Darienne

Lost my reply...darn. OK. Here goes again. The chocolate drink was homemade. The syrup was from BC, a sort of high class DaVinci syrup. The packaged hot chocolate mix was a brilliant concept with a dreadful execution. The 'chocolate' was awful. No one even tasted the commercial tiny marshmallows. However, I have been sussing out this 'hot chocolate on a stick' concept and here are a few URL's with different recipes for that. I am just printing out the URLs because I am out of time today... http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/recipe-review/recipe-review-hot-chocolate-on-a-stick-101625 http://www.bigredkitchen.com/2009/10/how-to-make-hot-chocolate-pods.html http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/02/dining/02stuf.html http://giverslog.com/?p=3290

Thursdays, 9:00 pm to be exact...I had to look it up. We don't get any tv schedules at home. Thanks, Tri2cook

This hot chocolate product is probably known to everyone but me... Yesterday went to confectionery partner's house and she served us little hot chocolate cups. Delicious. She made the hot drink directly from dark chocolate in a chocolatiere. We tried a local winery's raspberry syrup in it. But the product she showed us was given to her son and consisted of a cellophane package inside of which were some dark chocolate callets, some milk chocolate cubes and some tiny marshmallows, complete with instructions on how to use in a cup of hot milk. This might be a lovely product to offer at your till. I am thinking of putting together a few packages for folks like the mail lady, etc.

Way to go...you go, girl!!!!

My friend replied that neither she nor her son, who cooks, know of any such store in Fort Collins. Then she adds, tongue in cheek: "Nothing as bad as a transplanted New Yorker. I know, I was one, and an obnoxious one at that!"

My advice would be to grit your traveling teeth and drive into Denver. We just spent 6 months in Moab, UT. Now there's a wonderful place without any supplies to make anything. It was all by mail order. So 45 minutes doesn't seem too bad to me. I do have a friend in Moab, who has a son in Fort Collins, so I could ask her if she knows of any baking supply places. I suspect not, although I did see on TV a couple of days ago that Fort Collins is one of the five best places in the US in terms of finding a new life, a new job, etc. Good luck! You are so lucky to live in such a beautiful place.

Very, very nice. I was thinking about making something like that using two small symmetrical Christmas lollipop molds. Not so sophisticated, but it might work.

I'm pretty sure she said hers cost about $800...or maybe that's just the one at Tomric. I guess I won't write to her after you supplied the information. Thanks.

Wow. That $99.00 chocolate machine from BialettiShop might be an answer. And I loved the chocolate sticks that Kerry posted. I'll email the Ontario owner of the chocolate machine and ask her the actual capacity of the cups she uses and also how worth the money she finds her large machine. (She is Kerry's protege and a delight!)

Friends and I took chocolate classes with a chocolatier who owned one of those wonderful chocolate shot machines. Here's a photo with the cups we drank from. We topped the chocolate with foamed skim milk and then I snitched some of the Boiron raspberry puree from her freezer and topped it with a fresh raspberry. Yummmm

I still haven't made the third halvah recipe...just finished the halvah from Ilana. But last night I had this hankering...melted a whack of chocolate and mixed into it some tahini and powered sugar. Into a container to cool and harden. Could be a truffle center. Could also be gone because we ate it all. Possibilities...

Sorry no reply from me. Didn't realize I was not signed on. I use the invert sugar for candy making only.

As for the non-melting curds at T. Poutine's...I would say: don't ask. You really don't want to know.

Hi Paul Great post. We don't downhill ski anymore, but we do have a chip truck nearby...beside our little local library actually. And I think they make poutine. And we'll have some next time. They do make probably the BEST fries I have ever had...and this year they are staying open all winter. Huzzah! Wednesday is usually fries for lunch day. Naturally our two pups like fries also, and they'll really go for poutine! (No, they are both slim, not overfed, etc, etc, for the horrified dog-lovers. )

Greetings fellow Montrealer. The two men did mention that not all Canadians want to claim poutine as their national dish. It was all a bit tongue in cheek...or mouth, I guess. I ate poutine at a local bar in Peterborough. I do recall driving the Quebec route from Haifax to Ontario and seeing poutine in a MacDonald's. That was more than eight years ago.

Noted writers, Calvin Trillin and Blake Eskin, recently visited a NY restaurant to eat Poutine, that curious dish of French Fries, gravy & cheese curds and this was written up in the New Yorker November 23/09. 'The Poutine Perplex'. Poutine is not high minded eating, but it is something to remember. I've had poutine once...ordered by a table mate...I could never order it...it looks quite unappealing to me...and I have to confess that I loved it. We gobbled the poutine down in mere minutes. Straight to the hips and the heart. Also noted...and dear to my heart...by the gentlemen above, the fact that Montreal bagles are NOT New York bagels. They are their own beloved bread item. Silly of me to care, but then I am a Montrealer in my heart forever and I bridled under the notion that Montreal bagels were simply New York bagels transported north across the border. I would love to have a Montreal bagel and thank the heavens above that they are not available anywhere near to me.

Hi Liz, Try it again as Kerry suggests...a shame to do all that extra work by breaking it up first and then dipping the pieces. And one thing Kerry taught me...always dust the toffee with cocoa before you put the chocolate on it. Helps tremendously for the chocolate to adhere properly. Good luck.

Gosh, I don't know about definitive...but the recipe I use for invert sugar and believe me, it is plenty viscous is 4 cups sugar to 1 1/2 cups water plus 1/4 teaspoon citric acid. Bring to a boil. Then simmer 1/2 hour stirring occastionally. Store in tightly sealed container. Lasts a long time.

Hi Ilana, Sixteen at once? Boy, are you brave. I'll think back to our workshops with Mari, Kerry's protege...but there were only three of us and what a difference that made. We got messy with chocolate and we learned!

Cole slaw as noted above. We saw it commercially available in Utah last year. Never considered it before.

Mendicants? From Wordsmith Talk: Mendicant (alternative Mendiant) is also the name of a small disk or bar of chocolate which has been sprinkled with dried fruit or nuts.

Mendicants?

Lizztwozee, I was stunned to read your letter. I have been trying for years to find, without success, a Chinese sesame candy. Even tried the Asian candy threads in eGullet. Mine was a bit different. It was chewy, but flavored with oriental toasted sesame oil. So very different from anyone I had ever tasted before. I never even got one reply to my question. Perhaps you'll be more lucky and perhaps this thread will also lead to my need. I too tried all sorts of Asian folk with no luck.

I forgot to add yesterday that Anita Chu is PastryGirl on eG

Received a new candy cookbook today from Amazon. Field Guide to Candy: How to Identify and Make Virtually Every Candy Imaginable by Anita Chu. Quirk Books: Philadelphia, 2009. Chu also writes a blog, Desserts First. I haven't made anything from the book yet, and although I don't really care for the physical format...the book is thick, only 4 1/2" by 6", with rounded corners...sort of like a child's toy book, it certainly seems jam-packed with every candy you have every heard of and lots that you haven't. I opened the book randomly and found a Chinese milk candy recipe which I shall certainly try soon. One thing I love about the book is that not only does Chu provide a thorough description of each candy, she also provides a history, serving suggestions and extra notes...my kind of cookbook. I just LOVE all those extra interesting bits and bobs. Very inexpensive and it would fit right into a Christmas stocking. I'll report back after I have made something.