I have been a horrible blogger the past few months, but decided to try to get back into it. Last December I posted some of our favorite holiday recipes. I thought I would try to do the same this year. This first recipe is for Chocolate Soufflé — the recipe is from the Mustache Cafe in Brentwood, California.

Chocolate Soufflé

Preheat oven to 350F.  Butter six 8oz or 10 4oz soufflé dishes.  Sprinkle bottom and sides with granulated sugar.  Combine 5 squares (5oz) coarsely chopped unsweetened chocolate, 7 tbsp granulated sugar, and ½ cup milk in saucepan.  Heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until chocolate in melted and mixture is smooth.  Remove from heat and let mixture stand for 10 minutes.  Transfer mixture to a large bowl and stir in 4 large egg yolks, one at a time, until blended.  Beat 6 large egg whites in mixture bowl until stiff; gradually beat in 4 tbsp sugar.  Wisk 1/3 of the whites into chocolate mixture, then gradually fold in remaining whites with rubber spatula.  Divide batter evenly among prepared soufflé dishes.  Bake on cookie sheet 15 minutes for 4oz dishes, 20 minutes for 8oz dishes.  Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar. Serve with whipped cream.

FInally played a little the past few weeks. Here are 3 new Artist Trading Cards that I made for a swap…

Land of the Free

Mayflower Journey

Winterland Baby

Here is the one I did for an art group exchange:

Cover

Inside

slides

I finally have some new art to post. This was my first attempt at a microscope slide mailer. I had a lot of fun with this one, and plan and doing a couple more very soon.

Imagine Cover

Imagine Inside

Imagine Slides

I am not sure the title “he cracked up” will make sense in the picture, but if you look closely it appears the joker is behind cracked glass. I coated him with UTEE and sprinkled in micro beads. After it cooled, I bent the card in different directions to make it crack.

He Cracked Up

I have been having trouble coming up with one more unique page.  As I said in the beginning, I wanted to try different things on each page using different ideas and materials.

I went to make cookies this morning, and the butter box was an eagle carrying the word butter. A light bulb went off, and I ran upstairs to craft (No the cookies are not even started yet).

Flying Butter

Our church has an annual auction every year for raise money for various programs. It is called Make It/ Bake It. Members make and bake things thats that are offered in both a silent and live auction. Here are my contributions for this years.

First I made 8 domino magnets and a key chain. Nothing fancy, just alcohol ink, dominoes, and sealant.

magnets and keychain

My second contribution were 4 frames that I embellished with vintage game pieces, then sprayed with a sealant.

Bingo

Pokeno

Concentration

Scrabble

This was my first attempt at altering a mint tin. The theme is “at the beach” The outside was done with stream and silver alcohol inks. The shells on top are images stamped in translucent oven bake clay, then painted with alcohol inks.

The lid

The diarama inside

The last few days my imagination has went on vacation. I did manage to finish two more butterflies, with one to go. I am stumped as to what I want to do with the last one.

The Butterfly

Sparkle

Two more down, three to go….

Explore

Pokemon -- Butterfree