POTD: Photo of the Day

Chocolate tasting

Dexter: "Cacao Night"

Gatherings at the Azure Tower

Campbell, CA

(06.29.2009)

POTD: Photo of the Day

lorien's savory caramelized onion tart with cocoa

Dexter: "Cacao Night"

Gatherings at the Azure Tower

Campbell, CA

(06.29.2009)

POTD: Photo of the Day

Home made ice cream + brownie (from mix)

Strawberry, vanilla bean, chocolate mocha fudge

(12.31.2008)

POTD: Photo of the Day

Chocolat Ladurée (so divine)
Ladurée - Champs de Elysee
Paris, France
(03.22.2009)

POTD: Photo of the Day

a box of christopher elbow artisanal chocolates
(07.01.2009)

Cooking in the Kitchen: Chocolate

Monday night is "Gatherings @ the Azure Tower" night and most of the cooking is usually done before the actual gathering - for most of us, we actually don't cook the day of...or if we do, it's a bit rushed due to the work day...so I spend part of my weekend doing my contribution for this week's theme of "Cocoa/Chocolate"

I actually started on Saturday, since I'm doing a layered dessert for my "showcase" and things needed to be cooled/chilled...

melted dark chocolate for the base
very, very messy chocolate piping for garnish

the base layer

melted semi-sweet chocolate

sugar & water for caramelization

starting to boil

nice caramel color

caramel + semi-sweet chocolate mixture

a very temperamental dark chocolate ganache

it was an extremely hot weekend

chocolate was very difficult to work with

my 4 layered "cocoa/chocolate" themed dessert setting

Ok, so I feel guilty for posting pictures of very messy work...but I can't share the final results until after Cocoa/Chocolate night :)

4 layer caramel chocolate mousse with mocha chocolate ice cream :)

Brand New Kitchen Toy: Marble Slab

I've recently procured a industrial grade marble slab for cooking :) let's just say it was very heavy and a pain to carry up three flights of stairs...unfornunately, due to the extreme heat of this weekend - my experiments with chocolate did not turn out well :( but I'm definitely excited and looking fowards to using my marble slab

it's very heavy

Visit to Christpoer Elbow Artisanal Chocolates, San Francisco, CA

Saturday
06.27.2009

I dropped by DarkGarden Unique Corsetry in Hayes Valley to take advantage of a weekend promotion and ordered a new Alexandra corset in a Victoria era, period correct pink silk brocade :) and ended up splurging on a box of chocolates at Christopher Elbow Artisanal Chocolates located around the corner from Dark Garden. I had a difficult time in picking out which pieces I wanted to have again and which new ones to try, so I decided on the both of 16 chocolates :)

the pre-packaaged chocolates wall
which box to choose from?

caramel with rosemary...

caramel with lavendar ;)

caramel with fleur de sel

The post on my actual box will be later, when I actually dig into the box :) I really enjoyed the key lim sample as well as the caramel with lavendar as well as the passion fruit from my previous visit.