baking: truffles

With the holidays fast approaching it's time to really get down to business and start churning out gifts and general holiday cheer. One gift that always seems well received is baked goods and candy. So what about truffles?

I made these to test out some recipes I had been saving and it turns out that, SURPRISE! making truffles is simple and fun. And it's so easy to mix up new and different flavors just by adding a few things.

For these three variations I added orange zest and extract, coconut flakes, and peanut butter. They were all super tasty and different. I also made, SURPRISE! bacon truffles, which were aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamazing (not a surprise at all)! So in conclusion, yeah I will be making more truffles in the coming weeks.

cook, wear, create

And another week wraps up (pun not intended) and there are some great ideas out there that could be used to fill my time. For instance:
So these look amazing. I mean, pumpkin marshmallow biscuits?!?! yes please

This picture reminded me that I need to be wearing (and adding to my collection of) classic full skirted dresses. And we are approaching the holiday season after all, which means that it is easy to make the case for new party dresses!

These lockets are such a nice idea. I like the hexagon shape and the subtle image inside. What a good idea.

Making: a paint pallet repair

I have been using the same travel watercolor pallet for more than ten years now. It has these small rectangular pans that you are able to pop out which (hypothetically) makes it easy to get replacements when you run out of a color. However it turns out it's not that easy to find the new pans, and after several stops at several different stores I came up dry. Literally. I mean I was completely out of blue and needed to paint me some water scenes so that was just not going to fly. And while several places had suggested I look at ordering online, and I was able to find some refills that would ship, that wasn't gonna do me much good as I had procrastinated and needed blue now!!

So what's a last minute gall to do? Figure out a way to make my own of course! So after minimal experimenting I discovered that I can buy a tube of watercolor paint on the right color, fill the empty pan, smooth it out with a small flat brush and wait approximately 24 hours for it to dry. Turns out this totally works (thank goodness) and I was able to save my own bacon.
So today's lesson I'd, first; don't wait too long to get important supplies, and second; it is possible to figure out a creative way around your supply shortage. In some instances. But don't hold your breath. Next time I may not be as lucky.

baking: chocolate creme pie with meringues

Okay, I'm a terrible person for dropping of the face of the proverbial earth so to speak, but I was working terribly hard on a lot of terribly important and time sensitive projects so I apologize profusely but some things had to drop by the wayside and this was one of them. Just one week until the sale, and therefore all projects must be finalized by then, thus the working very hard. However, in the meantime, I made a dessert that resulted in a pile of dishes something like this:

Impressive no?
I have been wanting to make one of the chocolate pies from this AAAAAAAAAAAAMAZING vintage Hershey's cookbook for a long time. They just look so retro. So this was the event. Especially because my friend who was curating the Thanksgiving menu made a point of mentioning none too subtly that she loved chocolate creme pie.

There was a crumbly crust and a gooey chocolate filling.

And after all that deliciousness was completed (which involved a lot of constant-stirring and waiting-to-thicken)I got to try my hand at making meringue.

I've got one thing to say: beat egg white and cream of tartar until they form stiff peaks.

It took a long time. And even so I wasn't sure it worked ok, because you know, you just don't know, until you cut into it. Don't know if the filling set, don't know if the meringues hardened. Just don't know..... But when the beautiful monstrosity was pulled out of it's final visit to the oven it was wonderfully browned and smelled so good. Fingers crossed right?

And pretty soon after it was cut into, this is what it looked like. So I'd put the check in the success column for this, right? Defiantly.

making: a sneak peak

So it's been a busy week in Max-land, what with trying to simultaneously cross about a hundred things of my list and all. But in the midst of all my chaos, I have gotten a fair amount of stuff done. nothing worth showing right now, or rather nothing that's complete. But I can give you a sneak peek!

As you can see above, my days have been filled with adding color to a series of illustrations I finished the week before. Color which was done almost entirely with a teeny tiny brush. Not kidding, this brush might just have all of eight hairs in it!

However I am yet again becoming sidetracked discussing the smallness of my current color-making implements. But I felt like sharing a small snippet of these images I've been hinting over for days on end. In case you cannot tell they are all various dwelling, most of a somewhat fairytale nature, and while they have been endlessly fun to create I do very much look forward to seeing them in their completed state soon.

And of course to then be able to cross that off my list!