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What parts of the DC area are you going to be visiting? What sort of food are you interested in? What is your price range? The range of options runs from The Inn at Little Washington to food trucks. The Washington Post and Washingtonian magazine both have websites with lots of local information, events, and reviews. You may also want to peruse DonRockwell.com (a DC area dining site).

Yes, weinoo is right, DC is not a great place for BBQ. Maybe you would like some other recommendations... we do have a lot of good restaurants.

Those meltalways look nice. What flavor are they? Beautiful sunrise! Great looking sandwiches. Thank you for all the photos. Looking for my tart pan yesterday I rediscovered my flan pan. Guess I'm ready to host my own 60's desserts party. :-)

Peach & plum tart with almond cream (based on recipe in the Bouchon Bakery cookbook). Not the most photogenic tart but it was very tasty. :-)

Drat, now I see another mold that I like. Was always wondering about that flower / daisy mold. Is it a 10 - 11 gram mold?

Thanks Shelby. It is a Nordic Ware pan I bought a few years ago.

I was also wondering what that contraption is but was waiting for all to be revealed.

Baked two pound cakes for Father's Day and served them with a sauce made from fresh peaches and vanilla ice cream. Baked some snickerdoodles this weekend from "The All-American Cookie Book" by Nancy Baggett. They turned out really well.

So, what is the verdict... do you like the Lebanon bologna (not sweet!)? I like it quite a bit but I don't care for the sweet version at all. Very nice dinner.

Strawberries are in season! Time for strawberry crepes.Leftover strawberry sauce will probably be served over vanilla ice cream.

LOL the dog in the elevator! So sorry to hear that you had a rough drive home. It was great seeing you!

Why do you need to heat your molds if your room is at 76,? I don't know if the warm room is causing the issues... can you cool the room and work at around 72 F? Also try working with your tempered chocolate at its max working temperature, 88 F is on the low side for dark chocolate.

Chocolot correctly identified the powdered piece. There were at least two meltaways: ginger and peanut butter. The ginger meltaway was quite tasty. Haven't tried the peanut butter ones yet.

Wicked BonBon I have never seen transfer sheets fail that way. Would you please describe your process from application to removal, that might help us figure out what is going on. Are you using magnetic molds?

Saturday's dinner menu from the owners / chefs of Culinaria Cooking School. A few others have posted photos of the meal. My favorites were the smoked cornish game hen and the apple-pear galette... delicious! Fuji sprayed molds Conference Chocolates & Confections. Added bonus of testing out Kerry's machine... no worries about whether the chocolate in the melter was in temper... we just added crystallized cocoa butter to our chocolate to temper it (so much easier than it usually is at the workshops with so many chocolatiers in the room, each making adjustments to the temp of the melters). With the EZ temper in the room we made a lot more meltaways at this workshop since we didn't have to wait for the slabs to crystallize. Alas, no pate de fruit this year... got distracted with other projects.

Some photos from Santosh Tiptur's demo. Lots of folks were planning to visit his restaurant, Co Co Sala after sampling the items he made during his demo (cheese fritters with chipotle chocolate dipping sauce & mango lassi bon bon).

Making nougat using this lovely Hobart! Slab of caramel with pecans. Specs on one of the griddles that was used as a warming table for croquant and laminates. The amazing Mark Heim (http://www.heimconfectioneryconsulting.com) explaining how to make croquant. Not only did Mark seem to know the answer to everything, he was a wonderful teacher, able to explain "the why" to the chemists, food scientists, hobbyists, etc.

Ganache slap delivered via pizza peel. :-)

Purceville, wow! If I had know you were heading into that section of Northern Virginia, I would have recommended a stop at the family run Chicama Run Farm where I buy most of our meats and eggs. Welcome to Virginia Kerry & Chocolot.

Count me in. One of my two plus' may be able to join us in time for the meet & greet but will not be there for the dinner.

Wonderful! I'm looking forward to seeing her new (2nd location) the next time I am in Minnesota. Robyn's original location is very nice and I really like the layout of her shop and her Selmis. I hope you have the time to tour both of her locations.

Foodie stuff that I enjoyed the last time I was in the area: - St. Croix Chocolates - Butcher & the Boar - NordicWare factory store And if you have a chance to tour the James J. Hill House, I highly recommend it. It includes a tour of the kitchen which is quite small given the size and quantity of events at the house.

Ashley, I hope you will be able to come for a least some of the conference. Are we choosing from the regular menu or is there a special menu? If there is a special menu, what is it & how much will dinner cost? Are we having the chocolate & confections meet & greet at the Bottle Stop or at the conference hotel?

Thanks Chocolat and PastryGirl!

Any recommendations on suppliers of replacement guitar wire?