Oil Painting 2013

My second oil painting is finally done. I always think that once you start a painting, it is very hard to finish it. If I want, I can keep on painting and adding fine details. This is maybe the reason why painting would always take long to finish. It is not a like doing a math question, once you get the answer, it is done. To me, painting  does not have an ending, you can keep on adding, and painting, and it will just keep on changing, changing the theme of your art work, the look of you art work. Painting rather is a process to me.  It is up to the painter whether he wanted to stop or continue.

 I have never taken any advanced art course, I somehow picked up a pencil, a brush and looked at an object, then I started to draw.   I love admiring art works, it gives me peace and smoothen my temper.

I am hoping to paint once a year, it will be interesting to look back in the future at  all the paintings I did over the years.

Vanilla butter cream icing

   

Make approx 1 cup icing

Ingredients:

Butter       3 Tbsp / 45mL

Icing sugar    ¾ C  or white  sugar    1 C

Vanilla extract      1 tsp

Milk           1tsp  / 5mL

  

Directions:

1.       Soften butter by placing butter in room temperature for at least 15 mins or till it reaches room temperature

2.       In a big bowl, use a spatula/ electrical mixer to cream butter until fluffy and smooth.

3.       Add in vanilla extract, milk and icing sugar, cream mixture until well mixed.

4.       Chill in refrigerator for 10 mins to thicken mixture.

     5. Store remaining icing in refrigerator for later use, soften icing for 5 mins in room temp. before use. 

Valentine Selection: Creamy Cookie Cranberry Chocolate Bar

Make 2 chocolate bars

 Ingredients:

White melting chocolate/ white chocolate wafer                       2 Cup

Milk/ Dark chocolate wafer ( for drizzles/ garnish on top)      1 Tbsp

Oreo cookies                                                                                             2 cookies

Rice Krispy                                                                                                 ¼ Cup / 4 Tbsp

Dried Cranberry                                                                                       2 Tbsp

Mini Marshmallow                                                                                  20 -25

Directions:

1.       Decide on the shape / size of the chocolate you  want to have. If  you do not have a chocolate mold, simple use any baking pan.

Pick a pan that  can  hold the amount of your recipes you are going to made. If you are making  only 1 chocolate bar, use a small baking pan approx. 4” x 10”.

2.       Spray chocolate mold with a very thin layer of oil or butter. If using baking pan, trace a pan on top of a parchment sheet (baking paper) or wax paper, and place it in the bottom of pan.

3.       Using a knife to scrape off cream in oreo cookies. Put oreo cookies in a food plastic bag ( Ziploc bag).  Use rolling pin to break cookies to crumbles. Set aside.

4.       Using double boiler methods to melt white chocolate wafer. If you do not have a double boiler like me, please follow the next step.

5.        Boil 2 cups of water, pour in the a shallow container or bowl or a pan. Place a tall bowl or plate ( preferably a metal/ steel ware – help in heat transfer from hot water to melt chocolate.)  it is important to have a bowl that are taller than the bowl containing the hot water, preventing water mixing in with the chocolate.

6.       Stir chocolate till melted.  Add it cookie crumbles. Mix well.

7.       Pour half chocolate mixture into prepared pan. Spread evenly making a thinly layer of chocolate base.

8.       Add in rice Krispy, use spoon to press rice Krispy in the chocolate mixture.

9.       Pour in rest of the chocolate mixture on top. Spread well.

10.   Drop in dried cranberries and marshmallow.

11.   Use same method in step 1 and 2 to melt milk chocolate.  ( In this case, since it is only a small amount of chocolate, it would be safe to use microwave to melt chocolate wafer. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir every 15 seconds, re heat for 15 sec if mixture is not smooth/ not melted well enough.

12.   Put melted chocolate in another food plastic bag ( right in a bottom corner). Cut a tiny hole at corner, squeeze and decorate chocolate on surface with drizzle.

13.   Sit in room temperature until set or put in freezer for 10 minutes. ( Do not over freeze)

14.   Turn over pan to take out chocolate bars.

15.   Run a big knife under hot water for 10  seconds, dried. Cut chocolate into desired size. Repeat this step if needed. The heat  helps cutting chocolate easily.