Homemade Chocolates: The Creamy Centers!

There are a couple of things that just need to be said:

1. My mother-in-law, Mom K, is awesome.
2. I'm glad she likes me.

Mom K has a tradition of making home-made chocolates for Christmas every year.  People, we're talking those chocolates with creamy centers and swirly designs that you match up to a guide to know what you're eating.  It's fancy!

This has been a family tradition for years--Mom K was taught by her mother-in-law (Grandma Malad), who was taught by her mother (Gigi), who was taught by her father brother.  And thankfully, Mom K offered to teach me and Lee last year how to make those creamy centers. Woot!

Bbbbuuuuuut...I can't give you the recipe. Sorry!  You have to understand--it's a family recipe and, even though the recipe doesn't come from the Italian side of the family, they are really good of taking care of people that get a hold of family secrets. (Just kidding!)  

Here's the general gist of how those creamy centers are made:

1. You measure out everything into your pot. 

 

2. You let it get to the temperature that it needs to get to.

3.  You pour it out onto a cold marble slab.

4.  You work it with a couple of spatulas till it loses it's glossiness.

5. And you flavor and color it depending on the flavor you're going for.

As easy as this laundry list seems, candy is tricky sometimes.  We learned a few things that I hope will help you if you're making your own creamy fondant centers:

• Get a candy thermometer.  Using a meat thermometer DOES NOT work, as evidenced by my rock-hard caramels that left a trail of broken teeth last year. 

• Buy your flavorings as oils, NOT extracts.  We used a bottle and a half (about 1.5 ounces) of an orange extract and it still didn't taste orange-y, just alcohol-y! When we finally bought the oils, we used 1/2 teaspoon to get what we needed!

• Start doing upper body workouts about a month before you do chocolates.  You gotta make sure you don't tire during the working of the fondant. Look at those manly arms making the fondant go from glossy to ready! Oh baby!

This year, Lee and I are going out on a limb with a couple of new flavors...

What do you think?  Are you brave enough--would you try them?

Date Night with Real Salt Lake

Yesterday, Lee and I had our date night at the semi-final MLS soccer game between Real Salt Lake and FC Dallas.  We had a few reasons to be excited:

1. Soccer is awesome!
2. Date night is awesome!
3. The Utes lost to the Horned Frogs earlier that afternoon, so we were hoping we would have better luck at the Real game.
4. Churros taste so much better at sporting events.

If you've never been before, here are a few things that I look forward to:

• The extremely graceful players.

He's levitating!

High kick!

This guy looks like he just completed a triple salchow!

• The wonderful acting.

Act 1.  There was a collision.

"This guy is REALLY hurt.  Look at him--he's on the ground. It obviously was that guy's fault."

"Oh I'm SO hurt!  I'm on the ground, moaning in pain. Yellow card that guy, ref! (moan!)"  End of Act 1.

• The atmosphere.

The Rio Tinto Stadium--beautiful!

• The food.

Nachos!  Yum!

• And the crazy crazy fans.

These fans have a drums, chanting, a smoke/fog machine and a confetti machine.   Crazy!

The Real flag got passed along by the fans

Streamers are key to celebrating a goal!

This guy was dressed as a soccer cleat and his date was dressed as a soccer ball!  Crazy fans!

The score was 1-1, but Real needed to score 2 more points to win outright and advance (I'm not sure how all that works out, so ask Lee.)  Oh well.  We still had a great time!  Soccer is so much bigger than you can imagine--if you ever get a chance to go, take it! 

A couple more crazy fans!

Hungry Halloween...time for SUSHI

Lee and I cheated this year.  We reincarnated our costumes from last Halloween since we were short on time this year.  But we made it even better!

We present to you...(cue Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra)

Sushi: Limited and Souped-Up Version, Circa 2010

As some of you remember, we were sushi last year for Halloween. It took us a long time to decide on a costume and when we finally figured it out, it took us a couple days to make them.

Sushi: Take 1 during Halloween 2009

These costumes are made of cardboard, plenty of duct tape, paint, packing peanuts, and some camping foam.  That's it!  They were a hit last year and we thought we might have a chance of winning a costume contest or something if we snazzed them up a bit.

This year, we added more packing peanuts and ones that were "rice" shaped.

We secured the "piece of salmon"...

And we had to top off our sushi with some traditional Japanese ingredients...

...I had a hat of tobiko (aka roe or caviar or just plain fish eggs)...

...and Lee had some wasabi that got a little out of control as the night went on.

The souped-up version is definitely cooler.  Totally worth the tune-up!

We DID win something for being in a costume contest at the Canyons and overall got a couple one-day ski passes.  Woot woot!

And everywhere we went, everyone kept telling us how hungry they were.  Weird, huh?

By the end of the evening, our little sushis were worn out and just needed to rest and have a cup of hot chocolate.

They deserved it!  Happy Halloween!