So like I said we went to Chicago overnight from Feb 1 to Groundhogs Day, and I am also seriously questioning the groundhogs’ verdict that we will have an early spring, since we’ve only had two weeks of winter so far, plus it’s still F**king February, for Pete’s sake. We’re nowhere near the vernal equinox, although it is 41° outside right now, and dry, streets clear, and up to the mid-50s by the end of the week.
On Saturday morning we went for a walk, and I tried to photograph the thinning ice on the lake.
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- In these next couple you can kind of see the ripples in the thinning ice
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- In this one you can kind of see there’re still ice shannys out there
Then I prepped for my chocolate desserts class, to be at the cookware store on Sunday afternoon. Here’re the recipes. There were kind of too many things, and none of them included one thing that could be prepped for one recipe and then used in another, except maybe the Black Forest cake & cupcakes. I didn’t take many pictures, but here’re the choose a size chocolate tarts, and the cherry juice fizz I got to drink on Sunday morning when I made the cherry jam cake filling, no Kirsch even though it’s in the background, Kirsch only went into the syrup for brushing the cake.
Toppings are left to right starting at the top, crystalized ginger, one candied orange peel followed by 3 chocolate pearls, then the orange continues in the next row and Heath chips start, then in the front row, one last Heath chip and finally freeze dried strawberries.
Perks of prepping
When I tested the layer cake version of the cake the first time, I cut the half sheet into 4 strips and made 4 layers. It was a huge tall cake that was sturdy and sliceable but didn’t have enough filling and whipped cream in relationship to cake. Trying to avoid that I carefully cut 3 6-inch layers to fill and top for the class, but that version was impossible to slice; it toppled and crumbled. In hindsight I should have made sure to trim the layers flat. Oh well. People all seemed quite happy, and there were lots of leftovers for staff. Success. And making the cake in a sheet leaves you with cake scraps for cake pops/truffles. This is actually the second batch I made for the folks at home.
And I have most of an 8-inch chocolate layer in the freezer – I cut off a strip to put into the cake pops – so I think I’ll make that into a family size Black Forest cake for Valentines Day. It’ll only be two layers and I’ll make sure to trim the layers flat.
But later on Saturday, after prep, we went to see Poor Things. Which was fun. I understand why Emma Stone was nominated for an Oscar, and the costumes, by Holly Waddington, are great, too.
And the nominees are:
Barbie, Killers of the Flower Moon, Napoleon, Oppenheimer, and Poor Things
I guess that gets us through the rest of Groundhogs’ weekend. Monday I volunteered at the book sale and went grocery shopping and made a taco casserole for dinner. Tuesday, I had an eye doctor appointment for the eye ball pressure clinical trial I’m in, met Meredith for lunch, and now I’m about to make chicken tenders and stuffing for dinner. I had to do the visual fields test, the nerve wracking one where you’re watching for flashes, and get dilated, and get my optic nerve photographed. But all is going well, my eyeball pressure is holding low, the optic nerve is not thinning, and what cataracts I have developing are still nowhere near ready for surgery to be removed. Whew.
Here’s cute pic of Jasper that I believe is also from last Saturday.
And is there an Internet meme about throwing American singles into loved ones faces? I didn’t know it but I came late to the Roman Empire, too. Anyways that’s the featured image. Al & Jasper.
PS and oh I see, it’s specifically throwing cheese at babies to make them stop crying. Been around since at least 2019. The Guardian sums it up nicely.