Another Great Thing About Peru

The other great thing about Peru, was that they had Duty Free in the airport with a full stock of Cadbury and Milka chocolates. So supplies are back up to semi-acceptable levels. I was also able to procure some very good Peruvian Chocolate.

Yes that is the refrigerator that I'm storing my Cadbury (and Peruvian Chocolate) in. I know "they" say you shouldn't store chocolate in the refrigerator but I've found that good quality chocolate generally holds up very well in the refrigerator. Besides it's been so hot; it would melt outside of the refrigerator.

I did have a slight issue with meltage in Peru. When we went to the Maras salt mines, they had a bunch of shops that sold salt. They also sold salted chocolate. It was delicious. We also went to the ChocoMuseo in Cusco. Had I known of its existence, I would have booked a class (even though it seemed many of the students were kids). It was a very small museum but very interesting. They also served this wonderful chocolate tea. It really was just steeped cocoa bean shells. Of course, I bought some to bring home. (Yes I'm getting to the melty part). I also tossed in some cocoa powder - because why not? Now my worry is - will I be able to get cocoa shells for tea here when I run out? I know you can buy it as mulch but I don't think I would want to use that bleh. Most of the chocolate tea sold here has black tea in it and doesn't really taste like chocolate to me. I may be doing some mail order.

Needles to say, I bought chocolate at both places. When we were cruising the Amazon, we had these huge floor to ceiling windows in our cabin.

See window+bag=melted chocolate

I had my bag on the luggage rack - well guess what - the close to the equator sun was beating down on my bag - DUH! Didn't think that what was in the bag was also getting hot. So out of the bag and in front of the air conditioning unit the chocolate went. It didn't do the chocolate from the Museo too much harm but it did do the Maras salted chocolate harm. It just didn't taste the same.

Comments

Tomato Risotto

Want to build up those arm muscles. There is no better way than to do up a good risotto. You will get tired of stirring but it is oh so worth it. Tomato Risotto 1 onion, chopped olive oil 2 clove garlic, minced 1 1/2 c Aborio Rice 1/2 c white wine 4 medium-sized tomatoes, peeled about 1 cup warm vegetable stock (may need additional) 1 t fresh oregano 1 T fresh torn basil 2 T fresh parsley salt/pepper Parmesan cheese In a dutch oven, saute chopped onion in olive oil. Add a little salt to help the onions along. Meanwhile prep the tomatoes. Squeeze tomatoes gently just to rid them of the seeds. You do not need to get rid of all the liquid. Chop the tomatoes into large cubes. Cook onions until translucent. Add garlic and cook until fragrant. Add rice and saute for a few minutes until the rice smells toasted. Gradually add white wine and stir until almost all of the wine is absorbed. Add tomatoes to the rice. Add the oregano and basil. Stirring constantly until a

New Kid on the Block

So here's a picture of the new kid on the block. Ain't she a beauty? It's a Blomberg . They are fairly new to the US. They have been around in Europe for quite a while. I really liked the design. I've been dying to have a freezer on the bottom. With the old refrigerator I would constantly lose brain cells by hitting my head on the freezer will poking around in the refrigerator. It really makes sense to have the refrigerator on top - that is where you spend most of your time. When we bought the old one, it was an emergency situation. The prior one was leaking on the floor and was no longer cooling. Fifteen years ago the freezer on the bottom was just starting to get popular but we were in no situation to wait for delivery. We had to take what they had on hand. Now the freezer on the bottom is by no means unique. What is - is this freezer's design. There are 3 compartments in the freezer. I used to have a chest freezer in the basement and everything would get los

Go Gadget Go

Don't you just love a good gadget? I love one that is functional - usually with several functions as a matter of fact. I don't really like a one-trick pony type of gadgets. I like multi-taskers. Sometimes you have to settle for a one-trick pony and that's OK. Sorry I couldn't resist - the girls always loved Inspector gadget when they were young. I especially love the intro! My Mom's friend is moving and she's been clearing out her kitchen. She knows that I'm a big kitchen person so she gave me a bunch of things that she thought I might put to good use (Thanks Terri). She's given me some pretty nice things in the past too. She's given me some cake-decorating tools, some copper molds, cookie cutters, spritz cookie gun, etc. Here's what I got this time around: I'm excited about the two spatulas. The one is really flexible. I already have the mini spatula (from Pampered Chef ) and love it. Sometimes though when lifting things

Chocolate-It's What's for Dinner

Search This Blog