tammylc

This post totally made me boggle, because a year ago I wasn't posting my pictures, because I didn't think I was good enough! Zoe - I'm not fudge expert, but I think that looks amazing. Want some!

Thanks for the tips, Kerry! I don't envy me the foil wrapping either. I've got a few people lined up to help, so hopefully it won't be too bad. I knew it was going to be obnoxious, but it seemed the easiest and cheapest way to package them. Anyone know of a foil wrapping demos anywhere I should be checking out?

I actually made these a couple weeks ago when I was mostly focused on my Mother's Day production, and I'm just getting around to posting them now. They are tests of some molds that someone is making for me. The Natural History museum at the university in my town has had 2 large concrete pumas at it's entrance for years, but with concerns about erosion, they sent them away to be cast in bronze. They're coming back this week, and on June 2 there's a big puma welcome home party. At which the first 200 people will receive the puma chocolate bar at the top of the picture. It's about 3 inches by 2 inches and weighs about 20 grams. The larger puma at the bottom will be filled with a dark chocolate ganache and included in a box with some of my regular assorted chocolates and will be available for purchase as a fundraiser for the museum. These tests are just from a rubber mold so that we could make sure there weren't any problems we weren't noticing. (Please excuse all the little bits of rubber from the not so clean mold.) The actual molds I'm using will be from food safe silicone, of course. The bars will be wrapped in foil. I'll be brushing the 3-D pumas with luster dust, since that matte finish from the silicone mold isn't so attractive. I'm hoping to have the molds by Thursday so I can start churning out those bars. They're quite thin, so at least with the test one, set up quite quickly. Which is good, since I'm likely to only have 2 molds of 9 cavities each to work with, so I'm going to be turning the mold a lot. Any advice on keeping my chocolate in temper over the several hours it's going to take - I find it has a real tendency to overcrystallize on me...

Thanks for the reminder that I should report back. The birthday dinner went well - people raved about the mac and cheese. As they should, given that it had 8 lbs of cheese in it! (And actually, I should have made at least one more batch - we had enough, but no leftovers.) I used this Martha Stewart recipe for the proportions, and made four batches of it. I used different kinds of cheese - fontina, gruyere, irish cheddar and gorgonzola. The blue cheese definitely pushed it up a notch and made it grown-up. And the kids still liked it. This Thursday I'm making the Arroz con Pollo that kbjesq suggested a while ago. After this I don't cook again until the 31st, and I think I'll make the pulled pork like iguana suggested. With coleslaw, I think - anyone have a favorite recipe for slaw? I might like to make a couple different kinds, for variety.

Given the huge number of times people bring up Ethiopian as one of DC's dining strengths, I'm surprised there's not a thread devoted to it... A friend who's traveling to DC has asked me to find out if there's any consensus on the best Ethiopian, or at least a short list. So what do you all think?

Thanks Alana and Vanessa! I couldn't have done it without eGullet - thanks to everyone for being such a great source of inspiration, knowledge and support!

Thanks khilde - you are too sweet! For the gold ones, I airbrushed the mold with some yellow cocoa butter, then brushed on just a bit of gold luster dust on it dry after it was out of the mold.

Pumpkin seeds roasted in duck fat are da bomb.

Thanks Kerry! It's kind of amazing to realize that this whole chocolate making business thing started for me just a year ago. It was Mother's Day in 2006 that I held my first truffle sale. I sure feel like I've come a long way since then!

Thanks! It was a new thing I tried (drawing inspiration from Desiderio's Easter pictures upthread), and I'm very happy with how it turned out. Next time I'll use a narrower brush to splatter with to try to get some narrower splatters (the ones in the picture are pretty good, but on some of the others, they're more blobby).

Thanks. The ginger juice is incorporated into the ganache, so no, it's not still liquid. But it does give the piece really nice ginger flavor, including that fresh ginger heat.

My Mother's Day collection: The orange splattered domes have a dark chocolate ganache with orange zest and Grand Marnier. The blue pyramids are dark chocolate with ginger juice. The fancy gold ones are dark chocolate flavored with Patron XO Cafe, a coffee infused tequila. And the ones in the front are a lavender caramel. I'm really pleased with this collection, both in terms of looks and taste!

I always avoid things like pork chops which are a one-per-person item, because I've also found that it drives the price waaaay up. I usually plan for at most 1/3 lb of meat per person, and it can be hard to find chops and the like that fit into that size range.

Who are your favorite suppliers for small quantities of insulated shipping containers? I expect to have a few Mother's Day orders that will need to be shipped, and want to make sure they get to their recipients intact. Any other strategies for shipping chocolate now that the weather is getting warmer? Or just shipping in general, for that matter?

Funny - I was also thinking about tea!

I'm in the midst of flavor development for Mother's Day as well. So far I'm planning lavender caramel, orange ganache (zest and Grand Marnier), and a coffee liqueur ganache made with Patron XO Cafe, all in dark chocolate. The Patron is a coffee infused tequila, and unlike many other liqueurs, it's fairly dry rather than sweet - it goes beautifully with dark chocolate, and I've made it a bunch for events, but never for a sale. I need one more flavor - I've done one pomegranate experiment, but didn't like the way that batch worked out. I think I might like to do something in milk or white chocolate, since the others are all in dark, but I'm still thinking about what to do.

Thanks, Mark. I ended up going with a slightly different recipe (from Rachel Ray of all people!), but they're all variations on the theme. It was great, and was really fabulous with the food and the wine. I served it with a 2 oz fish portion, and a single batch was just right.

As Kerry said, it could be the type of chocolate you're using, but to me it sounds like your chocolate is just too cold. Don't delay on buying a thermometer - you can get a cheap digital instant read that will work just fine for $10 or less. It will be hard for us to diagnose the problem without more data. What method are you using to temper?

I used the following for many years. It's quick and easy. Best Puttanesca Sauce 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 1 medium onion, chopped 4 cloves garlic, chopped fine 1 28 oz. can whole plum tomatoes, drained and chopped with juice reserved 1/2 tsp. dried red pepper flakes 6-8 anchovy fillets chopped 1/2 cup brine-cured black olives such as Kalamata, Nicoise, or Gaeta 1/4 capers drained 1/4 cup minced Italian (flat leaf) parsley 1/4 cup basil (fresh) and 1/4 cup oregano (fresh) salt & black pepper to taste In a large skillet heat oil & cook onions, garlic, & red pepper flakes over medium/low heat until onions wilted. Add remaining ingredients including reserved tomato juice, & simmer until thickened. Serve immediately over pasta. ← Thanks for the recipe! What's the unit that should go with the 1/4 capers? Cup? What's the number of servings from this? How much pasta would you usually be able to dress? I'm not serving it with pasta, but I'm trying to get a sense of if I need one recipes worth or more for ~18 servings (it's the 2nd course of a 5+ course meal, so probably being served with a 2 oz fish portion). Anyone else have a favorite recipe to share, or does this look pretty standard?

I would say that Blackbird belongs on the list. I had an excellent meal there on a recent Monday, that included such "ambitious" elements as smoked grapes and octopus confit. It's not the "top echelon" but it's well worth a visit.

Agreed on both counts - that was very helpful. What kind of thin bladed knife are you using? Can you take a picture?

I have shopped at Advanced Restaurant Equipment in Dearborn a couple of times - it's kinda divey, but fun to visit. Don't know how it compares to other restaurant supply places in the area. But their aluminum half sheet pans are $5.40, which seems like a great price to me! http://www.advancedrestaurantequipment.com/ As others have said, Ann Arbor has a plethora of ethnic markets. In addition to the ones Ann Arbor Foodie mentioned, there's a little Korean market that I found very handy when making a lot of bi bim bop last year. You should post an ISO in the Heartland Forum when you come to Ann Arbor next - we could have a little foodie get together!

Thanks for the comments, Jen! I love your idea about pork shoulder - that's the kind of make-ahead meal that would actually make sense for me, and will be quite seasonal come summer! And I could add my own special touch by making a couple of different homemade BBQ sauces to serve it with. The chicken recipe looks good too! This would usually be my week to cook, but I'm going away for training, so I'm not back up for a couple more weeks. It will be the day of my son's 3rd birthday, so I'm cooking his favorite foods - macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches, steamed broccoli and baby carrots. I'm planning to make a fairly "adult" mac and cheese, since the kids will have grilled cheese sandwiches too. Anyone want to share their favorite recipe for grownup mac and cheese?

Yeah, my current plan is to just make a separate non-anchovy version for her. She'll miss out on all that great anchovy flavor, but those are the sacrifices you make when you become a vegetarian...

The original recipe calls for 8 chicken thighs, 3 tbsp olive oil, 3 tbsp whole-grain Dijon mustard, 1 1/2 tbsp balsamic, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper for the marinade.