green bead and black wire earrings and necklace

these I made for my sister Niamh's birthday.  I'm getting better at the wire working, but the black wire is actually silver coated with black, so all the marks I make fussing to get it just right show up much more than on the silver colored wire.

still came out cool.  I was practicing making spiral metal links and when one came out looking like a music clef I thought that would be fun for my sister, who is very musical :)

I'll have to work on getting better lighting and backdrops when I take pictures...

rose crystal silver wired necklace and earrings

I made these for my friend Hannah's birthday, whose favorite color is pink.  this was my second wire working project, and I am very, very pleased with how it came out.  the combination of dusty pink and tarnished silver looks very classy and old-fashioned, which suits her nicely.  At the last minute I managed to make two matching rings, but forgot to take pictures of those.  Maybe Hannah will model them for me :)

edited to add blurry, cropped cellphone pic of one of the rings.  this one didn't match the above set in style, but she says it matches everything else and she wears it all the time. :)

teal and lime beads wire bracelet

my first wire working project: a bracelet made for myself with "bead units" (wire link with a bead in the middle, loops on the ends, and nice curlies etc :)

edited to add: put this in my etsy shop as a bracelet / anklet
(since at 10" long it's much longer than most bracelets)
https://www.etsy.com/listing/117131353/teal-and-lime-wire-braceletanklet

recipe: passion fruit possets

Passion Fruit and Lemon Posset

adapted from recipe at http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2010/05/passion_fruit_and_lemon_possets

Ingredients:

a picture of one of our actual passion fruits, courtesy of "Fred" (our Frederick passion fruit vine :)

2 C heavy whipping cream

      (or regular whipping cream)

¾ C + 1 T sugar

¼ t vanilla extract

1/4 C passion fruit liquid *

2 T lemon juice

Instructions:

* If starting from whole passion fruits, scoop out the pulp and press it through a sieve to remove the seeds.  To get 1/4 cup of seedless pulp you will probably need to juice approx 3-5 fruits.  If using concentrate, use 3 T Perfect Purée passion fruit concentrate plus 1 T water

Put cream, sugar, and vanilla extract in medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.  Let it boil for 3 minutes, then remove pan from heat and add juice.  Whisk thoroughly.

Strain with a medium-fine sieve and pour into 4-8 custard cups.  Let it cool for about 30 minutes before placing in refrigerator.  It will set to a soft pudding

It can be garnished with lemon peel curls, passion fruit seeds, and/or candied lemon slices

Makes: about 2.5 cups, enough for 4-6 modest servings

recipe: mini apple pies

mini apple pies

Ingredients:
2 premade pie crusts, unrolled
4 apples (2 sour granny smith, 2 sweet Spartan)
2 T sugar
2 t flour
2 t cinnamon
2 1/2 T salted butter

preheat oven to 350 degrees, put cupcake liners in 10 holes of regular size muffin pan

Directions:
let pie crusts come to room temp and unroll.  cut 5 large circles out of each crust (I used 4" circle cutter)
carefully tuck one circle into each cupcake liner
peel and cut apples into small pieces, fill each mini crust with a mix of the two apples
mix sugar, flour, and cinnamon together in bowl.  put 1 teaspoon of mix over apples in each mini pie.
cut tablespoons of butter into quarters and put one cube in each mini pie
cut remaining crust into strips for a simple lattice or use a cookie cutter to put a single shape as the top crust

bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees or until golden brown

makes 10 mini pies

with lattice top

with a cute boy for scale

with cookie cutter top

recipe: divine passion fruit curd

Divine Passionfruit Curd

adapted from recipe at http://thepassionatecook.typepad.com/thepassionatecook/2011/02/passion-fruit-curd.html


Ingredients:

1 C passion fruit pulp (seeds removed)
10 T unsalted butter
1 C sugar
6 eggs

Instructions:

If starting from whole passion fruits, scoop out the pulp and press it through a sieve to remove the seeds.  To get one cup of seedless pulp you will probably need to juice approx 10-20 fruits.

Put all ingredients in a metal bowl and whisk thoroughly.  Place metal bowl over a pan of slowly boiling water.  Whisk constantly over medium heat until fairly thick.  remove bowl from heat and let cool slightly.

I put most of it into three 1/2 pint mason jars, and processed them in boiling water for 5 minutes to seal thoroughly.  I don't know if this will make it shelf-stable or whether we should still refrigerate it.  If it isn't all eaten within a week or given away, we could freeze some, or it's supposed to last a few weeks in the fridge.

Makes: about 3.5 cups

and yes, it is very tasty just eaten with a spoon, though it's probably too rich to eat a pudding-like quantity :)

iphone case inserts

I was finally forced to update my phone, and got a spiffy new iphone 4S.

I found lots of cute/stylish cases on amazon for really cheap, from Hong Kong.  Apple and Fry's didn't have anything that appealed enough to be worth the cost.  so I got a basic clear case, with the idea that I could cut paper to fit inside it.  The case back is frosted, which isn't ideal but still works.

Then while my phone took hours to download my old content, I went looking for a template.  I applied it to 6 different photos I manipulated to make some personalized case inserts.  Here they are in the frosted case (I since rubbed out most of the logo with nail polish remover, ha :)

another blog, really?!?

yes, another blog, really.  I have one for Dutch recipes, on which I posted 3 Dutch recipes (or so) and then started cooking other things.  I have one for nail art.  And I have one for the kids' antics.

So no place to post the jewelry I've gotten into making lately, or the other recipes, or the miscellaneous artsy things I've been up to.

Hence CRAFTY-DEE.  It's got a silly ring to it, don't you think?  Plus crafdee and craftdee were already taken on blogger :)