Thursday, January 29, 2009

Dairy free chocolate cup cakes

Are you moms who has milk allergy babies and looking to bake a birthday cup cakes?
Don't worry.. there is dairy free cup cake comes to the rescue...

Last week, my daughter who has milk allergy, turned 2. I wanted to get her cup cakes from the store. Unfortunately, those are not dairy free. After searching on the internet, I found this About.com website with dairy free cup cakes.

The recipe calls for dairy free chocolate chip, soy yogurt... those are new to me. I finally found those items at Good Harvest. I was skeptical about the result.

It's actually the best cup cake I've ever baked.

I included the link to the original document. To make the life simpler, I decided to put the recipe on the blog also.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cup flour
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 1 t. baking soda
  • 1 t. baking powder
  • ½ t. salt
  • ½ cup soymilk
  • 1 T. apple cider vinegar
  • ¾ cups dark, dairy free chocolate chips
  • ½ cup soy yogurt
  • 2 T. egg Replacer mixed with 3 T. hot water

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners.

2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another small bowl, combine the soymilk and apple cider vinegar until just combined and slightly thickened. Set aside.

3. In a small saucepan over low heat, combine the chocolate chips with the soy yogurt. Stirring constantly, cook until the chocolate is just melted and there are no lumps. Remove from heat.

4. Using an electric mixer on high speed, add the chocolate mixture, soymilk mixture and Egg Replacer mixture to the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined. Portion into prepared pan and bake for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Allow cupcakes to cool before frosting with dairy-free frosting of choice.

I had my daughter decorate the cup cakes with ready made icing. It turned out to be fun and yummy projects for both kids.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Mostaccioli Madness at St. Anthony on the Lake, Pewaukee


Last Saturday, St. Anthony had a Mostaccioli Madness. It's their fund raising activity ran by 8th grader students and parents. Of course, whenever the good food is offered, we just had to be there.

They magically turned the fellowship hall to a "an Italian restaurant". Red and white checkered table cloth with Italian theme - students made - pictures decorated the room. All the helpers and servers dressed in black and white with ties.

Our server is Ben. He looks so very comfortable for the first timer. He's very polite, courteous, explains the menu well and brings the food fast. It feels really like in a restaurant.
We ordered wine for our dinner. One of the parents came with a glass of wine.

The bread stick is flavorful... the meat ball is tasty... the pasta and the sauce is yummy.... and the dessert... got too many to choose from.

We came home with full warm tummy and happy.
We look forward for next year Mostaccioli Madness...
Great job 8th graders... (and parents too....)

Friday, January 23, 2009

Greener option for jeweler, a New Year resolution

It's been about 3 weeks from 2009. What is your resolution?
Mine... I'm going greener.

Going green, is not only good for the environment, it's also help makes the artist feels good about them and helps makes customer feels good about their purchase.

I believe that we borrow the world from our children so we have to take care of it. In addition to preaching my children about going green, I have been looking for chemical alternatives in jewelry making .

Here are a few tips I got pick along those years in making jewelry.

1. Use fresh squeeze lime instead of store bought pickle. ( I learned this from Jusuf Baba). Pickle you bought from stores are usually contains Sodium Bisulfate. Lime is easier on the environment. Put the lime in a caserole bowl, add some water and put it on low heat. The down side is the the lime could go bad. Which means you need more fresh limes. The good thing is, if you got too much lime, you can always make mojitos or margaritas with it.

2. Use Dawn soap instead of burnishing compound for tumblers. (I learned this from Bob Mitchell)
I use vibratory tumbler with mixed steel shot for cleaning and burnishing. Yes, using the store bought burnishing compound is faster. But I feel better using dish washing soap than chemicals.
As always, if I'm running out of dish washing soap, I could always go to my studio for soap.

3. Use egg instead of LOS ( Liver of Sulfur) to give black patina. (I learned this from the web)

4. Use baking soda to clean silver. ( I learned this from the web)

5. When you need to buy a sterling sheet, try looking for a company that recycle sterling rather than mining it. ( I learned this from Susan Marie)

6. Use milk to clean pearls. I learned this from a lady who stop by my booth. She said just soak the pearl in the milk...
I also found this website that talks about cleaning pearls. It also talks about soaking the pearls in boiling milk for 15 minutes with scrape soap or cheese on it... hm.. I probably eat the cheese ...

If you have something to add on or more detail instructions, please leave a comment or contact me. I will add more to the list for the world to share...

Have fun...

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Obama Inauguration

It's not a secret...
Today, Barack Obama is sworn to be the 44th President of the United States.

As I flip through the TV channel, I keep hearing that he is the first African American President.

I personally don't care much whether he is black, red, white, yellow, blue or green...
One thing that I think the most important in this event that dreams can come true.
I had dreams too and my dreams did come true. So, I will keep dreaming....

Congratulations Mr. President. May God Bless America.

Friday, January 16, 2009

New Big and Little Dipper earrings...

Big dipper and little dipper are two important constellations to help find the North Star.
The big dipper pointed out where the Polaris is, while the little dipper's "tail" is the Polaris.

With that idea in mind, I designed both big and little dipper earrings.
This earrings is made from two sterling disc, drilled and brushed finish. I drilled the "constellation", borrowing the idea that if you see it through the light, you will see the stars...


It has an asymmetry design as one has Big dipper constellation design while the other has Little dipper. However, the basic shape is still symmetry.

To learn more about this earrings, please visit my listing.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Arctic blast hits Wisconsin


That's our thermometer showing this morning. The top numbers shows the outside temperature. It's minus ten outside and 63 inside.

Arctic blast hits Wisconsin today. Schools were closed and the kids are home.
It may look so sunny and fun to be outside, but not today...

I'm thinking for mailman and garbage man.... please keep warm...

Monday, January 12, 2009

Bigib reached a milestone...


Bigib made its 20th sale... Thank you to customers all around the world to help make it happen.
New exciting items will be posted in the next 2 weeks. Please visit http://bigib.etsy.com

Friday, January 9, 2009

Girl Scout Cookie is on sale today...


From January 9 - 27, 2009, Girl Scout is selling their famous Girl Scout cookies.
New for this year, GS reduced fat daisy cookie... Learn more about cookies for sale, please visit http://www.abcsmartcookies.com/cookies.asp
To learn about Girl Scout South Eastern Wisconsin cookie seller in the area, please visit http://gswise.org/
Remember, cookie sale only happens once a year. It's last well in freezer... Don't miss this opportunity... support Girl Scout and stock up..

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Spike Earrings


Fun earrings...
This is another earrings spikes inspired earrings... It's made of balled sterling wire dangled on a french wire. It's fun and airy to wear.
To learn more about this earrings, please visit my etsy store.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Sea Anemone Inspired earrings with moving spikes.

Looking for a gift for Marine biologist? a Diver? or a person who loves ocean?

How about a piece of jewelry inspired by sea creatures like sea anemone? Here's a Sea Anemone inspired jewelry... this is a pair of round earrings with "moving tentacles".
It's made of sterling silver wire, cut, pierced, soldered, rounded, slightly tumbled and clean. It shows some textures...just like in the nature.

Matching pendant in black cord also available.
To learn more about this piece, please visit http://bigib.etsy.com

Saturday, January 3, 2009

After New Year Sale...


After New Year sale is going on at http://bigib.etsy.com.
Save 20-40% off...

Friday, January 2, 2009

Why do I like shopping at Etsy?


In the last couple months, I have been shopping at Etsy and I love it.
Why?
1. It's made in the US. With current economy situation, I feel better spending money in the US to help get the economy going.
2 .Custom order. It's unique, one of a kind and no one has something exactly like mine. I recently order a felted hat. I found Corina who made beautiful felted hat. I couldn't find the color I like. So, I emailed her. She could make the hat according to my specs.
3. Can visualized how it's happening. She updates me with the yarn ordering, the yarn finally arrives, then she's doing the knitting. I could visualize it while it's happening.
4. Make new friends. Now I have friends who felted, knitted, sew, ... what a great way to make new friends....
Wouldn't you agree?

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Happy New Year 2009...


It was an exciting 2008... Look forward to a brighter and fun 2009.