Champurrado (Mexican Hot Chocolate)
Source: @MuyBuenoCooking
A warm cup of filling sweet and spiced hot chocolate is the perfect pairing to a snowy day.
Mexican Tortilla Soup
Source: The Daily Soup Cookbook
Prepared with homemade baked tortilla chips, not fried as the recipe calls for. At two cups of soup per serving for only 280 calories it doesn’t get any better. Oh wait it does with the inclusion of smoky minced chipotle chile. This is the best soup cookbook.
Layered Birthday Carrot Cake
Adapted from: @Cooking_Light and @brooklynbaker
What to do when your birthday also happens to be National Carrot Cake Day? Make a delectable layered birthday carrot cake! I tested many different recipes and found my favorite in a bright and spongy Cooking Light carrot cake. It has a tasty crumb texture and an amazing cinnamon punch finish (using Vietnamese ground cinnamon from Penzey’s), paired with a tangy fromage blanc cream cheese frosting between the layers, and coated in a classic cream cheese buttercream. Topped with toasted coconut and chopped pecans, it is my ultimate birthday cake. It tastes even better the next day.
The only thing I would consider changing would be to make it as a two-layer cake instead of three next time for more cake with each bite.
16 servings, 435 calories.
3 notes (8:29)
joannaestep:
So I’ve been given permission to post what I’ve been working on all week…. the very first cover to my book for Titanium Comics, Age of Darkness.
While I was given a plot summary and character roster to work with, I was in fact hired on as the writer for AOD, so technically this book is scripted AND illustrated by yours truly. I’m pleased as punch to have been chosen for a project such as this one.
Click here to fullview!
My roomie knows how to properly Zombie Apocalypse it up.
pixilation:
I’m holding a raffle for 1 of 5 fantasy and fairy art prizes! The contest is open from now until midnight on Dec 8th. I will announce the winners on Facebook and here. Winners will need to get me their shipping address before the 10th for shipping in time for Christmas.
To enter please fill out the form below and see how you can qualify for multiple entries. Facebook fans automatically get one free entry.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Free giveaway of original fairy art swag by the talented Meredith Dillman, enter now!
November has dawned and we’re rolling up on Christmas now. If you’re seeking ideas of what to gift the fantasy and adventure reader in your life, or even just for yourself, look no further.
Despite the unassuming title, I picked up The Thief years back pretty much for the cover by Vince Natale. I was drawn to the beautiful transparent layers of skin tone colors which recalled to mind my then-favorite painter Jacob Collins.
Best impulse buy ever.
The Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner features the most well-crafted, memorable characters I’ve ever read, tied together through a variety of complex relationships while facing extreme challenges presented by the far-reaching machinations of men, monarchies, and gods. The @booksmugglers summed it up perfectly in their (slightly spoilery) review:
As I was reading the books, as the pages were being turned I had only one thought in mind: this is why I read. This is why I read. This is why I read.
Each book makes up a portion of the ongoing story arch and should be read in order. Luckily, they pass quickly and contain thoroughly satisfactory conclusions with exciting reveals. I also greatly appreciate how the author assumes only the best of mental facility from her readership despite the allocation of the books into Young Readers/YA (potentially due to the physical age of the MCs).
These are the only books I will always and forever choose to re-read, enjoy, and wear out so I can deliberately order new copies. The excessively cracked and failing spines of my current copies can attest to this.
If you’re still on the shelf (ha! get it?) read the first three chapters of The Thief online now. But be warned Gen steals more than just precious treasures, he also steals loyalties and hearts.
Vanilla Bean Toffee Streusel Caramel Apples make for a very happy Halloween indeed. As do Soul Cakes and Shrunken Apple Heads in Hot Mulled Cider.
Adapted from: Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by @brooklynbaker, @Cooking_Light, @NPR, @MarthaStewart, & @Cooking_Light.
Toffee Streusel Topping by me:
- 1 1/4 cups toasted rolled oats
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1 tbsp frozen apple juice concentrate, thawed
- 6 tbsp toffee bits
In a food processor combine the rolled oats, sugar, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice. Pulse two to three times, or enough to just chop the oats. Drizzle in the apple juice concentrate, then pulse one to two times. Combine in a large bowl with toffee bits.
Makes 14 caramel apples, 320 calories each.
Soul Cakes photographed by pixilation, and the recipe made 17 cakes, 128 calories each.
0 notes (7:37)
The results of pixilation’s Spooktacular Pumpkin Carving Party, along with the pumpkin seeds currently roasting in the oven.
Mjölnir by joannaestep, Cthulhu by thatscarybroad, and Pumpkin Pie by myself, of course.
Last minute costume fun for Baristacide’s Halloween show, made easy with the classy Soda Fountain dress courtesy ModCloth.
Happy Halloween!
Traditional Egg and White Lotus Seed Paste Mooncakes
Adapted from: @easyrecipes, @cafenilson, and House of Annie
The leaves are changing, the wind is bracing, and the fruits of summer are being harvested. Today I celebrated the Mid-Autumnal Equinox with my dear friends over a hot cup of tea and batch of homemade mooncakes.
Prep for the mooncakes began on Tuesday, soaking the lotus kernels overnight in order to make the paste and the dough on Wednesday. On Thursday molding and baking commenced, before letting the cakes sit two days as the oils soaked through to turn the dough shiny and soft.
Commercial store-bought mooncakes range anywhere from 700 to 1000 calories per cake. At 60 grams and 217 calories each, mine were worth every bit of homemade effort.
1 note (4:07)
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