Advent Calendar 2016

Happy December 1st!

Last year we decided – because we really can’t have a tree in our small space – that we would make Advent calendars and fill them with little treats for each other. It took us a couple of months to cobble together all the materials, but last night we blasted Christmas music, sipped hot chocolate, and put the finishing touches on these:

Mine – sneakily filled by Michael – is hung over the gable beside the fridge with a doubled red velvet ribbon (because we didn’t want to nail it up.) I bought the antique frame years ago on Main Street in Vancouver. It usually hangs in my office.

And Michael’s – sneakily filled by me – displayed on our fridge. [Some of the magnets are slightly weak, so we’ll replace them next year].

We are pretty pleased with our efforts and I believe I shall annoy everyone for the next 23 days by posting the contents of mine every single day on Instagram and Twitter.

Our process (in pictures):

fullsizeoutput_335 — And so it begins. Two inch tin containers (Michael spray painted his tops), number stickers, and vintage pictures. [Magnets not shown.]

fullsizeoutput_334 — Close up of the tins and vintage pictures. We bought the PDFs from a seller on Etsy and printed them on thick photo quality paper.

fullsizeoutput_337 — Close up of the number stickers, tins, and inserts. We cut out the pictures, and glued them over the magnets we placed in the bottom of each tin.

Close up of Michael’s tins. He double spray painted the tops, first one colour, then another over the stickers. He then peeled the stickers off (carefully) but left the bottoms the original silver.

fullsizeoutput_338 — My numbering was a much easier process than Michael’s. I just stuck the stickers on the tins.

Close up of my numbers, the magnet board, and the antique frame.

And, finally, all that work for a tasty reward every day until Christmas:

fullsizeoutput_33b — December 1st – dark (53% Belgian) chocolate caramel with almond.

ETA (2017): we bought the metal tins from Uline. They have a bunch of different sizes. Ours are the 2 x 1.5 inch.

In which I get bamboozled.

I just wandered into the kitchen to find Michael playing Tetris with the fridge freezer.

“Wow,” I said, seriously impressed that he’d taken the time to divide the turkey mushroom casserole into individual meals and portion out the turkey pot pie filling.

“We have a lot of food,” he said, grunting with effort. “I’m trying to get it to all fit.”

“Oh,” I said, blindly walking into his trap. “Maybe we should take something out.”

“Good idea. How about this?” Michael grabbed a green Tupperware container, popping it open to reveal the very last Clarity in a Cup*. “Oh,” he said, utterly blithely. “Only one left.”

So yeah. That’s how Michael just tried to steal the last cupcake in the house.

I got the final word though. Just as I was exiting the kitchen and dashing out to the office, I said, “we’ll halve it at coffee break.”

*Clarity in a Cup will release in my newsletter, Cupcakes, Chocolate, and Other Magical Musings on November 1, 2016. If you aren’t a subscriber yet, you can sign up here.

MCD’s Birthday Giveaway 2016

GIVEAWAY CLOSED. WINNER LUCKY #9

It’s my 43rd birthday today! Every year I like to share my birthday abundance with someone else. In Vancouver I’d often buy a homeless person lunch, but last year – since I was on SSI – I decided to collect a few favourite things into a box and share them on my blog. I liked doing so, so I’ve done it again!

Warning: the giveaway is open for exactly TWENTY-FOUR HOURS. Yep, just the day of my birth.

An overview of this year’s box:

This year’s box is a mixture of new favourites – Chocolate Arts seasonal caramels (right now, pumpkin), the award winning Hummingbird Chocolate, and a David Lebovitz cookbook – and older (or daily) favourites – three fantastic novels, Manjari by Valhrona, and L’Occitane.

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Honourable mentions (things I fell in love with this year, but can’t really put in a box):

Rodan & Fields – I’m using Unblemish paired with Soothe and I can’t believe how much better my skin looks after six months (really after a month). My consultant is Anita, and I’m sure she’d be happy to answer any questions you have (No. I don’t get kickbacks for the referral – LOL)

Jamberry’s Trushine gel system – if you follow me on Facebook you might see my occasional ‘nailfie.’ I’m still learning how to apply it, but I’m a pretty big fan of Jamberry’s home gel system. My consultant is Heather. Again, I receive no kickback for this, or any other endorsement, I’m just a fan.

***

Would you like to collect this box of favourites for your very own?

You would?

Okay then!

To enter my birthday giveaway all you need to do is:

Comment below and tell me your favourite thing from 2016 (so far).

Notes/Rules: OPEN INTERNATIONALLY. Each comment will be assigned an entry number. ONE winning entry will then be selected via random number generator. One entry per person. Please make sure to fill out a valid email address in the comment form. Email addresses are not collected for any purpose other than notifying the contest winner.

If you haven’t commented on the blog before, or you comment from a different IP address, the comments are moderated. So don’t worry if you don’t see your entry right away. I will approve it, then assign it an entry number.

Giveaway closes TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2015 at 11:59 p.m. PDT.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

An excellent chocolate mousse recipe

I decided a few weeks ago that it had been far too long since I’d tried to make a great chocolate mousse (and failed miserably). Some Googling a few days ago led me to Gourmantine The Blog, and specifically, this post on the best chocolate mousse recipes.

I was intrigued by the ‘winning’ recipe by pastry chef David Lebovitz – especially because it didn’t call for the traditional heavy cream – so I grabbed a screenshot and whipped it up this afternoon.

I followed the recipe as written, though the yolk really didn’t want to be ‘whisked’ into the chocolate, so I just stirred vigorously. I also might have over stiffened the whites slightly. I used sea salt.

A recipe in pictures (with commentary):

I used a mixture of these three chocolates by Cacao Barry to make up the 200g. The resulting mousse was quite dark, so I could have used slightly less of the Tanzanie (75%).

‘Stiff peak’ egg whites. Remember to bring your eggs to room temp before whipping. I think these might be slightly over whipped.

I managed to get chocolate everywhere, of course and always.

The recipe made six mousses that perfectly filled my six glass ramekins.

After three hours of chill time. Dense but fluffy. Creamy and rich. Almost too dark (my fault). I would suggest serving the mousse with a dollop of whipped cream or some fresh berries for balance.

I highly recommend giving this recipe a try. It’s brilliant.

Speaking of Cozy in a Cup …

We were speaking of cupcakes, weren’t we?

Recipe found here and in the Dowser Series Companion Cookbook.

iBooks Giveaway – 25 MCD ebooks

GIVEAWAY CLOSED. ALL WINNERS HAVE BEEN NOTIFIED.

I’m feeling exceedingly blessed today. As I was writing away in my tiny shed and gazing out at my lovely view, I decided I’d like to randomly share a sliver of my contentment. At first I thought about doing a giveaway for a paperback or gifting a couple of books off someone’s Amazon wish list (I may still do this later on), then I thought about doing something … more expansive. When I run giveaways I always end up wishing I could give something to everyone but obviously I can’t afford to do so …

Except!

I remembered that I have download codes for iBooks that I never think to use. So let use some of them up, eh?

You can read iBooks on your iPhone, iPad, iPod, or Apple computer with the free iBooks App. Also remember that Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic is permafree (and here on iBooks). Detailed info on all the books can be found by clicking on the individual cover image on the right hand side of my blog.

How to enter:

Pick any book listed above that you haven’t had a chance to read yet and comment below with the title.

I will randomly select TWENTY-FIVE people and gift them the book of their choice.

Yep, TWENTY-FIVE.

Have you already read all my books? No worries! Nominate a friend who reads with iBooks and I’d be happy to gift a book to him or her instead. Or, even better, suggest that your friend comment below for a chance to win.

Notes/Rules: OPEN INTERNATIONALLY. Each comment will be assigned an entry number. 25 winning entries will then be selected via random number generator. One entry per person. Please make sure to fill out a valid email address in the comment form. Email addresses are not collected for any purpose other than notifying the contest winner.

Contest closes TUESDAY, JUNE 28, 2016 at 8 p.m. PDT.

[But 25 is a lot of entries so I may start randomly selecting winners today through Tuesday.]

SHARES AND LIKES ARE WELCOMED AND APPRECIATED.

hispaniola by Hummingbird Chocolate

I blogged about Hummingbird Chocolate last week.

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hispaniola – tasting notes:

First taste: definitely fruity. On the edge of dry. Smooth. Creamy. Golden raisin. Slight after taste, but pleasant. Michael called it a “bright fruitiness.”

Second taste: pleasant chocolate scent. Fruit is again very upfront. Cherry through and through. Aftertaste is stronger and lingered longer the second time. Mouth coating but not unpleasant.

Definitely a quality bar. Grade A.

Then I tried the Fleur de Sel a few days later. This award winning bar is made with the hispaniola chocolate and sprinkled with hand-harvested Fleur de Sel from the Vancouver Island Salt Co. As much as I liked the hispaniola on its own, it was INSANELY good with the added salt. And I usually loathe anything added to my chocolate.

I only have two pieces of the Fleur de Sel left. I had to force myself to not eat it all in one go … it was that good. Grade A++

I’m exceedingly pleased with this new discovery. 😀

The day after …

Well, that’s that. Dowser 6 is officially released, paperback and all. All the giveaways and memes and recipes have been posted and shared, etc.

So what is a writer to do now?

Get back to work, I suppose.

But first, I think I’ll play a bit with my new pens and ink samples:

And lug these around with me a bit longer:

And then there is The Bookcon next week:

Hmmm … mix in a bunch of chocolate and that all seems like a good plan to me!

😀

Thank you to everyone who preordered and purchased Dowser 6 yesterday!! You made the release a great success. I hope you like the read, and if you have a moment to spare, a honest review would be lovely.