I Love Handmade

Green Tea Macaroons

I made these green tea macaroons recently. I liked the merigues i.e., the top and bottom part, but I didn't like the custard inbetween after learning it's made mainly with butter. Next time, I'll use fill it with chocolate ganache or the ready-made red bean paste.

Adapted Recipe from Dessert For You by Rachel Yau

Ingredients:

Green tea Macaroons

75 g ground almond

75 g icing sugar

54 g egg whites (from about 2-3 large eggs)

10 g Matcha green tea powder

20 g water

Green tea filling

1 egg yolk

10 g sugar

60 g butter

A couple drops of vanilla extract

1 tbps of water

Method:

Green tea macaroons

1. Sieve together the green tea powder, icing sugar and ground almond. Beat 27 g of egg whites. Then, add the sieved dry ingredients.
2. In a small pot, melt the sugar with the water. Stir it into the remaining 27 g of egg whites. Beat until satiny and stiff.
3. Add egg mixture from Step 2 into the batter in Step 1 in 3 additions. Fold it in, so not to deflate the air bubbles in the egg mixture.
4. On a piece of parchment paper or silpat, pipe the macaroon batter using a 1 cm nozzle. Try to pipe equal size discs. Leave them to dry for 30 mins.
5. Bake in oven at 285 F for 10 mins. Then lower the temperature to 210 F and keep baking for 20 mins.
6. Once cooled. Lift them carefully from parchment paper or silpat.

Custard filling 

1. In a small pot, melt the sugar with the water. Turn heat off. Stir in the egg yolk quickly.
2. Add in softened butter in egg yolk in 3 separate times. Whisk until smooth. Add in vanilla extract and green tea powder.
3. Pipe custard filling inbetween 2 merigues.

 

 

Open Day Display Board

After about 3 days of work, I finally finished the display board for the upcoming Open Day for church. This board will be used to demonstrate the various activities that we will have on that day. The event organizer asked me to use as many 3D objects as possible. My hubby was able to find this paper cut of the Wii remote. You just have to print it on cardboard, cut along the lines and fold it up. It's quite neat.

 

There's still some jewellery samples that will go on the pink page, with the glittered phrase "Bling Bling". I stuck on the bowling pins toys like a bowling bowl just struck them. I must mention the glittered shiny banners. I made the trim and polka dots myself using yellow glittered paper. I made the pinwheels too. These represent the carnival games we will have on the Open Day. The ping pong is an actual ping pong paddle. I had to use heavy duty tape to tape it on the board, then cut out a paddle shape from the green cardstock and put it on. I wanted it to look like I put the paddle on the cardstock. I also want to mention about the light shimmery yellow-green background. I used misting sprays to colour the white board. It was a major hassle; I don't intend to repeat this process. I was so afraid I would have some paint on my floors or furniture. I'm happy this is now done since I can now work on the board for my fellowship.

Working Away

I jazzed up a previous wedding card design with a Quickutz die cut of a bride and groom. I really like this card myself. My camera wouldn't cooperate and I can't get a sharp and bright picture. You will just have to trust me.

  Next up are two scrapbook pages that are just finished today. A friend came over to help me do some pages. They will go on a display booth for an Open Day for my church in a couple of weeks. Each fellowship will have a booth to introduce ourselves. My friend made this one about the day when we went bowling. Do you love the silly monkey?

I made the next page about the time when we went out for dinner. I like how the paper pierced flower pattern framed the assorted pictures, which guides your eye to the pictures. And the elegant font for the title just completes the page.

Royal Botanical Gardens

Yes, I know I haven't updated my blog in a long long time. I just didn't feel like doing any crafts. But I do have many cooking and baking recipes to share. But first, I'd like to share these photos of today's day trip to Hamilton's Royal Botanical Gardens. 

 

 

There are about 4 separate gardens altogether. We only had energy for 3 gardens. When I arrived, I took out my camera and immediately realized I have yet downloaded all 200+ pics of the weekend at Niagara Falls a couple of weeks ago - which means there was`t much memory left. I was so pissed at myself. I ended up buying a good old fashioned disposable camera. You remember those with actual film inside? I had to turn a wheel to take the next picture!

 

 

Charm Bracelet & matching Earrings

Today, we had another 'Crafting Bella' gathering. This time, we had five of us. We started with a very satisfying lunch as made by my hubby. We enjoyed vegetable soup, homemade pizzas, bacon-wrapped scallops and thanks to Cangi, we also had walnut bread pudding. And I made the mini raspberry-topped lemon muffins. Then, we proceeded to make the jewellery. There are two basic techniques used in this project. The simple one is how to properly open and close jump rings. The other is a little bit more complicated - wire wrapping using headpins. But the bellas caught on after a few practices. And after some time, all had completed a set of very beautifully handmade dangling earrings. Everyone rushed to the mirror to try on their earrings after they're done. It was funny as I had done the exact same thing when I worked on them beforehand. Some started the bracelet too, and they brought the remaining materials home to finish. It feels a bit like school today; there's handouts, video presentation, class work, then homework. Ha ha. And viola, here is the finished project.

 

And here is a group picture, showing off our own homemade earrings. Can you feel our sense of accomplishment? LOL

Jewellery making

I made these for someone's birthday. I have started making simple earrings and liking the results. They make nice gifts. I think the hard part is actually coming up with the design and finding the right beads and the right hairpin, clasps or hook. I just went to a bead store in the textile district after work today to buy the materials for the next craft gathering. (We are making jewellery next time.) I had some ideas in mind and actually sketch them on paper and brought it to the store, in hope to find the right materials. But it's quite hard to do in such a short time since the store closes at 6pm, and it was like a quarter to six by the time I got there. Boy, those street cars seem to stop every 30 secs. Quite annoying. The nice lady there helped me find the right stuff...probably because she wants me out of the store, so she could get off work. I will probably need to go back once I finally the designs. I hope the other girls will like the jewellery when we make them in the gathering.

 

Baby Onesie

I made this for my hubby's co-worker. The baby onesie was made using Quickutz baby clothes die set. I haven`t been crafting lately even though I have two more requests. I have been using all my spare time to read the Twilight saga. I just finished the second book, New Moon. And I can't wait to read the rest. The first book is so much better than the movie, although Robert Pattison, the actor who plays Edward Cullen is really good-looking. I know I'm no longer a teen, so not supposed to gush over a 23 year-old actor. But it's hard not to look at Pattison and not dream he's the character, Edward Cullen in the books. If you like suspense and romance, I highly suggest you read it. You'd enjoy it!

I {heart} Mom

April 24 is my mom's birthday. Our family took her to Spring Rolls for her birthday dinner. I was going to make her a cake, but I got sick that week so I bought her the cake I was going to make. My sister brought mom some beautiful flowers, which made Mom happy. I also made mom a birthday card. Here`s mom and I with the card.

 

 The flowers were made from four different punches. The words are cut from the metro fonts from Quickutz. The pretty edge was cut using a Martha Stewart punch. The pattern paper is from the Urban Prairie line.

 

Sweet Peas

I felt like I did so many different things last night after work yesterday. First, my DH and I enjoyed a "Date Night" at Milestone's. They had a special promotion for a buy one, get one free for an appetizer, main or both. Lucky for me that by the time I walked over there, my DH already got us a table. The meal was Yum-O! Then, we got back home and I cleaned the dirty dishes leftover from before and also cleared some stale food items from the fridge. Then, I worked on a baby card for a co-worker. More on that later. At 9pm, it was time to watch TV. It was the 100th episode of Lost. Yah! My DH turned me into a loyal fan. When you watch the show, don't think too much and ask questions. Just follow along, and you’ll enjoy the show. In between the commercials, we watched American Idol. (Bye Matt!) Then, I finished working on the card - I took out the sewing machine to stitch the borders. Then, it was time to go to bed, except I had to stay up late to watch a late night talk show since they were talking about Lost ... soooo regret it as I had to get up super early for an appointment this morning.

Enough ramblings...onto some crafty things. The baby card I made was for the FREE card that my co-worker had earned. Remember the `Buy 9 and Get 1 FREE´ deal I mentioned when I first started selling my handmade cards? Well, she actually earned it. Wow. First, I had no idea how I`d design the card. Then, it all came together having gathered some of my fav papers and embellishments altogether. My absolute favourite part is the green pom-poms as the peas in the pod. So cute!!! Machine stitching is a relatively new technique to me. It`s such a hassle to take out my old heavy-as-a-rock hand-me-down sewing machine (and it even requires a big power adapter). Anyway, I think the pink stitches really take the interesting factor up a notch… well worth the effort. Ya think?

 

Vache Qui Rit Soup

 

Lately, I feel inspired to try to cook something. So, I picked up Laura Calder's new cookbook "French Taste - elegant everyday eating". If you know me, I'm by no means any expert in the kitchen. But I feel somewhat confident with this super easy soup. There's really only about 4 main ingredients. It is a zucchini soup thickened with the commerical cheese. The brand of the cheese has the picture of a laughing cow. ("vache qui rit" means "laughing cow")

Here`s my adapted recipe:

2 small onions

4 zucchinis, chopped

2 cups of chicken stock

Salt and pepper

A pinch of Cumin

4 triangles of the Laughing Cow cheese

All you do is put the onions and zucchinis in the chicken stock. Simmer it for about 15 minutes until the ingredients are softened. Turn off the heat. Add the cheese. Then puree the soup. You could either use an immersion blender or ladle the soup mixture into a blender and puree. I, then, pour the soup through a fine sift for a smooth consistency. You can skip this step, if you prefer.

There it is, here is my vache qui rit soup - sounds fancy, but as you see, it's easy peasy. It taste yummy too. The cheese makes the texture creamy, but doesn't leave a strong taste. Apparently, every French mummy knows how to make this soup for their kids. There are tons of recipes in the book, I hope to share more with you soon. Au Revoir, mon amis!