Nurturing my inner... sip and think

Pondering.  Contemplating.  Thinking.  I don't always make the time to do that enough in favor of rushing through one task just to get on to the next.  (I blame my paying job for this poor conditioning.)  It takes a certain amount of focus and intention to be at peace with putting your checklist aside.  To stop and mull things over, slowly, deliberately, before acting.  But when I do set my mind to it, I'm also of the philosophy that it doesn't hurt to have a little snack while the cogs are turning.  To keep me fortified.  (I'm all about practicality that just may appear to you as wicked indulgences.)

I have created what I call a "Color Block Book."  When I am so moved, I take a bunch of papers, solid and printed, flat and textured, and arrange them in themes.  Color wheels.  Well, rectangular ones.  (Perhaps I should stop and employ that thinking technique right now before I say something like that again.)  The book is handy though.  I take it with me for reference when I need exact swatch matches.  Removes the guess work and need to return things.

Not only do I have projects, but I make my
project book into a project as well.

While I was flipping through a home magazine today, I stumbled upon an absolutely delicious color called "Lotus."  It was featured as a bamboo coverlet and the scheme for the room was that gorgeous lilac family hue alongside yellow ochre, light leafy sage and creamy ivory.  It's entirely possible that this could be my new bedroom palate.  (I'm attempting to leave the walls the same color I have now seeing as I only painted them a few years ago and it's a lot of work!)  But I need time to roll it over in my mind to be sure.  To consider swapping one color in for another, if need be, until I've landed on my own perfect palate.  It's time to make time to sit back and see what ideas come to me in those quiet moments.  So, I made a cup of my favorite Bigelow French Vanilla decaf tea and nabbed a few biscuits.  (And not even British ones this time.)

A hot cup of tea needs a wee pal.  That's when I go to the Chinese chocolate biscuits.  Hello Panda and Chocorooms.  (Yep, my posts just keep getting weirder and weirder.)

Small bites.

First up, the pandas.  They are thin, puffy little cookies with printed images of athletic pandas in action on the front.  The pictures printed in chocolate, of course!

Sailing, gymnastics, volleyball, running. Man,
they are active little fellows.

Inside, they have been injected with sweet, velvety chocolate ganache.

Crispy cookie and smooth chocolate.

Then one day I saw the Chocorooms and in my basket they went.  The stems are snappy mini biscuits and the caps are two-toned solid chocolate.

Who invents these clever things?

They are only about an inch and a half long.  (Bitty, they are.)  I try to just have a couple at a time.  But I usually can't get by without about six.

My feeble attempt at portion control.

This bedroom redesign think session was going to need me to bring out the big guns though.  Tiny biscuits aside, I needed serious inspiration.

A friend (who is originally from Australia and told me these are their most famous cookies) recommended these to me some weeks ago.  I am now absolutely HOOKED!  (Good gosh.  It IS an addiction.)  Arnott's makes these chocolate covered biscuits that they lovingly refer to as Tim Tams.  (After the 1958 Kentucky Derby winning horse.  Yeah, I don't understand the logic really.)  Two layers of chocolate malted biscuits covered in extra creamy milk chocolate the likes of Cadbury in texture and flavor.  BSE!  (Best Stuff Ever!)

They had me at the package photos. Do
you see that caramel dollop up top?

Each package has 11 biscuits.  And yes, I want to eat them all in one sitting.

Chocolate sandwiches.

In order not to eat the entire package at once, I had to pull out a bowl, once again, for portion control.  I like to have one original and one with caramel down the middle.  (You can get them at World Market.  They also have a third kind called Mint Slice for those who are fans of the chocolate/mint combination.)


My mouth is actually watering just from
looking at the photos.


These cookies are magical.  Life changing.  (And I'm not traditionally a big cookie fan.)  What sold me is when you dip them in hot tea.  OH. MY. GET THE HECK OUT, IT'S SO GOOD YOU'LL TYPE IN ALL CAPS!  I have to limit myself to having them only once a week as a result.

Purposeful deviation: So, my mom recently put me on a crazy chase.  Or perhaps I put myself on this chase on her behalf.  She had an enamel CorningWare teapot she adored.  (Which she swore was the 3-cup size.  Save that tidbit of info for later.)  From the 1970s.  After using it for years, it eventually wore out.  As things do.  Especially those things that sit on heat.  Sadly, they no longer make them as fancier designs and materials have replaced that classic standby.

Whilst she was over her neighbors having their weekly Saturday morning breakfast together (need I mention I love that they have done that for the past 20 years!), she mentioned the unfortunate teapot tragedy.  In an unbelievable turn of events you couldn't write for television, they said they actually had one they had never used.  (I mean really.  What are the chances?  Well, I guess good for anyone who was a young couple in the era of bell bottoms and outdoor antennas.)  My mom snatched that one up some years ago and used it until it too boiled its very last.

You all might not find this to be a big deal, but to her, it was the end of an era.  The second teapot offered a brief surprise reprise of perfect tea water boiling the likes of days long gone, but what to do now?  There are no more teapots like this to be found.  But wait!  We have ebay.

Do you know how many enamel CorningWare teapots are on ebay?  Okay, a ton.  But I had to get a near perfect, as close to never been used one for mom.  And I scored!  Truth be told, I actually scored three.  I was bidding on more than one, as the story goes.  In part because after we were already bidding on 6-cup ones that were more easily available, mom swore the one she had was a 3-cup.  Only to find out when she got the 6-cup, that that indeed was the size she had in the past!  So now she has one, and I have two.  (How did that happen?)  A mini 3- and a regular 6- cup.  (For your reference, by modern standards, that 3 cupper equates to one contemporary-sized mug.  Our cups have definitely gotten larger since the days of Disco.)  With two teapots at the ready, it's a good thing I like hot tea considering she only visits me once a year.

Wildflower design for mom, just like the one
she had years ago when I was just a tot,
bopping along to the BeeGees.


I remember her making tea (with milk) every night with that pot throughout my childhood.  So it brought me great joy that when it was delivered to her house, she thought her new old teapot was perfect.  (She's a tough critic.  You just never know how it's going to go down.)

Want to see the one I have now?  Retro chic!

Yeah, it was an accident that I have it and
now I love it too!

It's nice when simple things can bridge the gap of the generations.  This will always be special for me and my mom.  (Thanks ebay!  And CorningWare.)

Now, back to chocolate biscuits and tea dipping.  If you don't already adore them straight out of the package, this will make you fall maddly in love with them for sure.  It's called the "Tim Tam Slam."  Every Aussie knows what that is and can show you how it's done with great finesse.  (It is a bit of a learned art form and I'm probably too klutzy to show you how to do it gracefully.)

You make a hot cup of tea or coffee.  (Though I learned that some Down Under diehards will even use beer!  Crazy!)  You bite off a corner.  Then turn to the opposite side and bite off the other corner.  One end goes in the hot beverage and you suck up the liquid through the cookie like a straw until it just gets to your lips and then, right before it melts in your hand, you gobble the entire cookie in one bite!  It's brilliant!  And the taste of that warm, liquid chocolate will send you to the moon.  (Do it.  You'll love it.)

I prefer the modified version of "The Slam" - small bite, dip cookie in hot tea until it gets a little soft, take a bite, dip again, take a bite, until it's all gone.  (And then I cry.)



Oh yes, all you layers come together in
perfect brilliance. Well done!


My mom says I think too much.  I'm sure my friends would not hesitate to agree.  My cousin believes that's why I get headaches.  (Nice supportive family.)  I actually enjoy thinking about all kinds of stuff.  (And unprovoked at that.)  Words, colors, design, travel, running, people.  Makes me feel like an ancient philosopher or awarded engineer.  A wise historian or worldly ambassador.  Most importantly though, I hope purposeful thinking makes me an interesting, perhaps, dare I say mysterious, person.  When you're quiet and pensive, people wonder what you're up to.  (If you scribble in a notebook after nodding your head a bit and tapping the back of a pen to your lip too, that adds to the mystique.)

Practically speaking though, it also gives my mind ample time to work out all the details of the task at hand and not make rash or regrettable decisions.  What I might be passionately fixated on one moment will, with pause, give way to something truly better if I've allowed my mind to chew on it for a few hours.  (Since it would be rude to leave my mind to chew all alone, where'd I hide those Tim Tams?)