Chocolate

How to Table Chocolate

December 3, 2011

Last week I had the pleasure of taking a truffle and bon bon making course in Toronto with Marissa Scibetta at Bonnie Gordon College of Confectionary Arts. For two glorious evenings I was the proverbial kid in the candy shop, weighing, heating, mixing, spooning and dipping chocolate. My only complaint is I am no longer [...]

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Recipe: Chocolate Waffles

February 1, 2011

Last Saturday, along with two double lattes, I ate waffles and raisins. As far as my food intake went, that was about it. We shall not count the wine as I consider that “medication.” Andrew was pretty steamed at me for ignoring my health — a luxury I often deny him — but I was [...]

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Recipe: Plum, Chocolate & Frangipane Pie

October 18, 2010

Had the pears held up I would likely be writing about broccoli or Swiss chard. Health food fans lament; pie lovers rejoice. On Saturday, with guests arriving and the clock ticking loudly in my ears, I tossed my dessert plans into the garbage along with the perfect-on-the-outside, punky-on-the-inside pears. Unable to rest upon the laurels [...]

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Recipe: Pear and Chocolate Tart

September 7, 2010

When you do nothing to your pear tree but leave it be, you can expect trouble. And trouble came to my friend in the form of dozens and dozens and dozens of bug-free, blemishless, picture perfect pears. Her punishment? Driving some over to me. That’ll teach her. I asked her what she likes to do [...]

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Chocolate Winner

January 18, 2010

Oh, so close. One number lower and I could have launched this post with a really cool reference to Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. You know. What’s the secret of the universe? 42! Oh, I could have had fun proving chocolate was at the core of our existence and given you an airtight [...]

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Raspberry Hot Chocolate and a Book Giveaway

January 12, 2010

When I was a child, my father used to make an ice rink in the back yard. He’d pile us onto the toboggan and pull us around to flatten the snow. Then, night after night, he’d zip up his navy blue snowmobile suit and disappear into the dark. When he came back in, his mittens [...]

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Dutch Chocolate Cake Gets Tarted Up

September 17, 2009

It’s official. I’m a Bad Sister. Capital letters earned. This post is a public apology to my sister Robin with the hopes that sincere groveling and pretty pictures illustrating the possible Make-Up Cake will help. My blunder? I forgot my sister’s birthday. Totally and completely. Now, forgetting a birthday is forgivable. But when the birthday [...]

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Mocha Ice Cream

September 1, 2009

This is the dessert that helped salvage last week’s birthday fiasco. It’s rich, it’s mocha-y, it’s almost like a truffle. It can stand on its own as a decadent treat, or elevate a mediocre cake to the realm of greatness — providing you like the taste of coffee. Delicious as this may be, whatever you [...]

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Decadent Chocolate Chip Cookie Parfait

July 23, 2009

I didn’t make this dessert. My younger sister did. The entire dish was earmarked for her boyfriend. But she loves me enough to let me take a few photographs of the last serving reserved for him. She even provided the martini glass. I love her enough not to scarf the dish after the shoot and [...]

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Ginger Ice Cream Pie

November 11, 2008

I live in the birthplace of Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae. I learned his poem In Flanders Fields in Grade 5. I still know it by heart, and it still makes me cry. Tonight, Andrew will give a lecture on the horrific battle of Passchendael. We don’t take the sacrifices of the past lightly. In many [...]

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Simple Decadence

July 17, 2008

My mother dropped by the other day with a plate of these. I mined the depths of my culinary discipline to take a photo before gobbling. Of all the simple pleasures, whole, fresh strawberries dipped in dark chocolate ranks right up there with the first crocus of spring, a summer breeze and line-dried sheets. There’s [...]

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