What is this?
Russet potatoes freshly harvested?
But no.
These lovelies don’t look so pretty, but they are indeed delicious.
Can you tell I have a new Nikon D700 camera and a honking new lens too? I’m still trying to figure out how this thing works…
Well, so far I have been able to make little itty bitty chocolate cocoa beans look like russet potatoes. That’s neat.
These don’t look gorgeous but they taste gorgeous. The cocoa beans are ethically sourced and locally roasted by the husband and wife team Dominique and Cindy Duby, of Wild Sweets.
While I was at Whole Foods, lingering at the chocolate section, I noticed these artisanal chocolates. The concept is a play on chocolate covered nuts. The roasted cocoa bean replaces the nut and it’s covered with 70% dark chocolate infused with various flavourings and tossed in cocoa powder.
The box I bought was under $6Cdn for the little 60g box. There didn’t seem to be as many cocoa beans as I would have hoped for, for that amount of money, but mind you these are meant to be savoured slowly. I just had one and it was all at once crunchy and chocolatey but not as bitter as eating a naked cocoa nib. The dark chocolate coating helped temper the bitterness and added a tiny element of smoothness. I detected a tiny bit of the finely ground caramel.
I was not so daring to try the other flavours, but opted for the safe Turbinado Vanilla flavour for now. The other flavour available was Cassonade Chipotle. There was also a Cocoa Nib series which I guess of course, incorporates little nibs. The flavours were Almond Black Pepper and Hazelnut Star Anise.
Since I have been reading Mireille Guiliano’s, French Women Don’t Get Fat Cookbook, that I recently bought for my Kindle, I have been detoxing with her Miracle Breakfast Cream and Leek Soup. Though I had an interrupted day by attending the PNE and eating those little cinnamon-sugar donuts, I didn’t overindulge. I lost about 3 pounds in 3 days and have now become addicted to the Miracle Breakfast Cream. I have been eating the MBC for about a week now and I’m making my own organic yogurt at home.
The Leek Soup wasn’t as tasty on its own so I doctored it by adding chicken broth to it. The Leeks themselves I had with olive oil and lemon juice. They were so good I think I could live on this forever. I will be incorporating the MBC in my breakfast routine from now on. I can’t believe how much better I feel. I think it’s the MBC. I actually find myself thinking about the MBC during the day and I look forward to eating it from the special little bowls I set aside for serving my MBC. The recipe I like uses organic plain yogurt, organic lemon juice, finely ground organic plain shredded wheat cereal and walnuts, flaxseed oil and honey. I chose to sweeten it with Manuka honey. It’s expensive but I have had really good health eating it; especially when I have a cold. I have 3 different bottles of Manuka honey
at home for different purposes. The bottle with the highest Manuka Factor ( UMF 20+) I use for colds—I ordered these from New Zealand's Comvita online, and the stuff I get at Whole Foods is just UMF16+ which I use to prevent colds. The other one is simply labelled Manuka honey and doesn’t indicate any number for the Manuka Factor and that is the one I’m using for the MBC. I have a sweet tooth (as you know) so I use about a teaspoon. These little chocolate covered “nuts” are so perfect for me right now. I can control myself and not overindulge and they are so decadent!
Roll a handful of chocolate plastic into a ball. I have a plastic-lined board from my 
Using a small circle cutter about 1 inch in diameter, cut out 15 circles.
I used my a cutter from my 
Take a small chunk of the remnants left from cutting the circles and create a small ball about the size of a marble.
Take each circle and, using primarily your thumbs and index fingers, flatten it into petal shapes so that the edges are thinner at the edges. I just rotate the petal while flattening the edges. Don't overwork it and don't try to make it look perfectly circular. Learn to love little imperfections.
1st row of petals (3 petals required): taking one of the prepared petals, wrap the teardrop base so that the tip is mostly hidden. You should be only be able to see a bit of the tip of the teardrop when looking from the top of the rose. Take another petal and overlap the first wrapped petal. This picture shows what you'll have with 2 petals wrapped around the base. Take the third petal and again, overlap the last petal you applied to the base.
2nd row of petals (5 petals required): the key to the second row of petals is that these should stand straight up whereas the first row were wrapped towards the centre. Wrap each of the 5 petals one by one; overlapping the preceding one. Continue in this manner until all 5 are attached. Use your fingers or a cotton swab to adjust the position of the petals, if you wish. This picture shows the first petal applied for the second row.
This picture shows the second row of upright petals.
This picture shows the rose with the third row of petals almost finished (with 3 curved petals applied). Adjust the third row of petals to look as natural as possible.
Pinch a small ball of chocolate plastic in your fingers and create a ball by rolling it between your palms. You remember...kind of like when you were a kid playing with Playdough!
I like to make a hole down the top of my pumpkin with a toothpick first. I drill down to about the centre of the pumpkin.
It's a delicate matter. You can use tweezers I suppose, but I find a toothpick works fine because the little point helps guide the stem end into the hole.
I use the toothpick tip to squish and press down the stem to attach it firmly to the pumpkin top and then proceed to make a leaf.
Create a tiny ball of chocolate plastic into a leaf shape. I know that pumpkin leaves don't look like this, but I'm working in such a tiny scale that I don't really care. This simple leaf design is so much easier to handle. If you're so inclined, go ahead and make the pumpkin leaves look botanically correct. I find that trying to make little curly tendrils doesn't work well as the plastic chocolate doesn't hold its shape so well when it's rolled so thinly.
You can use the Mini Chocolate Pumpkins to adorn 
mini pumpkin cheesecake brulées: smooth, creamy and not over-spiced! 
The recipe I created makes only 8 mini cheesecakes. I just wanted to use one brick of cream cheese, and I kind of just made the recipe up along the way.
Bib is now recovering from a UTI she developed about 2 weeks ago. At first I thought she was teething (two bottom teeth happened to pop up at this time), but her fever continued and she also started to alternate between fevers and chills. This was going on for about a week and it was worsening. She was fussy and seemed to be in pain all the time. The doc told me to go to emergency if it didn't get any better. He thought it might be either a UTI or perhaps she was fighting a virus. So I did the next day after seeing him because she seemed to be worse. Thank god I did. At Children's emergency, they took 2 vials of blood. Stomach said, "do you have to take that much? she's only a little baby". The nurse kind of just shrugged and did it anyway.
