Never too many hearts!
Packing up a Few More Treats
This order is cayenne chocolates, cashew milk toffee, and dragonfruit chocolates, with citrus and white pepper. Tomorrow is the last day for orders shipped in time for Valentine’s. Order here.
My 13-Year Old TikTok Producer and Brand Manager
In other media news, Kavi was a little appalled to discover that I don’t post videos to TikTok for my confections, etc., and I told her that it was in the queue to make little 1 minute videos like that, but I wasn’t good at it, and it’s hard to make a video while you’re also making things with your hands, and she said of course it’d be better if she made the videos and I said if you want to make videos and be my TikTok video producer and brand manager, I am delighted to give you the job, and she said sure, so that is why a 13-year-old is my TikTok video producer and brand manager now, and why Kavi made three 1-minute videos of me making sweets yesterday, and I’m not allowed to post them yet because she researched and apparently the right times to post such things are 7 a.m., 8 a.m., and 4 p.m. (in Chicago’s time zone), but assuming I remember to do so, you will likely see one of them posted in about 90 minutes, and I admit, I feel a little old, but also grateful for a sweetheart of a daughter with some serious tech skills.
(She is currently planning on focusing on art + business in high school, because she’s pretty interested in running a small business, but with strong science classes too, in case she decides she wants to be a doctor after all.)
Khyber Pass Takeout
Sometimes I just want South Asian food I don’t have to cook myself. Which Kevin can actually do a good job of cooking for me, but since we’re also trying to keep our local restaurants alive, it’s a good excuse to order from Khyber Pass. Tandoori chicken, samosa chaat, lamb vindaloo, saag paneer, Goan fish curry, papadum, naan — and it comes with rice and a complimentary veggie curry. Don’t forget the mango lassi.
That’ll do (for several days).
Assembling Boxes and Watching I, Zombie
It turns out that if you sit next to your daughter on the couch and watch I, Zombie with her, she will assemble boxes for you. You may want to close your eyes during the gory / gross bits, if you’re me.
Even a Bad Batch is GREAT
Don’t worry, I let Anand have some milk toffee….AFTER I finished taking the photo.
Me: How is it?
Anand: What do you mean? It’s milk toffee!
Me: Right, but it could be a bad batch.
Anand: Even a bad batch of milk toffee would still be GREAT.
All right then.
Taunting You Forever
I think I may have ruined the pot I usually make milk toffee in, using it for candle making — I’m having a hard time getting all the bits of candle spatter completely off, so it may be a dedicated candle pot now. Which is okay, but I had to make milk toffee, and I was a little worried that my 6 qt. all-Clad, which has notably lower sides, would not contain it. The results could have been bad.
Thankfully, it JUST fits. The first photo shows the level of liquid at start; the second shows it when it’s boiling up (and you do need to watch it then, so you can turn down the heat — might have been a disaster otherwise).
Then as it cooks down, the level drops, and by the time it reaches soft ball stage and you’ve added cashews, vanilla, and butter, it’s nice and low again. Whew! High drama in the kitchen…
Anand just came into my office and pathetically asked, “Are you EVER going to cut the milk toffee???” No, baby, I’m just going to leave the tray of it on the counter and taunt you forever….
(For Valentine’s sale, link here.)
Under the Tea Towel
What’s under the tea towel? Passionfruit, lime, and honey marshmallows. Kavi and I are agreed that we actually like straight passionfruit better, but this is nice for a change, and honey has some nutrients that are good for you, I think?
Had fun with new style of packaging for marshmallows. So cute. I’m probably still going to pack flat for ones that are going in small boxes, because they won’t fit if packaged this way. But this would be very charming in a shop display, wouldn’t it? Maybe in a year or two, we’ll have ramped up enough to try to sell in local places like Carnivore Oak Park and The Daly Bagel? It’s going to be a process, though.
Link to our Valentine’s sale here.
Getting Better at Edible Paper
I’m getting better at using the edible paper, I think — if you brush on a thin layer of icing gel to both the iced cookie and the back of the paper, it adheres pretty well without curling, esp. if you turn it upside down to dry. The edible paper doesn’t actually taste like anything, so in some sense, it’s sort of silly — my kids weren’t actually impressed with it. But fun to experiment with, and a nice decorating change. The COOKIES still taste good, anyway.
This was a ‘pick 3’ order (out of 15 options), $18 + shipping; she went for chocolate dipped crystallized ginger, chocolate dipped apricots, and a rose-vanilla cookie. I added in a few little chocolates as lagniappe — one dragonfruit and one made with the new ‘gold’ chocolate from Callebaut, which is sort of buttery/caramelly. Yum.
Kavi has now ranked her plain chocolates, and she thinks they are, best to least: ruby chocolate, gold chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, and dark chocolate. I told her she’d likely enjoy dark chocolate more as she got older and her taste buds shifted, but she looked very dubious.
I think for the summer Patreon treat boxes, I might do a bees & honey theme, and use the gold chocolate in a honeycomb mold…but now I’m getting ahead of myself. First Valentine’s, then spring, the Mother’s Day, and THEN summer…
Ordering link here — if you want them shipped in time for Valentine’s Day, please order by Sunday. No guarantees after that!
Golden and Spicy
What do these gilded dark chocolate & cayenne roses say? That my love for you is both golden and spicy…
(For our Valentine’s Day sale, link here…)
