Old Favorites, Part 2: Whoa, what happened?

You've made it before. More than once, even. So when you decide to make it for your husband's friends, you figure, no problem! You have it in the b-a-g!

Until.

Until you don't pay enough attention and your chocolate cools a little too much. Or it could have been the reverse addition (chocolate to cream vs. cream to chocolate). Whatever it was, your nice creamy chocolate mousse top layer is instead a weird white-with-chocolate-speckles mess. (Tasted just as nice, though!!)

That was me Friday night. We had Dave's lovely friends Mark and Maggie over for dinner Saturday night, and I wanted to get as much prep done as I could, to maximize our playtime. So, Friday night, I'm making risotto (more in another entry), I'm chopping veggies, I'm making the hazelnut caramel sauce AND I'm making our dinner for Friday night... so my chocolate cooled too much. And I was too lazy to do the mixing in the right direction... so my dessert was speckled. (Let that be a lesson to you!) That, and the caramel sauce was a little too thick - too many nuts, I'm guessing.

So, let that be a lesson to you - it doesn't matter how comfy you are with a recipe, pay attention! Or just be ok with the speckles. :)




In another sameness direction, we had our lovely black pepper-crusted steaks again. This time was different because I am now the proud owner of a KITCHEN TORCH!!!! Think of all the things I can burn up! Woo! Rather than add the goat cheese and continue to broil until the cheese gets melty and tan, I broiled the steaks to the right done-ness, spooned a little sauce on top, cheesed them, and then torched away! I am really really really pleased with how they turned out, and I'm not sure how I got by for so long without this fabulous little toy!

I did make a couple of new things that night, but I'll save them for later this week!