Imbuljuta and an Imbuljuta-inspired brownie

Imbuljuta tal- Qastan

The Maltese culture presentation is tomorrow, and today (yes! the night before :p) I made the last recipe to finish it off - a brownie, inspired by a Maltese traditional chocolate-chestnut soup - the imbuljuta.

This soup, which is traditionally eaten at christmas time, right after mid-night mass, is a thick & hearthy drink,  flavoured with tangerine & orange peel, cinnamon & crushed cloves. I also like to add dark chocolate to the mix for an even more decadent drink.

The last time I drank the imbuljuta, the chocolate-ness of it reminded me of my favourite brownies... and when doing the above mentioned project, I thought of incorporating these two, excellent recipes to produce a brownie using chestnuts, orange zest & spices.

Imbujluta Brownie

I am happy to say that the result is a brownie, as fudgy and as soft as the nut brownies I usually make with an awesome citrusy, cinnamony flavour. OH YUM!!

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Playing around

It's Tuesday! I have 2 days left before I leave for a long weekend in London to meet my friends, and before doing that, I have to finish all my pending projects! Orders to fullfil and dispatch, new cards to design and 2 special cards for the friends I'm meeting, both of whom have their birthday at this time of the year.

Apart from throwing away my husband's best (and new) jeans, by mistake (he didn't kill me yet, but he might be planning something cruel...) this week has been going very well. I sold a few Christmas cards and I've been crochetting some snowflakes to put on some of the cards. They look lovely on the card and can also be hung up as an ornament. And what's more...I enjoy making them soo much!

Patterns for these are on Crochet Pattern Central.

I've also been playing around with wire... and came up with this sort of Christmas tree like thing, but unfortunately I did not like it enough for it to make it into any of my cards, for now...

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Off we go!

Good morning all!

It's Saturday and I woke up nice and early, with a spring in my step. And it's not just because it's the weekend. Oh no! Surprisingly it's been like that every day for the last 2 weeks... ever since I decided my job is to create and sell cards!

It all started when, after working for more than 10 years in IT, I decided it was enough for now. I needed something different. So I quit my job, but then what?

For around a month I had been working on the handmade Christmas cards I'd be sending to my family and friends... being really happy with my handiwork, I put some images online and started to get enquiries from friends. Can I order some? How much do they cost? So I setup my shop on Etsy to get me started.

And the last 2 weeks have been a flurry of finishing off some cards, creating custom orders or catering to requested changes, putting up items for sale on Etsy and setting up and updating my facebook fan page. So exciting!

Now, I don't know what will happen. I seriously doubt that I'll manage to make enough money to live by with this new "job"... but I'm taking it one stamp at a time, one card at a time, and oh boy, am I enjoying it!!

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