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Theo Chocolate -- Ghana Panama Ecuador 75% Cacao

Next up. . .

Ghana Panama Ecuador 75% Cacao -- The package says: "This blend of cacao highlights the unique flavors from Ghana, the remote rainforest of Bocas del Toro, Panama and true Ecuadorian Arriba cacao."  My thoughts:  This is the stuff!!!  I love this bar!  It's not a single origin, but rather a blend and with a cacao content of 75% you're getting major chocolate here with very little suger mucking things up.  The flavor reminds me a lot of the chocolate in the 3400 Phinney Bread & Chocolate bar which I adore.  While there is a slight tang to this bar also, there is a nice smokiness -- a cooked almost carmelized flavor.  I would swear there was some salt in this bar, but there isn't.  It's round and almost buttery and delicious! 

And more on the packaging, since several of you commented on it.  The Theo bars and the 3400 Phinney bars have wrappers designed by KittenChops.  You can see more pictures there. . .

Theo Chocolate

I first stumbled upon Theo Chocolate through their 3400 Phinney line of chocolate bars when my husband picked my up a Nib Brittle Bar at a shop in Chicago (Hannah's Bretzel).  They are hard to find, but I've been told that Whole Foods are starting to stock them, so make sure to take a look next time you are there.   I need to do a full review of the three 3400 Phinney Bars I've tried so far because they are the best chocolate bars *ever*!  Seriously -- and I can say at this point that I have tried a lot of chocolate bars.

But today I want to talk about the Theo bars.  When I emailed the folks at Theo Chocolate to ask them a little bit more about their company, they sent me these single origin bars to try -- yipee!  I'm very excited to try these because not only did I love their other line of bars, but these are Fair Trade and Organic.  And look at the gorgeous wrappers (I love a good wrapper -- the 3400 Phinney bars are wonderful!)

Okay, so I'm going to try the first bar right now and give you my impression. . .

Madagascar 65% Cacao -- On the package it says, "The dynamic wine flavor in this single origin, organic dark chocolate reflect the unique and diverse environment of the island nation of madagascar." My thoughts:  Bar is smooth, glossy and has a lovely bite that melts easily on the tongue.  There is a slight tang to the chocolate and definitely some fruitiness -- I guess you could call that a "wine flavor".  It's a sweet bar, at 65% cacao, which I think works well with the bitter of the chocolate and that tangy note.  I'm a fan! 

Tomorrow I'll try the next bar. . . 

Meme

Thank you to everyone who sent me good wishes.  I'm feeling much better about things.  The big piece of "bad" news will not be resolved for quite some time, so I have to sit tight -- something I am not at all good at doing.  It's stressful, especially before the holidays, but I'm feeling better about it as the days pass.  Heck, other people in this world have things much worse than me, so don't worry about me.

And the less bad piece of news -- well, I went to the dentist and I need 2 -- I said TWO! -- root canals.  Oh, and I have two other cavities that need to be filled (little ones).  It appears that one of my fillings that I've had since I was young cracked in half and that is the cause for one root canal (who knew metal could crack in half?!?)  And the other one was only visible in an x-ray -- the tooth isn't even giving me any trouble.  Ugh!  So that's the "not-so-bad" news.  (Although I'm pretty freaked out about it.)

So anyway. . . here's a meme.  I've got nothing else for you because I have tons of work to do and pretty much did family things, read and did a little work this weekend -- almost no crafting (yikes!)

You know the one -- everyone's doing it.  You answer with just one word. . .
1. Yourself: smart
2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend (spouse): incredible
3. Your hair: wild
4. Your mother: social
5. Your Father: gone
6. Your Favorite Item: computer
7. Your dream last night: scary
8. Your Favorite drink: coffee
9. Your Dream Car: none
10. The room you are in: office
11. Your Ex: nothing
12. Your fear: bugs
13. What you want to be in 10 years? happy
14. Who you hung out with last night? family
15. What You're Not? traditional
16. Muffins: blueberry
17. One of Your Wish List Items: Wii
18. Time: cherished
19. The Last Thing You Did: work
20. What You Are Wearing: casual
21. Your Favorite Weather: autumn
22. Your Favorite Book: many 
23. The Last Thing You Ate: scone
24. Your Life: good
25. Your Mood: quiet
26. Your best friend: BoogaP
27. What are you thinking about right now? work
28. Your car: civic
29. What are you doing at the moment? typing
30. Your summer: fun
31. Your relationship status: married
32. What is on your TV? nothing
33. What is the weather like? grey
34. When is the last time you laughed? yesterday

Rough Week

Tough News on a couple fronts. I'll be back soon. Maybe I'll even do some crafting over the holiday to perk me up. At least we have sunshine and warmer weather here. (I'm trying to look on the bright side -- literally!)

Good Reads

I've been doing some serious reading lately.  In fact the last few nights have found me with my nose buried in this book:

Water for Elephants: A Novel by Sara Gruen.  This is a novel about a man in his 90's looking back at his youth in the circus.  Sounds kind of bizzare, doesn't it?  I mean, a book about the circus?  Seriuosly.  But it's really excellent!  I could hardly put it down and was up past my bedtime reading it on more than one night this week.  This story is really fascinating and Gruen has a way of drawing you in and keeping the action moving right along.  Please give it a try -- I think you'll really like it.  (Oh yeah, and part of it takes place in Joliet!)

And right before that I read:

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.  This book which combines the story of the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 and the story of serial killer H.H. Holmes is fascinating.  Larson retells the events in an exciting way that feels more like a novel than non-fiction and the Chicago World's Fair was an amazing event -- full of plenty of drama.  I especially love the peek into the lives of the famous architects of the day.  And Larson covers the details of the murders without being too gruesome for the most part -- although the man was extremely creepy due mainly to his overwhelming charisma and the fact that he was able to get away with so many murders.  (I read mainly before going to sleep and this did lead to one night of some sleeplessness when I get to the end of the book -- fair warning!)

Up next --

Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay which I picked up not in a bookshop, but in a quilt store of all places!  Looks to be interesting. . .

No Photo of the Keepsake Shawl

I wanted to take a photo of the Keepsake shawl today because I made it to the 12th skein of Koigu last night.  I still have a long way to go -- probably a bit less than 1/4 of the shawl -- but the 12th skein is the last one, so it's downhill from here in my opinion.  It already feels as if the rows are getting much shorter.  It's another grey day though (as was yesterday) so I know that I'm not going to get a decent photo.  I guess it will have to wait for another day.

In other news, I've been re-organizing lately -- kind of a spring cleaning in autumn.  And I now have pretty much all of my craft books in one big bookcase in my office.  It's very exciting!  They were scattered throughout the house in piles and crammed in various bookshelves.  It's nice to have them all in one place.  Next I need to organize them by craft.  Then I tackle the fiber/sewing room (oh, yeah and writing room -- sorry BoogaP!)

So, no photos today.  Hopefully we'll get some sun around here soon!

I've eaten some of the Green & Black's

I've been working my way through that box of chocolate from Green & Black's and I have a few bars to report on.  First up -- the Ginger bar.

This has been my favorite from the box -- an organic dark chocolate bar with lots of crystallized ginger bits mixed in.  The ginger had such a nice fresh zing!  Just a perfect complement to the bitter dark chocolate.  I also like how the ginger is a bit (just slightly) chewy.  I think that if you like ginger, you'll love this bar. 

Next up -- Mint Bar.  This is an organic dark chocolate mint bar with a soft mint center.  Not unlike the Caramel Bar (which I previously reviewed), it is composed of little individual chambers which hold the filling and you can break off a piece and save the rest of the bar for later -- a very nice feature.  The chocolate has a nice bitterness in contrast to the center which is subtle, sweet and has a floral note which was quite strong.  While I liked this bar, I wanted the mint filling to be more substantial, more minty.  Having said that, I ate the whole thing quite happily!

I've said before how much I *love* the Green & Black's White before -- well, the Milk bar reminds me alot of the White bar.  Not so strange really when you look at the ingredients.  It's basically the same bar with "Organic Chocolate Liquor" added -- so it will come as no surprise that I liked this bar too.  Now, I'm not a milk chocolate fan, but this is a bit darker than your usual milk chocolate and you can also tell that it's higer quality than your average chocolate bar too.  While it is sweet, I found it to be more milky than sugary and I was really able to taste the vanilla. 

I also wanted to say a little something about the company -- as you can see, these bars that I've been writing about are all organic.  This is something that I've really started to become interested in and I'm happy to find such a high quality product (and such a yummy one!) with this designation.  They also have a chocolate bar -- Maya Gold -- that is designated Fair Trade.  This is something else that I think is important, and I'll be discussing it more when I talk about some future chocolate companies.  You can read more about G & B's Fair Trade polocies on their website.

That's all for today.  I hope I didn't make you too hungry.  Now go out and get yourself some chocolate!

A new knitter!

I am very proud to announce that there is a new knitter in my household!  This week Maddie learned to knit!  She's been asking to learn for quite a while and has even had her own knitting needles (the cute Lion Brand ones with the kitty faces on the ends) for a couple years, but I didn't want her to try too early and get frustrated.  Now that she's 6, I decided that it was time.

Since I knit in a kind of strange way, I used the book Kids Learn to Knit to get her started.  It has a lot of cute easy projects that got her interested (although she was already eager to learn, so that wasn't much of a concern in my case).  The cast on taught is the backward loop method -- which was easy for Maddie, who just turned 6, to master.  The only problem is that this cast on makes the first row on knitting very difficult, so I stepped in and knit that row so that there was no frustration.  After that she was off!  There are plenty of pictures and easy to read directions (she read them all herself, so they are simple enough for child to read).  I'm very happy with the book so far, and we both can't wait to get to the projects!

So far she has knit a couple rows -- one row takes pretty about as much concentration as she can muster in one sitting  :)  But she always seems very proud after she is finished and yesterday she came and asked me if we could knit, so I'm taking that as a good sign!

Oh yeah -- Maddie's been doing more than just knitting. I just updated her homeschooling blog too!

All I can say is. . .

Hooray!

A gentle reminder from my husband. . .

Not that I need a reminder -- I'm a voter and I vote (ha ha -- get it?)  But my confindece was a bit shaken yesterday.  Let me explain. . .

We have a mailman -- now known as postal carrier or something (let's all be pc -- I know!), but we really have the old fashioned, friendly, *always* on time mailman!  He walks his route through rain and storm (and what's that saying?  well, anyway -- you get the idea.)  So yesterday I went out to get the mail at the usual time and it wasn't there.  Oh!  I think to myself, it's Veteran's Day!  Which it was *not*.  Pete brought the mail in when he got home from work and said something about me not bringing in the mail and I mentioned the whole Veteran's Day thing and then I added -- So do we vote tomorrow?

Apparently, we do. 

I'm back!

Whoa -- where the heck did I go?  Well, the end of October is always crazy around here with Maddie's birthday and Halloween falling a week apart.  Then there were a few other family activities.  (The triple brother-in-law birthday dinner in the city -- a fun new tradition! and the pumpkin carving contest -- which comes with my mom's delicious chilli.  We are fat & happy.)  On top of that I spent quite a few hours on this big local charity event (delivering flyers to pre-schools, setting up & working many hours at the event).  I wore myself out.  Oh, and Maddie got sick too -- just a cold, but with all the activities it lingered.  I'm fighting it now. 

And I also had a deadline!  I just sent off my article and pattern for the next issue of Yarn Forward Magazine.  So, I have been knitting and spinning (the article is about plying on a spinning wheel).  But time for crafting has otherwise been short.  That should all change for the balance of the year. 

So what of the Easy Bake Oven picture?  Well, I have to tell you about out "baking" afternoon.  Maddie received the oven for her birthday and was very excited to try it out.  I was less than thrilled, but somehow made time to help her with her cake.  I went into it feeling rushed and exhausted and somewhat jaded -- big corporate toy company -- blah, blah, blah. . .   but what I got out of the experience was something altogether unexpected.

As Maddie started to mix up the mixes she was cautious and unsure of herself.  I encouraged her and as she continued, she blossomed!  Soon she was exlaiming that she was "doing it!"  and that she wanted to be a "baking teacher" when she grew up.  Just seeing the confidence that making this crazy little cake stirred up in her almost made me cry.  It took so little effort on my part and made her so happy.  And then, when it was all done (like an hour later -- oy!) she cut the cake and we each ate a piece and I told her how delicious it was and her smile said it all. 

So I guess that we got more than we bargained for when we got an Easy Bake Oven -- and this is just part of the reason why I've decided that it's time to simplify my life.  I'm trying to figure out what it is that really makes me happy.  This weekend Maddie and I spent some time together reading, something which I haven't had the time or energy for lately.  It was lovely.  And the three of us played board games -- something we all enjoy.  I'm recovering and getting back some energy -- hopefully some of my creative energy too -- wish me luck!