The best and easiest Chocolate Mousse ever!

I've been making this mousse for many years and always get lots of compliments whenever I serve it. The secret is to use the best chocolate you can find (definitely no cooking chocolate). Instead of using dark chocolate only, you can use a mixture of milk and dark chocolate. You'll get a paler as well as slightly sweeter mousse.

You will need:

4 very fresh egg yolks, preferably organic

300 g (11 oz)  good dark eating chocolate, I used dark Toblerone

4 Tbsp fine sugar

2 Tbsp rum, brandy, whiskey or any other booze you might like (optional)

500 ml (17 fl.oz) single cream (very cold)

(serves 8 to 10)

First beat the cold single cream until soft peaks form. Set aside.

 Break chocolate into smallish pieces and melt either in microwave or in a double boiler (in a bowl over a pan of simmering water). In the meantime put egg yolks in a bowl together with sugar and beat with an electric mixer until pale and light. It is important that the egg yolks are at room temperature. Then add alcohol (if using) and mix well. Once the chocolate has melted, let cool slightly, then mix into the egg mixture.

 Now fold the chocolate/egg mixture into the cream with a rubber spatula or a big metal spoon making sure not to over mix.

 Place mousse into a clean bowl, or into small individual serving dishes, and chill in the fridge for a few hours or over night.

Scoop out mousse with a spoon dipped in hot water first. 

Enjoy!

If I have leftovers of this delicious mousse I freeze it to be enjoyed later on as a creamy chocolate ice cream.  

Bon Appétit

Vreni 

                                                                         

Giving in to temptation!

I have finally cracked and started a new project. I had the Camelot pattern for a while, but wanted to finish a couple of UFOs first before indulging. Here's my first hand pieced block.

Then I  made this paper pieced block for a charity quilt our Tuesday group is putting together (pattern can be found here). The idea is that each month one of the members chooses a block and preferably a new technique to teach the ladies who are new to quilting. Anybody who is interested can sew along. 

For July I sewed this block for the Hasenbach Challenge; it's rather small, only 6 by 6 inches, 

as well as this block, which isn't a challenge block, but will be include in my winter quilt. 

All the blocks I've made so far. 

I can't believe that August is already upon us. Tomorrow my daughter is arriving and I suspect I won't have much time for sewing for the next couple of weeks.

I hope your week is going well.
Vreni xx                                                                   

Belly Up!

So I finished my fish wall hanging! But if you look closely, you'll see there's something fishy (sorry, couldn't help myself). But honestly, can you see that the fish are upside down, doing the backstroke, so to say. Well, I decided to draw the eyes of the fish instead of applique them on and when I was about halfway done, I realized that I had the quilt the wrong way up. How annoying!!!

As there's no way I could remove the indelible ink so I had to keep going. So now the wall hanging will have to be hung up this way

 but that means, that the air bubbles are going the wrong way!

Oh well, one lives and learns, hopefully!

Have a great weekend.
Vreni x                                    

                         

Checking in

I have made myself scarce here, it seems. But I have been busy, just nothing finished to show, except for two more friendship blocks for friends who are leaving our group and Singapore soon. 

I've also sandwiched my bloom quilt and have started to quilt it. For the time being I'm just quilting the small squares. 

I'm also in the middle of raw edge appliqueing (is that a word?) my fish quilt. Here's a little "teaser".

Other that that, we've  been to a quick visit to Beijing to see DD. It was lovely to be with her and meet her colleagues and friends. We got to visit her classroom. How strange to see her as a competent teacher where as in my heart she is still a second grader herself ;)!!! Here they are practicing a song for their end of year concert. 

Unfortunately the weather was terrible and it rained cats and dogs most of the time we were there. The pollution was quite bad as well but nothing compared with what we found upon our return to Singapore. And it's become increasingly worst as this week went on. It's the same story every year - although this time is by far the worst - as the farmers in Indonesia clear large areas of forest by setting deliberate slash-and-burn fires, sending clouds of smoke into the atmosphere. 

click image for source

from my window this morning

For now I'm keeping my head down and out of the haze as much as possible, even though it seeps through the closed windows and through the AC and everything starts to smell like it's been in a smoke house.
Oh well, what to do lah (that's a Singaporean saying by the way)!
Cheers
Vreni x         
                                                        

Coup de foudre

or in plain English; it was love at first sight! It was when I saw this quilt and then it kept on popping up here and in variations here and here. My mind was made up! I had to make my own. And I had to copy the "original" exactly (or as much as possible). That's not not something I normally do as I usually like to put my own spin on things. But not this time. It's the perfect quilt for those fabrics you have problems cutting into.

 Big Blooms

I have pieced it by hand, usually during quilt group time. As I haven't done much hand piecing, it's been a bit of a learning curve. But at least I can say now that I've pieced a whole quilt by hand.

Now on to quilting. Since I've hand pieced it, this quilt deserves to be hand quilted as well and I'm thinking perle cotton. I'm going to get on with it right away. I don't want  this one to end up on the pile of tops waiting for ever to be quilter.
Cheers
Vreni x

May Block Hasenbach Challenge

This is latest installment for the Hasenbach challenge. It was quite a fiddly block to make as it's quite small - only 8 1/2 inches and with well over 100 individual pieces - and not everything lines up perfectly. Oh well, I did the best I could.

And here are all the blocks so far. I've been reading that some of the other participants of this challenge are a bit fed up with sewing winter blocks as they have had enough winter to last them a long time. I - on the other hand - love it. As it's very hot here at the moment, I try to "feel" the cold atmosphere of  the blocks ;)!

Click here to see more blocks sewn this month. 

Cheers

Vreni x

Something "fishy" and playing with sticky notes!

I don't mind telling you that I'm a bit addicted to Craftsy classes. I love the convenience as well as to have access to teacher which otherwise wouldn't' be possible.  I have just finished a class taught by Camille Roskelley where she encourages her students to play with half triangles and squares. With some sticky notes I had laying around, I had a go trying to make block patterns. It's quite amazing how many different combinations are possible with just three colours.

The next step is to cut up fabric and sew some of these combinations. 

I've also had a little play with fish. I'm not sure yet where I'm going with it; maybe a baby quilt or a wall hanging. At the moment I'm just having fun.

Other than that, I've been FMQ a quilt. Here's a little preview:

I don't practice my FMQ enough. I always feel that by the time I finish quilting a quilt, I get into my stride and the stitches start to look decent. Of course if I wait a few month before I do it again, all my practice has flown out the window. I must practice more!!!

OK, that's it for today. Have a lovely weekend.
Vreni x