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Recently, at the market, something delightful happens. For two weeks in a row, I have had several Coco&Me blog readers come to visit my stall – one was all the way from Kent!
We had a bit of a chat – found out she found my blog after googling for a recipe for brownies. The cute lady then bought the said brownies plus some of the other cakes too. Dear lady, a small message to you – thank you for coming by, it made my day, & I really hope those brownies are up to your expectations…

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On a down note, the market itself has been so so lately – the weather’s been rainy, tinkering on between cloudy or downright pouring, & what with outdoor venue’s dependant on the outcome of weather, I’m not making fantastic sales.

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It’s such a down-er, that. Some weeks, I make a mistake of making too much – even if I had kept closely with the BBC weather site all week, trying to guess how much foot-count the market expects that Saturday…

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For two weeks in a row, I had some cakes left – say another 50 pounds or so worth. That’s when I debate wether to start shouting “cakes sale!!!” & “end-of-day discount on cakes!!!” But last week, when I did this, I felt embarrassed as I felt the attention of the people sitting at the cafe (directly looking on to my stall), & could clearly feel that they were amusing themselves on account of me. The more I shouted discount, & when no successful transaction was made, I felt under pressure…

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Therefore, soon as I sold my last cake with a stupid price tag, I fled the scene, a little disheartened. – It’s so difficult to gage how many cakes to make… Sometimes I have market days when I sell out before 3pm, but then there are days when things aren’t rosey. On a positive side, good days feel fantastic instead I guess, & my partner D’s happy when he finally gets his mitts on the left overs at home!

(Am I wrong or are these book covers pretty bad??)

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(Note: this post would only interest Harry Potter fans.)

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A bit of light-entertainment this week:

In the run up to the highly anticipated last-ever Harry Potter novel coming out, there sure is a H.Potter fever in the air. I’m getting my copy sent to me via amazon – so come the morning of July 21st (release date), no doubt I’ll be waking up early to run downstairs, in my PJ’s, to see if the parcel has arrived, maybe a bit like a little kid on Xmas day. Oh! Can’t wait!

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I found a hilarious online discussion on the UK amazon site, titled ‘Would Voldemort prefer rich tea or custard creams?‘. The very idea of Voldy relaxing with milky tea & biscuits (is he a dunker?) had me in stitches. Anyway, the discussion goes on for 11 pages, so I just copy & paste the first page of it, to give you a taster. Get ya self tea & several biccies & enjoy reading!
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Mr. Derri P. H. Stephens says:
I think Voldemort would be the kind of gut who eats custard creams, and he is deffinately a dunker.
And believe there is some evidence in CoS that proves he would rather a Maryland cookie to a Jammy dodger.
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John Goddard says:Rich Tea biscuits are a creation of pure evil. They hold out the expectation of a biscuit, but deliver a dry and shrivelled result. Surely Voldermort would therefore keep the custard creams for himself and provide Rich Tea biscuits for the death eaters…
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Daniel Roach says:

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Anna Leeming says:
I agree with this. Rich Tea are not the kind of biscuit a Dark Lord would eat – after all, they are very bad for dipping (see Peter Kay at the MEN) – and he would be more likely to provide them for the less worthy of his followers while indulging in something which involves far more chocolate.

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Mary -Ann says:
You`re all way out. It`s got to be a Jacobs cracker, a nice piece of stilton , & a glass of unicorns blood !!!

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Harry C. Young says:
I would think he liked ginger newts because he disasscociates himself with anything muggle.

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D. Halliwell says:That is so funny John… i have had to pick myself off the floor i was laughing so much…nice one

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Alice says:
This is a really crummy thread, it takes the biscuit in my opinion!
Maybe Voldy would like cockroach clusters!
Hmmmm, we never see Voldy eat, except snake venom from Nagini milked by the fair hand of Wormtail!

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Weasley Fan says:
I don’t think Voldemort would like any biscuit with a soft centre! He seems more of a Hobnob guy to me. I can just see him sitting there with a steaming mug of Unicorn’s blood, wearing his fluffy Dementor slippers! :o )

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P. M. Fernandez says:
Nobody in their right mind could possibly prefer Rich Tea to anything!
Voldemort is not in his right mind.
Therefore he prefers Rich Tea.

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Amber R. Wahidi says:
What if he doesn’t see the point in eating. Senses all not in tack. Taste not being there.

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Ms. V. Lovatt says:
Voldemort seems like a luxury biscuit nibbler to me. The sort of twisted evil person that dunks ‘n’ munches his way through an entire packet of Cadburys Double Chocolate Cookies without offering you a single one, leaving you to lick your fingers and hoover up the crumbs when he’s not looking. I should imagine the biscuits are accompanied by a lovely cup of milky Camp coffee to dunk the biccies in. He probably has Pettigrew go fetch him some from the local Happy Shopper, lest he intergrate with the lowly Muggles. “Wanna biccie, wanna wanna wanna biccie NOW!!!!” (oh, hold on, thats Terry Pratchett)

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Mevance says:
lol @ biscuits I like a wee rich tea biscuit does this make me a death eater/slytherin?

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Emily says:
Oh Mr Derri P.H. Stephens..how you mock me! I stated I believe Voldermort would prefer rich teas to custard creams because:
1. I believe he is a ‘man’ (if indeed a man can be a man with a broken soul) with traditional tastes.
2. He does not have a lot of time to eat (his days are full of killing people, cursing people, planning evil things, etc) and anything other than a rich tea is likely to stick in his teeth and cause him to have to use a large amount of energy picking bits out of his teeth (the oats from hobnobs, the jam from the dodgers).
3. He is a man who ‘the whole’ is very important too (other than with regards to his soul)and a custard cream has a tendency to break in two.
4. He has long straggely fingers with very long nails that I feel would find it difficult to pick up and handle a custard cream – a rich tea is a easier biscuit to pick up for those with floppy fingers.
5. There are many varieties of custard cream (e.g. tesco, tesco value, asda, sainsbury’s, morrisons, happy shopper, etc) and so you never know quite what you’re going to get… whereas a rich tea is just a rich tea…Voldermort would hate to not know what was coming and what to expect…he is a man who likes to be ready…he likes to always be one step ahead.
6. Voldermort would sound like a pansy if he asked for a ‘custard cream’ whereas a ‘Rich tea’ is quite a masculine choice I feel.
And finally….
7. Voldermort has a new body now which he needs to take care of…as far as I’m aware custard creams are not sold in 25% less fat versions whereas Rich teas are…Voldermort needs to remember his new figure when he is making his biscuit choices. It would be no good if in the middle of the final duel with Harry, he died just because he couldn’t run away fast enough due to the consumption of two too many full fat custard creams!!So there we have it…Voldermort would prefer a rich tea to a custard cream.

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Googleplex says:
No….He’ll find all those special, vintage or relegiously special buiscuit, then eat them quickly, not favouring the taste by purpose- in front of whoever they are most important to…

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Emily says:
Yes but other biscuits have a tendency to ‘crumb’ whereas the grain of a rich tea is as such that it only causes a light powdering when first bitten in to….Voldermort would not look so ‘frightening’ and intimidating with a big bit of hobnob oat, digestive crumb, smudged custard, etc, on his lip!!.

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Mevance says:
In reply to J. Vaidya I agree it would be a religious biscuit for voldermort. The only thing however I can think of is a bun a hot cross one.

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Ms. V. Lovatt says:
What about a Cow biscuit? Not too bad on the crumb front, just that weird biscuit sludge you get at the bottom of your cup of tea. But he could vanish that with a flick of his wand, I’m sure. They are also pretty old skool, a way for Voldemort to sit and relax, reminiscing about zee good old days. Although the cup of milky tea could spoil his image. (but the mug could have an evil slogan printed on it- something like “I enjoy killing people” or “This mug belongs to a violent wizard with psychotic tendencies” that sort of thing to balance it out.)

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Mevance says:
A cow biscuit..? I don’t remember them…I hav however consumed a fair few NICE biscuits in my time… mmmmm coconutty. I think Voldy would have a mug with ‘muggle free zone’ written on it

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Emily says:

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Googleplex says:
he probably has some sort of weak side, so he might like those soft gingerbread biscuits you get in m&s with the thick icing- but he would change it so it looked like his sign- so that he can explain it away if any death eater (or JKR) walks in…

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Emily says:
And perhaps whilst sat by the light of his wand and the flickering of the fire in the hearth, with his mug of tea and evening biscuit, his ‘slippered’ feet would be those big gorilla feet slippers or perhaps Homer Simpson slippers?

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Emily says:
And perhaps he would appear to be reading ‘101 ways to kill someone with your eyes closed’ but inside the book he would have the latest copy of the Daily ‘Wizard’ Star hidden…checking out the hot witches on page 3 or ‘Woman’s Weekly’ which he has a subscription to for the knitting patterns???

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(Wanna read more? Read the rest at this link!) Credit to all these witty comment writers!!