curls

I’m planning to be there Thursday. Definitely a yes for Tomric not sure about dinner — have some sightseeing I would like to do & that is my one day to do it.

Ruth it won’t be the same without you. So sorry you won’t be able to come. Hope you feel better soon!

For those newly joining us, the veterans, and the curious about the great Niagara on the Lake Chocolates & Confections Workshops here are the links (AKA rabbit holes) to our past reports (not going to try to track down the other reports -- I'll leave that as an exercise for someone else). 2018 report coming soon! 2009 Report: eG Chocolate and Confectionery Conference Niagara on the Lake, the 1st conference 2010 Gaithersburg, Maryland 2011 Report: eG Chocolate and Confectionery Conference Niagara on the Lake 2012 Woodbridge, Virginia 2013 Report: eG Chocolate and Confectionery Workshop Niagara on the Lake 2014 Las Vegas 2015 Vienna, Virginia 2016 Toronto 2017 Las Vegas 2018 Niagara on the Lake the 10th conference 2019 in St Louis

If people are willing to drive there are some close'ish places that Kerry & Anna have gone to that look good... Kerry I think all of these are within an hour of the hotel but don't know how large a group they can accommodate. - Grimsby Thai and in Hamilton: - Lemongrass - Brux House - August 8

Well, I can assure you that we are not imaginary but we might not look like you have imagined. Before we met, @Chocolot was expecting me to be an old bald guy (perhaps she was expecting one of the three stooges). It is nice to put faces to names. @chefmd would you like to learn how to make some chocolates and/or confections? Chopping is somewhat helpful but even more helpful is dishwashing! :-) Looking forward to meeting you too!

@patris they are gorgeous! Looking forward to using my bowls. Going to find some display space for them too! Thank you.

I'm going to bring photocopies of the recipes (mostly from William Curley) I'm thinking about trying out and a few base recipes (mostly from Greweling) -- happy to let people look at those.

Yum, Rebecca’s leaf croquant is tasty! I still need to try making it — she made it look so easy.

That looks delicious! I may have to sneak over one day during the workshop. Just kidding... I'll be on the hunt for savories while the chocolate workshop is going on -- may try out one of your Vietnamese or Japanese restaurants.

First, @ptw1953 what you bought is just right for putting in the EZtemper. You can call it cacao butter or cocoa butter but they are both the same thing. The important part is that it is 100% cacao butter or 100% cocoa butter. You do not want a product with anything added. I found this explanation of the differences between cacao and cocoa here (https://nuts.com/healthy-eating/cacao-vs-cocoa) but that is about chocolate & not the "butter" portion.

I am rather sure that cacao and cocoa are the same things just different languages. What color is your cacao butter and which company manufactured it? Can you include pictures of the callets and the packaging? And enjoy you EZtemper when you get it!

Sorry but I don’t have a dehydrator. Let me know if we need colored cocoa butter and I can bring some of mine along.

Thanks Kerry! I'll figure out what I want to work on and check in with you on ingredients. Will we have access to the grinders Saturday or will they only be available for the master class?

Yup, I’m working on that. Next time I get to my local pick your own orchard I’m going to ask them if they have some cherry, peach, and plum wood that I can take off their hands. Need to do some research and make sure plum and peach woods are safe to burn/smoke.

I'm still acquiring various smoking wood chunks so my choices are quite easy: oak or hickory. I've got dibs on an old apple tree for smoking chunks and wood turning blanks. Trying to get more fruit woods. Which woods do you like to smoke with?

I use those too, but in my chocolate kitchen. :-)

@Hassouni good luck with your new business venture! Please let us know when you’re up and running; I’d like to visit your bar/resto. What part of DC?

@Kerry Beal it has been a while since we have been to the Niagara on the Lake campus -- I'm not sure how their kitchen is currently stocked. So, what sorts of things should we bring to the workshop? I'm guessing that we still need to bring along containers (to bring chocolates home), aprons or chef's coats, IR thermometers, notebook, camera, and base recipes. And of course, some chocolates or confections for the meet & greet. Also, if you are planning to try something that needs some specialty ingredients, you may want to bring them with you -- but maybe not? Will there be chocolate moulds, scrapers, caramel rulers? Yup, I am looking forward to this and starting to put together my packing list!

I too wanted more details on the bone marrow but it is one of the few that I have no more information on -- whenever I walked by their tent they seemed a bit too busy to talk -- they also kept their egg a bit farther back from the table so I wasn't even able to see if they were cooking the bones direct or indirect. Only thing I can tell you is that they put the bones directly on the grill. The Tasty Hot product sounds interesting. I'll make a note about the Toronto eggfest on my calendar but odds are better for 2019. Have you had a pig shot? I hadn't seen those before and they were a nice bite and a crowd pleaser. Plenty of ABTs and moinks (but those I knew about).

Yesterday I attended the Egg Fest at Dizzy Pig - DizzyFest 2018. Found a video that someone posted of the event that captures different parts of the event than I captured with photos. And some of my photos from the event... House Yearwood was my favorite of the day with smoked turkey, carnitas empanadas, stuffed peppers, and maple smoked chocolate chip muffins. Their samples were disappearing too fast for a picture! They did not win the people's choice award but they did come in second place (and this was their first time cooking at DizzyFest). They also provided recipes for all their cooks. This group made three salmon filets on the BGE, very tasty. They encouraged people to take as much as they liked. They also made macaroni & cheese and a fish stew (with sea bass, coconut milk, peppers, onions, and a few more ingredients that I do not recall). Beautiful marrow bones! Sadly the serving size was a 1/4 teaspoon of marrow on a piece of toast. This was a fun event and most of the food was good to very good but I was hoping to find Kerry Beal and Anna N. style participants and sadly there was no one there of their caliber of cook quality and creativity. Maybe I'll have the time to check out the Toronto EggFest some day!

Always interesting to see how colors change depending on lighting. I went back to your glaze selections when you posted tikidoc's bowl and couldn't figure out which dark blue sample was hers. Looking forward to seeing my bowls -- just a few more weeks!

@patris what color # is that pretty blue? Thank you for the photos of the bowls at various stages — fun to see the process!

While picking up this sampler of items for a friend... I happened to see these items for sale and couldn't resist.

Wish I could have gotten a picture of this chicken on the Kamado Joe but it was a bit too dark outside. Last night's dinner, spatchcocked chicken - un-brined, spiced with Dizzy Pig Crossroads, direct heat near the gasket, ~375 F for 50 minutes. This is the first cook where we really got a sense of the advantages of kamado cooking -- such a juicy and tasty bird. I've had good chicken on the Weber but it has never been this moist. It fell apart a bit on the transfer from the grill to the cutting board.

Thanks for the offer but I've got plenty in inventory.