One of the nice things about working with chocolate for so many events and activities is that there is never a shortage of chocolate in my house. It is piled up in boxes, tucked away in drawers, sitting out in candy bowls, or even just scattered in random places. So it happens that when a […]
So much of the chocolate world is full of funny myths, happy accidents, and even completely off-base accounts. I’m not sure if it is a result of the type of food culture we are brought up in in America, or simply a lack of awareness, but many of the things we are told to believe […]
Since the start of the new year, Starbucks has been pushing it’s newly launched “blonde roast” coffee, aimed at those folks who couldn’t stomach their traditional darker roast coffee. Now, not being a coffee drinker myself, the news was merely a blip on my radar, and I even passed up the chance to to try […]
Today I fly back to Boston after nearly a week in Colorado. While I did get to try some rather yummy chocolates and chocolate desserts while here, there is something about the sweets in Boston that seem to make them extra special. Perhaps it’s because of all of the historical ties that Boston and the […]
At a birthday dinner not too long ago, I amazed my friends by combining two, pretty much universally lauded, food indulgences; chocolate, and potato chips. We were at a stir fry restaurant in in downtown Boston, and for some reason, one of my friends had a small bag of Lays potato chips with them. After […]
I grew up without cable. Until I left Connecticut to attend college in Boston, the television set that I regularly watched TV on in my parents’ house had rabbit ears on them that necessitated adjusting with nearly every channel change. When I finally moved into my own apartment post-graduation, a cable package was one of […]
One of the most interesting aspects of learning more about the chocolate world is being awakened to the wonderful possibilities that lay within the seemingly simple chocolate bar. What most of us were brought up eating–those teeny tiny Hersheys bars we often got in our trick-or-treat buckets, do not offer an accurate depiction of the […]
Unless you live in an underground bunker in preparation of the polar ice cap melting apocalypse, you probably are aware that the Oscars were last night. Now, while this event is normally not associated with chocolate (or eating in general–did you see how skinny some of those actresses looked?) it did get me thinking about […]
A couple years ago, I went out for a dinner with my dear friend Erica (who has a fantastic travel blog called As Her World Turns) at a place in Boston not far from my alma mater and Fenway Park. The spot is called Church, and as I recall, the four of us (Erica also […]
One of the delightful aspects of working in anything related to chocolate is that you get to meet other folks who have an enthusiasm for the subject matter. Yesterday was a great example of this. In the early afternoon hours, I headed over to the South End to have a meeting with the folks of […]
Within the world of chocolate therein lies a plethora of sumptuous desserts–cakes, cookies, tarts, brownies, bars, mousse, fudge, and pastries. Being a chocoholic since even before birth, I have tried a great variety of these treats, both by talented professional pastry chefs and ebullient at-home bakers. While I’ve had some epic layer cakes, and some […]
Sometimes chocolate adventures don’t actually involve eating chocolate–(I know, you think I’m crazy with that statement, but wait). Since chocolate, as a food, dates all the way back to the Mayans and the Aztecs, there is a lot of history surrounding the food, which has, at times, played a significant role in everything from medicine […]