The kids got Christmas cards from Grandma & Grandpa. Then their mom got this crazy idea and these awesome kids let her modify them. I used images from this papercraft zombie nativity set. I kind of love how they turned out, especially the zombie that looks like he's hanging ornaments on the tree.
I tried two new recipes using dehydrated elf puree (matcha powder). Matcha is powdered green tea. It has a lovely color, which is why I started playing with it. It also has a distinct, what I would call grassy flavor, which is starting to grow on me. The feedback I've received has been all over the place. Some people love it, some hate it, some say it's edible, but definitely not their favorite.
First up, my favorite of the two, zombie fingers. Yet another recipe where I'm using silicone molds from Michaels that are no longer available. Hopefully these will be back next fall. Now that I'm older and wiser, I don't buy molds unless I absolutely love them and when I do, I buy four so I can make a whole batch of whatever at the same time.
I love the colors of these fingers, the green matcha with the red and white (Could that be blood and bone?), is absolutely lovely. I liked the flavor of these cookies. I thought they were so much better than the ones I made last year. There's enough sweet to balance the green tea, but they're not too sweet.
The recipe for Match Cookies with Cranberries & White Chocolate is from U Try It. These cookies are made by rolling the dough into a log, chilling, then slicing into individual cookies. Since I was pressing it into molds, I chopped up the dried cranberries and white chocolate into small pieces before adding them to the dough. The dough was stiff enough to work with without chilling, but I did chill the filled molds on a cookie sheet for 10 minutes before baking.
Since this was the first time trying this recipe I only made half and that was enough to fill two molds (16 fingers) all the way to the top. I was surprised how much they expanded while baking since there is no leavening in the recipe. They didn't overflow or anything but next time I will probably fill them a little less and maybe make 20 fingers. Anytime you use a mold or muffin tin and don't fill all the cavities you should fill the empty ones with water.
The second recipe for Pistachio Matcha Dark Chocolate Bark is from The Delicious Life. Some people really liked this and some thought it was just ok. I really like the look of it, but I didn't care for the taste. I think the white chocolate complimented the matcha powder nicely, it was actually the pistachios and chocolate I wasn't crazy about. I love dark chocolate and I love pistachios, but I didn't like them together, which surprised me.
I did fudge the recipe a little. They do a layer of chocolate and pistachios, then dollop and swirl white chocolate and white chocolate mixed with matcha on top and then sprinkle on more pistachios.
I wanted the green matcha to be more visible so I did the layer of white chocolate with the matcha mixture first and then covered that with the mixture of pistachios and dark chocolate.
I'm a big softy when it comes to cute cuddly things.
Especially if they have sharp teeth or lots of legs.
These cute little buggers are made by a local artist J. Daven. They are listed as Floof Sprites, but clearly the one on the right is a budding Krampus. I'm sure it just needs to be fed after midnight to reach it's full potential.
As promised, Boozie Maggots. I did try making alcoholic zombie popsicles, but because the alcohol results in a softer freeze it was difficult to unmold them. The act of peeling back the molds erased some of the finer details and they all lost their heads, which just looked like balls by the time I worked them out of the mold. Note that any simple popsicle mold would work, I just like maggots.
I supposed I could have played around with less alcohol to find a suitable ratio that would result in perfect zombies, but it's easier this way, everyone knows the zombies are kid friendly and the maggots have rum. Also I don't get any sideways glances from friends by saying crazy things like "less rum". [Honestly, and I could be completely talking out my rear, I do not have what one might call a sophisticated palate. But I feel the rum enhances the other flavors and just a smidge as a flavor enhancer would ok in my book.]
This article on How To Turn Any Alcohol You Like Into Tasty Frozen Pops is what I used to figure out ratios using rum that's 40% alc/vol (ABV). You can substitute with any alcohol with a 40% ABV, but anything else and you'll have to refer to the article and do your own math. These quantities are also based on the maximum amount of alcohol you can use and still have your popsicle freeze properly. By all means use less if you like. Wherever I've rounded numbers to simplify, I've always rounded down on the amount of alcohol to ensure adequate freezage.
The short answer is if you are using 40% ABV, it comes out to 4 parts cucumber mix to 1 part alcohol.
You can use my Cucumber, Mint & Lime Mix, either as is, because the alcohol will cut the sweetness or with added extras, plus alcohol. The following blend is our current family favorite. The coconut milk adds a nice flavor and the avocado really gives the popsicles a smooth, creamy texture. Here I'm using part of the recipe for non-alcoholic zombies and part with rum to make frozen maggots. You could make as much as you want with rum just stick to the 4 to 1 ratio.
Refreshingly Undead Pops Makes 24 oz
One batch (18 oz) Cucumber, Mint and Lime Mix (for more details see previous post): 2 cups peeled, diced and seeded cucumber 1/2 cup lime juice with zest 1/2 cup mint infused simple syrup
4 oz (1/2 cup) coconut milk (Note 1) 2 oz (1/4 cup) avocado (Note 2)
frozen raspberries (garnish)
It works best to use room temperature ingredients or the coconut fat solidifies. Blend all ingredients except raspberries. 16 oz of this delicious nectar will fill two sets of zombie molds. Poke a few pieces of frozen raspberry into the molds, not only for a touch of color, but it tastes awesome too. Reserve the remaining 8 oz for Boozie Maggots.
Note 1: If you're making frozen treats because it's hot out and you have the air conditioning on, the coconut milk fats are probably solid. If you are starting with an unopened can of coconut milk I suggest putting it in a bowl of hot tap water for a few minutes. Otherwise gently heat the coconut milk in the microwave just until it becomes completely liquid. Slowly pouring the coconut milk in while the blender is running will help it evenly incorporate too. Worse case scenario if it does solidify, you wind up with a slightly grainy texture to your popsicle.
Extra coconut milk can be frozen by the tablespoon in an ice cube tray to easily measure out for recipes or smoothies.
Note 2: This is for my daughter's friends after hearing about their avocado woes. California Avocado has lots of good info. Avocado's won't ripen in the fridge, but once they are ripe pop them in the fridge and they'll keep longer.
If you really aren't going to use them anytime soon, freeze them. I will finely dice or puree them with a little lime juice and freeze in single serving sized mounds on freezer paper before transferring to a freezer bag.
You don't have to use an avocado up all at once. Cut it in half lengthwise and give a twist. Whichever half the pit remains attached to cover in plastic and store in the fridge. The pit doesn't have any magical qualities, but air isn't going to get to the surface it's covering. When you finally get to cutting pieces off that half try to keep the pit in place for as long as possible.
Cut whatever you want off the remaining half, skin and all and again plastic wrap and refrigerate the remaining part. Peel the skin off the piece you want and slice, dice or puree and enjoy. Notice I didn't tell you to rub lemon or lime on anything that's being stored. In my experience citrus only delays the inevitable. Even the plastic wrap doesn't create an air tight seal. After a day all cut surfaces brown, no matter what. Just accept that, scrape the brown off and eat the creamy greenness underneath.
In summary a perfectly ripe avocado can last a long time around here, though it might pray for a quick and merciful death.
Finally getting to Boozie Maggots. Remember my Thanksgiving Maggots and Creepmas Maggots? I love the molds I got at Michaels last year and I'm glad I had the foresight to buy four of them. I am hopeful they will bring them back this fall. The maggot shape makes them super easy to fill and unmold, no matter what food stuffs you are using and who doesn't like maggots? The only downside is they need some sort of support when moving the filled molds prior to baking/freezing. They also smell faintly like mint now. Scrubbing with a paste of baking soda and dish soap seems to work the best, but I guess silicone really absorbs odors.
Boozie Maggots with red raspberries.
Boozie Maggots
8 oz Refreshingly Undead Concoction 2 oz of 40% rum frozen raspberries
Combine and fill molds. The maggots hold one tablespoon each, but you need to allot for expansion as they freeze. 10 oz should be enough to fill 24 maggots. Garnish with frozen raspberries.
It's very important they be frozen. Frozen berries break down faster and give better color. The very first picture with black raspberries, I was impatient and didn't wait for them to freeze all the way. The above picture has red raspberries that were completely frozen, and have a better color spread. Below I used fresh blue berries and the skulls have fresh red raspberries and they just don't look as good.
To serve: I filled small dixie cups with a few maggots and kept them in the freezer until it was time to serve.
It all started with my first trip to the local Night Market. Even though I knew it wouldn't be, I was secretly hoping it would be like the Floating Market in Neverwhere. And it didn't disappoint, which is to say it was nothing like the Floating Market in Neverwhere.
But it still held it's own charm and one of things that caught my eye was a popsicle vendor, Chrysalis Pops, with it's array of unique flavors. Now if you think the combination of cucumber, mint and lime would taste like a cool breeze, under a shade tree, on a warm summer's day, you would be correct. Mostly. I'll explain:
While my cucumber, mint and lime popsicle did indeed invoke all those sensations, my initial lick gave me pause. It tasted like dill pickle, or at least that's what my brain initially jotted down. Then it extrapolated all the data from my taste receptors, did an analysis, put it all into a spreadsheet, I think there was even a cute little pie graph to denote the individual flavors and cheerfully concluded that the original assessment was wrong. It was indeed cucumber, mint & lime, no dill pickles present.
But once in while the essence of dill pickle would pop back up, only to disappear the moment I tried to pin it down. Much like an optical illusion, or Gestalt switchfor taste buds. Yes there's a reason I'm telling you this, and I'll get to it. Eventually.
First a quick shout to some of the other night marketeers: Artery Ink for awesome anatomy based art, they even have a coloring book and Green Goat Apothecary, who has ensnared me with their blood orange scented goat's milk lotion. It makes my skin feel silky and the smell is divine, nothing like the headache inducing artificial scents that a lot of popular lotions seem to favor.
But back to popsicles, pickle or no pickle my curiosity was peaked and I wondered what life would be like if I could make my own cucumber, mint and lime popsicles. I found a recipe that looked promising and realized it would be much easier if I procured actual popsicle molds.
That's when I found these lovely Zombie Molds by Tovolo. I bought two sets online from Target, for $10.99. Of course they are sold out now. There are a few vendors that carry them on Amazon but they cost a bit more. Each mold holds 2 oz and there are 4 zombies per set.
Pros: They make zombie shaped popsicles! And the popsicle handles are zombie legs! And the part of the handle that goes into the mold, is a rib cage! So you literally eat the zombies down to their bones!
Cons: The mold is a flexible silicone, which is fine, but tricky to peel off. I find it best to push down on the top of the zombie heads while peeling the mold off inside out. This works fine for all the zombies except the one zombie with his tongue hanging out. Half of the time I break his head off. (Quick fix: Rub a little water on the neck, push the head on and stick it back in the freezer.)
Or maybe it's just me. Hungry Happenings not only has a raspberry cheesecake pop recipe, but they have better quality pictures and a video that makes demolding look like the easiest thing in the world.
Silicone apparently really absorbs odors. This is the first time I've made anything with a strong scent and now all my molds smell like mint. I tried baking soda and I tried vinegar. Both reduce the odor but do not completely remove it. I'm not sure how much mint flavor would even transfer if I made something else with the molds.
While the zombie legs are adorable, they do limit the number of full bodied zombies you can make. (If the legs are otherwise occupied, good old wooden popsicle sticks will do. Cover the mold with a layer of tinfoil to provide stability and poke the stick through it.)
The recipe that I tried is from SenseAndEdibility.com. The flavor was spot on, including the random phantom dill pickle. But never let it be said that there was ever a recipe I didn't bastardize.
First I don't like recipes that give a number of fruits/veggies and not an actual measurement, that had to change.
And I got rid of the phantom pickle flavor by steeping the mint, this also reduced the mint odor left in the molds. Most of the pictures are from the first batch and show green flecks of mint. Most of the zombies using my version were eaten before I could get pictures. The Chrysalis Pop popsicle I bought had the most perfect balance of sweetness I have ever had in a popsicle. The Sense and Edibility recipe was way too sweet for my taste. Rather than figuring out the proper amount to decrease the sugar, I decided it was more fun to add additional ingredients. So I consider my modified recipe to be a base mix.
Cucumber Mint & Lime Base Mix
Makes 18oz of mix (Total of 24oz when combined with additional flavors)
2 cups peeled, diced and seeded cucumber (see Note:1)
1/2 cup lime juice with zest (see Note: 2)
1/2 cup mint infused simple syrup
Mint Infused Simple Syrup
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup packed mint leaves (see Note: 3)
To make the simple syrup gently manhandle the mint leaves to release the oil. I like to press them firmly between my finger tips as I pluck off the leaves or you can spank them if that's what you're into. After measuring, I transfer them to a small glass dish and again apply a little more pressure, but not enough to crush or tear the leaves. In a small pan bring the sugar and water to a boil. Simmer for one minute, remove from heat and pour over the mint leaves. Let stand for an hour. Strain before using. Refrigerate or freeze any leftovers. It's great to have on hand for a mojito or glass of limeade.
Puree the cucumber, lime juice and half a cup of the mint syrup.
To use: I find a 3 to 1 ratio of cucumber mix to whatever non-alcoholic flavor your heart desires results in the perfect amount of sweetness. I would keep to mild flavors so you don't overpower anything. Some suggestions: avocado, coconut milk, more cucumber puree or plain yogurt. It takes about 3 tablespoons of diced cucumber to equal one ounce of puree. You don't have to make the whole batch one flavor, try a few different combinations. You could just dilute with water, but where's the fun in that? Unless it's frozen water. Blending it with ice cubes to make a slushie instead of popsicles would probably be amazing.
One set of zombie molds will hold 8 oz, so 6 oz cucumber mix plus 2 oz of whatever. Once your mix is complete, fill the molds and for a special touch add a frozen raspberry. Even if you have fresh raspberries, freeze them first. Freezing breaks down the cell structure so when you insert them into the molds they start to thaw in the mixture and diffuse their lovely color before they freeze again. The raspberry adds a nice flavor boost. I like to break it into halves or thirds and then poke it down into the mold with a chopstick. It's always a delight to see how it turned out after the unmolding. Does the back of this guy look like an exit wound or what?
Obviously this all makes way more than you need for one set of zombies. So plan accordingly. I didn't just make zombies, I used my other silicone molds to make skulls & maggots and even utilized an ice cube tray.
I specified non-alcoholic because alcohol requires a different ratio if you want it to freeze and even then it doesn't freeze solid enough to properly unmold zombies. Which is why shortly I will introduce you to Boozie Maggots and also my favorite flavor combination for frozen zombies.
Note 1: The original recipe calls for those long skinny cucumbers in the shrink wrap called English cucumbers. They are shrink wrapped because their skin is so delicate. They have smaller seeds and are supposedly sweeter. But I think a fresh cuke from the garden or farmer's market could give them a run for their money. I think either type makes a tasty pop. Apparently the trick to further reducing bitterness of any cuke is to cut off both ends prior to peeling.
Note 2: I always zest limes, even when the recipe doesn't call for it. Why just toss that extra flavor? The original recipe calls for 6 limes, I get more juice than I need with 4 average sized limes. First start with room temperature limes. Zest them and then firmly roll them a few times on a clean hard surface until they feel soft and squishy. After all that man handling they should be practically bursting with juice. In fact slice them in half over a bowl because they will ooze out juice when you cut into them. I use a simple hand squeezer. If you follow this tip and slice off the end before juicing, you'll get a lot of juice. After you've squeezed two halves, if you put them both back into the squeezer and give them another squeeze you should get just about every last drop of juice. Toss the zest into the juice and any leftovers can be frozen in an ice tray.
Note 3: Whenever I use the word mint I am referring to spearmint. The easiest way to tell what kind of mint you have is to taste it. As far as my dill pickle experience, I think part of it stems from my lack of exposure to fresh mint. I'm used to mint that has been refined to an extract or oil or is just plain fake. Because what I was tasting wasn't anything like dill. A comparison of real dill made me realize that's not it at all, but I think that's the closest thing my brain had on file to relate to. (Kind of like in my mind Corey Hart looks just like James Hurley, but side by side they are obviously two different people. But thank you random internet person for unknowingly validating my feelings.) For the record my daughter had the same experience, with the dill/mint that is. She's never seen Twin Peaks and doesn't understand why I wear my sunglasses at night.
But over-muddling, does release bitter chlorophyll which is often described as a grassy taste. Which is why I chose to steep the leaves in the syrup rather them blend them in the cucumber mix. The downside is losing the visual appeal of all those little flecks of green. Below you can see the difference. Don't think that because the leaves have been steeping in sugar water that they are no longer bitter and can now be chopped up and added back in for curb appeal. Bite into one if you don't believe me. That might be a good experiment, chlorophyll might not taste as strong to you and if the flavor doesn't bother you, who doesn't like a little extra green in their zombies?
Not that I was trying to make good on my threat to do Easter in July, but my little buddy here didn't get finished until after Easter and then summer showed up and if I don't post about him now, I'll forget by next Easter.
Since we're talking about Easter, I finally got around to watching the second season of Happy! and it is to Easter what season one was to Christmas. It is so wrong, and bound to become a Creepster holiday classic. It's Rated TV WTF: Weird Situations, Tasteful Nudity, F***ed Up Bunnies, Viewer Discretion Is Advised. And the trailer below, it's a bit graphic, so you know, probably don't watch it if you have kiddies or co-workers around.
I know that no amount of palm weaving tutorials are going to keep me from going to hell and I'm ok with that. I grew up in a very Catholic family, which as you can probably tell, has had some influence on my art. As a kid I accepted all that was Easter, from the resurrection of Christ to the magical rabbit that hid eggs and put treats in baskets. As an adult, I'm just in awe that we celebrated all that crazy wrapped up in one holiday without anyone batting an eye.
As tribute to the holiday mash up of my childhood,
I offer Zombie Jesus Eating Bunny Brains.
I don't really do tutorials on felting, once the stabbing starts it's hard to stop and take pictures. But I'll run through the basics on the off chance it gives someone ideas of their own. For reference Zombie Jesus is about 8cm tall. He started out as a white oblong sphere. I added a layer of zombie green over the top for his head.
Zombie green is a mix of olive, sage, green, evergreen, or whatever else I feel like throwing in. Except for black and white, I rarely ever use just one color of wool. The red robe, brown hair, pink brain are all a mix of at least three different shades. Even the bunny is a mix of yellow and white.
Because A) I like to think it looks more interesting, B) I like buying multi color sample packs from local vendors, so I have small amounts of lots of colors C) It takes a lot longer to run out of specific colors and D) When I do run out of a color, I never worry about having to buy an exact match.
The robe I added in sections. This would be easier to explain in pictures, but I'll give it a shot. When I want a thick straight edge, such as the bottom and sides of his robe, I lay down some wool flat and give it a few shallow pokes to set the fibers. Then I fold over an edge and give it some more shallow pokes. Shallow pokes because you are trying not to poke the fibers all the way through. It can't be helped completely and that's why it'll need to be flipped, given a few more pokes and then flipped back again, more pokes. At this point you can set it on your object and poke with abandon to attach it. I just did this for the sides of the robe and filled in the rest by laying wool directly on his little body.
The white washed Christ of my youth always had burgundy robes and long brown hair. A friend let me raid her stash of Merino wool for his luxurious locks. Merino has a smoother shaft, and I like it for fur or hair.
This video shows how to layer wool for long fur. It's pretty close to what I did except I did way too many rows, too close together. I wish I had taken a picture so you could see what Zombie Jesus looked like when he had big beauty pageant hair.
It was pretty easy to fix, I ran an eyebrow comb repeatedly through his hair to thin it out. The tines on the eyebrow comb are fine enough to grab the wool, I just had to be careful to thin it out evenly and not pull out any big sections. Then I gave him a haircut with cuticle scissors, which have never even seen a cuticle, but I love them for needle felting.
The following is a quick and dirty brain felting technique that I came up with on the fly. Sometimes I get a little too caught up in the details and I did not want to stress over proper placement of brain ridges on this teeny tiny brain. This method enabled me to avoid the part of my brain that makes me mental.
I imagine the first part of this process is similar to spinning wool into yarn. That is if you were to ignore all the time tested techniques that result in a strong uniform yarn. Like I said, quick and dirty.
Step 1: Lay wool fibers out in a line and roll back and forth until you have some that resembles a loose string. Add more fibers to the ends to make it longer, add more fibers to the entire length to make it thicker. I use some pretty hi-tech equipment for this, namely my hand and my thigh. Also wearing pants helps the process. That's right, in a seated position I roll the wool up and down the top of my thigh. Pants provide a grippy surface to work the wool against.
Step 2: Once the fibers are matted enough that the string isn't going to fall apart, start twisting it one direction. Twist tightly enough that it twists up on itself. To tame all the loose fuzzies you will have to do this a few times, stretching out the string and twisting it tighter. If you want it really smooth you can dip it in soapy water and then twist, essentially wet felting it. If you decide to get it wet, make sure it's completely dry before moving to the next step.
Step 3: Spread out the brain matter and lay a bit of darker wool over it. Poke it a couple of times to tack it to the brain.
Step 4: Roll the brain matter into a little brain ball around the darker wool. Poke it a few more times so the brain ball stays together. Then poke it a couple more times, just for the shear joy of stabbing a brain ball.
This bunny was kind of a pain. I feel it's a bit too large in proportion to Zombie Jesus, but still small enough to give me a headache. His dastardly tiny limbs and ear were difficult to needle felt without stabbing through the other side or my fingers. After I needle felted them into the general size and shape, I dipped them in soapy water and rolled (limbs) and pressed (ear) to wet felt them. This gave them structural strength without drawing too much blood.
[Note: All crafts require a blood sacrifice, as demanded by the gods. Some, such as needle felting, just require more than others.]
After the bunny was assembled I used my trusty cuticle scissors to cut open his little head, partly insert the brain and then stab it into place. A fine needle was used to poke in any stray dark red fibers and then some bunny flesh was built up around the brain. After all my careful work my brain still wasn't perfect, there was a low spot. That was easily filled with a little tiny ball of pink and no one is the wiser, except for us of course.
Is it just me or from this angle does it look like Zombie Jesus is breastfeeding a dead bunny? Maybe he just likes to slow dance with his food. Anyway, the final touches were to add a face to the bunny and arms so Zombie Jesus could hold his feast.
Of course none of this helps me understand why a rabbit would decorate eggs. But I think I figured out how the Easter Bunny manages to fill all those baskets in one night. I mean Santa gets magical flying reindeer and a sleigh to carry everything while the Easter Bunny has to hop the whole way and doesn't even have opposable thumbs. But Jesus is just a baby on Christmas Eve, he doesn't even have his super powers to turn water into wine yet, so Santa needs all that extra gear. On the other hand by Easter, Jesus is an able bodied zombie and he can totally give the Easter Bunny a hand. Not only that, but by then he has his super powers, and they probably only have to carry one basket of goodies and just duplicate it fish and bread style.
Now that I understand it all, I feel a little bad about having Zombie Jesus eat a bunny brain. But he looks so cute eating his little bunny brain.
I know yesterday was supposed to be the last day of Creepmas, but I'm not ready for that. I still have creepy stuff to get done and life has been getting in the way. So I'll be here, all month, being creepy. Ok fine all year and it has nothing to do with Creepmas, I'm just weird.
But I do have one more recipe after this that you aren't going to want to miss. I finally figured out what flavor Krampus is, so be sure to check back in a few days.
If you want to make fingers that look like these you only need to know two things:
1) I used Wilton pretzel molds, the zombie, the witch and the skeleton.
2) To get the coloring you see, I used a ratio of one blue candy melt to 1/4oz white chocolate for the darker details and one blue candy melt to 1.5oz white chocolate for the lighter color.
You can use any truffle or cake pop recipe to fill them. You could even use a pretzel rod, you know what the molds were actually made for. But I figured I'd used Creepmas as an excuse to try another cranberry truffle recipe. Everyone loved the zombie bites, a few years back, but I wanted to try something new.
The following is my slightly modified version. I only made half the recipe. I microwave my chocolate. And I don't like the way the ingredients are listed in the original recipe. You only use part of the white chocolate and dried cranberries in the truffle mixture and the rest is to coat and garnish. I like it when recipes make it obvious in the ingredients list that they will be used in separate quantities. Otherwise if you're like me, even if you've read through the darn thing twice, you just dump it all in and then are like, "What? I was supposed to safe some of that for later? Oops."
They do link to some pretty sound advice on tempering chocolate if you'd like to learn about that. Because I'm adding candy melts to the white chocolate and candy melts are infused with voodoo magic, tempering isn't all that important here.
The amount of chocolate & melts listed to coat the molds is approximate. I coated four molds and ended up only filling three and they were all different sizes so I'm giving you my best educated guess.
3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
5 oz white chocolate, chopped*
4 teaspoons canned whole-berry cranberry sauce**
1 tablespoon finely chopped sweetened dried cranberries (each piece should be approximately 1/8 to 1/4 inch)
5 blue candy melts
5oz white chocolate***
*Bakers makes a nice white chocolate with real cocoa butter. It comes in 4oz boxes scored into 1/4oz blocks. I'm lazy. I don't bother chopping it I just break it along the score lines and then break each 1/4oz in half.
**I make my own sauce and mince any large berry chunks, recipe below. I think you could also substitute just about any fruit preserves.
*** White chocolate and even white candy melts have a slight yellow hue, if you don't want the blue melts to take on a greenish tone use a bright white candy melt.
Pour cream over 5oz of white chocolate in microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 1 minute at 50% power. Let stand 1 minute and then stir very gently until smooth. Stir in the cranberry sauce and dried cranberries. Cool to room temperature, cover with plastic wrap, then refrigerate until firm enough to roll, preferably overnight.
First make fingernail/accent color. Place 2 blue candy melts with a half ounce of white chocolate in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 30-40 seconds at 50% power, stir until melted. If it's still not melted add another 20 seconds at 50%. I use a small silicone spoonula, because not only does it stir but it can also scrape the sides of the bowl.
Coat fingernail areas, for the bone fingers smear some along the sides/ridges. You can use your finger to paint the molds, don't worry about perfection, nobody cares. Pop molds in the refrigerator.
Add 1 candy melt and 1.5oz of white chocolate to your bowl. It doesn't matter if there is still a little finger nail color left, just scrape the sides so it's mostly sitting at the bottom. Microwave for 1 minute at 50%. Stir until smooth and melted. Check to make sure it's not too hot by dripping a bit on your inside wrist. If you can feel the heat it's still too warm, if not it's just right. (Yep, just like a baby bottle.) Now spoon a little into your mold and gently push it around until the whole surface is coated. You only need a thin coat.
If you run out add another candy melt and 1.5oz of chocolate and repeat the process. I had enough truffle mixture to fill three molds, but they varied a great deal in size. After all the molds are coated put them in fridge to chill.
Gently press tiny spoonfuls of the truffle mixture along the cavities of the molds. Since these are meant to be used with pretzels you have to leave a little gap so when you top it off you get a nice seal. If it gets sticky to work with you can put a little confectioner's sugar on your hands or re-chill the mixture. I like to place plastic wrap over the top and gently press the mixture into the mold. Chill again after filling. My filling was pretty sticky so I waited until it was cold enough to peel back the plastic wrap.
Let them set at room temperature while you mix up some more chocolate. Again you can keep adding to the same bowl. As long as you don't overheat it, the old should easily incorporate with the new. Make sure you always use 50% power.
Once your chocolate is done, it's time to top off your fingers. The important part is getting coverage all the way to the edges, you want chocolate touching chocolate all the way around to create a seal. Don't worry if it's not perfectly smooth, seriously nobody cares. If you have to be all Martha Stewart, after it sets you can run a hot knife over it. Some thing goes for if you have any rough edges after you pop them out. Put a butter knife in a hot cup of water, dry it off, gently press it along the edge and it will melt any rough edges. Don't over do it, you don't want to melt all the way through to the filling. Reheat your knife as needed, don't forget to wipe it dry before pressing it against the chocolate.
To pop them out easily stick them in the freezer for a few minutes. If they don't pop right out, they aren't cold enough.
1 cup frozen cranberry juice cocktail (I prefer just cranberries juice, no apple juice or other juices added)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 12oz package fresh or frozen cranberries, rinsed, drained
1/2 cup dried cherries, chopped
3 tablespoons orange marmalade
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
2 teaspoons grated orange peel
1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
Combine cranberry juice concentrate, cinnamon stick and sugar in medium saucepan. Bring to boil over high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Add fresh cranberries and dried cherries and cook until fresh berries begin to pop, stirring often, about 7 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in orange marmalade, orange juice and orange peel. Cool completely, remove cinnamon stick pieces. Cover and chill. Can be made 3 days ahead, keep refrigerated or freeze. Makes about 2.5 cups.
I got this coloring book in my stocking for St. Nick. It's smaller (~7x7) than I'm used to for a coloring book, but it's a good size to stick in a stocking, if you angle it a bit and don't mind it sticking out the top.
It has metallic shiny red and gold on the front and back cover.
There's a poem in the beginning, another at the end and hidden items to find throughout. But of course the best part is the coloring pages. Even the copyright page has creepy colorable artwork, but there are 27 straight up coloring pages. Here are a few of my favorites:
I have this Creepy Creepmas coloring book by Rick St. Dennis on my wishlist.
And also this one by Scotty Richard. From what I can tell from the examples, it has a nice Dr. Seuss style story. The artwork looks great and it's more like the coloring books I had as a kid, just with lots of cool zombies.
[This is a bit of a teaser, but these awesome elves were available from OneailFXStudios. Currently they are not taking orders, but they are estimating they will be caught up with current demand by the 12th and resume taking new orders at that time.]
I would be remiss if I didn't have at least one post about that awful creepy elf who should remain nameless. Really he should have remained nameless. It wasn't until some mother/daughter team of sadistic brainiacs created this book, like the Christmas version of the Necronomicon, telling everyone to name the stupid thing that it really grew into existence.
If you name a thing, you give it power. Isn't that like occult 101? Leave it to the Santa worshipers to open the gates of hell with this one.
There is an awesome story on boredpanda about one Brittany Mease,
Mother of the Year and how her elf came to this unfortunate circumstance.
Kevin Thompson has written 14 ways the elf on the shelf might die. What makes it even funnier is this guy is a pastor and some of these are pretty twisted. I would almost considering joining a religion if I had a pastor who wrote stuff like this.
This a great review of He Who Must Not Be Named and some other disturbing Xmas toys. The elf doesn't show up until the very end of the video. For personal reasons I found it humorous that the reviewer noticed the similarities between the elf and slender man.
I've been a fan of RevenantFX since the early years of Creepmas
and they don't disappoint with their zombie elves.
Is this an elf? He has proper elf attire. Elf Mouse in the house, maybe? Anyway this adorable bugger is from RatBerryToys and wouldn't freak me out at all if I saw him hanging out on shelf or anywhere else in my house.
