Christmas time is soon upon us

The reason I never started a blog before is that I never know what I could write about. Can I find a subject I can update that frequently? Well, I seem to have failed with chocolate as I have already incorporated cake and muffins. I guess I will keep it general and see where it goes from there.

Christmas is approaching and I have been busier than ever this year. I had the idea that I could make my own cards for once. Which was very fun and rewarding but boy did it crave time! They might not be flashy, but I like the way they turned out to be. The imbedding of the patterns was the lengthiest part, but I loved doing the calligraphy. I need to practice a lot more though, but I have gotten a few good starter tips a while back by my friend Mia the photographer (Her link is to the right side. Even if you don’t know Swedish, they do say that a picture is worth a thousand words and she sure has an eye for proving that saying right).

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the cards. I used a Shapeboss from Fiskars that I recently bought. Along with their patterns, I also created my own pattern of a snowflake for the front. I did the English and French versions first, as I needed to send them much earlier than the Swedish ones. By then, I had bought another pen and so I added a few more colours to the snowflake.

The English and French versions are above. The Swedish version is below.

Another thing I tend to do a lot around Christmas is my mother’s truffles. I made some for my co-workers last year and last week, they hinted about how good they were and how nice it would be to get some again. It made my day, but little did they know that I was already planning to do it. Since truffles and chocolate are inseparable, here are a few pictures of the process.

First of all, you need a recipe. There are plenty of them on the internet and in various books, so bear with me if I choose to keep my mom's for myself. You might catch a glimpse of it next to the stove.

First of all, the melting of the chocolate yummyness. Use a water bath (Bain-marie / vattenbad) which will help preventing the burning of the chocolate. Since you usually end up mixing it with other ingredients, I find it much better than the microwave in that case (and in most cases unless you need something in small quantities, something done quickly, or feeling too lazy).

After some cooling, it is time to make the truffles! Since the mixture is a bit hard, I find it easier to use a spoon to gather the right quantity, then use my fingers to form it into a ball that I then roll into cocoa powder spread on a baking sheet. I then store the goodies in a tin can that will eventually return into the fridge.

Keep them far.

Or keep them close.

However, some of them will always end up melting on your tongue even when you bake them for your friends and family. Such is the curse of the truffles.

After Christmas, I will try to post a few more things I did. It would be a bit of a spoiler if I did it now. I do apologise to any friend who received these hand made things. I'm sorry, I didn't know what I was thinking. It all looked better in my head, really! I fear my hands are rather poor at reproducing my mind's best plans.