A Gorgeous Piece of Fine Marble

Whoo HOO!  Just got home today from a local granite and marble yard and what a find!
This week I'm learning how to hand temper chocolate -- so it was important to find a good piece of marble. When we walked into the yard, it was looking right at me. Just sitting there in the rain waiting for the right person to come along. And there I was. And YES. It was free - probably would have retailed for around $150 at a gourmet retail store.


If you need a good piece of marble, try your local yard. You might be surprised :-) like me!

Stumbling into the world of fine chocolate

Chocolate has always played a BIG part in my life.  My first memory was when I was a 3 or 4,  running to open my Christmas stocking stuffed to the brim with these darling little dutch chocolate shoes and delicious Baricini pistachio marzipan chocolates that my father brought back with him from New York! Every year he brought them and every year I squealed with delight at their appearance.  My second memory happened when I was a bit older in Brownies. Our Brownie Troop had gone camping and we were promised smores for a campfire treat. In the afternoon though, I found the box of Hershey Bars and while everyone else played games, I crawled in the back of the troop leader's station wagon and proceeded to consume every last one of the bars!!!!  Fast forward  to a field trip to a dairy, I pulled another similar stunt. This time crawling into the back of a dairy truck filled with Eskimo Pies. They eventually found me half frozen........ and I can only imagine how many Eskimo Pies later..... 


And so my life went for many years.... at least, my love affair with chocolate and my on-again-off-again  massive consumption of it.  I thought I knew EVERYTHING about chocolate. Was I ever wrong!


Ahhh. Here is where it gets interesting. The world of chocolate I am now becoming exposed to is anything but the one I used to know.