80 ml de base lavante neutre
1 cs de lait en poudre
1 cc hv de prune
15 gouttes d’extrait de cannelle
10 gouttes d'extrait de poire
2 gouttes d'extrait de caramel
1 pointe de mica doré
1 pointe d’ocre jaune
20 gouttes epp
8 gouttes de vitamine E

Mélanger le tout dans un joli flacon et laisser le petit prince apparaitre comme par magie !

Vous pouvez imprimer cette étiquette spéciale petit prince !

This weekend I climbed aboard a time machine and went back to the days my british European History professor stutters about for an hour and a half every tuesday and thursday. I didn't have the corset wrapped tightly around my body like I have the years before but I felt beautiful when the sun reflected off the blue in my eyes and messy haired musicians offered to play me a song. 

The first day I went with my brown eyed prince charming, southern grandparents, and strawberry blonde tater tot. She plugger her ears when the parade of Lords and Ladies came by. Sometimes this world is way too loud. You bought me a scented metal rose and I'm glad it wasn't real because now it will last forever. The five of us watched a joust and refrained from smacking the loud mouthed boy in front of us who kept telling everyone that they stank. I bought jewelry I didn't need and got an ugly Henna tattoo and laughed when you said you wished you were wearing a costume. You might be my knight in shining armor, but I could never see you in tights.

That night we were too tired for all the chaos on our pretty little campus. We curled up together and watched football until we fell asleep. The next morning I promised to be cleaner while we picked up crushed cereal from your carpet and made a pile of my clothes in the corner of your room. I am one giant natural disaster but you love me anyways. After your room was returned to its normal college boy perfection I put on my cowgirl boots and waited for a black car to pull up in front of my dorm. My sister was waiting for me and with her hair that dark her eyes look even bluer. We sang girly songs until we got to the festival and watched our five year old diva ride wooden attractions run by dirty men with missing teethe. We ate caramel apples sent from heaven itself and regretted all that sugary sweetness when we were done. We laughed until we were all tired and knew it was time to go back to the future.

Well, here they are, the fruits of our labor - We used a basic yellow cake mix, then filled the cupcakes with some of my homemade Caramel Tiramisu frosting.  Then alternating spoonfulls of each color, we filled a pastry bag and used a large star tip to create the mix of colors you see here (also with Caramel Tiramisu frosting).  Then came the real test- how did they taste?  I'm not really sure because both kids have their mouth full of yummy frosted cupcakes, but the smiles on their faces hint that just maybe we hit a homerun!

Liz's Super Luscious Caramel Tiramisu Frosting

Cream together 1 cup real unsalted butter (softened) and 1 cup shortening.  Slowly add about 1 cup confectioner sugar (you'll need about 4 cups total).  Stir in about 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and a good glug of Coffee Mate Tiramisu flavored creamer (you can get this by the milk at your grocery store).  Add another couple of cups of confectioner sugar (this is all to taste, so make sure you sneak a fingerfull or two while you're doing this).  Add another couple of glugs of the creamer and then about 4-5 tablespoons of your favorite caramel syrup (I like Dulce de Leche syrup by Hershey's).  This recipe will make plenty to cover a cake or 24 cupcakes (this depends on how much frosting you like on yours!).  I used a batch this size to fill and frost about 18 cupcakes with some left over to put on graham crackers for a small treat.

Fun places to visit if you want some cupcake inspiration:

www.wilton.com

www.cupcake-decorating-ideas.com

www.flickr.com/groups/cupcakes_spectacular/

www.cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com

www.familyfun.go.com

Ingrédients pour 4 personnes :

• 4 œufs
• 50 cl de lait
• 1 gousse de vanille
• 100 g de sucre en poudre
• 7 morceaux de sucre

Première étape, préparer la crème anglaise. Un conseil, placez vos ramequins au frais avant de commencer...

Dans une casserole, faîtes chauffer le lait avec la gousse de vanille fendue en deux et grattée que vous allez laisser infuser. Dans un bol, battre les 4 jaunes d'œufs avec 70g de sucre en poudre (au mixeur c'est mieux, ça permet de blanchir le mélange). Ajouter ce mélange au lait chaud puis remettre sur le feu. À feu très doux, sans jamais cesser de remuer avec une cuillère en bois pour que le mélange s'épaississe très progressivement. Dès que la mousse en surface a disparu, c'est prêt ! Il faut aussitôt verser dans les ramequins froids pour stopper la cuisson (sinon, gare aux grumeaux !) et remettre le tout au frigo. C'est l'étape la plus délicate, car une crème trop cuite et c'est raté...

Battre les blancs en neige avec une pincée de sel, puis vers la fin, incorporez progressivement les 30 g de sucre en poudre restant. Dans une grande casserole, faites bouillir 1L d'eau (moi j'ai rajouté deux cuillières à soupe d'eau de fleurs d'oranger, j'adore ça !) Avec deux cuillères à soupe, façonnez des sortes de quenelles de blancs battus que vous déposez en surface de l'eau bouillante. Faire cuire environ 1 minute de chaque côté puis déposez délicatement sur du papier absorbant (du Sopalin quoi...) pour égoutter là aussi des deux côtés.

Déposez un blanc poché sur chaque ramequin et replacez au frigo.

Préparez le caramel : dans une petite casserole, déposez les 7 morceaux de sucre que vous allez imbiber d'eau (attention, ne mettre que la quantité absorbée par chaque sucre, sinon, il y a trop d'eau et le caramel ne prend pas !) Faire chauffer sans cesser de remuer, dès que ça brunit, retirez du feu et verser sur les blancs en neige. Voilà ! On peu aussi rajouter des amandes effilées, mais moi je trouve ça too much...

J'ai servi ça hier soir après un dîner avec des huîtres en entrée (hum, c'est fou ce que j'aime ça, tant d'années perdues...), et un risotto aux cèpes. Tout le monde s'est régalé je crois ! Et en plus, c'est moi qui ai gagné aux cartes, héhé !

Et sinon, en ce moment, on nous rabat les oreilles avec les accords de Bretton Woods, sauf que moi, connais pas ce Bretton Woods ! C'est un mec ou un lieu ?! Et je ne suis pas la seule d'ailleurs, je n'ai trouvé personne hier soir autour de la table capable de me dire ce que c'est... M'énerve ces journalistes qui croient que la vulgarisation, c'est fait pour les chiens (ou pour les sciences, au choix). Enfin, heureusement qu'on peut chercher l'info par soi-même et compter sur les autres, simples citoyens !

[gallery]Style and Glass: Amber Ale; shaker
ABV, Volume & Calories: 5.3% in 12 fl oz. estimated at 150 C
Purchased at: Super Saver Pennington, NJ for $1.08

Aroma: quiet, faint, caramel. 5 out of 10.

Visuals: well designed label, beautiful, copper, brilliant, little head, some lace. 4 out of 5.

Taste: weak, some malt, little hops, low strength, low craft. 3 out of 10.

Palate: lower quality, smooth texture, quick finish. 2 out of 5.

Overall: About what you'd expect, but not nearly as bad as American Lager. Will likely repeat, as it is quite affordable and not bad at all, not a favorite, high value, low craft. 13 out of 20.

I caught a ride home last night and found myself with an afternoon to myself and some beautiful Gala apples that the Jones clan had yet to eat. I decided to make a caramel apple cake that I made a week ago at Rowan.

It was surprisingly easy, and didn't require any unusual ingredients. I'll admit that I had to run out to pick up some caramels for the topping, but the rest were typical baking fare.

The hardest part about making this autumn cake is waiting the 65 minutes or so for it to come out of the oven.

Here's a look at the ingredients, minus the 6 oz. container of vanilla yogurt.

I had already pitched the container into the garbage can ... and there are just some things that I won't do. Anyway, there's no milk in this mix. Instead, the yogurt gives the cake a silky smooth texture.

* The recipe on Once Upon a Plate calls for walnuts, but my younger brother is allergic. I've had the cake both ways and say sprinkle some on as you see fit.

Anyway, enough about the cake. Here's the recipe -

Salted Caramel Apple Cake with Walnuts (Once Upon a Plate)

Topping
1/2 cup walnuts
salt
about 20 unwrapped soft-chewy caramel candies (Kraft or Brach for example)Or make your own.
3 tablespoons heavy cream or whole milk

Lightly grease a 9" round cake pan at least 2" deep; or a 9" springform pan.Spread the walnuts in a single layer in an ungreased pan, and bake them for 8 to 10 minutes, until they're a light golden brown.

Remove them from the oven, and sprinkle very lightly with salt. Set them aside.

Beat together the sugar, butter, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and vanilla until smooth.Add the eggs. Beat till thoroughly combined.

Stir in the sour cream or yogurt alternately with the flour, using the low speed on mixer. The batter will be stiff. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with a spatula, don't be concerned if it's not perfect, just try to spread it evenly.

Toss the apple wedges with the sugar and vanilla till apples are thoroughly coated. Arrange the apples on top of the cake batter, pushing them into the batter gently so they're partially submerged.

Bake the cake for 65 minutes (see notes), till it's golden brown on top and a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven, and turn it out onto a rack, apple-side up. Place the caramel and cream in a microwave-safe bowl, and heat till the cream is showing bubbles, and the caramel is soft.

Spoon the caramel over the cake, dripping it down into the crevices around the apples.

Scatter the walnuts on top. Sprinkle lightly with very coarse sea salt flakes if desired. Serve warm, or at room temperature.

NOTE: The salty+sweet combination has brought the word lovelies like chocolate covered pretzels, so give it a try!

There’s a certain charm to Caramel; in the combination of its simple story yet complex deeper themes, the sweet bitterness, the acting, the signature Nadine Labki visual theater (think Nancy Ajram's 'Yey' video in the salon setting), the humor, and the direction that make it a beautiful, heart-warming film. But most of all I think its fair to say that there's something so captivating about Nadine’s performance in this film, that makes it stand out.

The MEIFF this year takes place between Oct 10 and 19th. Theyve released the program and schedule of films today, I had a quick look at them on the website..their website is a bit disappointing...it's very messy and not so user friendly...and makes it hard to read about the different films showing and their timings...still its an exciting event, and I hope to catch a few good films this year.

So why Midweek Sugar Rush? Well, the song is about a girl who likes the guy at the sweet shop. So the song has lots of words that’s anything to do with sweets – “multicolored”, “cupcakes”, “sugar”, “cookies”, “fruity pops”, “lollipops”, “tummy feast”, “heavenly break”, “butter sweet” (this one’s contrasted with “bitter sweet” in the later part of the song), “caramel”, “choco loco”, “eye-candy”, “candy bar” “hearty feast” etc. My favorite line in the lyrics, (and I think April would say too) is

“You’re my eye-candy lollipop guy!”

which is, I think, the climax (sort of) the chorus.

***

This is the complete song lyrics of the song.

Midweek Sugar Rush

lyrics: Khareen Culajara, April Dawn Paramio

music: Lymae Belle Ednalgan,  Khareen Culajara

I

Standing outside the street, I glanced to shop

and I saw you in multicolored shirt.

You looked at me too, and I thought deep inside

Is it me? The one you’re looking for?

Refrain I

And then I said Johnny Johnny I like to know

‘Bout little sweet cupcakes and those sugar-coated cookies

Those fruity pops, and those lollipops

inside this shop?

Chorus I

And can you feel the sugar rush inside this shop

Johnny, it’s a tummy feast

A heavenly break and it’s butter sweet

caramel-coated choco loco sweets

sweetens my week

for with you I see,

You’re the sweetest among them

You’re my eye-candy lollipop guy!

So can you feel the sugar rush

inside this shop?

II

Strolling outside your shop, I saw you

coming with a girl in multicolored car

She looked at you too and I thought deep inside

Oh I see, she’s like your candy bar

Refrain II

And then she said Johnny Johnny I like to know

“Bout little sweet cupcakes and those sugar-coated cookies

Those fruity pops, and those lollipops

inside this shop?

Chorus II

Now I can’t feel the sugar rush inside this shop

Johnny, it’s not a hearty feast

It’s a ride to hell because it’s bitter sweet

not caramel-coated choco loco sweets

Bitters my week

Without you, I see,

You’re not there to see me

Goodbye my eye-candy lollipop guy!

‘Coz I can’t feel the sugar rush

inside this shop…

inside this shop.

***

That’s all. Bye bye to the real lollipop guy! (*snickers)

What to cook when you are full of inspiration yet lacking ingredients? Look in the cupboard, find the basics. Flour, check. Sugar, check. And in the fridge: milk, butter, eggs. Check! With these ingredients (and, some vanilla) you can make a simple yet delectable dessert. An optional extra is whatever is in your fruit basket at the time, in this case a banana.

Firstly, make the caramel. It stays hot for a long time so it won't matter if it sits there for a few minutes while you make the custard. I used Elise's recipe over at Simply Recipes, it's a great tutorial. Be careful though, when you add the cream it really does froth up!! Took me a little by surprise but worked out great.

Now for the custard I used a tried & true recipe of mine and I don't even know where I got it from (sometime before the internet existed I think). You will need:

4 egg yolks

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup plain flour

1 & 1/2 cups milk

Vanilla essence to taste

Combine all ingredients, except the vanilla, in a medium saucepan (a whisk works well to make a smooth mixture). Cook over low heat, stirring all the time, until it thickens & boils. Stir in the vanilla essence. Makes 3-4 serves.

Serve into small bowls or ramekins, add your fruit of choice if desired, and spoon over a little caramel sauce to top it off (it's very sweet, I only had a little bit). The caramel recipe makes too much, but it keeps for two weeks in the fridge.

I love my homemade custard. I have never ever bought boxed custard from a store, and as long as I have this recipe, I never will!

Soufflé must have been up all night eating. He finished all his hay - that's a fully stuffed ball and a rack of hay - of course, his pellets were all gone too. He didn't just stop there though. He finished around 600ml of water too! When I looked at him, he gave me this I-am-hungry-now-can-you-feed-me-because-I-haven't-eaten-enough look. I topped up everything except pellets. LOL. Maybe later, I'll give him a little bit of pellets. :D

Tugs has decided to be good today and finished up his hay that I put in the tissue box. Hay in the hay rack is left untouched. He's just plain lazy and wants the easy way out. His favourite is Marukan Nature Grass though.

Soufflé, on the other hand, finished a fully stuffed ball of hay plus hay in the hay rack. His pellets were also gone as well.

Latte and Toffee also polished up whatever they could. They will finish all their hay as well as their pellets. They're usually really excited to see food though. Quite comical

Hugs, well, he's a small eater. Everything takes a longer time to finish. But he seems to enjoy his hay though now it's a little more inclined to pellets.

So the kids have a fundraiser. The person who sells more then 10 boxes of candy can win a WII (IF), they out sell who ever else sells more then ten (10) boxes.

We totally want the WII.

I have three kids so if each sells 2 boxes we will be four (4) boxes shy of the qualifier. This is where you come in, HELP US WIN THE WII. Not sure how I would get the candy to you - but I would surely find a way.

If you like to by a box click here and we will ship to you the next day or if you like, we can keep the candy. LOL

IF you are down with supporting this cause please inform and maybe I can set up payments via PayPal. - WE WANT THE WII.

Yea I said it.

Thanks!

Front of the box.

The Back view...

The side view, giving an idea of how wide it is.

Here's Caramel in the box!

This is where Caramel chooses to laze when I'm going to nap.

In the evening, when I put her on my bed, she started to clean herself and I saw how fat she is. LOL. He says that she's always been fat. :(

I think that's obvious from those pictures.

My friend calls her dewlap a "turkey neck".

She's got that regal look, as if she's some royalty ruling over peasants. *hmpf*

The high and mighty look

Aha! I found a way to embarrass her...

Show off her flab!!!!! *evil laughter*

She's not all that dumb... She'll shift her position...

See that bulge at her side?

Gives me "the eye" and puffs out her dewlap. :|

Celtic Sea Salt

and the Chipotle.

I am a sucker for good caramels and we tasted plenty while in Portland and these truly reigned supreme!

They are sold in a wide variety of sizes and packaging, but I think the 8oz bag (about 30 pieces) for $9.95 is a great deal and perfect hostess gift!  Best of all, they're natural... no artificial colors, no artificial flavors and no preservatives.

On Saturday, tkwei & wifey gave us 2 Sunflowers for the six of them. They love it to bits. :D Yay~ I can tell that we may make a trip down to get some other veggies for them and maybe another Sunflower. Probably after that, it'll be a long time before they get to eat those again.

Oh, Caramel and Hugs weren't too excited about the sunflower though. LOL.

Then, Caramel's been doing something she normally does not do - shred newspapers in her cage. *sighs* She's also chewing up her litter box. Plus she's got mood swings. All signs of pregnancy. Well, since she's had a litter before, we kind of know the signs. She'll bite some people as well.

Hopefully, things will go well. :)

The verdict: this pie turned out extremely sweet… too sweet in my opinion.  The thick sugar mixture gives it a praline-like flavor.  I think next time I’ll revert to a family recipe that uses less sugar and butter – I prefer having the flavor of the apples front and center with a little bit of cinnamon secondary to that.  If you like a sweet caramel taste, you will probably love this recipe.  I would recommend sticking with the Granny Smith apples recommended in the recipe or another very tart variety since the recipe is already so sweet.

In making this recipe, I followed the advice given by many of the reviewers on allrecipes.com and made several changes to the original:

1)  In the butter-sugar-flour mixture, omit the water and add a tablespoon of cornstarch.

2) The butter-sugar mixture is very thick, so add it to the apples before putting on a top crust or lattice.  I also used a basting brush to cover the lattice crust with leftover butter from the sauce pan.

2)  Add cinnamon and vanilla if you so desire.  I totally forgot about this until I was about to put the pie in the oven, so I sprinkled cinnamon over the pie.  Better than no cinnamon at all.

3)  Bake at 350 for the whole time instead of starting out at 425.

4)  After about 35 minutes, the edges of the crust were sufficiently browned.  To keep them from burning, I took the pie out and placed strips of foil around the edges and left them on for the duration of the cooking time.

In the interest of time (and because I don’t currently have a rolling pin in my possession) I used two store-bought pie crusts, one for the bottom and one for the lattice.  Homemade crust is always better if there’s time to make it!

Yield

Makes 2 cups; 4 servings

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=682522

When I went to Caramel's cage, I saw her use her hay as a pillow. She was resting on a pile of hay she pulled from her hay rack. Is this a sign of wanting to have a nest? *shrugs*

Anyway, I think they all enjoyed the wheatgrass. At least it'll give them heaps of fibre. This would complement the hay. I hope they continue to eat a lot of hay.