Viktoria

I'm tentatively in as well! I would love to see some sugar work this time if at all possible! Maybe something to build upon Rob's great showpiece demo? Or making candies, or pulled taffies?

Bob, What was in your amazing blue bonbons? I managed to bring 2 home, and after the first was shared, possession of the 2nd was hotly contested! The stout ganache, and the raspberry filling were widely appreciated as well.

There's a lovely shot of said flop-eared flocked bunny on page 1

Finally, here's what's left of my take home stash after my children got done with it. That's Han Solo in carbonate from Star Wars, for the geek-crowd. I made it for my husband as a thank you for taking care of the kiddies and letting me play chocolate! For those of you who were at the conference, this is the mold I have (works for ice or chocolate) I think you can also find it on amazon. http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/kitchen/e845/?srp=4 I can't thank Bob and everyone else for such an amazing time. I can't wait till next year. It was so wonderful to meet you all in person.

Haha. This has got to be confusing with so many photos going up! Chris posted a photo of the hand dipping with hands of all things. That was kind of fun. Ruth has some great stories! Not long after lunch there was a mad scramble to finish filling all of the shells, capping them, plating them etc. Then clean up began. Chris posted some awesome photos of the lovely finished chocolates. I won't duplicate, but here is a closeup of the bonbons on the showpiece Several of the students and staff hung around to look at the chocolates and took pictures. Here's a shot of the Dean of the school taste testing and chatting. He said later that while they were expecting people who were passionate, they didn't expect the level of expertise they saw.

On the next day people just jumped right in. Someone had the brilliant idea of having Ruth sign our copies of her cookbook! Steve did his airbrushing and decorating demo. This is Steve's dehydrator setup. I've always admired the splatter patterns The finished mold ready for filling Keri took over the 2nd kitchen and began her demos. When I caught up they were making pate de fruit. I believe it started out port with a base of pear puree. But there wasn't quite enough of the port, so we found some more booze! Something with hibiscus and some tasty warm spices. In the other room Ruth was showing how to make tulip bowls and such.

So some people picked one thing or other, but I ended up bouncing back and forth between everything, since it was all so interesting. At some point, Ruth began showing Sarah and others how to make a cream fondant. Then we made about 4 different flavors, rolled them and let them sit On the other side of the room people were making flowers out of modeling chocolate (which is chocolate and corn syrup, I believe) which Joe made for us to play with. Joe had one method, which involved pressing small balls of chocolate between parchment paper and flattening into petal shape with an offset spatula. Patti had a different technique, in which she used the end of a dipping fork to push an oval of chocolate into shape. Her roses were lovely (as were everyone else's). I took lots of photos while she was doing it. I am sure I was really annoying! Then it was time for dinner! Chris already posted photos. All I can say was that the corned beef and potatoes were especially amazing (I would never have said I loved corned beef before this). Most people at our table had seconds of the potatoes, and would have had more if we could have fit it in!

Ok, I don't want to duplicate people's photos, plus I'm not very good at photography, so consider mine "action shots"! I missed the fun on Friday, but got there bright and early on Saturday. Everyone was saying Hi and getting ready. Others have posted pics of Joe and his demo. I just wanted to post one to show how cleanly he was able to cap his molds! no chocolate down the sides, no mess, nothing!! Rob also showed us how to do piped flower petals. Some of us did quite well (not me ) After Rob's demo one of the chefs at the school demonstrated making a hazelnut feuilletine torte. She was in and out all day as well, peeking at what we were doing, and helping. Meanwhile, Steve made some mint fondants, and then dipped them with a setup I thought was particularly clever. In case you're wondering, the technical term for the method used to remove the excess chocolate, according to Erica, is "bouncy bouncy scrape" Edited to insert better pictures

I was so inspired by this thread that I went and made some flour tortillas to go with dinner tonight. I followed the recipe in Diana Kennedy's "Essential Cuisines of Mexico" cookbook. I used whole wheat flour, and real lard and cooked them on my cast iron skillet. They were tasty, and the whole family loved them, but they really didn't turn out right. I don't know whether I didn't roll them thin enough or didn't cook them correctly. Either way, no one here complained!

I can come to a Friday afternoon activity! Are there any supplies that we might need?

I can probably attend some of the fun on Friday during the day, though I'm not actually sure I'll be able to do Friday evening.

Robert - I'm in the definite category now. Not staying at the hotel, but planning on being there! Kerry, I would love one of those thermometers. I absolutely can't wait to meet everyone!

I haven't posted in a while as my life seems to have gone crazy. But I have approval from the Mr. to attend. (we have two little ones, so it's only fair to be nice and ask ) I live just north of woodbridge, so I'm happy to fill my car with what few pieces of equipment I have. I have molds, some texture sheets, a couple of transfer sheets, some powdered colors and other odds and ends. I can also bring some pots and pans if necessary. Oh, and I can cart the books I have as well.

Not long ago, I tried to make chicken liver pate. I made so many mistakes that it was not only unpalatable, but I'm afraid I've given myself a liver phobia

So now the holidays are over (in the US) and it's back to healthy eating for me. Unfortunately family and holidays derailed things more than I had hoped. The transition back to healthier eating wasn't hard though, for the most part, because I felt terrible when I wasn't eating well. But I noticed a few things. Much like people upthread said, if it's in the house I'll eat it and I need to stop kidding myself about that. And if I make it for dinner, and other people are eating it I will want to eat it too. I do not have the ability, yet, to eat small portions of the less healthy components of a meal, and feel satisfied. It's something I have to work on. One of the things I'm focusing on right now is greatly increasing our veggie intake. We love veggies in our house. I could eat vegetables all the time and be happy. If someone else were doing the prep. It's not that I don't like cooking. I love it. But time is an issue, and with two little kids (5 and nearly 2) it's hard to prep enough for what I want to have particularly during the week. I'm prone to perfectionism, and I like complicated, multicomponent cooking, which makes weekday and night meals a challenge. I tend to be an all or nothing person (it's a flaw I'm working on) and so if I don't have everything ready to go, we often default to take out (hence the need to lose weight). All of this is a longwinded way of saying I need a new strategy. So this weekend I cooked a large volume of mostly-green veggies on Sunday to be able to scoop and incorporate into whatever meals we're having during the week. This time it was just cooked with olive oil and some salt. Actually lovely on its own, but flexible for anything else. I've put it in breakfast and dinner so far, to great effect. My kids adore broccoli and zucchini, and will happily eat this. So here's the question: Does anyone else do this? How do you keep from getting bored? Do the veggies get nasty by the end of the week? How do you plan your meals for the week?