February Fun

It’s been a busy week for me. I played at a recital on Tuesday and had many chores to attend to around the house as well as filling special orders at Farmers Fresh. I am looking forward to a more relaxed schedule next week. I took some time this morning to examine each snowdrop blossom I have blooming in my first successful try and the variations are simply fascinating. I have come to learn from Carolyn of Carolyn’s Shade Gardens that Galanthus Elwesii are often collected from the wild legally. This explains the variations in inner markings. Looks like I have several different strains of Galanthus Elwesii. I hope they each multiply into clumps in the next few years. I am quite taken with each and every bloom, especially the one with lighter green inner markings.


Last Saturday turned out to be quite the adventure. I was thinking of the Lunar New Year starting this Sunday and still could not figure out how I would celebrate. I was hoping I might get inspired soon. We ended up on Buford Highway meeting friends for a delicious Pho lunch. We met at my favorite place for Pho: Pho Dai Loi. In addition to the Pho, the Vietnamese coffee there is one of my favorites. It was as good as I remembered it when we ate there last.

I wanted something yummy for dessert after the hearty Pho. We made a detour to Aw pottery to do a little “digesting” before making our way to dessert. My favorite glaze I spotted on Saturday was a shiny citron green with crystalline starburst on parts of the vessel. The emerald-green glazes on some of the pots brought back childhood memories.


We went to Mozart Bakery for dessert. The layered cakes and tortes here are complex in flavor and not too sweet, just the way I like. I enjoyed a slice of white sweet potato mousse cake. A light as air cake layered with melt in your mouth sweet potato mousse topped with a chocolate treble clef. Every bite was sublime. Looks like macarons have “arrived” at Mozarts, there was quite a display of them, all individually wrapped.

Our next stop, the Buford Highway Farmers Market. What a fun place this is, I always spot yet another type of fruit or vegetable I’ve never seen before each time I visit. I was happy to find some pretty Satsuma mandarins for the upcoming Lunar Chinese New Year.

Top row, left to right: Cherimoya(Custard Apple), Thai green eggplant and Satsumas.
Middle row, left to right: Spiny chayote, sugarcane and a pretty winter squash.
Bottom row, left to right: Baby shiitakes, bitter melon and regular shiitakes.


It is a culinary tour around the world shopping at this market, from dried lotus seeds, Japanese crackled teacups, Korean foods to European and Latin American foods, they have it all. I was excited to find a box of flour blend to make chewy Korean sesame rice balls.

Our impromptu trip to the market and the wet and cold weather inspired me to prepare “Steamboat” or “Hot Pot” for dinner. It’s been over a year since we had hot pot last so it was about time. I picked out all my favorite greens for the occasion: Shanghai bok choi, baby pak choi, Chrysanthemum greens and a selection of mushrooms, shiitake, enoki and beech. A few wild caught shrimp added some protein and delicious flavor to the broth.


For dessert, little mousse cakes from Mozart Bakery, we tried raspberry, dark chocolate and mango. Sitting around a steaming pot cooking our own dinner followed by a delicious pot of coffee and luscious desserts, a most wonderful evening. On Monday, we took a quick trip out to Peachtree City. Pike’s was loaded with a lot of pretty flowers, I enjoyed looking at all the pretty primroses. I was able to resist them. Although sold as perennials, they’ve never lived passed a hot and humid summer for me. We did find some cute green Paphiopedilums in bud, my favorite indoor flower for the winter. I wanted something a little quirky so fixed the orchids up in a couple of old tea tins. It’s been fun watching the buds swell and open.

We also took some time to do some browsing at Recycling the Past, I was intrigued by the design of the architectural fragment hanging at the entrance.

Another treat I got from Mozart I enjoyed later in the week, a small loaf of bread studded with candied chestnuts. Toasted with tea, the perfect snack for a cold and rainy afternoon.

I am continuing nicely on my quest to use up foods in the pantry. Inspired by the delicious Alphonso mangoes I found at the Buford Highway Farmers Market, I cooked a pot of glutinous rice to make sticky rice with coconut sauce, fresh mango and toasted sesame. I did well here, only ingredient I bought for the whole dish was the mangoes.

Such a simple treat to make. The recipe comes form “Pasta and Rice” by Williams Sonoma. Leave a comment or send me a message if any of you would like the recipe. The trick here is to give yourself a lot of time, the rice really needs to be soaked overnight for best results.

The mangoes were particularly good, silky flesh, tart and sweet at the same time, perfect with the coconut soaked and toasted sesame studded rice.

We enjoyed our dessert with a pot of homemade chai. I molded the rice into squares mainly for ease of serving later. I made the rice the evening before and went ahead and divided the rice into squares. Throughout the week, it was quite easy to just pop a square of rice and some coconut sauce into the microwave for a few minutes when the occasion arose for dessert.

Well, today is Chinese New Years Eve. I am taking a break from the festivities like I’ve held last year and in previous years. Instead, I am getting some much needed “down time”. I was treated to a delicious Thai lunch by a good friend in the afternoon and enjoyed a wonderful play at the Truth and Beauty Lab this evening on Cedar Street. A wonderful day for sure. Tomorrow, we venture to hear a free Chinese New Year concert at Emory University presented by the Emory Chamber Music Society. Wishing all my family and friends a Happy and Prosperous Year of the Snake, “Gong Hei Fatt Choi”.