Choco-riffic

I'm generally a lover of savory cooking. Herbs, spices, anything with garlic or onions, chiles, etc.

But, part of the whole put my life on hold adventure has been learning to accept and embrace the parts of me that I have been ignoring.

I already figured out that I was an unbalanced chef this summer and did my best to bake desserts while studying for the bar. But I never fully embraced the decadence of chocolate.

Things are about to change, my friends.

At the Bookstore, I was seduced by a magazine. The cover? Square white ramekins of dark chocolate souffle cakes filled with chocolate espresso sauce being presented to the viewer, broken, with a bit on a spoon. Inside is nothing but pictures and chocolate recipes: breakfast, cookies, cakes, brownies, mousses, sauces and more. I now own this lurid magazine. It almost feels dirty to page through it.

Last week, while at lunch with H at A.G. Ferrari I picked up about $70 worth of Italian imported happiness. On a lark, I bought a bar of 70% cacao from Baratti & Milano.

Finally, thanks to Wintermute, after my last lunch with a friend during my weeks of unemployment, I stopped in at Scharffen Berger. Thirty-two dollars later...

So, our fridge now contains $32.00 $31.00 of Scharffen Berger (I already demolished the 1 oz. nibby bar, but it wasn't for baking anyways. Those bean bits would be hell to deal with in a recipe, right?), some Guittard baking chips leftover from the summer's baking and a bar of Baratti & Milano.

Also, for those who love to read about food, I just finished Julie & Julia. No real chocolate porn to speak of. But, I still enjoyed it for the savory food porn, and would recommend it for the solid literary stuff it can offer to anyone who likes to read about the role of cooking food in a slightly unstable woman's life and how being stuck in one place in your life can lead you to find a release and somewhere to grow elsewhere. Plus, it's irreverant as hell and hilarious.

But then again, I just went through my own sort of wacky breakdown and I'm prone to taking on projects that are too big to prove to myself that I can do them and make myself grow in the process. I wish I was more irreverant and tad more unstable in my day-to-day life. You may find that her blog is more entertaining and more focused on things that interest you (each individual recipe from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking). I wasn't a reader back when Julie was floundering her way through the project. Perhaps someday I'll go read the blog from start to finish. But for now, the book was perfect for my needs: hilarious, informative, and a very honest portrayal of someone crazy enough to take on a silly but wonderfully larger-than-life food project.

So, In the spirit of Julie and Julia tempered by the reality of starting work as a new associate on monday, my mini project is to simply use the chocolate in the fridge to make 6 chocoriffic recipes from the magazine by Thanksgiving. Stay tuned.