Other Foods | Chocolate Apprentice

Clotted Cream and Caramelized White Chocolates

“Uh, dearest?”

“Yes?”

“Do you see this?”

(Showing him a clear plastic bag with a small handful of blonde chocolate fèves in the bottom)

“Oh yes, they are really good.”

“Uh …”

“I ate them.”

“Yes ….”

“Were you saving them for something?”

“The blog. I was going to make something with them.”

“Ohhh … They were really good – especially at night, when you wake up and you just want a little something tasty …

(sees me shaking the sparse contents of the bag)

“Can you do anything with that many?”

“I guess I’ll find out.”

“Well, at least there are enough to photograph.” [Read more…]

Haggis Truffles

Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
Sae let the Lord be thankit.

The Selkirk Grace
attributed to Robert Burns

It was Robert Burn’s Day, a couple of weeks ago.

From Wikipedia:

Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796) (also known as Robbie Burns, Rabbie Burns, Scotland’s favourite son, the Ploughman Poet, Robden of Solway Firth, the Bard of Ayrshire and in Scotland as The Bard) was a Scottish poet and lyricist. [Read more…]

The Big Apple – Theatre, Chocolate and a Good Friend

I have just returned from an all too short but wonderful trip to New York City.

A few months ago, I was whining to my oldest, dearest friend from childhood – we have known each other since Grade One – that I would “give my back teeth to see Cherry Jones in the Glass Menagerie”.

While my back teeth are not very impressive, and would not actually be of value to anyone outside of my head, I did feel it was a grand thing to say, as it would involve a painful extraction on my part. [Read more…]

Good For What Ales You, Scotland

I have the most lovely friends.

After hosting a couple of them to afternoon tea last week, my friend and colleague, Amanda surprised me with a wee giftie as we were driving in to teach Musical Theatre to 6 year olds, VERY early last Saturday morning.

As the gift was a beautiful box of four Historic Ales From Scotland, we both deemed it best to save them for later.

And I immediately decided that at least one of them had to be made into chocolates (not to be confused with my exploration two years ago of chocolate beer). [Read more…]

Peppermint Chocolate

I love chocolate peppermints. They remind me of winter, cold noses, hands wrapped around steaming mugs of hot chocolate, Vick’s vapo-rub …

And maybe because they are “very refreshing” to quote a certain episode of Seinfeld, I never feel like an absolute glutton after eating them … just someone with really fresh breath.

On occasional winter afternoons when I was a kid, I used to buy a quarter pound of after dinner mints for about 50 cents, at the candy shop in the mall . They were the cheapest thing on offer. I would then sneak them into the Saturday movie matinee. [Read more…]