My Chocolate Birthday Cake

Photography by Angèle van Diessen

My little daughter and I baked this chocolate cake for my birthday last week.  One of the ingredients in the cake is freshly brewed coffee, which actually just enhances the chocolate flavor.  I'm not a huge fan of frosting, so we left the cake without frosting but decorated it with chocolate hazelnut crème de Pirouline.  This cake was so moist and chocolaty!  I still have half a carton of buttermilk so I might just have to bake another chocolate cake this week.  :)

















My new Etsy shop, Receptivity, is now open! www.etsy.com/shop/Receptivity  I'll be adding more listings, so check back often!  : )

Night Sky Necklace

Jewelry design by Angèle van Diessen
Photography by Gerrard Brereton

Sometimes, I plan out an entire piece of jewelry before I start making it.  But in this case, I spent a couple of late nights designing as I bent wire to make this Christmas gift for my mother.  As soon as I looked at these Swarovski crystals in Montana blue, I knew I wanted to create the night sky.  The color is perfect for a clear night.  I brought out the myriad of stars you would see on such a clear night with the little silver, diamond charms, the twinkling crystals, the diamond links, and the bicone-shaped beads.  And, of course, the crescent moon hangs down from the blanket of stars.

Aside: On the red background, it makes me think of the saying: Red sky at night, sailor's delight!

My new Etsy shop, Receptivity, is now open! www.etsy.com/shop/Receptivity  I'll be adding more listings, so check back often!  : )

Thanksgiving

Photography by Angèle van Diessen

After a long break, during which I delivered one of my most beautiful creations--our second child!--things have settled (or I've gotten used to the chaos) and I'm ready to continue blogging.  This year, we decided to have a quiet Thanksgiving at home.  At the last minute, I thought to take a picture, so I arranged the food and snapped this photo (while my forgotten appetizer was burning in the oven!).

There's always something grand about a whole bird waiting to be carved.  But since a turkey would have been way too much for my small family, I roasted a whole chicken.  Along with that, I made potato salad with real crumbled bacon.  And of course, one of those "We need some veggies.  But hey, it's a holiday so let's mix it with all sorts of goodness!" --green bean casserole. To finish, good ol' homemade pumpkin pie.

My new Etsy shop, Receptivity, is now open! www.etsy.com/shop/Receptivity  I'll be adding more listings, so check back often!  : )

Traditional Trinidadian Food

Photography by Angèle van Diessen

This is comfort food to me - stew chicken and potatoes, macaroni pie and callaloo.  It's a typical Trinidadian dinner, or maybe a Sunday lunch.  For the stew chicken and potatoes, first you season the chicken with salt, ground black pepper, granulated onion, granulated garlic, basil, thyme, and oregano.  In a large pot, you caramelize brown sugar in some oil until it's puffy and just about to burn.  Then, you quickly throw in the seasoned chicken and stir to coat.  Add some chopped onions, garlic, chives, and a whole habanero pepper then cover and braise the meat on low heat.  (Be careful with the habanero!  If it bursts, the entire dish will be very hot.  You can always leave it out, if you'd prefer.)  When the meat is almost done, add the potatoes and cook until done.  The last step is to turn off the heat and stir in some sliced tomatoes.

I find there are two things that ensure the dish does not taste bitter from the browned sugar.  The chicken needs to be salted adequately (Alton Brown gives a quick explanation of how salt affects bitterness.  The most pertinent part is between 0:36 and 2:00 - although I encourage you to watch this entire episode of Good Eats.) and the tomatoes in the end must not be skipped.

The macaroni pie is a baked dish of cooked macaroni, evaporated milk, eggs, and cheddar cheese and it's topped with more cheddar cheese.  I prefer sharp cheddar.

The callaloo is a purée made by simmering chopped spinach, chopped okra, onion, and garlic in coconut milk and water until the okra seeds turn a dark pink.  I like it best when it's seasoned/flavored with salt, black pepper, basil, thyme, oregano, chives and smoked pork hocks.  Just let these simmer along with everything else.  When the mixture has cooked and cooled sufficiently, it's puréed briefly (without the hocks if you used them!) in a blender.  Voila!  You have callaloo...which most often is macaroni pie's other half, but is delicious on all your food.

Note: Macaroni pie and callaloo freeze very well

My new Etsy shop, Receptivity, is now open!  www.etsy.com/shop/Receptivity  I'll be adding more listings, so check back often!  :)

Amethyst Drop Bracelet

Jewelry design by Angèle van Diessen
Photography by Angèle van Diessen

Branching out into the bracelets!  While working on several earring designs, I've been creating this bracelet in my mind.  I knew I didn't want a simple chain or stringed bracelet, so I made my own links.  The pink wire and light sapphire blue Swarovski bicones both play off the color of the amethysts while giving more dimension to the color of the bracelet.

My new Etsy shop, Receptivity, is now open! www.etsy.com/shop/Receptivity  I'll be adding more listings, so check back often!  : )

Cheesecake Sweetened with Splenda

Photography by Angèle van Diessen

This Labor Day weekend, my parents, siblings, and an uncle came to visit.  While the men worked outside to remove a dead tree in our front yard (So appreciated!), my mother, sister and I spent time in the kitchen.  Almost everyone in my family loves cheesecake and I had help watching my 2 year old, so I thought I'd make a cheesecake for them to enjoy.  This cheesecake is the one I normally make - with one exception.  Since my mother and uncle are both diabetic, I replaced the sugar with an equal amount of Splenda. 

This is the first time I've used Splenda in my cheesecake and I'm quite pleased with the results.  I'll admit I've avoided using Splenda in my baking since an experience years ago when I used Splenda in my chocolate chip cookies and the texture turned out way off.  My cheesecake doesn't rely on sugar for anything but sweetness, so I was pretty confident the substitute would work and it did!  If you concentrate on it, the sweetness takes a little longer to register on the tongue than when sugar is used, but the actual flavor was barely affected.  My family loved it and I count this one as a success!

(Interesting note: I just learned from my uncle that the Splenda in the individual packets is much sweeter than the granulated Splenda in the box that's used for baking.  Each packet is equivalent to 2 tsp. of sugar, while the granulated Splenda measures cup for cup with sugar.)

My new Etsy shop, Receptivity, is now open! www.etsy.com/shop/Receptivity  I'll be adding more listings, so check back often!  : )

Ice Cream Sundae Earrings

Jewelry design by Angèle van Diessen
Photography by Angèle van Diessen

Another cousin of mine put in her request for ice cream earrings.  I think this family has an obsession with desserts!  :)  But I had a lot of fun designing these earrings.  I had a few different ways I thought I could go and it took some time to pick one.  In the end, I decided to make an ice cream sundae.  You know one of those big bowls with huge scoops of ice cream, swirls of sauce, blobs of whipped cream and a yummy piece of waffle cone stuck in on top?   I used rounded, faceted glass beads like scoops of ice cream with swirls of sterling silver wire.  Then, I topped it with clear Swarovski bicones like whipped cream and a triangular citrine bead stuck in for the waffle.  Enjoy!  ;)

My new Etsy shop, Receptivity, is now open! www.etsy.com/shop/Receptivity  I'll be adding more listings, so check back often!  : )