Other Foods | Chocolate Apprentice

Tea and Chocolate Tasting

Tea and Chocolate: These are a pair of my favorite things.

There is nothing like a vibrant cup of well brewed tea in my favorite translucent-but-strong mug, my fingers laced around its warmth, feet slung over the arm of a chair, nose in a book, to calm me down and make me feel everything is going to be okay.

I feel the same way about a square of really good chocolate. Holding a piece strategically, between tongue and hard palate, just sorta letting it melt inconspicuously, no one ever need know I am not paying attention to what they are saying. [Read more…]

Theo

I love Seattle. Two hours away from my lovely Vancouver, crossing that border into the United States accentuates the “we’re on a holiday” feeling, as I nudge my little red car onto the I-5, and carefully check the smaller inside dial on my accelerator. We are now travelling in miles per hour and I don’t want to get this mini break off on the wrong foot with a speeding ticket.

Younger Son, my intrepid companion on this trip, laughs aloud when I express my concern over this. [Read more…]

Pâte for Pride

I am making a rainbow flag – in jelly.

It’s Pride Week in Vancouver, culminating in the huge, colourful, float and fun filled Pride Parade on August 4^th, through Vancouver’s West End, which is now sporting the world’s first permanent Rainbow Crosswalk, at Davie and Bute Street.

There are rainbows everywhere, including the one I saw this morning – after our first day of rain in over 31 days (nearly a record for Vancouver).

And because it’s fun, colourful and relatively easy to do in this hot weather, I am going to make six different flavours and colours of pâte de fruits, using the bounty of fresh fruit now in season. [Read more…]

That Fruity-Biscuity-Chocolate Thing

I gave a tiny Mason jar of caramelized white chocolate to my dear friend, Steph. She looked intrigued, but was a bit mystified.

“Umm, this looks fantastic,” she said, appreciatively regarding its golden depths and even the white marbling on top. “How do I eat it?”

A very good question. Being chocolate, it had of course, solidified at room temperature, and needed to be melted gently, over a bain marie or in the microwave, to get it out of the jar. [Read more…]

Trendy Chocolate Nostalgia

Maybe it’s because a friend of mine posted a clip on Facebook of the 1987 Crystal Light aerobics championships and I thought, “Oh yeah, I wore that spandex and those Reeboks” or because a few days ago my son and I made a recipe from a magazine clipping I have kept pasted in a book and I realized it is from Spring 1984, or because I’ve just had a birthday and feel really old, but I have been revelling in nostalgia this past week. [Read more…]