Ceedee Soaps

There’re many web companies providing the service where you can create your own websites, and when I was browsing yola I came across this handmade soap bar website Ceedee Soaps.

 The story is, the owner of this natural, non chemical handmade soap business is a 11-year-old girl, Clair.  This industrious girl was interested in online-selling business and built this website with the help of her father.  Together, they have became a team of hand making natural soaps at home.

Clair didn’t want to use any chemical and artificial things in the soaps from the beginning, and their soaps are made by all natural ingredients.  The soaps are avaliable in a variety of scents, and I love the natural looking website and packaging.  Each soap is very reasonably priced ($4.00 each free shipping in US).

I wish this young business much continued success, and can’t wait to see what Clair’s next adventure would be

Cream Bath and Furikake

It was just like heaven…  I mean, my husband gave me cream bath last night.

I had cream bath while in Jakarta few times. It’s a head treatment session with some kind of white hair treatment cream.  At the salon they spread the cream on the hair, and they massage it into the skin and hair.  The massage continues to the shoulders, arms and hand too.  It’s really relaxing…

We bought a tub of “cream bath cream” from Jakarta on our last visit, and he gave me the head bath last night…  It was really good.  It was another chilling night, but I was wrapped in blanket and surrounded by heaters.  It was warm, and he gave me massage for about 45 minutes.  It was so good that I fell asleep after washing the hair -  like, I passed out completely.  I couldn’t keep my eyes open!  I think, my head and body were so tired and stiff, then the massage did something to push out the bad stuff from my body.  I had a good sleep, then this morning I noticed there are some red spots on my face. (not pimples)  They banished after I showed.  I think it was also some bad stuff coming out from my deep skin..

(image photos)

Anyway,

As you know, Japanese people eat rice a lot.  Even though many young people consume bread, pasta and potato nowadays, rice is still the most important food in Japan.  And, a bowl of rice, miso soup and some side dish (or even pickles) can be a great meal for me.

When I have such simple meal, I often add some kinds of condiments to the rice.  The easy option for it is “furikake”.  Furikake is a dry Japanese condiment meant to be sprinkled on top of rice.  There are many different kinds and flavours in furikake; some of them consists of dried fish, seaweed, egg, vegetables etc.

I like shiso furikake, which is a dried shiso leaves and normally red/dark pink colour.  It has a sour, salty flavours, and it may tastes very new to foreign people. But, I love it!  I can eat many bowls of rice with just shiso furikake…

If you find furikake, and you think “well, it’s only to be eaten with steamed rice”, you are wrong!  You can also use furikake as a topping on okonomiyaki, yakisoba, (depends on the flavour of furikake) and also seasoning of pasta dish.  Shiso furikake, for example, can be used to season cooked pasta and served as “shiso pasta”.  Or, if you have bonito, salmon, egg furikake (or any flavours you like), you can add to croquette or meat patty to give a hidden flavour.  You can mix furikake and make rice balls for kids lunch too.

It’s shame that some kinds of furikake can’t be imported from Japan because of the custom regulation, but you can still find few flavours of furikake at Asian grocery shops.  ;)

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(image photos from http://www.balivillas.com/spa/cream_bath.html)

Grapefruit Semifreddo

My neighbor left grapefruits outside their house with a memo saying “free grapefruits from the garden!”

I love grapefruits!  I thought it was a spring fruit :p  It’s refreshing, and great item to eat in the morning - healthy, and rich in vitamin.

I took 3 home, and ate 2 of them as they are.  The rest, I made semifreddo with it

Semifreddo is an Italian, meaning “half cold” “half frozen”.  As the name indicates, it is eaten as semi-frozen.

<Grapefruit Semifreddo>

for 1 x pound-cake tin

• 1 grapefruit
• 100ml cream
• 2 eggs
• 60g sugar

What Happened in Perth ?!

Some may know what happened in Perth, Western Australia few days ago.  There was blackout across the city, flood, and big ice balls were hailing.  BBC NEWS ”Power cables collapsed, hospitals were flooded. Some schools remained closed on Tuesday.”

Message from my husband:

“Lucky you’re not in Perth right now cos there seems to be a mild emergency.  There was a big storm that popped up out of the sudden, hours before I was sweaty outdoors then suddenly big rain + knocking sounds on the rooftop.”

” I was on computer when it happened and power went out.  When I checked the meter I found that it was raining ice block (hail storm) and you couldn’t see 10 meters on account of the violent rain and hail (mostly rain).

I freaked out because I couldn’t contact him for 2 days.  He said he couldn’t use computer, and now is at his sister’s house.  What a relief…

There seems that lightning struck something at WesternPower.  My friend also told me that the front grass of her car was hit by the ice cubes and is broken.  Many people was taking cold shower in the dark.  I assume all my food in the fridge is all gone by now…. but I’m happy to hear no one I know is hurt.

I hope everything goes better soon.

From Jakarta

Again… my house is filled with food from Indonesia. :p  They are all delicious and I sure like them.  But, if there’s a lot of food in the house, I just can’t stop eating!

Yesterday parents-in-law arrived Perth airport and we were having dinner all together.  The first thing they said to me was ” … did you put on weight?”

Yes I think I’ve been eating a lot lately, and was going to do some exercise, but I haven’t.  I was sick : I thought sick people usually lose weight instead of gaining.. (-_-)  

I know my body, and I always put on weight if I’m under stress.  Maybe I eat a lot when I feel stressed out?  When I was studying in Osaka few years ago I was living by myself in an apartment.  I was lonely, plus new school and new people, and I guess those things all became stress to me.  I wasn’t eating big amount of food, but I still gained weight.  :p

Ummm but I can’t resist this delicious layer cake!  It’s little too buttery, but rich and sweet.  Oh no, I hope someone else eat those food in this house before I do.