Not dead, but I do have cookies

Yes, I've been neglecting ye olde blog. Generally when I finish a particularly large painting, my muse goes into hibernation for at least a month afterward, and that's been the case.

I did, however, make cookies yesterday morning. These ones, with several exceptions. I did not let the dough sit around to blend flavours, and I most certainly did not wait two days before breaching my supply. I also only filled some of them with jam. I am not a jam person. I like it in very, very thin scrapings on toast, not sugary blobs. In this particular case, I used some seedless wildberry stuff in similarly small amounts, and liked the results. These really need a tart jam to set them off; they'd be sickeningly sweet otherwise. I'll probably make them again next time there's lemon curd around.

Waiting is necessary after you fill them, but a few hours is sufficient for the jam to soften the cookies (the unfilled ones are very crisp and tasty in their own right--more sandy and less melty). I'll have to see if another day does anything.

The spoon-shaping sounds irritating, but it's not (although I may be biased, since I like doing such things). A bit time-consuming, but that just gave me something to do while one batch was baking. It also had the benefit of making them perfectly uniform in size, so I'll never have to guess at the timing (13 minutes) again. An ordinary teaspoon is perfectly serviceable.

If I have not yet implied it, they're pretty damned glorious.

Curios and Trinkets, part the eleventh

Before I get on with the shiny objects, I'd like to mention that as of 3:30 yesterday morning, aioli ceased to be a mystic delicacy that I only had in restaurants. This has a lot to do with the fact that aioli is essentially garlic mayonnaise that's wearing Groucho glasses and hoping that no one recognizes it. I ended up just grinding some dried garlic to powder in a mortar and mixing it with some mayonnaise and lemon juice, then leaving it to mellow in the fridge for a few hours. Done.

I'm bordering on will-breakingly tired right now, so do forgive me if I'm a bit laconic about the jewelery.

Labradorite, shell, crab agate, quartz.

I've since added clasps to these. All glass.

More glass.

An attempt at capturing Mikala. I don't think it's going to be possible without an actual dragon, though.

Quartz, if memory serves.

Quartz and imperial turquoise, and some copper beads meant to frame other beads. Turquoise, by the way, is an exceedingly awkward word to type.

The rings spin.

And lastly, something vaguely reminiscent of Miss Nori.

Curios and Trinkets, part the fifth

Continuing my string of hit-and-run midnight baking, last night I made a batch of what was essentially shortbread with cheese instead of sugar. They lasted approximately 15 hours. I may or may not have started quoting Selin Fireheart upon sampling them.

The trinket-making nonsense continues unabated. This afternoon found me attempting to tap holes into a copper turtle stamping's nose and tail; he's now crawling up a chain destined to hold one of the alchemical element bottles I've been making.

For now, some things I've finished recently.


Something altogether girly and springy. Rose quartz (courtesy of Elke) and crab agate.


Tinkering with Shrinky Dinks, poppy jasper, and onyx.


And something nice and autumnal, with fancy and moss agate.

Honeytarts

Sounds like an affectionate form of address, but no.

I have a raging adoration for the scent of honey (and the taste, when the sweetness is muted), so when I came across a recipe billing itself 'honey tarts', I went rifling through the freezer in search of tart shells.

These are identical in texture to buttertarts (they're both custards on amphetamines, after all), with a delicate honey flavour. They do not, however, contain any butter or anything of the sort. What follows is a recipe that filled 8 standard-size tart shells; double it for a more reasonable-sized batch. The original recipe included a tiny bit of salt, but I didn't bother.

1 egg
1/8 cup white sugar
1/4 cup honey
A splash of vanilla

Mix the above together in a bowl before adding...

1/3 cup broken pecans

...and mixing them in. Spoon into tart shells and bake at 375F for 14-16 minutes. If the filling acts liquidy when the tart is wiggled, it's not done yet.

Something tells me they'd do just as well with sliced almonds in place of the pecans.


And on an unrelated note, here's a necklace I made as a late birthday present for the lovely Ravenskar.