Lily’s Blog, Dragon Absconded!
Baking Until I Drop

My neighbours signed for it.

I really do. love them.
I mean they seem to do their orders quicker than I expect and this time I didn’t even expedite the shipping like I did for the digital camera as I was on a tight schedule. I should go post reviews I think.
And they have decent prices too, at least for what I want.

I should get my graphics tablet today. I ordered it in the wee hours (4 AM) of Tuesday 20th and it’s already in Connecticut and should be here today. I hope I don’t have to be here though.

Okay, I know that’s what businesses are like but I can still be happy because they are. I mean, see my B&N.com happy entry. I get to play!!

Status: In Transit [ On-Time ]
Scheduled Delivery: Apr 21, 2004
Shipped to: me, in Massachusetts
Shipped or Billed on: Apr 20, 2004

Service Type: GROUND
Weight: 4.00 Lbs
Note: Your package is in the UPS system and is on-time with a scheduled delivery date of Apr 21, 2004.

Package Progress:

Date	Time	Location	Activity
Apr 21, 2004	12:30 A.M.	Stratford, CT, US	Arrival Scan
Apr 20, 2004	10:53 P.M.	New York, NY, US	Departure Scan
	9:26 P.M.	New York, NY, US	Origin Scan
	6:13 P.M.	Long Island City, NY, US	Pickup Scan
	5:50 P.M.	US	Billing Information Received

differentSky :: guestblock
He has a really cool thing called a guestblock. Actually I think of it as a cutesy guest book. Go see it.

In sad news, the evil dotCanada.com has accused Nuclear Moose Candy of abusing their server by monopolizing RAM and CPU resources. The culprit? WordPress! HELLO! How??

Other nice blog, found from following http://www.differentsky.com is webjones.net now very blue.
He has a dragon on it :-)

I think that there are just sooo many weblogs for me to keep track of now.

I like these however. They are so nice and clean.

Graphire3 4×5 USB Tablet – Sapphire Blue

I just bought myself this.
I can’t wait to get it.
(Okay I didn’t buy it at Wacom but at DataVision which is where I bought my Canon S400 Digital Camera also).

I can’t wait. I want it.

I’m happy and thrilled.

In other news, my mom left at 6:00 EST today and is now on her way home, back to Trinidad & Tobago. Here’s hoping her travels are safe and she doesn’t get too ill.

Diana Wynne Jones is one of my most favourite authors and I love Hayao Miyazaki too.

Guardian Unlimited | Arts features | Just don’t go to Cardiff
Just don’t go to Cardiff

World of anime

Andrew Osmond
Wednesday September 17, 2003
The Guardian

Hayao Miyazaki, the director of the acclaimed Japanese animation film Spirited Away, has been busy since completing the Oscar-winning film over two years ago. An avid reader of children’s literature, he has settled on Howl’s Moving Castle as the basis for his next film.

Thank yous go to Jamie for introducing me to the wonderful world of making my own truffles!
(Please tell me if I’m missing any important details as I’m doing this by memory!)

Now, on with our story:

Truffles are pretty easy to make…well mostly.

Your basic chocolate truffle requires these ingredients:

• 1 lb of chocolate, chopped coarsely
• 1 1/2 cups of whipping cream
• 4 tblsps cocoa powder or icing sugar
• 1 1/2 lb of chocolate, chopped coarsely, for tempering

This will make about 60 truffles. I’m told you must get the little paper cups to put them in so that they look pretty!

Now the how to:
I’ll break it up into stages.

1. Making the truffle cream:
   1. Melt 1 lb of chocolate in a double boiler (or if you don’t have one…improvise). I think you have to make sure the water in the outer pot doesn’t touch the base of the inner pot (the one with the chocolate. Make sure it doesn’t burn and keep stirring.
   2. Boil the cream
   3. Now mix the cream and the melted chocolate together until it’s all chocolatey and well blended.
   4. Now you cover it securely and put it in the fridge or freezer for a few hours.
2. Making the truffle centres:
   1. Line trays with parchment paper.
   2. Take the truffle cream out of the fridge and use a melon baller (or fill a pastry bag and make mounds) to scoop out little mounds of chocolate. You can pick whatever size you’re comfortable with and put them on the trays.
   3. When you’re done, put them in the fridge or freezer again, covered securely, for a few hours.
   4. Take them out again and use either your hands or gloves for this. Dust your hands with cocoa powder and roll the mounds into ball shapes and put them back onto lined trays.
   5. Refrigerate again for a few hours
3. Tempering chocolate and coating the truffles:
   1. Melt two thirds of the chocolate in a double boiler and remove when done.
   2. Add the remaining third of chocolate in thirds to the melted chocolate, mixing well to ensure all chocolate is melted before adding the next batch. Voilà! Tempered chocolate!
   3. Take the trays out of the fridge and dip each truffle in the tempered chocolate, trying your best to evenly coat it and shake off excess chocolate. Then put them back on lined trays
   4. If you want to decorate them with something, make sure to do it before the coating sets, so put your beans, rinds, m&m’s on after coating about 4 truffles or so.
   5. Cover the truffles securely and put them in the fridge to set for about 15 minutes.
   6. Take them out and put them in the paper cups.
   7. You want to store them securely remember!

Things to remember:

• You might need to use different lined trays or change the linings!
• If the chocolate gets too soft to scoop out, or too hard to coat the centres or just not right…you can always retemper them or rerefrigerate
• It’s chocolate! If you use good chocolate it’s not too hard to go wrong. Even if it doesn’t come out right…CHOCOLATE NEVER GOES TO WASTE

Now..clicky for pictures of me doing these lovely things :-)

Continue reading Chocolate Truffles

I love cricket. You mightn’t realize this because I don’t talk about it and I don’t know what’s going on but I still love it.
It’s not that I’m a fair weather fan and when West Indies isn’t doing well (like now), it’s just I’m in a country where cricket isn’t played and I don’t read news so I drift out of it and read the bulletins from my family.

But whether we’re doing terribly or winning stupendously or something in between I will always support West Indies.
I’m not one of those who support either India or Pakistan because some of my ancestors happened to come from that subcontinent. Neither do I support Pakistan because I am Muslim. It’s West Indies forever, first and foremost (unless of course God forbid they one day they eradicate the West Indies team and each of the islands and countries compete individually).

So, I’m happy that Brian Lara reclaimed the record for the most runs scored by a single batman in a single innings in a Test match. (Hopefully I got that right). And 400 runs at that! So sweet! I remember when he first broke Sir Gary Sobers’ record and we were all clustered in the language lab of my secondary school because there was an awesome television there and…I’m not sure how many students and teachers cut class that day! Of course, I can be extra happy because Lara is from Trinidad & Tobago :-)

And they’re trying to still win this match (I should go find out the score!) even though we’ve lost the series. Oh well.

I keep hoping the next bit of news I hear about West Indies cricket will be stellar and at least yesterday it was :-)

PS 10 years ago when Lara broke the record it was on the Antiguan grounds, also I think and against the English team..