Christmas Baking, Anyone?



Christmas Treat

These look good enough to eat, don't they!

 

 

They're hand-made marzipan candies from Sicily. Yummmm!

The Cup Song

In Gaelic, courtesy of my friend Linda. I love this, especially the discipline and the concentration of the kids. Enjoy!



I Wish.....

....that I could be present at one of these awesome events.....



Flying High

 

 

Daredevil Yves Rossy (aka Jetman) is a Swiss aeronaut. Using a high-powered 60-lb. jet pack that he engineered himself with special "wings" he soars in amazing places - the Grand Canyon, Gibraltar, Rio de Janeiro, across the English Channel, and last week near Mt. Fuji in Japan.

 

After jumping from a helicopter, Rossy uses gravity without the jets to attain a high velocity, up to 300 km/hr. and then uses the jets to cruise back and forth. Landings are by parachute, with the jets deployed near earth for a very controlled final descent.  

 

Each flight lasts about 10 minutes. Rossy is able to reach altitudes of 3650 meters (12,000 ft.) and deploys the parachute at about 800 meters.

Indian Wisdom 2

More from Gavin and Zen Pencils. Also, check out his Declaration of Human Rights .

 

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was a Bengali poet, writer, playwright, musician and painter who helped modernise Indian culture and was the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Tagore was a Renaissance man and artistic giant, writing hundred of poems, eight novels, countless short stories, plays and was an accomplished painter and musician (he composed over 2000 songs, including the Indian and Bangladesh national anthems). Tagore was also a man of the world and travelled to many countries during his life. During these travels he met with other cultural heavyweights including Mohandas Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Robert Frost, George Bernard Shaw and H.G. Wells.

Indian Wisdom 1

Gavin Aung Than is an Aussie freelance cartoonist who has the web site Zen Pencils where he takes inspirational quotes (if you have a favourite, you may submit it to him) and transforms them into cartoons. Prints of his creations are available through my Society6 store. He even has free posters available. The one below is not one of them and I have used it without permission, but I think more people should know about his work. Tomorrow I'll post another one. After that you'll have to subscribe to his site or otherwise check him out. Gavin's inspirational cartoons have the power to change lives.



 

Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986) was a philosopher, writer and lecturer. As a young boy in India, Krishnamurti was groomed by the Theosophical Society for 20 years to be the ‘World Teacher’, a spiritual saviour they believed appeared on Earth periodically to propel humankind to a higher evolutionary stage. A special organisation, the Order of the Star, was formed to herald the ‘arrival’ of Krishnamurti as World Teacher. Little did they know that Krishnamurti had no intentions of being a messiah, and in a famous speech in 1929, Krishnamurti told everyone ‘thanks, but no thanks’ and disbanded the Order of the Star, cut all allegiances with the Theosophical society and spent the next 50-plus years travelling the world, writing and lecturing.

Not Your Dolls' Paper Dresses

What's so special about toilet paper? It can be used to create amazing dresses. Here are some that were in the recent 10th Anniversary Cashmere Collection, a fund-raiser for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. Some of these dresses took weeks and months to put together, all for fun and a good cause. More here .

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 



Mast Brothers Chocolate Cookbook Trailer

 

I've never tasted or even heard of  Mast Brothers Chocolate, but I'll be on the lookout for it from now on! Here's the blurb from Amazon. FYI, the book will retail for US$24.96.

 

Stories and recipes from the Mast Brothers, makers and purveyors of America's finest craft chocolate.

The Mast Brothers are pioneers of the bean-to-bar craft chocolate movement. Sourcing cocoa with unique flavor profiles from around the equator, they roast the beans in small batches to create truly handmade chocolate, one of the very few chocolate makers to do so. At their flagship factory and retail shop in Brooklyn, their distinctive bars are wrapped in exquisite custom papers that they have designed and are sold at specialty food shops around the country and around the world.

Many of the world's pre-eminent chefs, including Thomas Keller, Dan Barber, Daniel Humm, Alice Waters, and Alain Ducasse choose Mast Brothers Chocolate for cooking for its purity and distinctive tasting notes.

In MAST BROTHERS CHOCOLATE: A FAMILY COOKBOOK they share their unique story and recipes for classic American desserts like chocolate cookies and cakes, brownies, bars, milkshakes, and even home-made whoopie pie. There are mouthwatering savory dishes as well, like Pan-seared Scallops with Cocoa Nibs and Cocoa Coq au Vin. With striking color photographs throughout, this cookbook celebrates the vision and allure of Mast Brothers Chocolate, the leaders of the American craft chocolate movement and the choice of the world's great chefs.