Too much of a good thing is a good thing

 

I think that this past week I tried to really find out if too much of a good thing is a good thing (I can't take credit for this line... I borrowed it from an Alan Jackson song- country music lyrics just get right to the point sometimes, don't they?).  

Here is my week's timeline:

--Tuesday night:  Academy Nights chocolate making class with Teresa Wilkerson of WR Chocolatier; ganache and truffle making; tempering chocolate; rolling truffles in tempered chocolate and toasted coconut; Joan Fox and I are pictured above at the class

--Friday afternoon:  interview with Dolly Mama at her studio in downtown Durham;  Dolly is a chocolate maker par excellence whose chocolates I have tasted at the Durham Farmers' Market and at Wine Authorities.  I ate the chocolate cone.  At least I took a photo first!

Yes, it was incredible.

--Saturday morning:  off to the Durham Farmers' Market (in the snow) to take some photos of Dolly and taste her hot chocolate (I got the last cup, I think...);  I did offer the un-ex, my chauffeur in the snow, a sip...

I also bought a box of her Sea Turtles.  I love them-- sweet and salty.  What better combination?  70% dark chocolate, creamy caramel center, candied pecan and Flor de Sal (yummy salt) on top.

--Saturday afternoon:  more work on my next newspaper article (chocolate, in case you haven't already guessed);  make truffles using WR Chocolatier's recipes and Sunshine Lavender Farm's dark chocolate lavender truffle recipe (see last post-- it needs some tweaking-maybe a tablespoon or two of butter stirred in with the chocolate and no refrigeration; it was too hard to scoop after only about an hour in the refrigerator; it could just cool on the counter for a while; the lavender taste is divine, though)

 

This is one my truffles, rolled in toasted organic coconut.  

--Sunday:  finish the article, proofread it many times, get my proofreaders to proof it; send it off to my editor at the Herald-Sun; wrap up the leftover truffles;  make chocolate pudding pie for the eaters to enjoy this week (pretty darned good when you use light cream with the pudding instead of 2% milk and shave chocolate on the top)

And last, but not least, make very simple pains au chocolat or chocolate croissants for one of my 8th grade classes.  One of the girls made them on Friday, forgetting that her class would not meet, so I brought them home and my son and one of his friends ate almost all of them after their basketball game on Friday night.  So, I bought some Pillsbury Crescent roll dough, shaped them into rectangles instead of triangles, filled each one with milk chocolate chips, rolled them up and baked them at 350F for 15 minutes.

 

I might even melt some chips and drizzle warm chocolate on top before they devour them.  I do really look forward to introducing the 16 of them going to France with me (in less than a month!) to real ones...  But these aren't bad.

And now it is Super Bowl time.  I need a toasted pimiento cheese sandwich.  I bought some at Whole Foods yesterday while shopping for the chocolate for the truffles.  They make it in-house and it is amazing. I think I've had enough chocolate for one weekend...

Bon appétit, Saints and Colts!

Merci, Dolly and Teresa, for sharing you time and talents with me!