Domori Chocolate

Domori chocolate is amazing.

I'm not just saying that because my friend's lovely husband, Gianluca Franzoni, started the company. I'm saying that because every time I have some, I both hoard the chocolate and try to eat it quickly so it doesn't have time to get old/hot/cold or otherwise less than perfect. That's not easy to do.

With little sugar and high percentage of cocoa, the taste is truly chocolate, not additives. Many of the chocolates are single blend, which means you can taste the subtle differences between them.

Since I probably won't share my stash with you, you can buy your own through Chocosphere, Amazon and many local specialty shops, like Zingerman's in Ann Arbor.

Read more about the company and the founder's historic and current connections to Venezuela, the origin of most of the chocolate.

Italian April Fool's Day: Pesce d'Aprile

The Italian April Fool's Day has more fish than our celebrations in the USA. The tradition is to tape a paper fish to the back of an unsuspecting friend and then ask:

L'hai visto? (Have you seen him?)

Chi? (Who?)

Il pesce d'Aprile! (The April fish/fool!)

I know I'd rather receive a chocolate fish, or two: 

Plan your next trip to Napoli in April 

to try these chocolate fish by Gallucci

The Italian language has many fish jokes, fish chocolates and fish expressions. Here are a few great fish expressions in Italian from About.com (can you guess their literal meaning?):

buttarsi a pesce — to make a dive for, to begin an activity with enthusiasm

chi dorme non piglia pesce — the early bird catches the worm

i pesci grossi mangiano i piccini — the big fish eat the small fry

non sapere che pesci pigliare — to be at one's wits' end (or at a loss), not to know which way to turn

pesce grosso — bigwig, big shot

trattare a pesci in faccia — to mistreat, to humiliate

un pesce fuor d'acqua — a fish out of water

un pesce lesso — a boring person

For more on Pesce d'Aprile, watch an April Fool's joke in Italian, learn more joke-related vocabulary, and prepare fish-shaped cookies. 

Italian Easter Traditions

Easter wouldn’t be complete without a Colomba, a cake (loosely) in the shape of a dove, or a giant chocolate egg with surprises inside. 

I’ve always purchased both in Italian stores, but there are recipes available online for the Colomba.

Looking for more? Last year I wrote about preparing an Easter Pie and hard boiling eggs - perfectly.

Buona Pasqua! Onto preparing the shopping list for this weekend…

Chocolate Flavored Cheese

I recently tried Chocolate, Chocolate Mint and Chocolate Peanut Butter cheese in Frankenmuth, MI. All I can say is that this is a very, very bad idea.

Wine & Chocolate Pairing in Frankenmuth, MI

Visiting Frankenmuth recently with a friend, we tried a wine and chocolate pairing at one of the many specialty shops along the main street.

We tried cranberry, cherry, apple and honey wine. I’m a bit of a purist about wine, so I was skeptical about these non-grape wines. I enjoyed them, but mostly because I tried to think of them as something other than wine.

As the Italians say with a shrug of their shoulders, "Boh!"

Retro Fondue Night

Fondue has returned along with leggings and tapered pants. We recently purchased a fondue pot at a yard sale and wanted to try it out before the weather turns hot and muggy.

And so, Retro Fondue Night was born. We invited another couple who we knew would enjoy a good laugh over a themed, untested meal (a clear violation of dinner-party rules.)

We started with mixed appetizers from the frozen section of Trader Joe’s: Cheese puffs and pigs in a blanket. Our guests brought potato chips and onion dip. Perfectly retro and delicious!

Cheddar cheese fondue with two types of cubed bread and vegetables to dip came next. The recipe was easy to prepare (starting on the stove top) and deliciously gooey with a slight bite from the dry mustard. Finding the denatured alcohol was a bit of a challenge, but I was finally pointed to the paint section of Mejier’s. There was one container left. See, it's a fact: Fondue has returned!

The denatured alcohol was a bit overactive. When we lit the flame, the fire reached beyond the pot. No matter what stimulating conversations we had that night, the fondue provided our entertainment. No one got hurt (although the paper lanterns above did sway in the heat) and once we extinguished the fire, we enjoyed the boiling pot of cheese.

Not willing to risk the fire again for dessert (and we couldn’t clean the singed pot without an overnight soak), I prepared the chocolate fondue on the stovetop and served it right in the pot. I followed this chocolate fondue recipe and cut up angel food cake, macaroons and strawberries for dipping. Our guests kindly brought two Jello salads, one green and one red. Yum!

Moral of the story? Keep good friends and a fire extinguisher close at all times!

Food Gifts

If you love to cook, why not make edible gifts for friends?

This holiday season (which happily lasted deep into January!), my husband and I made limoncello, salarom and chocolates for our friends. With some labels from Staples, we were able to dress them up a little, too. In an effort to be green, we used recycled bottles that we collected the last few months.

Limoncello is an Italian lemon-flavored vodka. We actually made two batches. The first one, with a recipe from Giada de Laurentiis, had entirely too much water and tasted terrible. I salvaged it by boiling it down and making a lemon syrup for cakes, teas, etc. The second batch called for less water and less sugar. Limoncello should be served cold and after dinner.

When you make limoncello, you inevitably have batches of lemon left since the recipe only calls for the rinds (sans pith.) I squeezed the lemons and saved the lemon juice. I froze some in small batches and made lemon pasta and lemon muffins with the rest.

Bolognese salarom is an Italian salt mixed with dried rosemary and garlic. I didn’t follow a particular recipe, but instead looked at the jar I had and mixed the ingredients until it looked right. This salt is great for an olive oil dipping plate, meats or really anywhere else you use salt.

To make the chocolates, I crushed candy canes and flavored the lollypops. The ducks were decorated with yellow colored sugar. It was very easy to melt and mold the chocolates. Wilton has an easy guide on their website. I purchased the lollypop sticks, plastic covers and decorating tools at Michael’s.

France in Atlanta: Maison Robert

The chocolate and pastry shop Maison Robert is a little bit of France right in Atlanta, Georgia.

The chocolate aroma broke through the surprisingly cold, southern air, and warmed us before we started drinking an authentic hot chocolate.

My friend Alethea kindly bought me a mixed box of chocolates. I’m a hoarder, so I’ve been trying to limit myself to one a day. So far, my favorites are the dark chocolate ones with flavors like cognac truffle and mocha truffle.

Katia, working above, joined her parents' business. She is now the fourth generation in the family of pâtissiers-confiseurs. In response to my corn syrup allergy, she carefully marked which chocolates I could eat in the mixed box. I decided the few that had corn syrup in the decorations or the marzipan were reserved for my husband. Otherwise, well, you get the picture.

If you are in the area, I hope you’ll check out this lovely little store. Living far up north, I think I'll be ordering online.

Chocolate Truffle Makine Class at Sweet Gems

I love to plan menus. The next one on the horizon is Valentine’s Day. I prefer to eat a luxurious meal at home instead of going out and facing the crowds.

As I start to ponder what to make next month for my husband, my mind goes directly to chocolate. I can’t help but remember the chocolate truffle making class I took last summer at Sweet Gems in Ann Arbor, MI. You can read all about the amazing class here.

The All Chocolate Dinner Menu

Yesterday I mentioned that that I recently prepared, with the help of friends, an all-chocolate dinner.

Here is the menu:

Chocolate martinis

Zingerman’s chocolate bread

Green Salad With Cacao Nibs, Dried Cranberries, and Goat Cheese

Chicken mole with rice & black beans

Cupcakes & Brownies

Ginger hot chocolate

The chocolate martinis were a hit. The recipe called for chocolate nibs, which my friend found at Whole Foods. The deep chocolate flavor from the crème de cacao and the chocolate nibs were nicely offset by the sugar along the rims of the martini glasses.

The chicken mole recipe came from Isabel Allende’s book Aphrodite: A memoir for the senses.

The nicest compliment I received on the dinner was that it wasn’t too heavy, nor was it overwhelmingly chocolate-y. Cocoa was traditionally used as a spice in savory food. Sugar wasn’t added until the 1600’s. I tried to integrate both uses into the menu.

What is your favorite savory chocolate dish?

Zingerman’s Chocolate Cherry Bread

I’m not a joiner. When everyone raves about a restaurant, I usually find something wrong with it. My mother used to say I was “contrary.”

Everyone loves Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor. Even my father, in NJ, was excited to hear that we’d be moving to Ann Arbor because of Zingerman’s. It turns out he had been ordering online from them for years. That’s right – someone who lives right outside of New York City orders from this Midwestern company.

I was skeptical.

When I had an all-chocolate dinner party this spring, a friend brought Zingerman’s chocolate bread and their chocolate cherry bread.

“Two kinds of chocolate bread?,” I thought. “That’s ridiculous.” I was convinced it would be too heavy or a weird concoction of things that shouldn’t go together just so they could charge more.

With a chunk of smooth chocolate in my mouth, it was impossible to find fault with the enterprise that is Zingerman’s. Sure, they are crazy expensive (especially for Ann Arbor) and have complicated ordering rules in their deli, but they do produce and import some amazing food.

This bread, when toasted so the chocolate becomes slightly gooey like a brownie, is a luxurious breakfast toast. Be sure to add a little whole-milk butter.

It isn’t available everyday (see what I mean about the rules?), but you can call ahead, ask when it will be available and reserve a loaf or two. If you place your order by phone, everything will be ready for you to run into their busy deli and avoid the very long lines.

I bought a loaf to share with my parents on Thanksgiving morning. We couldn’t cook too much that day, right?

See, Ma, I’m perking up as I age. I just needed chocolate for breakfast.