Creme Brulee

French might be a weird language, but sometimes names sound better in French. Like Creme Brulee. It sounds fancy, like something you'd order off a menu on a whim.

Some fancy chocolate burnt creme.

In English, it means "burnt cream." Not really something that sounds too appealing. It sounds a little boring, to be honest. 
 
But I've got to tell you. I've made "burnt cream" and its delicious. It's appealing and the exact opposite of boring. I mean, anytime you can use a torch in the kitchen you're going to have a good time. I highly recommend making some Creme Brulee!

 Ingredients:

•  2 cups heavy cream
• 1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons of sugar
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (of your choice, i used dark chocolate)
• 5 egg yolks
• sugar, for dusting

That's it! Just four ingredients!

The first step is to heat the heavy cream and 1/4 cup sugar in a pot, making sure to mix in the sugar. Heat this until it begins to simmer. Once it has begun to simmer, add the chocolate, being sure to whisk it until it's smooth.

In a seperate bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the remaining 3 tablespoons sugar. 

Now, slowly pour the egg yolks into the cream mixture while whisking. You want to take your time. This part is a bit like pastry cream. Going slow minimizes the chance of ending up with cooked egg bits in your cream. I cannot emphasize enough that you need to constantly be whisking... so if you happen to need a second pair of hands to help, don't be afraid to ask.

Once its all combined, you can strain it through a sieve, if you want. I didn't because I was fairly confident that I had no egg bits, but it's all a matter of opinion.

Now, you can pour the cream into ramekins. You can fill them however full you'd like, they don't rise very much. Once the cream is in the ramekins, place them in a brownie pan and fill the pan with just enough water to reach halfway up the ramekins.

They bake at 250 for about an hour or until they're just set.

Let them cool on the counter until they can travel into the fridge. In the fridge, they really set up quickly, which makes it easier for burning sugar on the tops.

At the moment, I cannot find the video my brother made of me doing the top. When I do find it, I will add it.


Beware with these, they taste very, very delicious. This recipe definitely receives 5 out of 5 cat whiskers!!

I found the recipe here.
I also made a vanilla version. I need to find the pictures before I write a post for it, but don't worry... chocolate was better! :-)

Rosary Crusade

In preparation for (and in honor of) the 100 year anniversary of the Fatima Apparitions of Our Lady, Bishop Fellay has announce a year long Rosary Crusade. 

The goal is to have twelve million Rosaries said and fifty million sacrifices made. The primary intention will be for the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, but two other intentions will be for the Consecration of Russia and for the protection of the SSPX, their works and fellow religious communities.

Yes, twelve million and fifty million are HUGE numbers. Just looking at those numbers, I'm a little nervous, but there are more Catholics in the world than we sometimes realize. Plus, this is a year long Rosary Crusade -- We can do it!

You may not be looking forward to the fifty million sacrifices (if I'm honest, this part is daunting to me more than the Rosary part), but they can be small or large. You could not listen to the radio in the car. You could have a glass of water instead of soda. You could sacrifice meat on more than just Fridays. There are many sacrifices we can make.

I'm kind of excited for this Rosary crusade, so, I felt like I had to share it. I've never done one before, so I'm looking forward to it. We already say the Rosary as a family every day, but being part of something bigger, this Rosary Crusade is a wonderful feeling. It starts on Aug. 15th, the feast day of Our Lady's Assumption... kind of fitting, don't you think?

And if you haven't been saying the Rosary everyday and would like to know more about this crusade, here's a link.

Imma Back!

I did it again. I completely ignored my blog. What can I say... it was summer. And an eventful one, too.

Z-Bo got adopted!!! A nice couple adopted him. He lives on a golf course and has a fellow k-9 companion. Sometimes we miss him, but more than that, we are so happy for him! We're taking a brake from fostering for a little bit. Seriously! This time we are!

Also, this summer My mom, brother and I got confirmed in the Catholic church!

My brother and I also visited our grandparents. My parents gifted us with round trip airline tickets and three weeks of vacation without them. We've flown before, but don't remember because we were so young. This trip, we will always remember! We had a great time... it was very nice to see my grandparents and my Aunt and Uncle. It was strange, though, not to be around all of our pets and not having the usual chores to do. My grandpa is already making plans for next year!

We've also been getting some home improvement things done around the house. We tiled the family room after completing the renovation of my brother's bathroom. We plan on tiling the hallway soon. My mom and I really enjoy it and work well together. My dad and brother have been scraping the ceiling in the main living areas.... it's incredibly messy, but it looks so good when it is done! And we painted the dining room.

And now, school is starting once again. I'm hoping that this time I'll keep my blog more current. So, in an effort to do that, I'm going to be doing new things on my blog. I'll still write about recipes and my baking adventures, but I'm going to try and write about other things. Sometimes I'll write about something I'm researching. Other times I may share a news story or something that catches my eye. Hey, I may even ask my brother if he wants to hijack my blog every now and then... just to keep things interesting! :-)

The Adventures of Z-Bo

We have had Z-Bo for about nine months, it's crazy. He is such wonderfully goofy gentleman that it's just amazing no one has snatched him up yet.

Sometimes this happens with fostering... Especially with big adult dogs. Not everyone searches for them, they want the smaller dogs or the puppies. And yeah, I get that. But that doesn't keep me from being sad for Z and all the other long term foster dogs that get over looked.

But it's all the sweeter when they do get adopted!

Recently, SOAR asked all the fosters of the dogs that have been in the rescue awhile to try and get some good videos and pictures, to get these dogs some more publicity.

And, well, when you've had a dog for nine months, you tend to have a hard time choosing your favorite  videos and pictures of him. So my brother and I played around in iMovie and made a montage of his best stuff. SOAR put it on their YouTube page. If you're interested in watching it, here's the link....

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LoQac0lMA8I&feature=youtu.be

Feel free to share, You'd be amazed at how much that can help!

Flat-men

A couple years ago, I started playing around with those felt rectangles they sell at craft stores. I made random things with them, business card pockets, cases for my camera and other things.

Then I started making these creatures.

I call them Flat-men. I make them to look like creatures. What kind of creatures, I'm not sure. It's just something fun to do.

For a while, I stopped making them. But this week I made the one in the first picture for my cousin, and I was reminded of how fun they are to make. 

Maybe I'll start making them again!

#FridayFunny

The Chocolate Eyestravaganza

The gorgeous eyestravaganza

My brother's birthday theme was eyes. And his cake request was chocolate.

So I'm gonna call this cake the Chocolate Eyestravaganza.

Seriously. If you want a truly chocolate cake, this is for you.

The cake is no mere chocolate cake. It's an American Mud Cake. That means it tastes like a cross between a brownie and a cake. It's moist, it's chocolately, but that doesn't make it too rich.

The filling is whipped ganache. Whipped ganache, folks. It tastes like a cross between moose and a truffle, and it just melts on your tongue.

And the frosting is just regular ganache. (Hehe! As if any ganache is just run of the mill!)

Man, this cake was so fun!