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New post coming soon....

9 degrees

It's cold and wintery here.

Quite the process....

What makes a really yummy chocolate?

The centers of course. Although the chocolate is key... you can't go around covering yuckiness in chocolate and expect people to enjoy it.

Making the centers is a lengthy and complicated process. So much can go wrong - but when it goes right HOORAY!!


Fondant:
1/4 cube of butter
3 c. sugar
1 c. whipping cream
1/4 c. milk

Mix all items together in large sauce pan~ bring to boil.


When the mixture begins to boil- put in 2 tbs. of Karo Syrup. Crank up the temp on the oven and stir like a crazy person until your thermometer reaches 230 degrees.

Note~ * don't use a plastic spatula unless it is approved for high temperatures! My handy spatula is a pamper chef approved for using on the sun with minimal melting!

* be sure to calibrate your thermometer BEFORE making you candy. I made the mistake of not doing that the first time I made candy and my thermometer was off by 30 degrees. I made suckers instead of creamy centers.



Once it hits the right temp~ take the pot off the oven and immediately poor molten liquid onto a cool marble slab. DO NOT scrape the pan. Scraping the sides will result in a sugary product~we are shooting for creamy here, not grainy!


The liquid will become harder- kinda like taffy. When it is cool to the touch it's time to start creaming. This process takes about 15 mintues and provides an excellent upper body workout! I have an excellent scraper for creaming that I could not possibly live without. I picked it up at a candy convention~ okay... it was at a craft fair. Wouldn't it be neat to go to a candy convention? You can also use a paint scraper from the hardware store. Works excellent but rusts easy so take extreme good care of it.

So you mix and mix and the fondant becomes harder and turns from irridescent to creamy in color. You can add your flavor and color anytime during this process. Eventually it will become to difficult to turn with the scraper so you will knead it with your hands. The fondant usually hardens and then relaxes a couple of times during the process of creaming.

Once you are done~ wrap it up in cellophane followed by tinfoil. Place in the freezer until you are ready to use. Thaw~ form into balls and dip away. Once batch makes about 80 chocolates~ depending on how much tasting occurs during the process!

It is important to taste your product! If it is grainy- toss it- or eat it yourself but please don't waste good chocolate on a cruddy center. It makes me want to cry when I bite into a perfectly good looking chocolate only to be met by an ill made center.

2 batches done~ 6 more to go!

Courtesy of Sophie...

Breakfast in bed!! Thanks Sophie~ It was very tasty!

Hello Peter

My chocolate is here!!! 10 lbs of superlative heaven. Notice how there is some missing from the right hand side of the gianormous bar~ had to test it :)

The kidlets...

I get great joy out of Sophie and Eli's relationship.
They are very, very close. It is fun to watch them interact.

They are 18 months apart.


And despite their occasional bickering... they love each other very much!

Softees Promotion...

I am going to take a moment of everyone's time and do a little promo.
I received information about this company from a Autism Group that I am part of. The deal was, they send out these t-shirts that are supposedly softer than most, have all flat seams on the inside, no tags and an extra wide neck at no cost to me~ and I would post a review on my blog.

For those of you that have children or know children with sensory issues- clothing can often become and irritant and occasionally a fight. Seth is no different in this area- other than he has learned to cope with it. While he complained a lot about it when he was younger... he does not complain much anymore. Except when it comes to his cute wool Gap sweater!

The T-shirt came packaged in this handy little bag! It was a nice added bonus.

The fabric was EXTREMELY soft. Seth said "oh, I like it" as he kept rubbing the shirt with his hands.
Then he put it on.

and he didn't take it off~ for three days :) He wore it underneath his regular t-shirts and it made a great undershirt.
The flat seams were great and caused him no irritation. My only complaint was that the wider neck made it look a little bit girly. As an undershirt however, I have no quams.

There~ bit done.
www.softclothing.net
www.softclothingblog.net
www.softsensoryworld.com

The Christmas List…

Seth has been telling me what to get him for Christmas for the last 10 months.

I have narrowed it down to this...

· A snuggie. He has been coveting one since he first saw it on an infomercial.

· An electric pencil sharpener. Seth says he would prefer one that is battery powered that he can put into his pocket. I told him if he wants it~ he would need to invent it.

· A book light. Lucky day~ it comes free with the purchase of a snuggie!

· A large pack of pens- ball point only.

· A word-search book.

Certainly not your typical 9 yr. old request.

When I questioned him why there were no toys on the list he simply said, “I will ask Santa for all the toys because I know we don’t have very much money.”

I know for certain that Santa will not fall short this year and I am extremely grateful.

So it is written... so it shall be

Divine Chocolate
Originally uploaded by Toonie52

I know you all have been just absolutely apprehensive about the winner of my lengthy contest!

I must say... it was close! You all answered my silly little questions and played my silly little games. I felt like a puppet master! I loved your candy grams~ I think that was my favorite part.

What it boiled down to was the answer for the pumpkin counting. My answer.....

32

Both Susan and David guessed 33. Which makes me think I missed one!!

So~ both of you win!! Congratulations.

and Lisa... no worries. I might just send an extra big box to Susan to compensate for your loss ;)

So now I need to know:
Mint, Orange, Lemon, Cherry, Carmel, Turtle, peanut cluster, raisin, peanut butter, and marshmallow. What do you absolutely not want and what do you want more of? Otherwise it will be a variety of my choosing.

The Candy Gram...

My candy gram....! it was fun
Originally uploaded by jen.preston

Does everyone know what a candy gram is? It's a message sent with random candy bars filling in for words. It was a common practice to send one of these lovelies to a guy/girl to ask them to a dance in High School... it was even more popular than imaginable at Ricks college.

Nothing like a corny message laid out in candy!

So here is the challenge...
send me your version of a candy gram. Use at least 5 candy bar names.

"U-No" you'll need to be clever and make me "snicker" to win the prize!

Have fun and keep it clean :)

It's Time...

It's here. Candy making time! Bring on the sugar so I can cover it in chocolate :)

Those of you who have been slacking on your contest duties may want to take the opportunity now and get caught up on their questions!

Here -> http://grovermonkees.blogspot.com/2009/10/more-chocolate-trivia.html#comments

Here - >http://grovermonkees.blogspot.com/2009/10/hey-pumpkins.html#comments

Here -> http://grovermonkees.blogspot.com/2009/10/favorite-candy-bar.html

and Here ->http://grovermonkees.blogspot.com/2009/10/post-101.html#comments

I will have one more that I am working on for a post tomorrow and then I will announce the winner(s).

I went to the dentist...

I have no cavities.

Parent- Teacher Conference...

My Aspie
Originally uploaded by jenkgrover

Growing up I never dreaded PT conference. I guess because I had nothing to fear. For most of my life I was a straight A student and always the teachers pet.

I think my lack of nerves has been more than made up for in that area now.

I dread parent teacher conference. I want to go and hear how fabulous my children are doing... not what modifications need to be made to and IEP or how my child is constantly searching for dried glue on all chairs and desks during class time.

Lucky me... today was parent teacher conference.

Isaac of course, being the adorable child that he is, fits right into the teachers pet category with ease. He is doing fabulous in everything and only lacks a bit on his ability to have legible writing (point out a first grader you know that has mastered this).

Seth, on the other hand, has been stuck with a mean, crochity, old women as a math teacher. Please don't misunderstand me. I have deep respect for teachers... but this certain teacher has been teaching since I went to school there~ and yes, she was crochity then!

Her goal has been to move Seth down to the lower level math class since the first few days of school. When I refused she begrudgingly kept Seth in class~ only to complain about him every time I would stop to check on his progress.

But Seth proved her wrong~ I was so delighted!! He got a B in the class. He is hanging right in there with the rest of the class. No~ they will NOT be moving my son to the lower level class... because that is not where he needs to be! Better yet- he scored advanced in his math testing!!!

WAY TO GO SETH AND ISAAC!! You both made parent teacher conferences extremely pleasant!!!

(Seth says I have to have three exclamations... because he likes odd numbers!!!) :)

Day trip to SLC...

Friday was nuts! I had to take Ike into Primary Childrens in SLC.

Sadly Ike had to miss the Halloween parade at school... and I missed out on my favorite part of Halloween which is seeing them both in the Halloween parade at school.

Fortunately, Seth didn't mind and was being watched over by his Aunt Sarah and someone with eyeline kindly added Seth's Harry Potter trademark lighting bolt scar that I so daftly forgot. I believe it was Katie Johnson. Thanks Katie!!

So... Isaac and I made a date out of our little trip. A 3 hour drive there, and hour and a half at the hospital, an hour for lunch, 10 minutes at Mom's/ Grandma's, and a 3 hour drive back. Not too much time for fun stuff

(at PCMC)

but lunch....mmmmmm......

Isaac went for the Mac n' Cheese classic - while I splurged on the All American and 1/2 order of cheesy fries! It was worth every ounce and lb. of fat that I gained!

Thankyou Training Table

and thankyou Isaac for being such an awesome date!

All things Halloween...

We started the day out with a fabulous breakfast of pumpkin french toast. Not only were they shaped like little pumpkins... but they were literally made with pumpkin puree. Isaac and Sophie wanted syrup with theirs. I had mine with whipped cream and it tasted just like pumpkin pie. So yummy!!

Our Halloween activities consisted of painting masks
and...

baking cookies (which were never frosted)...





and getting all dressed up!

Then we were off with some friends to go trick or treating!

I also dressed up... however, my phone/camera ate several pictures that were taken... just trust me... no one was left out of the fun!



Not even the dog.