Hello October!

And we are still in tshirts and shorts and the fans are going at full speed. It looks like it may be a bit cooler this week so here’s hoping! I just long to be able to pull on a sweater, you know? I’m happy to leave the flip flops behind and get down to autumn.

Here’s what we did last week….

It was Mid-Autumn Festival on Thursday, according to the lunar calendar. Unfortunately it was also a bad air day so we couldn’t go outdoors for our lantern walk, and the kids had to do it indoors.

But the kids’ teachers had some small fun crafts to do during distance learning (in case you’re new here, my kids attend a Mandarin immersion program at a public school). The second graders made mooncakes out of play dough. The fourth graders made “mooncakes” out of puff pastry and a tangyuan (Chinese dessert ball made of glutinous rice flour and a sweet filling usually red bean or black sesame, most times served in sweet soup. Tastes a bit like mochi). It really isn’t like the usual mooncakes you get, which have a pastry that’s more like shortcrust and inside is often lotus paste – although there are very many different mooncake fillings, especially if you’re in Singapore, like chocolate, earl grey, champagne truffle even!

Oh and my order from Lupicia tea came in! Lupicia is a tea company from Japan and there used to be a store in San Jose inside the Mitsuwa supermarket. It unfortunately closed maybe two years ago? And so the only Lupicia outlet in the US seems to be in Hawaii! I really wanted some Gyokuro tea which is different from regular green tea in that it’s grown in the shade. And it tends to have a “greener” taste.

And yesterday, we had takeout from The Counter. I got a build your own and added lots of vegetables including roasted red peppers and spring mix.

Currently…

Reading:

Empire of Wild – Cherie Dimaline

Watching:

Game of Thrones

Also, the Great British Bake Off!

Listening:

I just finished The Woman in White yesterday, so I haven’t figured out what’s next. Another classic perhaps?

Eating:

Had some baguette for breakfast

Drinking:

Oolong tea

Cooking:

Picked up some lamb loin chops so I’ll probably cook that with some baby potatoes and whatever vegetable I pick up later this week.

We were left with one more sheet of puff pastry and I want to use that to make a Guinness pie

Last week:

I read:

The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins

Dim Sum of All Fears – Vivien Chien

The Wandering – Intan Paramaditha

I posted:

Library Loot (September 30 to October 6)

The Deep by Alma Katsu #ripxv