spreading some christmas cheer

When Misha was 5 he started bringing home some great drawings, so at Christmas I thought these would make perfect Greeting Cards. The drawings weren't made by me specifically, but I pulled them together into some cute Christmas Postcards.

I scanned in all the images and one of his "signatures" and then on Publisher arranged the different elements so that I could just cut straight through horizontally & vertically to make the cards.

The one tricky bit was the back side. Since I wanted postcards I designed the backside like traditional postcards with a pre-printed greeting (in a couple of languages of course!) and our signature - leaving enough room for a personal handwritten message. I used our address as the middle bar leaving the right hand side free for the address of the recipient.

(I added the green line here to show the cutting lines, but did not keep them on the final print out)

Now all I had to do was print them out back to front before cutting them in 4!

I liked this way of showing off Misha's art and a twist on more traditional cards. Lara is starting to get to the same age Misha was and her art is starting to blossom. Not sure about this year, but next year for sure I'm getting her to draw for me...

So, do you still send out snail mail greeting cards?

pumpkin cheesecake à la mélimélo

Come Thanksgiving I always have a hard time deciding which dessert to make, so I've actually resorted to making all 3 of my choices, but in miniature size so you can have a bit (or a bite) of each...

{2010}

I always get a special request for Pecan Pie and I like making Carrot Cake or Spice Cake, but my favorite is Pumpkin Cheesecake! I made this the first time when I was studying in Hartford, CT and we did a trip to a pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins with my roommate.

In France it's not easy to get canned pumpkin (unless you're willing to pay tons at specialty stores), but I also think it's more fun to use fresh pumpkin. What I do is at Halloween, when we carve out all of the pumpkins to make Jack'O'Lanterns, I puree the pumpkin and then freeze it until Thanksgiving - no waste of good pumpkin!!

I couldn't find the recipe I used back then, so a quick online search lead me to The Joy of Baking where I found a perfect recipe.

Now I was thinking about the crust....

In London there's a chain of restaurants that I love called Wagamama's and they have a White Chocolate Ginger Cheesecake on the menu that I always have to save room for. I love the kick that the ginger spice gives to the cheesecake. So, thinking about what I could use to get something similar I had the idea of making and using Gingersnaps for the crust of my Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes.

I used the following recipe in my Betty Crocker cookbook:

1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup molasses (I used honey as molasses are hard to find here...)
1 egg
2 1/4 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinammon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
Granulated sugar

Mix brown sugar, shortening, molasses and egg. Stir in flour, baking soda and spices.
Cover & refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Heat oven to 375°F/190°C. Shape rounded teaspoonfuls into balls. Dip tops in granulated sugar.
Place balls sugared sides up, about 3 inches apart & bake until set about 10-12 minutes.
Immediately remove from cookie sheet and let cool.

Now, the dishes I use for my mini Cheesecakes are actually IKEA candle holders, but they were the exact size I was looking for to make my dessert - I made my gingersnaps just the right size so they would fit into them perfectly.

The result was pretty perfect!
The gingersnaps could have had a tad more ginger in them, but the texture was just right for the crust and one cookie was great for the thickness of the crust.

{2011}

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving too...

What's your favorite Thanksgiving dessert?

about me...mélimélo!

When I was about 5 years old I came home and asked my mom: "Mommy, where do I come from?" Now my mom new this question would pop up some day, but so soon?? So before jumping to conclusions she asked me back: "What do you mean?" and I said, "Well, so-and-so comes from Ohio, so-and-so comes from Florida....where do I come from?" My mom was quite relieved of course and happy to tell me that I was from 'here', 'here' at the time being Panama.

That same question has followed me through life - ever notice how often we ask that question when we meet someone?? It seems to kind of define who we are.... I have often answered "How much time do you have?"....

So here we go:

I was born and raised in the Canal Zone in Panama of a German mother and an American father, which already gave me an eclectic start in life. At the age of 7, I moved to Germany and a year later when my mother remarried we moved to Hong Kong where my French father was expatriated. I believe Hong Kong to truly be my home at heart - a place where East meets West, where nature mingles with technology and where the old flirts with the new - a mix of many worlds. From there I moved on to Paris for studying, and after spending a year in the States decided to definitely make Paris my new home.

Now you'd think that was already a pretty good mix, right?

Well, here I met my husband of Russian origin, who was born in New York, but raised in France....I guess we are both perfect examples of what they call a melting pot and destined to meet!!

So that totals up to 4 cultures under one roof (American, French, German & Russian) and 6 different languages spoken (I can still manage some Spanish and did I mention my hubby speaks Italian??...) , plus a lot of Asian and South American influence which we try to maintain as much as possible and share with our 3 kids: Misha (11), Lara (4) and Ilya (2)!

What else is there to know about me?

I hate waste - wasting time, wasting energy, wasting money, wasting food.... So I like to make things that can help me save any of the above. And I like these things to be pretty too! I love being creative, but it has to have a purpose too! I have a business degree in Marketing, studied art at Parson's School of Design and 16 years of experience in retail both in-store and behind the scenes in Store Operations for Disney which is a world me & my family love (as you may have gathered from the picture of the kids and the mouse...)!!

Inspired by some of the great blogs I've come to love, I thought there could be room for one more and that it could be fun to share some of my creations and maybe inspire others...

Creations in cooking, sewing, painting, crafting, organizing, theming, entertaining, decorating, etc.

Hope you enjoy what I do and I'd love to hear from you!