December Favorites and Last Post of 2011
Hello Everyone
I do hope you have been enjoying your holiday as much as I have. I love having the time to read books, visit with friends and family long unseen, and to simply forget about nagging errands and to-do lists; to enjoy good food and company. It has been a pretty good December. School finished well, setting me up nicely for my final college semester. There’s been lots of good cooking going on and I’ve also spent the last week or so constantly glued to my new iphone. I never thought the day world come where I would admit reliance on a piece of technology but boy, my phone sure is a fun toy.
I spent Christmas at my grandparent’s house this year, as I have done for the past few years. I actually quite like it. I used to think there was nothing like waking up Christmas morning in my own bed but have now come to realize that nothing beats spending the morning with as much family as possible: my aunts and uncles, cousins, grandparents, and my parents and sister. Christmas Eve was filled with so much laughter and joy. We sat around the table, in a constant state of chatting and snacking, the sounds of football games and “It’s a Wonderful Life” in the background. We moved straight from lunch to a snack of spinach artichoke dip with pita chips, to chicken stew and my homemade ciabatta for dinner, and then a literal tableful of desserts. My salted caramel ice cream and my aunt’s chocolate and almond cake made a winning pair.
The night ended with the traditional Christmas Eve game of Pictionary, a long-standing tradition since I was about eight-years-old. The game is old-school Pictionary, created in 1989, and the box is complete with a picture of happy game-players, men with handlebar moustaches and oversized teal sweaters and women in tapered light-washed jeans and side ponytails. It’s is essentially two whiteboards hinged together and a stack of cards listing items to draw, but regardless the game somehow always makes for extraordinary entertainment, so much so that we end the competitive Pictionary battle with stomachs aching and eyes streaming from laughing so hard.
So, Christmas is over, New Years’ is approaching, and soon enough, back to real life. But for now I will enjoy this last week of laziness, guiltless gorging, and finishing off my store of chocolate before those resolutions take effect. More than anything, I just hope for a good year. My resolution is to simply come to resolutions. This coming year will be my ultimate time for ending and hopeful beginnings so I want to end college well, to decide what I want in my life, to find a job, to check off the remaining things of my college bucket list, and to avoid feeling lost and confused as much as possible.
To finish of my last post of 2011, I want to give you my list of December favorites as well as a super easy recipe for some chocolate bark I made to share during the holiday. A great gift and the perfect way to turn ordinary chocolate into a sweet and satly treat.
Happy New Year everyone!
December Favorites
This great list of homemade gifts
I suppose I should start making something like this for myself
If only I was in London I could have tried the chocolate magic wands
Can't wait to start reading this and this
Want to order a jar of this
I could NOT stop laughing at this
Made these cookies for my friends and we devoured them all!
Salty, Sweet, and Crunchy Chocolate Bark
Ingredients
8 oz. good quality dark chocolate (I used Callebaut)
a handful of toasted pecans
a handful of toasted, unsweetened coconut
a handful of soy nuts
a handful of chopped, dried cherries
Line a bread loaf pan with parchment paper on both sides. Prepare a double boiler on the stove with a metal or glass bowl sitting on a pan of simmering water. Chop the chocolate into small chunks and place it in the bowl of the double boiler. Stir with a heatproof spatula until fully melted and glossy. Once melted, remove the bowl from the heat and pour in the mix-ins. Stir to coat with the chocolate. Pour everything into the prepared bread tin and use the spatula to even out the chocolate, spreading it to all edges and pressing the top flat and even. Sprinkle the top with a little more pecans, coconut, soy nuts, and cherries so that people will know what is inside. Place in the refrigerator for about an hour until totally firm. Once set, remove from the tin, peel off the parchment, and cut the chocolate into blocks (whatever size you like) with a sharp knife. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.