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I’m behind, it’s already Boxing Day in Oz. Christmas Eve dinner was garlic lobster tails with roast potato and caramelised onion salad, plus a warm green veg salad. Blue hydrangeas from the garden. Then, on Christmas Day after the mandatory mango margarita, we had duck leg confit with roasted carrots on garlic whipped yogurt with leftover potato salad. I was hangry and didn’t take care with the pic. Sorry. Also on this plate some Davidson plum jam (an Australian bush tucker food).

Christmas Dinner - Chateaubriand for Two, served with a wine sauce. Sides were Parisienne potatoes, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, sautéed mushrooms and glazed carrots for Moe. Served with a lovely British Columbia wine, a 2022 Cabernet Franc from Fort Berens, decanted for 90 minutes.

I bought the e-book when it was on sale - I'm not seeing fan brushes in the description of the technique in the e-book - it would appear that it's actually flat brushes and what she considers wide - I might disagree. Here's what I got on my first attempt -

And in the airport as we had only a short time.... I had never tried bakwa, basically pork jerky that is brushed with a sweetish sauce and grilled. Damn that stuff is addictive...

About an hour before landing.... Quite pleasant.

Shrimp cocktail sounds so good right now. However, my mom and I just had a huge talk last night about Die Hard --and it is NOT (my opinion) a Christmas movie. My mom adamantly says Die Hard IS a Christmas movie. Yippee-Ki-Yay 😆

Hello @Teaeer Do you drink a variety of teas? Do you make your own blends? Tell us more! I'm an Assam tea drinker, myself. Welcome to eGullet.

Eek, i hope everyone starts feeling better. No pics but last night was our main feast with Partners daughter. Shrimp cocktail, salmon dip, and halibut with pasta and lemon sauce. Dessert was Tillamook raspberry white chocolate ice cream and a cobbler with blueberry, cherry and blackberry. Just the two of us tonight after a very chill day (yes we watched Die Hard) and it'll be pizza for dinner.

Those look really good @Shel_B

My sister sent me these salt samplers, which I receved yesterday. Opening the tins released an incredible and delicious aroma. Can't wait to try the samples ...

Looking forward to reading your blog!

I'll see what I can do. The lighting is crap and the kitchen is ugly, but I'll try to get a pic or two before I start packing them up into gift boxes etc.

Some clown has made a Luosifen Christmas Tree.

gremlins? conversely, sometimes those last few that seem really stuck come out perfectly 🤷‍♀️

Hi Pastrygirl, Thanks for the info, yes, I realized just last night that I was probably cooling too much. I saw a mention that it might be best to do the shelling soon after coloring the cavities so the chocolate and the butter both pull away from the mold together. I ran another batch this morning (with the compressor I got for Xmas, yay) and followed that procedure. I rolled a bunch of the shells and every one is perfect, below is one. I'm still very puzzled why in the past some of the shells that I've inspected before filling and capping end up sticking on de-molding, any opinion on that? Compression from the spatula while pushing the chocolate out when applying acetate? Also, what are you chilling with, a standard fridge or a humidity controlled unit? We are wet, but fortunately not torrentially like SoCal. I used to live down there and I'm glad I left... Cheers, Phil

If you could tease us with some photos, that would be appreciated. But, God forbid, I don't want to add anything at all to your tasklist!

Am I looking at bits of apple on top, or is that the dough?

Thank you @pastrygirl. Wish that I could take you up on your offer but those are not any of the chocolates that I work with. Good luck with Valentine's Day... just a short breather before production starts again!

@KennethT Another adventure ! Congratulations And , thank you for taking us along. and , of corse , the Menus I hope you have a fabulous trip.

I'm with you. I need a cup of tea and a lie-down. added: and I was responding to @chromedome's earlier post. Now I need a full nap with a cozy blanket.

The cookies are no problem. It's all the other stuff I have to do before I can get to the cookies that's the issue. For most of my freelance career, work has dried up in mid-December and then not rebounded again until mid-January, which as you'd imagine is a bit rough on the ol' budget. This year, with my three current clients, the shoe is on the other foot. I've cranked out three assignments for one client in the past few days, and have one more to do starting when I get to NS tomorrow evening, because it's due end-of-day on the 27th. Then I have three for another client which ordinarily would have arrived mid-month, but because of the holidays and various other reasons got pushed back. I need to get those pumped out by no later than January 5th (the official deadline), but in practice would like to have them done by month-end if I can, so I can invoice them in time to get paid mid-month. My third client has already dropped January's batch of 6 assignments, with "official" due dates ranging from Jan 14th to Feb 4th, but I want to have them completed before the 13th because that's my last day to invoice them before that client's pay cycle closes. At that point, I'll also be turning back to the first client I'd mentioned, to get a couple of pieces done before that second client drops the mid-month January batch, and... well, that's how a freelancer patches together an income. Add in the time I spend looking after our quail, chickens and rabbits, and the time I spend running to the feed store to keep them fed, and the other errands required for Christmas gift- and grocery-shopping, and throw in the occasional medical appointment for one or the other of us, and it's fair to say my days are rather full.

Hi and welcome Phil! Yes those back-to-back-to-back PNW atmospheric rivers have been super gross. I agree with Jim that 'repeatedly working' the stamp may not be helping. Cocoa butter doesn't like to be messed with too much once its in the mold. I also think you may be working too cold, and chilling too often. Unless it's summer and mid 70's in my kitchen, I only chill my bonbons after they've been filled to firm up the ganache before capping, and after capping for a few hours. 75F is not too warm for fillings, mine are routinely upper 80's. If you're airbrushing, the CB can be low 90's, as the cold air flow and agitation of being smacked against the cooler mold will temper it. Full disclosure, I don't take the temp of or formally temper my CB, I just microwave until melted, stick it in the fridge if I went overboard, shake it up, and use it at 'warm but not hot' when touching the bottle. I use Roxy & Rich pre-mixed colors.

I'm exhausted just reading this. I don't know how you do it all.

A snack.... Sambal ikan bilis bun... Filled with spicy sambal and small dried fish.

USA chocolatiers, bakers, & pastry enthusiasts - for various reasons, I have a LOT of chocolate in stock, if anyone wants to try any of the following for Valentine's Day, I can break cases and sell by the lb or kg. Shipping is usually $8-10 for the first pound, less for subsequent pounds and less for slower methods than priority mail. If interested, message me with what you'd like and your address so I can calculate shipping. Valrhona passion fruit inspiration - I had to special order a case of 3 bags, picked up yesterday. $201 for a 3kg bag or $67/kg Valrhona raspberry inspiration - also s/o picked up yesterday. $222/3kg or $74/1kg TCHO chocolate - made in California, cases are 25 lb each. Pretty long shelf life, I'm not at work today but iirc its mostly or all good until 2027 https://tcho.com/collections/baking choco blanco - a vegan white made with oat and cashew. I only got 1 case of this but don't know how I'll use it all $14.75/lb choco charms 60.5% $10.55/lb choco combo 68% $10.86/lb hella dark 81% $12.30/lb thanks for looking