ChocoMom

63 Tipsy Tortoises....for a Christmas craft show on Saturday. I usually put 6-7 in presentation box, and they go like hot cakes. Free samples are the key. =)

Just finished canning 15 pints of chili with beans. Its pretty mild, so seasoning can be added to meet one's own tastes.

We are making an effort to shut down the industrial meat freezer to save on electricity. That thing is a beast. So, I moved several cases of beef and chicken from that freezer to the smaller freezer -gifted to us by my father in law. There was some beef that would not fit, so I've been canning away. Managed to do 16 pints of ground beef with onion and seasoning- last night. The small mouth jars aren't my favorite, but Wallyworld had them on Black Friday special for $5/case, so I picked up a couple cases. Also discovered that with the small mouth, I can cram 16 jars in the canner, whereas only 14 fit with the wide mouth.

So, alternate the heat with the cold air? I had the air blowing in there at 61F. I have a hair dryer strictly for chocolate use, also to the left of the panner. I used that to clean the panner our before the glazing phase. So, I could also use that to alternate with AC? I'm just not sure how to go about that- as in, at what point would I know to use hot air instead of cold? It did seem like a fair amount of chocolate was wasted on the area where the agitators are attached- on the back wall of the panner. The chocolate was tempered, and at 88.6F, I believe. (I used the little chocovision tempering machine to the left the panner.) I have an Idylis AC unit that stands the right of the panner, on the floor- which is my cold air source. I salvaged / swiped an extra piece of the stretchy aluminum tubing during the home rebuild, exactly for this purpose. So, I taped and sealed one end of the tube onto the AC vent, ran the tubing through a wire coat hanger, and rigged it so the other end would blow on the area where it looked like the majority of the beans were landing. The cold air flow was pretty impressive for such a goofy set up. I used a ladle to slowly pour chocolate in an even manner over the beans as they tumbled. I had them going at med-slow, then increased it to medium. Once they were dry, I took them all out, wiped down the interior quite thoroughly, poured the beans back in, and then proceeded to drizzle in the 40g of confectioners glaze. I let run for a good 30 min just to make sure everything was completely coated. (And to get rid of that horrid stink from the glaze.) I wasn't sure what speed to run the espresso beans at, and if I should have used agitators. It seemed like the agitators were necessary to break the beans apart some. But, I am not fully convinced of that now, because I think it might have dented the coating. Which, would be true for anything, wouldn't it? I can't think under what condition the denting/uneven finish wouldn't happen with those inside there. I have some malt ball centers that I can run for another trial. Not for trial are the Montmorency dried cherries- which I have no intention to waste. I'd love to get those panned, to sell. I am really looking forward to learning how to work this little beast properly, and make some nice products. Thank you for all of your help!!!!

OMG! I just tried panning for the first time!!! FUN!!!! Should not have done espresso beans for the first attempt, but I did. So there we go. Must have morphed into a human Tigger, eating them....'cause I'm bouncing off the walls right now. Process: started with ChocoVision's panner. Left in 2 of the agitators. 450g espresso beans, coated with gum arabic. Pics include the set up, and the final product. Used approx 900g of 72%, tempered. 40g Confectioner's glaze..and damn! that stuff STINKS!!!!! Will maybe leave the agitators out next time, cause I am inclined to think they are responsible for dinging the chocolate coating and giving a blotchy/ coat. I was irritated at first because, honestly....deer poop looks better than these do. Like, more uniform, you know? (Not that I examine deer poop extensively, but we have a lot of the up here, so I see a lot of it. Whatever.) Anyways, I had the air at 61F blowing in there. I thought I'd need the agitators to break apart the chocolate covered beans, but maybe if I did less at a time, it would be easier to manage. So here it is. (Not proud of it, but thought it was fun to play with.)

Made pasties tonight with a mix of venison and beef, and the usual veggies of rutabega, potato, carrot and onion. They were delish! Dessert was pumpkin pie made with the pumpkins from the garden. Also made pumpkin whip-dip for my grandson who is allergic to eggs. Graham crackers are the perfect tool for transferring the dip to his adorable little face. =)

Pressure canned 14 jars of venison. 11 were taco seasoned, ground venison, and 3 were chunked stew meat. Next round is going to be for chili- so I will add salt and chili powders to it, along with onion and garlic.

Venison burritos, courtesy of the deer that hubby bagged on opening day. In the blind 15 minutes, got the deer, and here we go:

According to the specs, 11 grams per cavity. Can't wait to see what you make!!! =)

@curls The mold is Fat Daddio's Topsy Turvy Square- model PCMM-05. (Not sure if the item number is one that Kerekes assigned to it, or if it is a Fat Daddio item number.) I think the transfer sheet came from Kerekes, as well. I was a little puzzled at the mould's design name, as the finished product doesn't look very "Topsy Turvy" to me. It isn't terribly deep, either. I liked the angled cube mould a little more, esp. for making liquor cubes. On the up-side, this square has a little more surface area for displaying the transfer sheet designs.

If you have some Bounce dryer sheets handy, lay them around the area where the mice are frequenting. They HATE those dryer sheets. Or, those super-sticky trays do wonders at trapping the little buggers. Although.....we placed a few trays out in the barn, and one of them just disappeared. Not sure what stepped into it, but it must have been big!

Forgot about these little guys...Honey-coconut-rum in 72%. I loved the transfer sheet, so I keep trying to incorporate the creamed honey into chocolates.

Having a marvelous time in the new chocolate room. One of my elderly customers (91 yo) at the retirement home ordered a whopping 22 12-piece boxes of chocolates for all his "sweethearts" for Christmas. Needs them before Thanksgiving as he is having a couple surgeries coming up. This is the beginning of his order: Key Lime, Chocolate Mint, and Shotts' Vanilla and Triple Espresso

My youngest kid (12) has gone on this Taco Bell kick for an after school snack, before she goes to work. (She cleans horse stables.) It all started with those Mountain Dew Freezy things this summer. My kids all have issues with dairy, so instead of going to Dairy Queen- right next to the Taco Bell, I hit the Drive thru at TB thinking I could get a Dew for them. Then I saw the freeze, and the ad for $1 Freeze during happy hour which is 2-5pm- which seemed like a perfectly reasonable cold treat. (should be happy HOURS). Anyway, the kid saw it, started drooling over the chicken Quesadilla pic, so I gave in to her incessant whining, and got her one. Now, on her once-a-week Friday drive-thru, she goes for the Quesadilla Box, which has the Chicken and Cheese Q, a soft chicken taco and a Dorito shell crunchy taco. Plus a freeze. Then she goes to work. Im not crazy about the place like the kids are, but they do have a couple good salad choices, which are okay for a quick fix. I never get sauces there, either. I guess all late night trips to Taco Bell in college, sitting there with friends, cleaning pennies in the hot sauce - made me wary of the contents.

I wanted to try something new and fun, but our family is pretty old-school when it comes to Thanksgiving dinner. My SIL is hosting, so she is doing the turkey, stuffing, salad and bread. My MIL wants to do a ham and her sweet potato casserole (which is to die for, btw.) I am task with doing the mashies, green-bean casserole and desserts. This year, the mashies will be more of a smashed-potato - garlic- butter type. I harvested a great crop of red potatoes, so there we go. Green bean casserole is almost like a main dish for my youngest son (20)...so I felt obligated to take that on. One dish for my son, one for everyone else. I do have an enormous blue hubbard squash, so I will likely make something with it-roasted in cubes, perhaps. Desserts are my favorite to make- so I don't mind that at all. Pumpkin pie is a given, and Lord knows I grew enough pie pumpkins! Still contemplating what other sweets to make. But, that's it so far. As for the stuffing, my Grandmother's (Dad's mom) stuffing was never cornbread. And the cornbread stuffing I have tasted was never really all that yummy. Perhaps it was not made correctly? All I know is that the stuffing at the Bavarian Inn in Frankenmuth tastes about as close to Grandma's stuffing as a restaurant has ever gotten, but hers was and still is my favorite. I've come close to replicating it a couple of years, but all my notes disappeared in the fire....so I shall try to recreate that at Christmas dinner- which I am hosting.

This is highly embarrassing, but I used a GFS garlic biscuit mix and added cheese. I think the Red Lobster garlic mix is available for purchase, and the GFS stuff is similar. HTH

Keeping with the Get 'er done style of cooking of recent days.... Beef stew. Stew meat that I canned- from our cow; carrots- purple, orange and white Belgian- from the garden, potatoes- red and white from the garden...onions from my neighbor. Plus, garlic cheese biscuits.

My parents would go through our candy when we arrived home from trick or treating. They'd take any apples away from us. Why? Because some scum-of-the-earth demon spawn residents were putting razor blades in the apples and giving them to children on Halloween. Some of the candy, as well. Mom would scrutinize each piece to make sure it wasn't opened first. I had awesome parents. Always shared the chocolate with Daddy. =) @Alex Yes, Michigan is a great place, despite the candy corn. Loved the "...state shaped like a mitten. Or a hand reaching out for more candy corn." HAHAHA!

NECCO wafers..... Hate those things. They taste like bad Tums. All the other candy, I'm pretty cool with. And I don't hand it out. I turn the lights out, and eat it all.

For as long as I can remember, sliced HB eggs have decorated the top of pretty much every potato salad made in this family. Spiraled over the top of the salad, sprinkled with paprika. Looks lovely. Hubby LOVES HB eggs crumbled all over his green salad. To him, the greens don't matter- lettuces, spinach-whatever. He loves the HB eggs. And it is such a cheap, easy way to incorporate protein into salads. (To me, they are a tasty avenue to consume large amounts of salt, which I sometimes enjoy.) I also appreciate the convenience factor. They can be made in advance, stored in the fridge (or pickled), and grabbed for a quick, filling snack. I label one egg carton with a large HARD BOILED sign, and leave that in the snack tray of the fridge. My 12 yo goes right for them, after school. Either salt and gobble, or makes egg salad.

@minas6907 OMG! Such beautiful and amazing work! Love, Love LOVE it!!!! You're AMAZING!!!

Pie crusts here. I don't know how many times I've tried. My mother made them PERFECTLY. Roll the dough out in between two sheets of waxed paper. Hers were amazing, mine come out crappy. I use store bought, and dust the surface with powdered sugar to make it more edible. Heck, even for the pasties, I use store-bought crust! Pasty crust should be thinner, but, if I can't get it right in a pie, its definitely not going to work in a pasty. Its just not happening in this lifetime.

Well, my days of artistic expression are on hold until I get more of the home interior done. So, until then, I am going with the get-er-done kind of baking. Friday, it was chocolate chip cookies. Today, it was apple pie.

I hiked through the garden today, and located 21 pie pumpkins. Those are the ones that I can actually see. Others are hidden by weeds. The hubbard squash is a monster. There are 2 others around it....

Cashew Chicken with yellow squash from the garden....