More chocolate

Just came home from the farmer’s market, where I bought an assortment of interesting truffle possibilities and raided Recchiuti Chocolates for ideas. I’ve now got it down to a choice of:

• caramel
• cinnamon
• ginger
• peanut butter
• coffee
• lemon verbena
• rosemary
• truffle (the fungus)
• muscat grape
• rum raisin
• rose (geranium)
• jasmine tea
• armagnac
• MacAllan 12 scotch
• orange
• fig and goat cheese
• chestnut
• honey (using unsweetened chocolate, and adding honey for the sugar)

Of these 18, I’ll pick out 8-9 and use them in chocolates. I may also combine some flavors, e.g. ginger-muscat grape sounds like it would be yummily complementary. Some are purely experimental (fig and goat cheese) and because of those I’ll probably actually make an extra flavor or two – sometimes experiments work, and sometimes they don’t.

It’s always hard to choose the final flavors – it usually boils down to a choice between the safe and familiar (the ones I do every year) and trying something new. I usually do about half and half, and keep the REALLY good flavors for the following year.

I have finished weaving the third scarf–which is gorgeous! It’s rust brown weft and tea-dyed beige warp, and is beautifully iridescent. I’ll take a photo once it’s done – I still need to twist the fringe and wet-finish (i.e. wash) it, then it’ll be ready for pressing and photography.

I have also wound the warp for my next project, which is going to be a gorgeous magenta handspun silk yarn alternating with a black 12/2 silk which I dyed myself, in a houndstooth pattern. I don’t have much of the magenta handspun, so I’m making a scarf that’s only 7.5″ wide and 72 inches long. I hope that turns out OK, not too long and skinny.

I have purchased a temperature controller for use in dyeing and chocolatemaking. It needs some kind of wiring up, but B. took one look at it, exclaimed in delight, and has whisked it off to Home Depot, where he’s going to wire it up to an outlet for me. I’m so glad he knows about stuff like that. I bet I could figure it out on my own eventually, BUT…

Off to work – much, much, much to do this weekend. I have to dip the caramels, make the English toffee, make the hollow molds for the chocolates, buy cream etc. for the chocolatefest, and go do a long ride to make up for having slacked off last week. I may have to skip the ride again if I don’t get cracking on the chocolate – can’t afford to be behind at Thanksgiving.