Cream Puff Crazed

 There are a few tidbits that I render so darn good that they should be considered dangerous and
only offered for consumption in and from your own kitchen, but once annually.

Fresh Cream Puff with Bananas

 I consider Homemade CREAM PUFFS to be a few of those things..
Very few people know that I lack the ability to spend the evening alone, in a house with a container of Mini M&M Cream Puffs in the freezer
without succumbing to the temptation to eat the entire lot of them myself.

Oh I am well aware of the self induced, nauseated feeling that accompanies the consumption of countless Cream Puffs but have none the less participated in preserving this particularly putrid behavior on more than one occasion.

I honed a taste for the sweeter side of life when I was quite young.

My Mom has always been a master Dessert maker. Layer upon layer of visually stunning squares, homemade cinnamon buns and deep fried doughnuts served to sweeten my tooth and the memories of my childhood. Nothing beat arriving home to the sweet smell of Mom and the aroma of one of her specialties wafting from the kitchen, except to have arrived just in time for a fresh serving of the same.

 Although her products are all purchased lo-cally and manufactured right in her home there are no misconceptions over the lacking low- cal count in her finished products. No holds barred. No product banned.
These are homemade goodies born from the love of a Mother and begun in a bowl full of the love of baking. Blended from a mix of sugar,  flour, eggs and butter with a dollop of cream cheese and/or of course whip cream the concoctions were then baked into the many comfort foods of my childhood.


  I do love to bake myself but I am also certain that there are many years yet to come before the day arrives that I am finally asked to bring the dessert for dinner! My Moms desserts continue to reign supreme, garnering the natterings of many a family get together.  I couldn't be fuller, happier or more thrilled about it all. I really do savor the memory of every tasty moment.

Fresh Cream Puff with Raspberry Sauce

  I want one now! A fresh Cream Puff stuffed with real whip cream and dusted with powdered sugar  served with warmed Raspberries and a piping hot, fresh cup of coffee to which just the right amount of Creemo has been added...OMG

Hmmm I pondered but for a moment.
That's what I'll make to take. I had a dinner date that evening with friends to which I had been invited to bring the dessert!
 Funny how the minds world works..Blog and ye shall find?!!

(Cream Puffs do travel well and set up swiftly.)

Cream Puffs to go

I bake my Cream Puffs and set to cool before slicing open the tops. I like to leave a bit of the lid attached to the cream puff itself allowing  the lid to stand open once I have stuffed the center.
Others prefer to slice the lid right of the top and then gently set it back down on the top of a stuffed Puff.
Once cooled I remove any excess dough from inside and finally place the little puffs in a foil lined container to go. Pack in single layers. Cover and refrigerate for later use.
That's it , the hardest part is done.

I then beat or blend together the Cream Puff stuffing (real whipped cream)to be used in the shells. Once cooled it can be spooned into small or medium freezer bags or a pastry bag and stored in the fridge. The bag is easily and safely carted about and the corner can be snipped off to squeeze the content directly and evenly into the Cream Puff Cups when the time come and the need arises.

  I keep Icing Sugar in an old shakable spice bottle with lid that also travels well.
 A bag of Bananas, A Pineapple, fresh or frozen Berries, nuts, coconut or dessert sauce in a squeeze bottle all travel well and are instant, economical and effective ways to add the Wow to your Cream Puffs.
These really are best eaten not long after being prepared but once stuffed, the Cream Puffs can be individually fresh frozen and then stored in freezer bags in the freezer.
Now that you are aware of my relationship with this particular frozen food you will understand why I no longer partake in the freezing of Cream Puffs in my home!
See recipe below

I love the dessert design-ability of these little Puff cups but the value they have as appealing Appetizers should not be overlooked. These little cups are also just fabulous stuffed with a Crab Dip!
                 Wow the ones you love at your next gathering 
           with your own homemade  Cream Puffs!

Cream Puff Recipe

1/4  Cup Butter      Combine water and Butter and on medium heat, bring to a full rolling boil.
1  Cup Water         Remove from heat


1 Cup Flour           Beat in flour and salt until mixture begins to leaves the sides   
1/4 Tsp. Salt           and form a ball.  

4 Eggs                    Beat in eggs one at a time.

Drop by teaspoon onto baking tray and bake at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes or until tops are a golden brown. Remove from oven and cool on rack before slicing open tops.

 The cakes do puff a bit when they bake but they do not spread out on the tray an awful lot so they can be baked a bit closer together than a cookie which tends to spread out more.
 That's it. That's how simply this fussing is done.                 
 

Raw Cream Puffs

Baked Cream Puffs

 This may be a good time to spread a little love across your apron and your chin by way of a little strategically placed icing sugar.  People who have not made Cream Puffs seem to have the impression that making cream puffs are a lot of work. In the name of honoring this myth I indulge in the tradition of sprinkling icing sugar on self before serving!

Filling

1-2 tsp.  Instant Pudding. 
Vanilla is typical but any flavor of your fancy will works. Mmm try Chocolate or Butterscotch.
2 Cups Heavy Cream  
Combine pudding and cream and beat with electric beater for 2 min. Refrigerate for several hours. Scoop into Pastry Bag or plastic baggy for storage and later use. Squeeze content out of corner of cut bag,
evenly into the Cream Puffs.

Fresh Cream Puffs and Bananas

Serve up your Cream Puffs on a pretty plate stuffed with Vanilla Cream and serve with half a sliced Banana and a shake of powdered sugar.
  Mmmmm, doesn't it look delightful?

Fresh Cream Puffs with Raspberries

 





Serve them with warmed Raspberries
and Coffee after breakfast in the Sun

The Cream Puffs and the great company was enjoyed by everyone.

   Indulge yourself and enjoy today!

Make your own Instant Pudding Mix Click Here
 

Where in the World would you find The World's Largest Easter Egg?

 Lillian the Domestic Engineer
 Get EGG Cited

  
The World's Largest Easter Egg is found in little old
Vegreville Alberta, Canada!

The Vegreville egg is a giant sculpture of a pysanka, a Ukrainian-style Easter egg. It is the largest pysanka in the world.^[1] The work is built of an intricate set of anodized aluminum two-dimensional tiles congruent equilateral triangles and star-shaped hexagons fashioned over an aluminum framework. The egg is 31 ft (9 m) long and three and a half stories high, weighing in at 2.5 t (5,512 lb).^{[2]
 Click Here for more} 



To Build a Pysanka: Professor Resch, computer scientist at the University of Utah,was responsible for the entire Pysanka concept which required the development of new comptuer programs. The Pysanka is really an immense jigsaw puzzle containing 524 star patterns, 2,208 equilateral triangles, 3,512 visible facets, 6,978 nuts and bolts, and 177 internal struts. The Pysanka is recognized around the world as not only a unique artistic masterpiece but also an achievement of nine mathematical, architectural and engineering firsts. The design represents the first computer modeling of an egg.
Symbolic Meanings: This Pysanka (Ukrainian Easter Egg) symbolizes the harmony, vitality and culture of the community and is dedicated as a tribute to the 100th Anniversary of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who brought peace and security to the largest multi-cultural settlement in all of Canada.

More INFO HERE!












 

Easter Egg Craft

 Happy Easter! 

 Chances are good that you already have what you need in your kitchen to create beautiful Egg-citing creations!

Happy Easter Crafts

Materials Needed:Eggs
Dollar Store Delights = Hats, Eyes, Pipe Cleaners, Beads, Flowers, Feathers, Mini Puff balls, Glitter, Glue, Fabric Paint, acrylic paint, mini stickers, pom poms.
Egg Paint (recipe below)


The ultimate Easter Egg Paint Recipe

• 1 Large Egg (raw) separated -Use Yolk only
• Food Coloring (3-4 drops of food color) per yolk.

That's it. Mix them together and you are ready to paint. 
 This paint is non toxic.
Only mix up the paint that you will use at one sitting
 as the paint does not keep well.




Mix the paint up in a small nappy or dessert bowl. Experiment with colors and intensity by adding more or less food color and or by mixing the color dyes.
The colored paints can then be placed into the cups of a Styrofoam egg carton container and placed in the center of your work space for use by several Artists at a time.
 Use a small paint brush or your fingers to apply the paint to your creature or creation.

Prepare your EGGS.
Hard boiled Eggs are perfect for the young ones because they are easier to handle, less breakable than a blown hollow egg and can always be sent in their lunch bags for lunch the following day!

Easter Craft

Easter EGG

Hollowed Eggs
To hollow out the Eggs poke a small hole in the top and a slightly larger (small) hole in the bottom of the egg. I used a darning needle which is a bit fatter than a regular sewing needle. You may have to poke it two or three times to make a hole large enough. Don't go too big or you increase the possibilities of the egg cracking.
I then shake the egg in an effort to break up the yolk inside which does help to make it a little easier to blow out the content.

To blow out the egg put your mouth over the smallest hole and blow hard and steady. The egg content should flow from the larger hole out of the bottom of the Egg.
Once all of the contents have been blown out, carefully wash and dry the egg before painting.
The wooden stands were a perfect fit. They are candle holders that I found in the second hand store.

Get Crafty with Easter  EGGS

 EGG Citing Creations
 This Crafty Caterpillar was made with 5 hollow eggs that were painted and then hot glued together. 

A band of Gold Glitter Fabric paint was applied around the glued seams to conceal any glue that was obvious.

The antenna was made by folding a pipe cleaner in half and carefully inserting it into the large blow hole on the egg head. A drop of hot glue was applied before the insertion to ensure it stayed in place.


Caution must be exercised when handling hollow eggs.

His eyes are glued on and the mouth and nose were created with Fabric Paint after the yoke paint had dried. Mini Pom Poms were applied with a drop of hot glue to the bottom of each egg creating the caterpillars feet.

The driftwood was  perfect  for displaying the Crafty Caterpillar. He was glued to the base and the entire creation was then sprayed with an acrylic sealer. A cute keepsake to be sure.

Easter ART

 For ease of painting the hollowed egg shell,
 I created the coat hanger holders as seen in the picture.

The hook on the Coat hanger was straitened out to become the Egg holder itself. The egg is placed down onto the wire
The hanger bottom was then bent to create the stand itself.  It took a few bends to get the hangers to stand properly.






 I then put a damp cloth onto the hanger part that sat on the table itself. The extra bit of weight assisted in keeping the frame standing upright and also served as a handy wipe for the artists hands.

  For best results let each color dry before applying the next.

We employed colored glitter glue and glittered fabric paints directly on the dried painted Eggs.
 Finally each character was sprayed with an acrylic seal, giving each project a nice sheen and a protective coat.
Aren't you EGG-cited to get started?

I recently purchased a concentrated icing color at the bulk barn for use in cupcake icing for a recent summer celebration.
 Just a drop of this corn syrup based colorant provide the deepest, richest icing colors I have ever seen.
This great colorant is also very effective in cake batter itself.
I think the results could be stunning with this colorant added to the egg yolk paint.

Use your imagination when displaying your creations. I purchased the beautiful candle holders at the second hand store. I thought they made beautiful displays. The great part is that they can then be re-used as candle holders when A: the project is either dropped and broken or
                    B: when the project starts to smell several years down the road...

With little ones at work the odds of having a broken shell or two is very likely.
Turn the broken shell bits into happy accidents by coloring with pure food color or the paint yolk mixture and then gluing them onto card stock or paper art in pleasing mosaic shapes.
  

Wow look at this great idea....


CLICK HERE
Follow the link above to 60 EGG ACTIVITIES for KIDS

Naugahyde. The Urban Myth

the Naugahyde, so you know!
Exists only in the minds of the gullible.. as it did in mine so many years ago.
Twas Fred the foreman in the commercial Bookbindery where I worked  that convinced me so. 
 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Naugahyde (sometimes abbreviated to Nauga) is an American brand of artificial leather (or "pleather" from plastic leather). Naugahyde is a composite of a knit fabric backing and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic coating. It was developed by United States Rubber Company, and is now manufactured and sold by Uniroyal Engineered Products, LLC, a privately held company. Its name, first used as a trademark in 1936,^[1] comes from the Borough of Naugatuck, Connecticut, where it was first produced. Uniroyal asserts that Naugahyde is one of the most popular premium pleathers. Naugahyde is manufactured in Stoughton, Wisconsin.^[2]

Advertising campaign showing the fictional Nauga character. Note that the Nauga's skin is made of vinyl.

A marketing campaign of the 1960s and 1970s asserted humorously that Naugahyde was obtained from the skin of an animal called a "Nauga". The claim became an urban myth.^[3] The campaign emphasized that, unlike other animals, which must typically be slaughtered to obtain their hides, Naugas can shed their skin without harm to themselves.^[4] The Nauga doll, a squat, horned monster with a wide toothy grin, became popular in the 1960s and is still sold today.^[5]

The Middle ages

 Lillian the Domestic Engineer

the Middle Ages

Somewhere between the new age and the dark age
 lay the middle ages

The New Age

 Its all about you! 
Life is full of opportunities to chase. 

You have no children nor a wrinkle on your face. No mortgage, no strife, no husband, no wife. This is a free spirit time of life. 

The talk is easy and the wine is cheap.
 Sex is sexy and you've got no beefs.
 You do whom and largely as you like to do.

To hell with the rest it's all about you.

Middle Age 
What about you?
You are mid way to no where and half way to all there.
You start to wear clothing over and over

 and concede that the rest is just wearing out.
Middle age is life's hard work.

The kids are growing and the spouse is too.  
To whine is easy and the talk is cheap but The bottled stuff is now just out of reach.
  Sex is not quite what it used to be and                                                                                               where's the beef takes on new meaning.
                                                                                                Preservation of self and of thought                                                                                                                   is much more work than not.

The Dark Ages
Is that you?
You no longer hear all that is said and that' OK you just don't care like you once did anyways. You've heard it all before. Sometime, somewhere. Been there.
You do as your children say because of your inability to just walk away.
      Sex on the beach is now served in a glass and 
  to all of those who disagree may they just kiss your ass.
                                                                             

Grasp every moment. 

 Live every day.
   

 Live as you like and not as they say 

you have but one passage through life this way.

  

My Daze 

Mom are you Listening?

 



              Mom are you Listening?

   MOM, did you hear me??
 Did you call to make an appointment with the dentist for me today?
 Mom do you remember where I put my keys yesterday?
Can you unplug the toilet in the basement today?
 Do you know where my winter toque went to?
Mom will you type up an Resume for me?
Can you go to the bank for me today?
I can't find my computer cord do you have one I can borrow"?