Travel for Business: Blueberry Nib

Ah, Colorado, you beautiful creature, you. 

One of the luxuries of having a job that requires some travel is the ability to take full advantage of that travel for personal pleasure. Most of my travel includes visits to exotic destinations like Amarillo, Mobile AL, Tulsa, OK, or the ever-confusing Columbus, Indiana (every place has its charms, of course…), but every once in a while I get to go somewhere a little more compelling. A Memphis, New Orleans, Austin… or Denver.

When it happens, I usually try and maneuver the trip so that I’m there on a Monday or a Friday, and arrange to stay for the weekend. Cummins picks up the tab for the airfare, and I just have to arrange for lodging, transportation, and entertainment. Not a bad deal at all. In this case, my opportunity came a few weeks ago disguised as a Project Management class in Denver.

So, I left behind the 65-degree late-January weather of the DFW metroplex, and walked off the plane into a climate fully 40 degrees colder than what I’d left. Driving to the hotel, there were mounds of ice in the parking lots, where the snow had been ploughed to the side weeks ago and left to partially melt into rock-like sculptural formations. 

The project management class was informative if unremarkable, and I got to meet some key colleagues, tour the Denver branch locations, and gather helpful information for a number of projects. Beyond that, there were a couple of late nights of “networking” (aka, drinking and playing darts and pool), which made the days in class seem far, far longer than they actually were. 

On Friday, I put my coworkers on planes back to their various destinations, rented another car, and headed to Boulder where my dear friend Ben and his wife and kids have a house right in the shadow of the breathtaking Flatiron Mountains.

Boulder is one of my favorite places in the world – it is beautiful, big-hearted, and profoundly active, with an adorable earthy, hipster streak. The people here care about the integrity of their bike shops and sustainable sourcing of their food. The farmer’s market is a major attraction, and there’s a minor festival whenever notable new crops come in. There are bike and walking trails everywhere, buskers on the streets, and in the summer the local kids splash in bone-chillingly cold streams of pure mountain runoff. The Pearl Street Market is a heart-warming celebration of locally-minded shopping and craftsmanship, with shops specializing in everything from gorgeous old-school wooden puzzles, to tea and teapots, to beautiful hand-crafted hats, to art glass, to kites, to chocolate. 

Boulder is also a great chocolate town; one of the few places where kitchen supply stores and bookshops alike have entire end caps dedicated to gorgeous, delightful locally crafted chocolate bars.

This particular weekend was of the sweet, quiet, domestic variety, making up for the carousing of the week with plenty of wholesome company, good food, and early bedtimes. I went ghost hunting and made paper crowns with the 4-and-a-half year-old and cooed at the baby while he chewed on my knuckles. With the grown-ups, I talked a little work, some politics, and about parenthood, poetry, minimalism, family, bravery, and goodness knows what all else. We got the kiddo new boots and took a hike down a local trail, where I got to walk on water. For real. It was frozen, but whatever. I was psyched.

Ben and I also watched The Lobster which received a well-deserved nomination for Best Screenplay at the Oscars. It’s super weird, but truly amazing. (Like, SUPER weird. Be prepared. Definitely watch it, but be prepared.)

It was a soul-nourishing weekend at high altitudes, and although I didn’t get to spend as much time playing in the mountains themselves or perusing the chocolate selection downtown as I would have liked, I was able to snag a bar from the local bookstore while Ben & co. were picking up supplies for dinner. . 

Enjoy, my friends. Preferably in front of a crackling fireplace with a dog at your feet and a 4 year-old narrating Amelia Bedelia to you.

Item: Blueberry Nib
Percentage: 65% cacao 

Made By: Concertos in Chocolate
Made In: Boulder, CO
Purchased At: Boulder Book Store
Purchase Price: $4.25

Review:   At 65% this one is on the lighter end of what I typically go for. Concertos is a local Boulder chocolatier that keeps it simple and classy with classic, time-tested combinations of flavors combined in fun, interesting ways. Check out their "Dirty Chai" bar if you're feeling feisty. With both dried blueberries and cocao nibs this one is very texturally busy - the cocao nibs lend it a nice, darker edge and anchor the chocolatey flavor, while the blueberries bring an unexpected sweet, chewy pop. This is whimsical chocolate, folks. I still haven't really figured out how much I like weird textures in my chocolate, and my relationship with cocoa nibs is complicated, but this definitely is a fun, charming bar. Would eat again.
 
Recommend


With love, Kat

Happy Valentine's Day!: Scotch Birthday Truffles

I have the immense good fortune of having a sweetie who's birthday falls on Valentine's Day, making for a delightful convergence. Unfortunately, with it being both a birthday and Valentine's day, that means the pressure is ON to make it a truly special day.
So, last year, I embarked on a project to make his day super special. 

In December we had visited the delightful Dude, Sweet Chocolate in Fort Worth to do my Christmas shopping, and Andrew had excitedly told me ahead of time about this one particularly wonderful scotch truffle they had, featuring his favorite highland scotch - Laphroaig. Alas, when we arrived and were working our way through the samples, they had cycled out the coveted Laphroaig truffle for a bourbon truffle, and although we still had a great time, I could tell he was a bit deflated. 
 
Hence, for Valentine's Day, I determined to recreate these incredible truffles in my own kitchen. I searched the internet and managed to locate the (very short) ingredients list on an old review, purchased an absurd amount of several different kinds of 70% dark, and started experimenting. One batch was too scotch-y, and one didn't set properly, and one wasn't sweet enough... So, finally, on the fifth batch, I found the magical combination. Rich, boozy, with just enough sweet to keep you on the hook - these are dense and magnificent, and a delightful way to consume any kind of booze you please.

I served up the truffles individually wrapped in tissue paper, and packaged in the cardboard tube the Laphroaig bottle came in (leading him to think for a minute or two that I had actually bought him scotch).

Love to you all, and Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. May your Valentine be every bit as sweet as mine. 

 
Item: Scotch Truffles

Makes about 20 truffles

10.5 oz. 70% good dark chocolate (I used Green & Black's) 
Scant cup of sweetened condensed milk 
4.5 Tbsps. Laphroaig single-barrel scotch (or another good, peaty scotch)
1.5 tsp. Dark Molasses


Make sure all surfaces, dishes, and utensils are VERY dry (water will ruin the emulsion). Finely chop all the chocolate (the largest bits should be no larger than a peanut), and put 2/3s of it into a glass bowl (you'll use this a double-boiler, so make sure it fits over your pan nicely). Chop the remaining 3rd into even tinier bits, no bigger than grains of rice, and set aside. 

Put condensed milk in a small pan over very low heat (it will scald like crazy over higher heat). 

Add an inch or two of water to a mid-sized pan and bring to a rolling boil, then turn off the heat, and put the glass bowl of chocolate over the the boiling water to melt. Allow it to sit for about two minutes, then gently, stir/turn with a spatula as it melts. When the chocolate is 2/3s melted, remove it and the condensed milk from the stove and begin to gently, gradually stir in the remaining chocolate. The chocolate should be very shiny and smooth as it incorporates. Once all the chocolate is added and melted, it should be barely warm to the touch. Add the molasses and the scotch and stir briskly to combine - the mixture will seize up surprisingly. Add the warm (NOT HOT) condensed milk and stir briskly until homogeneous. Taste, and add more scotch or molasses as needed.

At this point it should start to cool into a cohesive blob - thicker and grainier-looking than frosting. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to cool in the freezer for three to four hours, stirring once or twice to reincorporate the escaping oils. Once it's a workable consistency, roll into balls on waxed paper or press into molds (I got heart-shaped candy molds because I'm a sap), and return to the freezer overnight to set. 

Serve to someone you dote on. 

Since the whole truffle is tempered, they're shelf-stable and should last 2-3 weeks, and much longer in the fridge/freezer.


With love, Kat