Painter Print

The chocolate truffle, a French invention, is arguably the best of all chocolate confections. With its texture, varied flavors, hard shell and a velvety core, it allures everybody; it’s no wonder that you will keep craving for more of it once you taste it.

You can make truffles right at home. Ganache is the ingredient required for making truffles and you can prepare it in your kitchen with a trusty double boiler and a chocolate tempering machine.

You can make your truffles more attractive by dusting them with cocoa powder or by coating them with tempered chocolate. You can also use your creativity and add value to your truffles by introducing unique flavors, spices, fillings and liqueurs.

It is suggested that you use the best quality chocolate (the cacao content is usually 50%) to give your truffles that luxurious appeal and velvety bite that it’s famous for. It’s the skill with which you blend the chocolate and the cream that influences the quality of the ganache you’ll be making. The key to this desired ganache lies in the ratio between the chocolate and the cream and the ideal that ushers in great truffles is 2 chocolates:1 cream You should procure the following to make about 35 truffles in your kitchen:

455 grams dark chocolate
1 cup heavy whipping cream
A bread knife
A saucepan
A mixing bowl
A rubber spatula
A teaspoon
Cookie sheets
Liqueur, spices, flavors (optional)

Once you lay your hands on the best quality chocolate, cut these into 5mm. strips with a serrated knife. The cream is scalded on a pan on medium heat (but not long enough to boil). Transfer the scalded cream onto the strips of chocolate so that they start melting. Once the strips have all melted, incorporate the cream and chocolate thoroughly with a rubber spatula until the mixture is velvety and fine.

If you keep this ganache in the refrigerator, it will set enough for shaping. Rough balls are made with this and kept on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper.

Re-set in the chiller and then dust with cocoa powder. Two teaspoons are used for rolling the balls on the cocoa powder so you don’t need to work with your bare hands.

Flavored truffles are made by adding the appropriate flavor to the cream after it is scalded. After the flavor is fully absorbed into the cream, it is re-scalded before incorporating the chocolate.

You’ll require tempered chocolate for coating the truffles; thus, you should temper 2 oz. of dark chocolate on the tempering machine. The balls are slightly warmed before they are coated with this tempered chocolate. Once the coated chocolate cools, it will slowly sink into the balls and the shells of the truffles become hard.

Make sure that these great-looking and tasty truffles are stored in moisture-free, air-tight containers before serving to your captive audience.

If you would like a city that offers you a little bit of everything, visit Lucca. The town can be discovered in Tuscany, Italy. It has awfully fertile soil because it is located on brook Serchio, which is found in the Province of Lucca. The many holidays that take place in the town are proof of its great history and cultural aspects. You will find Luccan culture well represented in the Lucca Comics and Games, which is held once a year. The holiday heralds new and legendary artists, including comedians, from the locale. The best romantic Lucca Hotel is surely Hambros il Parco inside the historical Villa Banchieri.

The Nazionale di Palazo Mansi is only one of the many museums one can visit in Lucca. The museum is full of bits and pieces of Luccan culture, dating all of the way back to the 16th century. Well-known artists whose works can be viewed in the museum include Agnolo Bronzino, Domenico Beccafumi, and Correggio. Bronzino may be most widely known for creating many permutations of the Cosimo picture, while Correggio is recognized for the painting of Madonna. You will leave this museum feeling at one with your love of the arts and entirely appreciating the whole country of Italy, as well as all of those that reside there. One of the most well liked subjects for education and conversation is a monument called The Nazionale di Palazo Mani. It is open five days each week to anyone who wishes to sample its beautiful cultural taste.

Of course, the churches of Saint Giovanni and Saint Martino also boast some astoundingly wonderful paintings. Even the church buildings are monuments unto themselves simply due to the amount of time they have existed, the people and events they have seen during these many years. For most residents they offer memories of weddings, baptisms, and even funerals that have been witnessed from generation to generation and as such play a major cultural role within the Lucca community. However, they are also a great reflection of the work of most Italian artists like Jacopo Tintoretto who is honored for his painting of the last supper and Trono by Ghirlandaio who painted the Madonna masterpiece.

Like all art projects, there are no hard and fast rules for making a scrapbook (that’s the wonder of making a scrapbook!). Still, if you’re a total newbie, being mindful of a few common rules of thumb is useful:-

Consider the subject of your scrapbook. The theme should dictate the style and presentation of the scrapbook. For example, if you are creating an album to celebrate a a child being born or marriage ceremony, then you may choose papers, embellishments and colours that produce one united theme regarding that subject.

Now a theme has been selected, think about the materials you want to use. For instance, you may want to use die cuts in your scrapbooking projects.

A neat trick to shaping the focus of your page is to entitle it. Utilize die cut letters or stickers to spell out your title, or even use a computer and print out the title.

If you’re writing a small journal on the page, scribble it out on notepaper beforehand to perfect the wording.

There’s no stringent rule regarding how many photographs to place on any one page, but they ought to have some link to your theme. Select a variety of photographs that you can apply as you layout the page.

The most important thing is you enjoy the process of developing your scrapbook. Making a scrapbook is a past-time that numerous individuals enjoy and you will discover there’s a wonderful online community happy to share their advice and aid you in your scrapbooking efforts.

Halloween is just as much fun for the kids as it is for the adults. Kids’ parties for Halloween can be a blast and full of fun and cheer when done right. For fun Halloween parties at home or school, you’ll need some great ideas. Here are some smashing ideas for creating an easy and fun Halloween party.

Try a pumpkin patch or scarecrow theme for a party. Use bales of hay or beautiful fall autumn leaves to bring your theme to life. You can use mini versions of pumpkins if you don’t have enough space. Place your pumpkins on a buffet table. For the pumpkin patch, use pumpkins to make your own pumpkin patch in the front yard or the backyard. Take leaves and scatter them all over the house or the yard! Go ahead and go wild with the fall fun and leaves. The kids will love it.

Make funny and cute signs like “scarecrow crossing” and make your own scarecrow to stand next to it. Find some crates for your yard. Cover them with burlap or rustic fabric. When decorating, keep fall colors and the colors of the leaves and look in mind for fabric with those colors.

Take unfinished Halloween theme crafts from the craft store and get paint for the kids to paint them and take home as their own unique souvenirs. The kids will treasure them for years to come.

I hear the brittle poetry of the day…
What pensive poetry holds me?
Perhaps Imagery (it’s hard to say).
I find the glitter in the vanished past:
Its array: worlds of blues, whites and grays;
In far-off distant seas, under moon beans.

Ah! but my friend he could not rest: in the
Winds, and stars on the oceans breast—;
Thus, he left, he just up and left (kind of)
To a land where they have no iron walls, no fence.

So brave and passionate he was: he was
Swept back to his “…cool, gray city of love,”

For everything else was simply a mirage!

—by Dennis L. Siluk

Comments: Although George Sterling was not from San Francisco, originally, once he visited the city, he remained there, it became his home, away from home one might say. A poet he was, to his dying day, even though he wrote other things, plays, and etcetera. #1339 5/4/06

“The Step Ladder”

George Sterling died in 1926, in 1927, “The Step Ladder,” a Monthly Journal, offered what was known as “The George Sterling Memorial Prize” $100-dollars to the best poem published in its pages during the year 1927. In the issue Volume XIII, for the first time in this book journal [magazine] Clark Ashton Smith’s poetry was published, by the efforts of George Sterling. Also, in this issue or journal, Helene Margaret wrote a poem offered up to Mr. Sterling:

Is this your message? You who bore the light
And gathered rhythm from the symphonies
Of earth, who ravelled colors from the breeze
And wove them into shadows of the night?
Your sense of darkness should have been but slight,
For you found pulsing life in all of these,
More opalescent than the changing seas,
More lyrical than swallows in their flight.

And yet, the shadows of your life grew thick,
And fell like shrouds of dusk upon our thought,
Until your sensate soul was madly sick
Of life and all the strangling gloom it brought.
And though you’ve passed, the wondrous argosies
Your fancy formed shall sail the centuries.

It might be noteworthy here to mention: in the summer of 1926, George Sterling got Clark Ashton Smith’s poetry published in Braithwaite’s 1926, Anthology, where Sterling had nice compliments to say about CAS. At this time Smith lived in Auburn, California. The selections the Step Ladder put into its magazine, were taken from Smith’s books: “Ebony and Crystal,” and “Sandalwood.” Such poems like: The Barrier, Query, Deleted Love, The Crucifixion of Eros, Quest, A fragment, Love is not Yours, Love is not Mine, The Love Potion, Maya, Beauty Implacable, Ave Atque V Ale, Incognita, Semper Eadem, and several more.

See Dennis’ web site: http://dennissiluk.tripod.com

As possessors and collectors, we have always needed somewhere to put the fiddly things. Throughout history the carrying bag has continued to be an obligatory item in everyday use, changing its style only according to the wealth of its owner; but whether we heave a hemp sack over our back or finger our Italian leather wallets, we have a common bond for the old bag.

Animal skins provided the first obvious pouches. As weaving developed, coarse woven cloth became the most economical material to sew up into practical bags. Humans were advancing. Knowledge traveled. Luxuries increased, the rich seeing fit to employ needle-working ladies in the making of silk purses. These tidbits were knitted on fine steel or bone pins; initials and titles patterned into the design with gold metal thread. Glass beads, bugles, and coloured silks added to the sumptuousness of these glorious assets. When cod-pieces were a standard fashion display, gentlemen deposited fruity cod-purses in this precious hold… a fancy place to keep one’s silver, and a salacious offering for maidens. How grateful we are for those centuries of wasteful extravagance, observing with envy the incredible ability of humans to fashion these resplendent coquettes… a patience and artistry we find difficult to pursue.

Our Mistress of the Purse was the early-Victorian ‘lady of the house’, a duty of serious obligation. If in an upper-class position, she handed the management over to a trusted housekeeper who usually served the mistress for life. The ordinary housewife had little affordable help. Money did not abound and purchases had to be well respected. Her mouth was drawn in as tightly as her purse, the lords and ladies being regarded as jeweled peacocks… useless flummery.

We think here of the old term ‘under lock and key’. Even the tea caddy, often encrusted with silver swirls in wealthy homes, had a key. These imported leaves, a connoisseur’s delight, were costly, along with sugar. The mistress wore a belt from which hung the heavy iron room keys and valued scissors. Beneath the layers of skirts (petticoats) were one or more secret purses. These she knitted in strong silk or cotton, making eyelets for the tie-cord. The cord could be knitted tubular, in the manner of bootlaces (which were done in glossy black cotton requiring only two knitting pins and employing a clever turning method). Within this pretty purse the mistress kept her most private keys; precious sewing needles; a lavender handkerchief for headaches; a snip of her beloved’s hair; a few coins for a desperate occasion, and perhaps intimate, forbidden love letters (folded into small squares then fastened with silk ribbon. These purses were splendid in lace patterns. Other designs formed net, mesh and picot knots, sometimes combinations of knitting and crochet completed the design. Worked in the round on 4 or 5 double-pointed sets of steel needles, they often were never seen by anyone but the mistress.

Commoners had a slashed opening on the right side of their outer skirts, making it a handy place to keep the pennies for market days. The housewife, imprisoned in poverty, had no station as mistress of the house. With sparse possessions, she had few keys to guard, and decried the nonsense of exhausting oneself by knitting frivolous accessories. However, she had her purse. Stuffed into a woolen underskirt hid a private, squash-shaped bag, harshly made and hastily tied with parcel string. From this hole of fortune she might pay for a cabbage or an ox tail, or indeed she may hide a stolen stick of taffy (toffee).

We don’t cosset too many things under our skirts today, and we feel far from rulers of our estate, but it’s a tempting idea to have your own secret purse. I believe every mistress should knit one up for her self… and then her gentleman must have a cod-purse.

Esmerelda Jones… The Knitting Wench
Writer Of Desires
Writer Of Old Curiosities

Full graphics version here

Victoriana, Victorian Swoon, Gods & Goddesses: The Wisdom And Pleasures of Ancient Greece, Classic Romance, Poems For The Passionate, Whimsical Tales, Bushrangers & Australian Pioneer, Ghosts I Have Known, Gypsy Knitting. Ratings and comments delightfully accepted.