Chocolate Stuffed Croissants

Easy and to-die-for!!!!  I did these here a while back, but I like this version better....

Get one package of mini-croissants from your local grocery store.

Or get two packs and make enough for folks to have two!!!

We slice them in half the long way and then stuff them with homemade chocolate mousse which is my homemade delicious chocolate pudding and whipped cream (real whipped cream, darlings) folded together in a 1-1 ratio.

So good!  Here's the recipe you want for the pudding:

Elegant doesn't have to mean hard! But you are not, are not, are N-O-T allowed to use instant pudding for this, that is just so highly wrong that I almost couldn't type the words!!!!

First, you're going to make homemade chocolate pudding, it takes about 8 minutes, and most of that is standing and stirring, so the effort is minimal!

And then whipped cream, which almost makes itself, right?

And store-bought, fresh mini croissants. Or you can make the canned ones, but I like the store-bought ones better for this, and this works even if they're a little stale. You'll see what I mean!

Dark Chocolate Pudding

3 Tablespoons butter
1 1/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup cocoa
dash salt
1/3 cup corn starch
3 cups milk
3 egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla

In 3 quart saucepan, melt butter. Remove from heat.

Mix all dry ingredients together. Add to butter. Mix with spoon.

Whisk in milk and eggs.

Return to heat, medium heat, stir or whisk until boiling. Boil and stir about one minute. Remove from heat. Whisk in vanilla. Chill Completely.

If you like the skin on pudding, don't cover it. But if you don't like the skin, take a piece of plastic wrap and place it right on top of the pudding while it's hot. The plastic wrap will keep the "fat" from rising and forming the skin, and you'll have skinless pudding when it's chilled!

Whipped Cream:

2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar.

Whip at high speed until stiff.

Then take 1 cup of whipped cream and 1 cup of pudding and gently fold together. (For 16 croissants you want 2 cups of each) 

Stuff croissants. Put on a pretty plate. Dust with confectioners/powdered sugar.

Refrigerate until serving.

And there's also a great vanilla/strawberry version where you layer vanilla pudding, whipped cream and sliced strawberries for a whole different kind of fancy!

I like to use the big croissants for this one because they allow a better "landscape" for layering.

Both of these ideas are great for a no-bake summer dessert OR a wonderful holiday treat!

And here's a glimpse of our FUN WITH FAIRIES!!! event coming up this Saturday at the farm!  My friend Taylor Tydings did these prototypes of the "Pick Your Own" kit we'll be selling this weekend.... So kids can use common things (coffee cups and flower pots) to make their own fairy houses to invite fairies to live in their own gardens! 

And then here's Pumpkin, the young kitty, doing her best to turn Honey Bunny (hellacious cat) into a nice cat and it seems to be working!!!! She grooms her and plays with her, then goes all subservient so that Honey Bunny THINKS she's the boss... but we're women, and we know how this works! :)

A dragonfly, up close and personal!

Multi-published author Ruth Logan Herne loves writing heart-tugging books filled with unforgettable characters and cute kids who act like normal kids most of the time... which means hang onto your hat! She helps manage a pumpkin farm in Western New York and has a gang of people around most of the time during farm season, so she Did Not Like Shutdown because she's actually a people person.... but that's a topic for another day. :) Friend her on Facebook, stop by her website ruthloganherne.com, or email her directly at loganherne@gmail.com. She loves to hear from people!

A Fairy in the Garden

I have always loved whimsy.

I have always loved fanciful.... not fancy, per se, but fanciful enough to make every chipped-cup tea party seem like Buckingham Palace and every walk in the park to be a tread lightly on another planet.

I love that an overturned flowerpot becomes a fairy haven or a toad's shady home.  And because there isn't a lot of time, I've had to learn to develop gardens that need minimal work.... Using clever spacing, perennials and thick mulch has helped keep me from constant weeding... Oh, and hiring my friend Christina to come and do the spring spruce up because her freshman year at college folded in March.... and she's been home, working remotely with professors ever since. So I did cheat a little! :)

But she is totally worth it.

I love getting dirty. It doesn't bother me a bit. I love gardening, creating water ponds, funny stone sidewalks, cozy corners. And that love transfers itself into a wonderful backdrop for our September and October fall extravaganza or Pumpkinpalooza, whatever you want to call it!

But it all starts now, in the spring (that has finally arrived on 5/20/2020, and I'm not going to say what I thought about that, I'll just "huff" really loud!) :) The front mulch on this side of the sidewalk looks like a simple yard trim but it's really the base beneath one of our Orange Pumpkin displays each September as $3 and $4 pumpkins are stocked on pallets over the mulch. And in the far back left of this picture you can see the monster-sized wood rounds Dave cut.... how pretty will they be in someone's garden? Gorgeous!

And our fair Amanda has created little swinging bridges and staircases to aid and abet the fairies in their quest for cozy living.... With cozy homes provided by the efforts of palliated woodpeckers, who often have been known to give fairies a ride.

And there is always Lampost Lane if you're looking for a quiet well-lit street for a lovers' stroll....


Or stop by the Stars Hollow Hotel for your choice of rooms overlooking the gardens! :)

Now we need a sign: Fairies Welcome Here! :)

There are 255 tomatoes planted.... we'll see how they do... and yesterday a hundred bell peppers and classic eggplant joined that area where I can hand water mums, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and summer squashes..... It feels so good to be out there working, but I won't pretend there isn't some bone-achin' goin' on, LOL!

This is Dan and Zach..... we need some heavy lifters around here, too!

So that's what's going on here.... We're throwing together sandwiches a lot of the time, and the guys installed some new donkey fencing yesterday to give the donkeys more space.... and those donkeys are going to eat themselves silly....

It feels good to be springing ahead... to have something to do and get out of the house.

And to have folks stopping by and coming to work on this, that and the other thing!

That's it from WNY right now!

Ruth Logan Herne is busily writing and working in Western New York and so glad to hear birds singing, frogs croaking and peeping and to have this chance to live this thing called life! Visit her website ruthloganherne.com friend her on facebook, or email Ruthy at loganherne@gmail.com!