My father flies up a few days before the arbitration. It’s my birthday, but I don’t really feel like doing anything; all I really want is a divorce and something resembling a reasonable agreement, and they don’t sell those online.

We decide to tackle some home improvement projects, like fixing the garage door, which hasn’t opened since six months ago when the spring broke. It was an expensive repair that I didn’t want to make if I had to sell the house – I’d rather The Departed have to bear his share of the cost since he was clearly determined to have his share of the profits. My father haggles the price down but it’s still quite a bit of money – basically, it’s now my birthday present. I can put my car in the garage.

Not only that, I can take it out again.

It makes me incredibly nervous, having spent this money on the house – I feel like we’ve now jinxed Monday’s proceedings, counting on a victory that is not yet mine. My father apologizes for the superstitiousness he’s sure is genetic, and informs me we’re moving on to other projects: We’re going to paint a room. Which one?

I decide on The Child’s bedroom, for the simple reason that it’s in the worst shape – it must be painted regardless of whether we move.

By Sunday, though, I’m able to persuade him we need to do something fun, and as it happens, the Northwest Chocolate Expo is going on that day. We’re going.

I’m the only one of the three of us who is excited about this.

We’re getting my birthday treats there, I tell them. I never got any cake. I want chocolate.

Plus, I can take it with me when I move … if only on my hips.

My first stop was at the Intrigue Chocolate Company booth, where I sampled their extraordinary Basil Chocolate: – rich chocolate with a refreshing basil undertone that sneaks up on you and hits you just as the chocolate stops melting. There’s a reason the dish in the picture is empty – it disappeared fast.

San Francisco-based Dandelion Chocolate came to Seattle for the event, and offered samples of their extraordinary Madagascar 70% bars. I don’t even know where to begin with this chocolate: the citrus undertones packed quite a wallop, yet the overall flavor was smooth and not too strong the way dark chocolate can sometimes be. It was a bar to be savored slowly, and probably would pair well with wine.

Forte Chocolate, from Mount Vernon, WA, had a wonderful selection of unusual chocolates, including one with the addition of some nice, biting chili pepper, that I enjoyed much more than I thought I would. I also adored their white chocolate bars.

I wish I could remember more about the booth that had this *cough* healthful assortment of chocolate offerings. I did try the beet chocolate and it was nice, in an offbeat, I’m trying too hard to be cool kind of way.

I didn’t go there with the Maple Bacon Fudge or Bacon Caramel, though.

The exhibitors at the Festival were all super-friendly, and why shouldn’t they be? They get to hang around chocolate all day … for a living. The Festival got a bit crowded, but it was still fun – even for the child, who brought home a box of Carter’s Chocolates Obama Salted Caramels to show all her friends.

No, there were no Romney chocolates available that we could find. And yes, they were delicious.

This is my contribution to Weekend Cooking, hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Why not swing by and see what other culinary surprises await?

I’m not very organized lately. Somehow, I ended up with four pounds of vanilla yogurt in my fridge, along with a lifetime supply of shredded coconut. My pantry is well-stocked with three different kinds of oatmeal. Not the little packet thingies. Irish oats. Steel cut oats. Some kind of organic oats from the bulk foods aisle at whole foods. Somewhere, a Scotsman is laughing himself silly knowing what I paid for, you know, horse feed.

I meant to do that.

[Read more…]

I don’t really know what came over me. I’m not normally a candy maker in any sense. A candy eater, yes – I have a wicked sweet tooth – but the furthest I’ve ever really gotten with candy was to once make chocolate-covered strawberries. Although they were nice and definitely cheaper than the store-bought variety, they also didn’t look as pretty and seemed to be a lot more trouble than they were worth.

But I ran across this recipe for Spiced Apple Cider Caramels on Sweet Pea’s Kitchen, and for some reason I had to make them. Maybe it is the miserable, un-summery Seattle cliche weather we’ve been plagued with lately* that moved this recipe off the “I might make that eventually” pile and onto the “I must make this right now” pile.

I made them,  and liked them, and as soon as they were cool enough to cut and sample, offered one to The Child, who tasted it, spit it out, and pronounced it “Too sweet!”

They were a bit sweet, but so easy to make, I thought, well, maybe I can find a way to cut the sweetness, or a slightly different recipe that she will like more.

The next morning, as we were getting into the car to go to school, she announced she needed to bring something for a class party – first I’d heard of it, and although she balked, I packed up almost all of the caramels and sent them with her. Next time, tell me a couple days ahead.

On the way home later that day, The Child announced that her whole class thought I had made the most amazing caramels ever in the history of the universe, and also, did I know they’re even better frozen?

And I was off to the races. On the way home, we stopped to pick up some frozen orange juice, so that I could attempt this recipe for Orange Caramels.

These were really good too – soft and sweet and lightly citrusy.

I had an urge to make more, and I didn’t disagree with The Child: The sweetness was good, but I wanted something a bit more sophisticated. I’ve always preferred limes to lemons, grapefruits to oranges. I thought perhaps I was beginning to understand the rage for salt on caramels, which, as with so many food fads, kind of snuck up on me and made me a little irritable.

But then I found this recipe for Pomegranate Caramels with Almonds and Kosher Salt over at Vanilla Garlic, a blog I’d never heard of before but will be checking often now. His recipe takes a different approach, using brown sugar rather than the corn syrup of the others.

The recipe uses Alton Brown’s recipe for pomegranate molasses, which doesn’t give off the most pleasant aroma when you make it – until you get to the end.

I’m not sure what I did, exactly, because my caramels are a bit harder than Vanilla Garlic’s appear to be. But they are chewy when eaten and have an oh-so-deliciously marvelous sour and salty flavor. The toasted almonds add a nice crunch.

I’m excited for future experiments with caramel candy making. Vanilla Garlic mentions a recipe for Blood Orange Caramels that has me so excited I can hardly wait for blood orange season. Another blog I ran across demonstrates a technique for Lavender Scented Caramels that seemed intriguing.

What I learned today: Making caramels is not hard at all.

and also

Food fads are not all bad.

This is my sticky contribution to Weekend Cooking, hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Why not swing by and see what other temptations await?

*Lately? More like always.