I really admire those women that do everything; be a great mom, work, write books, maintain friendships, start businesses, cook dinner every night, have wonderful marriages and all the while looking absolutely gorgeous. I don't know how they do it. Being a mom of 3 boys (one of which has an ASD), and a husband who has been gone quite a bit has always been enough to keep me busy. Once they went off to school I thought, "here comes my time!!" It is sad to say that I have realized I was delusional! No one person can do all that, without help. Being a military wife, always away from family has made me very self reliant, to a fault. I pride myself on being able to do everything by myself. Now I am beginning to ask, "why?"
I love fall, I love it better in a place where fall has that storybook look, the hills, gorgeous leaves, fog and cool temps, but.... I love fall. I love the warm, comforting flavors of fall, cinnamon, pumpkin, apples, ginger, all the things that make you feel like snuggling up in a pile of blankets for a nap. I tend to forget all the allergies and the colds, the tissues and vicks vapo-rub and the spilled bottles of cough medicine, until it is staring me in the face. So, on October 16th, I started working on my chocolates for an event at Let's Talk Wine on October 24th. I had been working on a new truffle, had all my ingredients ready; I was fully prepared for everything, I thought. On the 18th, I woke up with a bit of a tickle in my throat and I thought my eyeballs were going to pop out of my head from sinus pressure, but it was Sunday, everyone was home, I had things to do. I had a small chocolate job to finish and I needed to start infusing some cream for the next batch. Did I mention that my husband rescued a 9 month old puppy? A 9 month old Bernese Mountain Dog(Romeo) who weighs in at 75 pounds? Yes, he is adorable and looks so much like our 6 year old Berner, Lucy that he is tough to resist, but... it has been raining and he likes the mud! I am sick, he can rest his head on the counter and apparently never met a food he didn't love. Needless to say, if there was a week in my life that I shouldn't be making chocolate this was it. I had to stop the chocolate to buy my 8 year old a new pair of shoes,(teething puppy) I had fencing lessons with my 12 year old, (a 35 minute drive and I can't see while I am sneezing) I had to go find another batch of star anise (which isn't very common in my part of the world) because Romeo ate the first pack. More chocolate, I get sicker and am positive I am dying of the H1N1 or something far worse. But I need to assemble boxes and print labels and take photos and make more ganache, and breakfast and fill lunch boxes, then make dinner then ....... go buy a new cell phone because Romeo ATE MY cellphone, which is my work phone.........and as much as I would like to call in sick, I can't; my work is my life, I don't mean that in a type A workaholic way, I mean all of this stuff is my life, my everyday life in my "yay it is the me time part of my life!!"
I did survive, on nyquil and cuppa soup. The chocolates did work out well, except for one recipe. They should really put on the nyquil bottle that it impairs the ability to do math of any kind. I spent the 24th, a little congested, but no worse for the week, except now my 12 year old is sick. Thankfully, no chocolate this week and I can take care of him.
There may soon be an additional place to pick up my chocolates, Krysia Witkowski Branum the owner of INTEGRATIVE Manual Therapy & Wellness, has been kind enough to take some samples to see if her clients might be interested in them. I was delighted to hear the excitement when I dropped them off yesterday! I have been asked about sugar free chocolates so I am going to start some research into that. It is honestly not something that I have ever considered, but I do have a few diabetic customers and I would love to get something tasty and not dangerous to them!
cream infusing with spices for Istanbul
All the chocolates for the Let's Talk Wine event
The only new one of this run was the Balyan:
Named for the most well known architect of Art Nouveau style in Turkey. I had been making bars with fresh ground pink peppercorn and star anise for awhile. I love the combination, and thankfully did quite a few people. I started playing around with a truffle with these flavors. As usual, I initially made things far too complicated. The flavors are balanced so well with a great 65% chocolate. I personally think that you can add anything to the Felchlin 65% and it will taste amazing (which may be giving away a huge secret!)
I brought back the marshmallows, by request. I do love the Bewitched style transfer. I loved all the halloween transfers available and hope that bit of whimsy doesn't turn anyone off the chocolates. I realize that a couple of them would have looked much better with white chocolate, but honestly, with the week I was having, I was lucky to get any of them done!
I am just going to sit here in the chocolate room, watching the leaves in the breeze while I am sipping my chai tea. I am pretending that it is about 55 degrees and crisp. I am ignoring the 70 degrees and 98% humidity and the big muddy puppy rolling in the mud.
No new chocolates for you to track down and eat yet, hopefully next week. Although, my 8 year old is sniffling now!
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