Lust cookies

After reading Dogs and Goddesses, I simply HAD to try making butter cookies. The only recipe I could find was for Cardamom cookies, and while they are tasty, they certainly don't inspire any lust or need to fulfill my deepest desires. Although, I was inspired to dig up a few ideas for paintings, so maybe they had more of an effect than I thought!


The book is definitely a must-read. It was hilarious, and I couldn't put it down. I am hoping for more from this collaborative of authors.

movies and books

I had to take a quick trip out east for work, and encountered a couple of quirky movies on the flight. The ‘Hollywood’ movie choices were pretty drab, and not really to my taste, so I started searching to see if there was something else I could watch. I decided to take a look at the Canadian movies. The first one I watched was called Evelyn: the Cutest Evil Dead Girl. This was a cute movie about a dead girl who tries to make friends with living people and after getting ridiculed, she tries to kill herself back to life so they will accept her. It is short and funny and very quirky.

I also read (there is a lot of time for reading while waiting for planes to arrive and depart) Joanne Harris’s new book “The Lollipop Shoes”. It is a kind of sequel to “Chocolat”, and the book and the movie explored the same theme – dealing with being different. It was curious how similar the two characters Evelyn (in the movie) and Zozie (in the book) were.

The second movie, called Just Buried had a lot of promise but the system died before I got very far into it. Just buried is about a young man who inherits a funeral home from his estranged father, in a town where there hasn’t been a funeral for over a year. He and the young female mortician who works for him then try to figure out how to drum up business. Now I am going to have to buy the DVD or figure out how to find this movie so I can finish watching it.

The Conservatory Overcoat GIVEAWAY!!!!

The Conservatory Overcoat GIVEAWAY!!!!

I followed a link and found this incredibly generous and talented wonam is giving away this beautiful coat. She took some wonderful photos of a romatic Valentie's day in a conservatory. The photos are wonderful, and allow everyone to share in their day. Definitely worth many return visits.

Beaver tails and canele

It all started when I was unloading the dishwasher. I was trying to shove some clean pots into the bottom cupboard, and they wouldn't budge. Something was in the way. I got down on my hands and knees and pulled everything out, and found the madelaine pan I had purchased many years ago and never tried. Aha! oh, but wait... Madelaines. Lemon madelaines. I have lemons in the fridge just waiting to be used for some luscious purpose....

I pulled out the pan, put all the other stuff back in the cupboard, and searched through my recipe library for a good recipe for madelaines. It is a weird recipe - mostly eggs and very little flour, so one could easily argue that madelaines are a good breakfast cookie (I often feel the need to justify what I stick in my face!). I was quite proud of them, and I thought they looked just like they should, tasted lemony and had a light cake-like texture.

I had been looking at Paris Breakfasts' blog the night before, where she was talking about caneles, so I figured I might as well try them while I was playing in the kitchen. I found a lot of references and recipes online, and eventually decided on the recipe from Chocolate and Zucchini mostly because all the other recipes called for a dozen eggs, and this one called for three. I don't have the required canele pans, but the recipes all referred to silicone pans, and the fact that the silicone pans are easier to use than the traditional copper. I do have a silicone muffin pan, and although it isn't as deep, I figured I could at least get an idea about whether caneles are the delicious magical treat every one claims they are. They are. They are supposed to look a bit burnt, although mine cooked quite a bit more quickly than the recipe suggested, because the pans are so shallow. They have a carmelly crunchy outside layer, and a custardy filling. I only filled the muffin pans three quarters full (and then they spilled as I was transferring them to the oven, because the damn pans aren't stable), so I would put the pan on a cookie sheet and fill them right to the top next time. They are easy to make, and definitely worth the effort. And since my silicone pans have this lovely rose shape, they are quite pretty as well!

Since I had already decided to dedicate my day to baking, I decided to try Beaver Tails. It was all over the news that Barack Obama stopped into a mall on his recent visit to Ottawa and while there he tried a Beaver Tail, which is supposedly a classic Canadian dish. I suppose that might be true if you live in Ottawa, but those of us in other parts of the country haven't ever heard of them. Of course, I have a recipe for stewed beaver tail, which was apparently a popular dish among settlers, but - ewww! The kind that Barack tasted was a pastry, so I hit the internet again. There are recipes all over the place for beaver tails, and they all seem to be exactly the same. They are a yeast-raised doughnut, but curiously, they also have eggs which help them rise quickly when they are in the oil (there's that great excuse to eat them for breakfast again!) Once you get the douhg prepared, it only takes about 2 minutes to cook them. They are great, and since I don't like anything really sweet, I just sprinkled a bit of icing sugar on them. I ended up making enough for my DH's social studies class.

necklace

I made these dangly bits several years ago, and finally got around to putting them together into this necklace:

clockwork flower pendant

I completed this clockwork flower pendant this evening:

This is a close-up of the flower:
Brass chain, steel tap, antique clock parts, brass guitar string nuts.

Approximately 12 inches long.

skull and tiger eye necklace

Looking at all the great art I found through visiting the participants in the One World One Heart event has given me the inspiration I needed to get creating again, although in a number of different genres. I am focusing on jewelry and artdolls for now, but I also need to complete two suits that I started last year.

I finished this skull necklace and matching earrings last night. It has bone skulls as accent beads, one large skull as a focal bead, and the remaining beads are flat tiger eye beads.