Bibbity Bobbity Boo or Treats For Evan!

In the time I worked for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, I bore witness to the realization of more than 300 kids' heartfelt wishes. It's an intense experience- it changes a person, seeing someone's impossible wish materialize. Crazy ideas (like, I don't know, starting a chocolate company...) seem more tangible.

Last week, a wish of mine came true when I got to spend an intimate afternoon with one of my heros, Evan Kleiman of 'Good Food' on KCRW. If you've never heard of Good Food, its a local show about food--in every way imaginable, from foodie porn descriptions of the joys of cooking with lard, to insightful discussions of the social meaning of food. And Evan is the ever thoughtful host, always enthusiastic and gracious, knowledgeable but relatable, too. The woman knows her stuff. Her gnocchi, which I wept over at her restaurant Angeli Caffe, are the best thing I've ever put in my mouth. No lie. But on her show, she makes a point of having guests and experts with exceptional experiences and modest means, like people who make great meals in their tiny kitchens. Its inspiring.



This was just such an occasion! My dear friend Delilah Snell, visionary founder of the Road Less Traveled eco-store, Patchwork Indie Craft Fair, which is coming up on June 27, in Long Beach, the fabulous blog 'Project Small' and artisinal preserves company, Backyard In A Jar, taught a private canning class for Evan, and Good Food producer, Harriet. D (as I call her) is a Master Food Preserver with the soul of a mad scientist, and a tiny but lovely one bedroom apartment in Santa Ana. D asked me to come for the afternoon to help with the store, be an extra pair of hands...and because she's really my fairy god mother!

Here's D's post about the class. And here's my take on the thing- Evan is hilarious, sage, charming and real- she looks you in the eye, doesn't hesitate to give her opinion, yet offers a genuine respect to the expertise of others. And Harriet is darling- hard working, enthusiastic and self-deprecating. With a dream job.

So here's what I made for Harriet, Evan and her mamacita to take home with them: Browned Butter & White Sage Truffles with Salty Toasted Almonds, and Habanero Cointreau Truffles with Cocoa Rouge.



I used D's 'Fire' Jelly and her foraged 'White Sage' jelly as the jumping off point for these babies--I love making truffles with Delilah's preserves. Her flavors are always intriguing and complex plus the pectin in the jams, jellies and marmalades give the truffles' fluffy texture some fabulous body. And I know there's no weird chemicals or HFCS in them- they're as wholesome, local and fresh as it gets.



Of course I threw in some of my old stand-by's, too: Pistachio Cherry Chocolate with Sea Salt & Caramel (the vegan one, too!), Pine Nut Pistachio Brittle, and some Mendiants for good measure. Evan, who confessed that she's not usually one for chocolate, said that mine were some of the best she'd had! I'm taking her word for it.

In the true spirit of reciprocity that food inspires in us, Evan and Harriet sent me home with some of their creations, too.



Peach Habanero Jam. Basil Jelly. How dreamy.

Easter Candy Workshop

This past Sunday a handful of (fascinating!) students joined me in the workshop space of The Road Less Traveled for what has now become my favorite workshop- Easter Candy! We made egg-shaped truffles, with colorful coatings, and reinterpreted the mendiant, a traditional Christmas candy, as truly Spring-inspired confections.

Chambord was the flavor of the day for our truffles- a real Spring time classic. Forming them into little eggs, we tumbled them in pistachio crumbs, powdered sugar, cocoa rouge and toasted almonds—kind of like dying Easter eggs, only less stinky. And probably more fattening.



And then there were the mendiants! Mendiants are part of the 13 desserts of a proper Provencal Christmas, a tradition steeped in religious symbolism. Though I’m neither French nor Catholic, I love mendiants! And I want to eat them more than once a year.

Dried figs, Raisins, Almonds and Hazelnuts are the wintery goodies usually found on a mendiant- each topping symbolizing a particular monastic order (the word ‘mendiant’ means beggar-- the mendicant orders survived completely on alms). By keeping their origin story alive, I’m hoping to be forgiven for shaking this tradition up a bit. First to go is the Christmasy context, and with it go the wintery flavors.

In their place…thin slivers of chili mango, tart petals of dried hibiscus flowers, spicy candied ginger, and locally foraged pink peppercorns … Keep Preserves’ Pink Chili Salt, brilliant green pistachios, and sunny strips of dried apricot… huge crunchy Brazil nuts, aromatic tangerine zest, and- of course- a smattering of sea salt.



The results were surprising, Spring-y and quite modern. And addictively delicious. No bite is the same as the one before and even the very bite you have in your mouth changes as the chocolate warms on your tongue.
The C Salt Mendiant is here to stay, folks.



Since its getting warmer, and chocolate is such a delicate flower, this may have been my last workshop until after summer- but I’ll keep you posted!

Cage Fighter Caramel Sauce

Last week I had the distinct pleasure of speaking with a group of young Criminal Justice students at Westwood College in Anaheim, as a guest lecturer in their 1st Semester course ‘Success Skills.’ We were there to discuss goals- how powerful they can be, how illuminating-- and ultimately, how unpredictable the outcome can be, despite our plans.

I shared with them my own unlikely experience as a Women’s Studies major, Make-A-Wish Foundation Wish Coordinator and…chocolatier!

They shared with me their surprising exuberance for cooking! Among the questions about my business, college years, and time at Make-A-Wish were enthusiastic (and very specific) questions about recipes. So. This is for Nick, a dedicated student, cage fighter, and all around cutie pie, who wanted to know how to make caramel sauce for two. Lucky girl!

Cage Fighter Caramel Sauce

• 1 cup of organic sugar
• 5 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temp
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• ½ tsp real, good quality vanilla extract
• Big pinch sea salt

In a heavy-bottomed pot with high sides, place your butter and sugar. Over low heat, allow butter to melt into the sugar until you have a homogenous, sandy mixture, stirring occasionally. Once butter is melted, turn heat up to medium and prepare to stay put! Using a high heat spatula, lift darkening spots along the bottom of the pot onto top of mixture. Don’t stir the entire mixture, because you’ll lose all the heat building in your soon-to-be caramel. Look for bubbles as a clue to where the hot spots are!

After a few minutes, the mixture will once again be the same color throughout- a light/medium amber color. You’re in the home stretch, now it’s a waiting game. Bubbles should be coming up all over the mixture’s surface now. You can stir, now, and when you do, look at the mixture as it drips off your spatula. Is it still grainy and stiff? Keep heating.

When it’s a deep amber color (not black, not brown- looking for warm, orangey tones, here) and the mixture streams off your spatula smoothly and doesn’t look grainy- DON”T TOUCH! DON’T TASTE! HOT!- just look at it- it is ready for the cream. (If you have a candy thermometer, it will be at hard crack.) Stir in the cream and pinch of salt and know that this mess is going to bubble up like crazy- keep stirring. Once everything settles down, add the vanilla extract and keep on stirring through the bubbling mess again.

Your caramel sauce just needs to cool down a bit, now. Take the pot off the heat and allow to cool for a few minutes, then transfer to a canning jar and store in the fridge. It will be good for a couple of weeks, maybe more.

Super good on coffee ice cream with toasted almonds and a smidge of sea salt…

“Since Brevity Is The Soul Of Wit” –William Shakespeare, Hamlet

I used to call myself a poet. Poetry brought my husband to me. It was the filter through which I lived my life. Its been years now since I’ve written a poem-they used to come so readily, I couldn’t imagine my life without them…

And somewhat sadly, here it is. I live my life attempting to fill this poem-shaped hole. Reading Audre Lorde and e.e. cummings helps. So does listening to This American Life, and spending time in the kitchen creating wild flavors of truffles. This week I spent an evening with poetry of a different sort—The 2009 Animated & Live Action Short Film Nominees for the Academy Award, thanks to the generosity of a friend who is a member of the academy.

Dylan Thomas defined poetry this way: "Poetry is what makes me laugh or cry or yawn, what makes my toenails twinkle, what makes me want to do this or that or nothing." Twinkling toenails, indeed! Some of these films were laugh-out-loud funny...


Granny O'Grimms Sleeping Beauty


Some had moments of such pure, quiet solemn beauty...


Dama y la Muerte


a few were politically incisive, even devastating… some were all of this and more. None exceeded 30 minutes. Most were 20 minutes or shorter.

These are the films we rarely get to see, swept into the dank corner of the Oscars Ceremony most don’t watch, and yet this screening was completely packed. According to Peter Riegert, the evening’s host, The Academy’s screening of the Shorts is always the first to sell out- this year every last ticket was gone within 15 minutes. I know why. I’m already scheming to get my hands on tickets for next year!

For the last 5 years, the Short Film Nominees have been shown in limited release, but for most of us they were still out of reach. This year, for the first time ever, these films are going to be On Demand, for (almost) all to see! I audibly squealed when Mr. Riegert announced this! According to LivingCinema.com

“The nation’s leading MOD distributor, iN DEMAND L.L.C., will make the films available to U. S. digital cable audiences through Movies On Demand (MOD) starting March 3rd in both standard and high definition. Nominees in both the Live Action and Animated categories will be available on Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Bright House Networks systems around the country.
Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, and Bright House Networks will host the films within MOD in an “Award Nominees” category. Comcast customers will find the films within MOD and its “Top Picks” category under the subcategory “Oscar Nominees.” Comcast will also be presenting the top live action short film titles from 2009. The cost for these programs varies from $2.99 to $5.99.”

My Faves? For Best Animated Short, I have to bypass the silly new Wallace and Gromit bit and vote for ‘Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty’ hands down! This hilarious 6 minute treat from Ireland is a love note to storytelling, that favorite of Irish traditions. This one's on Youtube, in full, for free!

As for the Live Action Shorts I feel compelled to name a runner up in addition to my big winner. ‘Instead of Abracadabra’ was charming, awkward and oh-so-funny (in that Napoleon Dynamite kind of way)



Instead of Abracadabra

but ‘The New Tenants’ was transcendent. David Rakoff’s horrifying/hysterical opening monologue is followed by a parade of cameos, who shall remain nameless so as not to spoil the surprise. Hubba hubba is all I have to say about that. And yet, this dark and absurd tale ends so whimsically, so (yes) poetically the final image hasn’t yet stopped twirling around in my head.

So rain-check your big Friday night plans and treat yourself to a heavenly little slice of humanity. And then vote for your favorite eye-poem here!

In the red-carpet spirit of the Academy Awards, I'll be posting the recipes of some swanky cocktails to sip on as you watch. And, yes, its okay to sip fancy drinks in not-so-fancy PJ's.

"kisses are a better fate than wisdom" - e.e. cummings

Maybe its unwise for a chocolatier to advocate for a less commercialized Valentine’s Day. It is my second busiest holiday, after the Christmas season, and I’m really quite grateful for that. But as a lover of love, it breaks my red-doily heart that people reject the one national holiday devoted to love-the highest of human emotions because Hallmark & De Beers have cast their dark shadows over it. I realize, too, that Valentine’s Day often leaves single folk feeling, well, singled out. But don’t you remember those construction paper-wrapped shoe boxes jammed with sweet notes and sweet-tarts that made your day when you were a kid? Valentines for everyone you sat near, everyone you played cats cradle with, each kid in your class? At least on Valentine’s Day we loved our neighbors and told them so.

What if we brought it back? What if we reclaimed this day as one for sweet-hearted mischief, home-made love notes and sugar cookies for all the people we love? What if we took this day as a chance to woo each other, not by dropping dollars but by spending time?

I am dedicating this blog post to a couple of people in my life who do just that.
My friend Chenise recently hosted a little get together she called ‘Sweet Fangs’, inviting a small group of old friends for a lovely evening of giggles, wine, veggie lasagna and Valentines! There was glitter, there were feathers galore, construction paper, paper doilies, old-fashioned pricing tags and a few hot-glue gun blisters (of course). One gal even taught us how to make heart-shaped cake pops! We all came home that night with cheeks achy from laughing and a fist full of love notes for our sweet-hearts, friends and grannies.

Casey Filbey, of the band Casey and the Tall Boys is my other source of hand-made Valentine’s inspiration. She recently told me about her charming plans to woo a special someone she’s got her eye on with, what else, music! With the help of a little thing called a pling-plong mechanism, she’s making her own music box (sans box) that plays one of her original songs. I loved this idea so much, I might ‘borrow’ it myself! I'm not much of a musician (I have written 1 1/2 songs in my life and no, you can't hear them) but I think I might use one of the songs my husband has written for me through the years.

And you? What love-mischief are you up to? What kisses await you? Share your Valentine’s plans, memories, and ideas. Hand-made, with love by you!