Wayne Thiebaud

Here's a great video about cake artist Wayne Thiebaud. I hope I am still painting at 81.

New 2012 Diary

I'm really excited to debut my first  2012 Pocket Diary with Blurb. Filled with images from my studio and paintings, this 'week to a page' planner also contains extra pages for notes, names, places to shop & eat and sketching.

Blurb have a special offer for all new orders before November 30. Simply enter the promotional code COCOA upon checkout to receive your 20% discount. Price doesn't include shipping.

You can preview my design and order your diary directly from here.

The diary is 13cm X 20cm and printed in full colour.

All 120 pages have been printed on 90gsm white, uncoated paper.

You'll also find inspiring quotes inside on life and love.

Homeward Bound!

Heading home for Australia for a 2 week visit; my first time since we left last August on our great adventure. We'll spend a week in Sydney with friends and a week in Melbourne with my family. I can't wait to catch up with everyone, especially my nieces and nephew.

The only thing I'm a bit concerned about is my driving now. Now that I've become accustomed to the local crazy Thai driving style, I have to remember that I am not allowed to go down one way streets the wrong way or go through red traffic lights or change lanes without indicating.

Is there such a thing as having too much colour in the kitchen?

One of my favourite shops in CM is The House

Photo from The House

Handmade Silk Scarves

I am really excited to be introducing the work of legendary American textile artist Carol Cassidy into my online boutique. I first met Carol last year on my first trip to Vientiane, Laos where I visited her Lao Textiles Workshop. 

All these striped scarves are 100% silk and have been handwoven at the Weaves of Cambodia Studio in Tbeng Meanchey, Preah Vihear Province, in rural Cambodia. The Studio (set up as an NGO in 1997) now employs 35 skilled artisans, most of whom are women and landmine survivors. Carol also had to design modified looms as the weavers wear special prosthetics.

These scarves are beautifully made in the softest silk.

These scarves can be used by both men and women.

I love the range of colours and elegant stripe design

  

Under a starry, starry night

Apologies for the lack of blog posts this week as the Loi Krathong Festival was on in Chiang Mai (and we got caught up in all the action). The Thais certainly know how to celebrate and this festival was truly magical with hundreds of 'loy' (lanterns) lighting up the night sky and the floating 'kratongs' in the river. I'll let the pictures do the talking......

http://www.chiangmai.bangkok.com

Lighting the lanterns. The act of letting go symbolises
releasing all your bad karma, bad luck....

We had dinner at the Chedi Hotel - they put on a wonderful show.
Delicious Thai food Buffet, Thai dancing & music, even fireworks!!

Hanging lanterns and my kratong just before releasing it.

CM was a beautiful sight every evening with
coloured lanterns and pageantry.

The annual parade was full of glitz and glamour!

Desk Snapshot

It's Christmas here already in Chiang Mai! Over the next few weeks (before we leave for Australia), I am madly trying to finish my version of 'The 12 Days of Christmas'. You can head over to my Facebook Page to see the first day (and also easiest to paint) completed.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around 8 Maids-a-milking LOL.

Sketches for the 12 days.

Detail of Pear from the First Day

Divine Desserts!

I have so enjoyed not cooking for the past 8 months but if there's one thing that is going to get me back into the kitchen (with an oven LOL!), it's a recipe like this Poire Belle Héllène by Phillipa Sibley. Phillipa is a renowned pastry & dessert chef in Melbourne and she has a new cookbook coming out next month. Judging by the cover, it looks like a good one. 

http://www.smh.com.au

Ingredients

• Serves 6

• Poached pears
• 6 perfectly ripe pears (William, Packham or Bartlett)
• 625 g caster sugar
• 1.5 litres water
• 1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
• Chocolate sauce
• 240 g best-quality dark couverture chocolate
• 155 ml milk
• 50 ml thickened cream (35% milk fat)
• 30 g honey
• 50 g butter, cubed
• Chocolate biscuit
• 115 g best-quality dark couverture chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids)
• 50 g butter, cubed
• 40 g almond meal
• 40 g rice flour
• 80 g eggwhite
• 80 g caster sugar
• 40 g egg yolk (about 2)
• To serve
• Vanilla ice-cream, recently churned

My version of Escoffier's classic seems to be missing something at first? Where’s the chocolate sauce? On the plate, it appears very simple, but crack the warm chocolate biscuit and honey-scented chocolate sauce fl ows out. Then dig into the pear and you'll discover it’s filled with vanilla-flecked ice-cream. I love surprising people.

Method

For the poached pears

Prepare the pears and poach them using the quantity of sugar and water given on the left. Add the vanilla bean and seeds to the pan when the sugar has dissolved. Allow the pears to cool in the syrup, then refrigerate until chilled.

For the chocolate sauce

Finely chop or grate the chocolate and put in a bowl. Bring the milk and cream to the boil with the honey. Pour the hot cream mixture over the chocolate and stir until smooth and shiny. Add the butter, bit by bit, stirring until combined. Refrigerate the chocolate sauce until firmly set. Now put the chocolate sauce into a piping bag fitted with a 1.5 cm plain-nozzle. Line a small tray with baking paper. Pipe the chocolate sauce into lines about 10 cm long. Place in the freezer for about 30 minutes or until hard enough to cut into 5 cm lengths. Return to the freezer until needed.

For the chocolate biscuit

Cut six strips of baking paper measuring 7 cm x 5 cm. Spray the inside of six 4.5 cm diameter dessert rings with cooking oil spray and line each with a strip of paper so that the paper forms a collar above the ring. Spray again and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Finely chop or grate the chocolate and melt in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Let more than half of the chocolate melt before you give it a stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. When the chocolate has melted, turn off the heat and add the butter. Stir to combine and keep warm.

Sift together the almond meal and rice flour.

Whisk the eggwhite until holding soft peaks. Sprinkle in the sugar and whisk until shiny and holding firm peaks.

Place the egg yolk in a large bowl. Add one-quarter of the eggwhite mixture to the egg yolk and whisk to combine. Add this mixture to the chocolate mixture along with the dry ingredients. Thoroughly fold through, then fold in the remaining eggwhite mixture.

Place the mixture in a piping bag fitted with a 1.5 cm-plain nozzle. Pipe the mixture two-thirds of the way up the prepared rings.

Remove the 5 cm lengths of chocolate sauce from the freezer and insert one into each chocolate cylinder, taking care not to touch the base. Pipe in more mixture to fill each cylinder. Freeze for at least 3 hours.

Remove the cylinders from the freezer 1 hour before serving, but keep in the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (Gas 4). Place the cylinders in the middle of the oven and bake for 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave for a couple of minutes before unmoulding.

To serve

Drain the pears on paper towel and discard the poaching syrup.

Gently slip a palette knife underneath each chocolate biscuit and lift off the rings. Remove the paper collar and place each biscuit on a serving plate.

To finish, fill a large piping bag fitted with a small plain nozzle with the ice-cream and pipe the ice-cream into the cavity of each pear. Place next to the biscuits and serve immediately.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/cuisine/desserts/recipe/philippa-sibleys-poire-bellehllne-20111031-1mrh6.html#ixzz1cRGXssaS

The Joy of Giving Back!

As you know, I launched a range of limited edition eye pillows last year to promote the concept of double happiness. 'To look after yourself whilst helping someone else less fortunate at the same time'. Every eye pillow purchased from my online boutique donated $25 to the Fred Hollows Foundation (TFHF ) which is what it costs for them to restore someone's eyesight. Unfortunately, the eye pillows were not as successful as I had thought. The cost of manfacturing in Australia and the pricepoint of $89.95 made it too expensive.

In order to clean our stock of these beautiful eye pillows, we have now reduced the price down to $29.95 and for each eye pillow sold we will donate $12.50 to TFHF. We have 112 eye pillows left and I am asking your help to make a life changing difference to another 56 more people. 

There are 4 designs: Renewal, Longevity, Tranquility and Happiness. 

PS. Don't forget we're also donating 25% of all profits to the Thai Red Cross for DIsaster Relief Fund until the end of November.

Desk Snapshot

A sneak peek at my new card design..