I miss jewelry class!

I went over this afternoon to pick up my final pieces from silver jewelry last semester...man, I miss that class. :'( And I want my own studio with equiptment, or at least some place where I can rent a studio with equiptment!!!!

I'm making more chocolates this afternoon...strawberries, oreos,and who knows what else! Maybe coconutty things.

I'm also planning a blog layout update, with image links to the side and lots of cool stuff. :3 But it will probably take me forever.

Let's see...what else? Oh yeah I am still working on ASP.NET tutorials randomly, which is kind of fun. I want to work with flash, but I need to buy flash or adobe CS3/4. And I want to work with Maya some, too, but I need a better laptop. And a second external drive, so that when Syd takes the drive we have to work to listen to music I can still work on things. We do have gift cards that we could put towards that sometime. >.>

I'm really in the mood to do something fun. Either go somewhere, or make something. One of the projects in MAKE magazine, for example? MAKE magazine is totally awesome.

I need to be figuring out birthday presents for fishy..ack too much too much too much to do...

I was sad that I didn't get to attend the local Tax Day Tea Party yesterday. I kind of wanted to, but it has been such a bad week with Syd working constantly, we are both sleep deprived (which gives me headaches, literally) and I have had stomach aches all week constantly, probably accidentally got something contaminated at Easter. :( So it didn't happen, but I'm thinking about going to the next one. :P If I can talk Syd into it...he thinks governmental protests are useless (and he is quite possibly right)...but I still think it would be fun! Besides, nothing would ever get done if everyone had that attitude.

I reserved some more exercise books at the library (and some other random stuff too). Yay, fun! ^_^

Okay chocolate-making time. After dish-washing time. Ugh, dishes. >.< Oh how I hate thee!

Chocolate Making, Day 2 - molding

So I wanted to make 3D hollow chocolate eggs for everyone for Easter...so that was 9, in total. Syd has done 3D molding before (it actually isn't that hard) so he helped me. We couldn't get the milk chocolate or white chocolate to temper properly, so it was unfortunately too thick to work for 3D chocolates. So we ended up making dark chocolates, which tempered very well, and most people at Easter probably preferred that anyway!

Basically, you take your chocolate mold, you fill it less than halfway with chocolate, you clip the two halves of your molds together, and then you turn it to evenly coat the inside of the mold. You keep turning it until the chocolate reaches room temperature, then you put it in the freezer until it starts to separate from the mold (it goes kind of white-ish). Then you take it out, unclip the mold, take one side of the mold off (carefully) and then pop it out of the other half (again, carefully) onto waxed paper. If you are confident that it turned out well, you can trim the seam with a razor (but if you hold it too long the chocolate gets soft and you can squish it). Then you wrap it up in chocolate/candy foil..and voila! Pretty 3D hollow eggs. =D

I wanted to try caramel or cadbury-style eggs, as well, but because I only had three eggs molds and on average only two of those actually survived each time, it took us the entire night plus one last batch in the morning to get enough to hand out! It did get easier as we went, and got a better feel for it. I'm going to play with the milk and white chocolate some this week and see if I can't get tempering down, and then when my new molds (we ordered 3D butterfly molds and a 3D shark mold) arrive maybe we can get some colored white chocolate (I have oil coloring) butterflies done and/or some milk chocolates. I also might buy dusting/sparkle powder this week (Hobby Lobby has a 40% off coupon this week) and try dusting the butterfly's wings...). I need a new box for all of my candy and chocolate stuff now...new obsession. And I reaaaaally want that chocolates & confections book.

I wish there was a professional chocolate making class that I could take somewhere in the area. That would be really cool. Oh well...I can figure it out on my own! ^_^

I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of our finished eggs...they were all glossy and nice, and looked so pretty wrapped up in green foil! Bah! I will have to take pictures of the next chocolates that I make that turn out well. >.<

Chocolate Making, Day 1 - Dipping

So we went to Sugarcraft over the weekend (also to the Zoo, and Jungle Jim's, and putt-putting, and to the movies, but I digress), and so I now have a double boiler. Yay! :D And an egg mold!

I was able to melt milk chocolate MUCH more easily, without killing it, and I think I even tempered it fairly well. I ended up with 12 chocolate-dipped Oreos (to which I added hard-sugar decorations) and the same number of chocolate-dipped pretzel sticks (to which I added easter-colored, aka pastel, nonpareils). I can't eat them, but that is okay (and is probably better for me anyways). I couldn't even eat them if I dipped my own pretzels, because I did the oreos first (as they are a gift) and the chocolate was therefore wheat/gluten contaminated.

I had fun, and it was much less frustrating than the last time I tried dipping anything. I actually had the right tools, the double boiler helped a lot, and I now know (at least, in theory) how to temper chocolate.

Tomorrow I am going to try making hollow chocolate eggs, "Cadbury" creme eggs, and "Kinder" eggs. I need to get the clips tonight so that I can clip the two halves of the mold together. Although, given the amount of things I want to make it may take more than one go...I will probably make more chocolate covered pretzels (some for me next time, with white chocolate) with the leftovers from the batches.

Other than that this week, let's see...well, I finished the Mystic Star KAL last week, finally, sans blocking (which is unlikely to happen until after we move and/or I have a job, so 2+ months probably). I am finishing up a small lace doily that I started as part of the little needle lovers monthly KAL, and am finishing the crochet border off tonight. Kalinumba has an Egyptian-themed KAL starting next week, called the "Eye of Horus". I signed up for it, but I am not sure if I will find yarn and start knitting in time or if I will wait until I get the shawl for Ma done first or what. Hmmm. I am also currently awaiting the right size and length needles in order to start two knits from the Sensual Knits book that Syd bought me for Valentines Day <3. I'm going to check my LYS Thursday when I take the car in...if they have them I might go ahead and buy them, I am quite happy with they HiyaHiya needles I bought for the Mystic Star Shawl KAL and the price was fine.

Finally, dance-related, we began International Rumba on Sunday, so this is our first introduction to International Style. I'm totally excited, it is really fun and it looks good and yay! That means we are better than they are! XD Or something like that. We also did our chacha full speed, so we will be doing it faster than previously, and we did a little bit of Tango.

Chocolatey-ness

OMG, I never would have thought it was possible, but I actually found a chocolate bar that I like! We were at Meijer yesterday looking for canned cream (which turned out to be....normal cream, which here comes in a cardboard milk carton) in the International Foods Section - Brisish, and Syd was like "They have Aero bars!! That is so South African!"

Aero bars are Nestle Milk Chocolate bars with a "whipped" bubbly inside. The outside is stil smooth like a normal chocolate bar, but the inside is full of little bubbles and it just melts while you eat it and it rocks your socks. Or, at least, my socks. XD

So I am totally hooked on Aero, but the only problem is, the Int'l Food Aisle at Meijers is the only place you can get them here. Now, why is that? Really? Does that make ANY sense? No, it is yummy and Americans love chocolate, right?

I also have been on a hot chocolate fix lately. Instead of sorbet, I drink hot chocolte. Cold for warm weather, hot for cold weather. Works for me! I got spoiled in Quebec for really good, French, CHOCOLATEY chocolat chaude, none of this milky weak American hot chocolate! (You'd be surprised how hard it is to find GOOD hot chocolate). We buy Ghirardelli Double Chocolate and sometimes add a little bit of (Imitiation) Almond Extract to it...and of course mini marshmallows! (Whipped cream would be nice, but too fatty).

So...am I totally obsessing about chocolate because I am hungry? Probably. ^^'

So...linky linky: Nestle Aero Bubbles bubbles bubbles >.>