I am currently enjoying a bit of a musical crush on Orhan Gencebay, after watching the movie Crossing the Bridge and subsequently listening to his contribution to the soundtrack. In the heat of my lust, I discovered some more of his stuff on some excellent Turkish music sites. Although much of his material isn’t quite as interesting to me as the acoustic track from the movie (which was just brilliant), it has not stopped my love-in just yet (and besides, who can resist this GAZE??)

Ahem. In other news, I am so glad that Mariya of The Food Whore Next-Door received her Blogging By Mail package from me, and that it arrived intact. Now I can safely add her to my links without arousing suspicion. ;) Do check out her blog, it’s very dessert-based (yum!). The cupcakes she makes are just stunning, and the other things are so creative. In fact, she just posted about a treat made with agar-agar, which is particularly exciting to me as I don’t do gelatine and am always on the lookout for how to use agar-agar in recipes.

As if in complicity with the arrival of the package to Mariya, the postal service delivered my Blogging By Mail package this morning, from Emily of Chocolate in Context in Australia. The contents are cute and I’m looking forward to trying them. Emily included some Outback Dukkah spice mix, which smells absolutely divine, a little jar of Tasmanian honey, a tiny packet of green tea, and a bar of artisanal chocolate in lovely wrapping. Also she included a newpaper section about food in Australia, and on the cover is a huge picture tempting the reader with recipes for The Perfect Scone, which is auspicious because scones are one of my favourite things to make! Can’t wait to try out the recipes. Thanks, Emily…