posted
Due to a combination of wanting to be a fifties housewife and a need to save money wherever possible I often resort to making presents and cards for people. I'm not sure what I'm going to do for this festive season as yet, but past years have seen me printing tshirts, cross-stitching cards and one year drunkenly making the unforgettable completely inedible brazil nut toffee at 5am on Christmas morning. Luckily that was also the same Christmas that I bought my puppy home with me so the inedible toffee was forgotton.
Having just typed out my fail safe homemade chocolate truffle recipe to send to astromariner I thought I'd extend the invitation to anyone else who might fancy turning their hand to this most delicious of sweets. If you would like the recipe then let me know by posting Yes please Uber, I too would like to roll my hands in your chocolatey delights! below and providing your email address if I do not already have it.
Also, what Crafty Christmas tips would you like to share with your fellow festive forumites?
posted
Also! I wanted to do a thread about the recent embracing by third wave feminists - particularly Yanks - of all things craft-y. Is this a good thing for today's busy woman? Are we honouring our foremothers and perhaps rectifying the historical downgrading of all women's arts as 'crafts'? Or, alternatively, are we embracing a recidivist 50s housewife vibe, making cute li'l aprons and punk rock sock monkeys and knitted iPod dresses rather than turning our hands to more revered, lasting forms of art - novels, songwriting, the usual shit? Links would include www.bust.com,www.getcrafty.com et al, and the reading of the current issue of Bust would be a prerequisite to involvement in the thread. Of course, only about three people - if that - would post on it. But it would be fun!
quote:Originally posted by Uber Trick: If you would like the recipe then let me know by posting Yes please Uber, I too would like to roll my hands in your chocolatey delights! below and providing your email address if I do not already have it.
im all about that! the members of the fambly i dont share a home with are getting biscuits or scarves this year. im on the downlow lizzies-wise. truffles sound like they will kick up a kerfuffle!
posted
and for the rest of the forum who are not getting a picture of a shark with 'natasha bedingfield' scrawled on it, by me, in red felt tip.... i have crafted you.....
A REALLY WIDE THREAD!
see my fifties apron? see my fluffy mules? see my ironed housedress? see my red lipstick? kiss my face!
-------------------- EXETER- movement of Jah people. Posts: 2841
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posted
Please can I get a copy of that recipe mistress Uber, I can always use new and interesting recipes to try, especially ones involving chocolate. Thank you muchly.
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posted
disco, physic, saltrock, to your boxes please! lol my brain has started doing this strange word association thing and everytime I type or read "saltrock" it says "cowlick". Would be loving any sweetie recipes you have love. Ta!
posted
I would like the recipe please Uber Froopy and I are responsible for desserts at the Christmas celebration this year, and, being a proper housewife (and almost mother) now, I must go completely overboard and make at least four elaborate types of yummies.
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posted
There you go rooster, a gift from me to you to help you on your way to perfect housewifeandmotherhood!
Also - saltrock your recipes rock in many ways, not least because they say things like "beat into submission" and other things that make my childish filth mind giggle.
posted
I received a handmade Christmas card this morning and spent several minutes marvelling at the cunning workwomanship that had gone into its creation (hint: cleverly torn tracing paper can be made to look like a frosty piece of glass!).
Similarly a modified card I received from a schoolfriend a few years back is one the thought of which never fails to make mke smile: it was a shop-bought one of a mother and baby deer in a winter forest. My witty pal had added rifle cross-hairs focusing on the mother's head with an injunction to 'Save the Turkey' below.
I don't know whether crafty stuff can really be reclaimed as "feminist" - when it tended to be the sort of thing women were left to do while the menfolk were out doing lawrentian stuff like hewing coal and drinking pints of beer at the tavern - the latter activity gnawing into the 'housekeeping' to the extent that the mind-numbing salvaging and sewing-together of scraps of cloth continued to be a necessity.
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posted
london, there was an article about the crafts renaissance in one of the old bitches im told, its not one of the few ive got. it was quite scathing about the link between crafts and 3rd wave, to the chagrin of some of my crafty 3rd wave friends.
i wouldnt say that my interest in crafting is feminist by any means- i just like making pretty things. except my things arent that pretty because im not crafty and everything gets bodged. i couldnt answer the question about creating sock monkeys instead of more lasting art because i dont do any more knitting than i do writing. the majority of my friends who are into crafting also write or make music or make films or have turned their crafting into profitable business ventures, which is quite feminist i suppose. but i get why you might find it a grode that knitting is reclaimed as directly feminist because i think thats pretty much bullshit. knitting isnt feminist just because a feminist does it, any more than stripping is.
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posted
My horrendous sister-in-law actually phones other family members about two months before Christmas to tell them what her 13-year-old daughter expects to receive as a present. Not only does she fail to take this opportunity to ask if there's anything our boys are particularly in to at the moment, but it would be irrelevant anyway because she makes presents for everyone. Hideous shite, like a cotton wool snowman stuck to a toilet roll tube with a bar of chocolate sellotaped inside. We all have to go, "Oh, how clever! That's really quite stunning!" whilst sniggering at each other behind her back. I think she's some sort of moron actually. Either that or she's found a bloody clever way to save a fortune and stitch everyone up at the same time.
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Astromariner
Going the right way for a smacked bottom
posted
quote:Originally posted by dang65: a cotton wool snowman stuck to a toilet roll tube with a bar of chocolate sellotaped inside.
lol. That's an excellent present! I want one.
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quote:Originally posted by dang65: My horrendous sister-in-law actually phones other family members about two months before Christmas to tell them what her 13-year-old daughter expects to receive as a present.
You should have told sis'n'lore that you'd already made arrangements for her daughter's present. Then give your kids some tartrazine, sticky-backed plastic, candles, festive glitter, a packet of m&ms and an orange and tell them to "go crazy".
Keep in mind:There's nothing better than a present that comes wrapped in porn.
posted
I make absolutely no apologies whatsoever for the banality of my contribution to this thread.
Truffle Torte:
Ingredients:
5 tablespoons liquid glucose (you'll get this at a chemists) 5 tablespoons rum 1lb (450g) luxury dark chocolate (best quality possible) 1 pint (570ml) double cream at room temperature. 4oz (100g) Amaretti biscuits, crushed finely.
To serve - cocoa powder for dusting, chilled single pouring cream.
Grease (with groundnut oil) and line a 9" 23cm cake tin. Springform is best.
Sprinkle crushed biscuits over base of tin.
Put chocolate, glucose and rum in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Leave it until the chocolate has melted, then stir and remove from heat. Leave it to cool just a bit.
In another bowl, beat the double cream until it has only slightly thickened. Fold half of the cream into the chocolate mixture, then fold the lot back into the remaining cream. When it is blended, spoon it into the tin, smooth the surface gently with the back of a spoon, cover with clingfilm and chill overnight.
Next day, you can freeze it, although I've never known it last that long. It is incredibly rich - I've served 10-12 people with this recipe. Dust it with cocoa powder before serving and if you have any Amaretto, a spoonful or two in the chilled pouring cream is the last word in decadence.
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