Since we were on break from dance class, and I had a Friday off for the first time in a while, I decided to invite some friends over for some take-out Thai (thank you, Salad King), and hanging out. Flush with success from the chocolate class with Becky, I decided to get some supplies of my own and try my hand at making some chocolate-covered strawberries.
Here's the 'before' shot.
And now the 'after' shot.
Things I learned:
1) Strawberries that are too ripe are not good to use for this purpose. They get extremely hard to handle.
2) The digital thermometer that I use when roasting meat is not good for chocolate. I don't think the chocolate I used for the strawberries was tempered quite properly, and that proved to be the case when I found some blooming on the chocolate after I chilled the finished berries.
With the left-over chocolate, I decided to melt it again, and re-temper it. This time, I did it without the thermometer, and tried to go on what I remembered about how the chocolate felt when we had our class. I don't think I got it quite right, but it was better than the stuff I used on the berries. I used this chocolate to make chili pepper bark. Yum!
What would a party be without party games? Greg's gift of Rock Band has been great.
I think Richard wins the 'Best Rocker Face' award. Aaron got pretty creative, playing the drums like tom-toms. He and Jia were a pretty good team, playing the drums together.
A super fun evening! Thank everyone!!
About Me
This weekend, Jamie and I got to see a lot of our friends. First was the 2nd annual Kratt BBQ. Lots of food, and fun. Discovered that it's a pretty small world out there; either that, or the aerospace world is just really small. Got to see Barry and Monica, Richard and Heather, and Glenn and Olha which was really nice. It's been a while since we'd gotten together.
On Sunday, after having lunch with my parents (oh man, seafood congee is GOOOD), Jamie and I went to see Janice, Harold, and Anderson. We got the grand tour of their new house, which is really nice, and got to meet the little monkey.
I look a little uncomfortable, huh? Well, no one ever wants to be blamed for breaking their friend's baby, right? But I suppose he survived my, and Jamie's, awkward attempts to hold him.
He's a pretty big baby for 3 weeks old!
Wow...been a while since I last posted. I got my laptop back from repairs earlier this week, and I was very happy to find that the people at HP didn't wipe out my hard drive when they replaced the DVD drive. I was told that happens sometimes, and was fearing the worst.
Last weekend, had dinner with Mike, and the rest of the St. Mike's boys. It was a lot of fun, and I realized how long it had been since we last got together. We all get busy with our day-to-day lives, and don't live as close to each other as we used to, but it's always great when we get together. It also hit me that we've all known each other for just about 10 years now, and I felt really lucky to have made such amazing friends. I was so happy to hear that Mike and Jess are doing well in their new home, and I wish them all the best. One day Jamie and I will come and visit you ^__^
On still on the topic of friends, I had lunch with the fabulous Naana today. It's been way too long since I last saw her, so I really enjoyed having a chance to actually sit down and talk with her after so long. I miss talking to you, Naana, but I'm glad that I can still keep up with things in your blog, and that when we do get together and talk, it seems like old times ^__^
Saw Ian tonight too. It was great to catch up with him post show; review notes on what we've been doing since then, and the feedback we got from it and what our own impressions were. Even though I didn't know anyone else at that party/fundraiser thingie, I had a really great time.
So, here's to all of you, my good friends. I'm looking forward to lots more fun in the years to come, and thanks for always being there...
(hmm...what's with me being all sentimental today?)