use real butter

We hosted a little ol’ chocolate tasting yesterday with four friends. It’s the first half of a two-part project I planned. We have done wine tastings in the past on several occasions, but never a chocolate tasting. I know some people think a chocolate tasting involves shoving loads of chocolate down your gullet. Please… it is nothing so crass as that – you may as well go sit in a corner with a few pounds of cheap Hershey’s bars if that is your aim (and not set foot in my dining room!). In fact, this chocolate tasting was quite a bit of work.

the players: round 1 – chocolove

the players: round 2 – dark ~70%

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Recipe: chocolate-dipped strawberries

What does the passage of a year mean? We read so much into the Earth’s completion of her tiny path around the Sun. A way to mark Time because it doesn’t stop for anyone. I never stopped to think much about how we recognize these temporal ticks and why. Not much until my sister died – out of the blue, just like that. No time for good-byes, I-love-yous, what-do-you-want-us-to-dos. That sick and empty feeling sucking the breath out of me every time I came up for air. Stepping out into the night thinking she’d emerge from the darkness and tell me it was a mistake. A terrible mistake, please. Numb mind. Racing heart, aching heart… broken heart.

Not 24 hours earlier, a blanket for Ben? Sure, I could knit one for him. He may tell you his favorite color is pink, but it’s really green – you know, four-year olds. So glad she loved the blanket I knit for Emily. Only 10 days and already full of piss and vinegar, just like me, just like her mom. Love you. Love you too. Our last words to one another.

Just like that.

kris and me

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Recipe: cheesecake pops

The Daring Bakers strike again, this time with cheesecake pops!

we knead to bake

Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah of Taste and Tell are our lovely co-hosts this month and they selected this recipe from Jill O’Connor’s Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey.

beat the eggs into the cream cheese and sugar

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