ChocoMom

I don't bake bread nearly as much as I used to, which is evident by the boring-looking loaves here. But, The Moose (aka my son) had a 9.5 hour shift at the ski hill today, and used up nearly all the bread at home to make sandwiches for "elevensies, luncheon, tea, supper and dinner". So.....Grandma's potato bread was my back-up plan for the rest of the family. I'm going to do two more loaves tonight, because the Moose will finish off a whole loaf tomorrow- by himself.

@gfron1 Those are BEAUTIFUL!!!! love, Love, LOVE all the colors!!!!

@WayUpNorth Those look beautiful! IMHO...they don't really belong on the "Chocolates with a Backroom Finish" thread!!! (I know you're just continuing with posts from before, but those really look fantastic.)

Hubby's birthday cake...Angel food w/ strawberries.

@chromedomeNot sure what is with our daughters and this stuff. My oldest daughter had such an addiction to it. She used to take jars of it to the ski hill, and eat while she was riding up the lifts. Then, she'd stick the jars up in the trees all over the place. When she was teaching ski lessons, she'd tell the kids that Nutella grows on trees. They'd argue, she'd make them a bet she could pick one from a tree...then proceed to ski to a "random" tree, and pluck a jar and spoon right off the tree, and eat it in front of them.

Today's afternoon snack. (Not the whole jar.)

Spur of the moment- decided to make hubby and son #3 their favorite dessert. Lemon meringue pie. One pie is for son #3, one is for everyone else.

I will never again leave pistachio cheesecake within reach of toddlers. He's almost 3, and I know he ate some, but...at some point he must have decided that lovely green color would make a nice fingerpaint. On the walls. Going up the stairs. Right under the handrail- making it very difficult to see at a glance. Due to the copious amount smothered upon it, chunks had fallen off the wall, onto the stairs. As I leaned down to gather them, I discovered the cheesecake mural. Now, I must try to figure out how to clean dried cheesecake off the wall, without having to repaint.

I am in awe of the cool gifts here!!!! The ONLY food related item I received was a bottle of blueberry cordial my SIL made. Not sure what I'll do with it, although it might find its way into a chocolate something. I'll have to drop some not-so-subtle hints next year. My business had to gift me the Grex airbrush a few weeks before Christmas, as the Krome one seems to have died an untimely death. (I did get a couple cool gifts, but totally unrelated to food.)

Starters: Cranberry-Brie bites i(n mini phyllo cups) Cheese cube-grape-thyme Christmas tree Veggies Christmas tree/dip Spinach-Artichoke dip/crackers Dinner: Mixed green salad with strawberries garlic mashies *Smoked turkey and stuffing Roast Beef w/ artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, mushrooms, olives, pearl onions, and roasted red peppers. Cubed & roasted Hubbard squash Green Bean casserole rolls/butter Dessert: Christmas cookies (my daughters and friends made) Fudge (from SIL) Springerle (from SIL) White chocolate-raspberry cheesecake with layer of marscapone, decorated with sugared raspberries and mint leaves Pistachio- Almond Cheesecake with layer of marscapone Apple pie *We endured another weasel massacre, and lost ALL of my turkeys. When I hit the store to buy one, the only whole turkey I found-within the correct size range was a smoked one. It seemed okay to me, but my FIL and BIL absolutely LOVED it!!!! I did a homemade stuffing to go with it. By the time I got around to thinking about it, I didn't really have much time ...so I went with a simple/basic one that turned out fantastic. Ive never seen my MIL eat so much stuffing! haha!

Just discovered that the pics of main dishes, etc. have been deleted from my phone. I recovered pics of the Christmas tree veggies and cheese platters though, and three desserts. You will have to imagine the the smoked turkey, mashies, stuffing, cranberry sauce, two beef roasts with roasted red peppers/pearl onions/sundried tomatoes/artichoke hearts/olives, cubed & roasted hubbard squash, salad, and rolls. It looked so nice, but I fear some mischievous kids were doodling with my phone. Also missing is that blessed Spinach-Artichoke cheese dip. Good stuff.

Finally finished the 11 solid snowmen, the last 3 large orders were picked up by customers yesterday. Now, I can concentrate on the friend and family gifts. So...here is the last batch of caramel for the season. This will be a stand-alone caramel, wrapped in good-sized pieces, and put in decorative jars for the non-chocolate eaters on our list. Its the same caramel I use in the sea salt caramels and tortoises, but cooked about 3-5 degrees higher.

THANK YOU for posting this! I was wondering if it was any good! I will try Reuben just about anywhere I go, but its nice to hear about it in advance. Ever since working in Ann Arbor, and eating the Reubens at Zingerman's, I've been hard pressed to find another Reuben that even came close to that masterpiece of pure yumminess.

Yep- Tomric. I had this mold- pre-fire, and had to order it again. There is one customer in particular that just loved it. So, every year she asks me to make them. We've gone from doing 3 at Christmas a few years ago, up to 11 this year. She wants 9 milk chocolate, 2 white chocolate. I thought about airbrushing, and decided against it. Too many other molds I'm coloring right now. I bought the 0.5mm Grex airbrush a while back, and love it. So easy to use, but there's so many molds, and so little time! Argh!

The Snowdude. Have an order for 11 of these...solid. Think I'm on number 5 now....

Nothing quite as exquisite as the above items, but I am a Mom.... And, my youngest (12 yo) has her school Christmas party tomorrow. So...here we go with kid-approved snacks:

@Jim D. YES!!! I absolutely LOVE it! Its my favorite milk chocolate! As for white, I prefer the Edelweiss white chocolate, but have had some trouble finding the discs. Blocks, I can find. But it seems like I used to be able to get a bag of discs- just like with the Arriba and Maracaibo... Can't seem to find them anymore. Any ideas?

Nothing terribly exciting, but a gentleman at church ordered solid chocolate cubes for his wife. That's what she loves, so that's what he wanted to get her. Being in the festive mood that I am, it seemed appropriate to dress up the Felchlin Maracaibo Criolait in holiday colors:

You could try Sweet Packaging or A Specialty Box. That tray looks familiar, but I don't know which company had it. T he box could be from the "this top, that bottom" collection from A Specialty Box. (They kill you on shipping, but they have a nice selection.) Sweet Packaging is an awesome company with some extremely nice boxes, and lots of options.

For the firm ganaches, I dip my (gloved) finger in soft butter, then gently press down the peaks before I cap. If the chocolate has begun to cool a little too much- due to backing off multiple molds (or cold molds or room temp or whatever), and it starts getting a little too thick, I heat the edge of the scraper over the stove flame, then swipe it over the mold. Might be a little unorthodox, but, it is effective.

Initially, I messed up a bit and added a little too much vinegar. So, it seemed logical to add base. So, I fizzed the baked beans a little with adding a teensy bit of baking soda. Problem solved. Here's the finished product. 9/10 sealed, so we "tested out" the unsealed jar. Good stuff.

It's been awhile, but I did a baked brie in puff pastry, with honey/pears/and I think pecans. Might have chopped walnuts. Extremely addicting. For another option, if you want to depart from the brie scene, there's some pretty creative cheese "ball" designs out there. Somewhere, I posted the pinecone cheeseball- with almonds and rosemary sprigs. Did one of these for a snack at my daughter's impromptu 19th bday party last month...horrible pic. (I had to take a pic off the computer. ). Its just sliced almonds, cheddar slice, round crackers and two olive slices.

Baked Beans! I think a lot of the canned varieties at the store are just plain bland. No real kick to them. So, I got out some dried beans, did a fast-soak, made some sauce, and here they are. At the moment, they're in the oven baking. From there, I will put them in either pint or quart jars, and into the pressure canner they shall go.

If you had teeth pulled - whatever you do, don't use a straw right afterwards. The oral surgeon warned him....but my son - at the wise old age of 20- did not listen. He just had 4 or 5 teeth pulled, and then went an bought a huge chocolate shake, sucked it down, and seized the opportunity to eat a burger (since his mouth was still numb). Ended up with a dry socket - (occurs when the blood clot becomes unclotted), got infected and was in unbelievable pain. Had to get antibiotics, and have that section of his gums cleaned and medicated. He is one of those people that has to learn those kinds of lessons himself. As for meals, I was thinking tuna-noodle casserole, if you over cook the noodles just a little. You'd get protein, noodles- (which are awesome), and some creamy- cheese sort of deliciousness to help comfort you from the ordeal. And, homemade mac-n-cheese is always a hit. Now, if you want something non-casserole like- , then broiled fish , cooked spinach, and potato latkes might be a good option. Just use lots of butter. Butter makes it better. And wine. Wash it all down with a nice bottle of wine. You'll feel great!

I'll start doing the molded fellows next week, but for the last craft show I'm participating in....here's part of the batch: (There's one last tray of 80 dark chocolate sea salt caramels awaiting dipping/salting, but other than that-- everything is done. Just have to finish packaging. )