Wednesday, October 29, 2003

It's quite hard to tell autumn from summer here in the Bay Area, especially this year. The past few days it was hovering over 90. Hot. Not a very good week to make chocolate, but that's exactly what I did. I attended a chocolate making class by Richard Donnelly last Monday, and I've been making chocolate everyday since. I'm determined to master tempering, but it's proven to be quite a challenge. I attempted to use my digital thermometer, but I don't think I can trust it -- Richard Donnelly swears by the 'upper lip' method; meaning, you smear some chocolate on your upper lip while tempering, and if you don't feel any change (it's supposed to be the same temperature as your upper lip), then you're on your way to perfectly tempered chocolate. It takes many many attempts to master this, and I clearly haven't. The result of 2 days of chocolate practice -- Lavender Infused Chocolate Madeleines, Chocolate Dipped Candied Grapefruit Peel, Chocolate Covered Apricots, and Chocolate Nut Bark.

Notice the badly tempered chocolate covering the apricots on the right.
The others are better. I'm improving, but I need more practice.

Posted by Karen @ 04:43 PM PST [Link]

Things are finally moving along as far as the wedding is concerned. My mom and sis-in-law Cindy came over to help me out. I finally have a new reception venue and a florist. There are still many little details to take care of, but I think they're all pretty manageable.

I spent the afternoon at Ducky's Car Wash. My mom's been bugging me to get the car cleaned so I had some detailing done on the carpets and the seats. It took 2 hours! I was reading Under the Tuscan Sun while waiting, and I found myself with a sudden craving for spaghetti and meatballs. Since today's a lazy day and I didn't want to cook, I went to Draeger's and bought some spaghetti and meatballs and a slice of carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Garry's in a 3 hour class tonight, so I'm enjoying my take home dinner alone. It was simple but very satisfying. Mmm.

I watched the first episode of Jamie Oliver's reality series Jamie's Kitchen -- I think I'm hooked! I have to watch it every night this whole week. (I programmed a Season Pass for it on Tivo. Yey!)

Posted by Karen @ 03:43 PM PST [Link]

Thursday, October 2, 2003

Garry and I just got back from a week long vacation in Hawaii. We went with 5 friends (and a cute little baby) and stayed in an amazing house right by Kailua Bay in Oahu. We went kayaking, snorkeling, and boogie boarding (I didn't really do so well with that one). At night, we would cook up a storm, have a wonderful dinner, and end the night with a heated game of Bean or Scrabble.

View of Kailua Bay from the house we stayed in	One handed photo in front of the beach

Posted by Karen @ 03:43 PM PST [Link]