That is until these cold crisp sunny wintry mornings when one of those jars gets snapped open.

Or until they are handed out as Christmas or winter birthday presents.

Or until the lid is pried off and you discover a layer of chocolate to crack through like the sugar hat of a creme brulee.

Lets chalk this chocolate jam trick up to one of the many lessons learned from Christine Ferber’s Mes Confitures. Stirring in 250g of chocolate to a 1 kg fruit batch of jam is mentioned in several of her chocolate jam recipes. My experiments indicate that doubling this amount of chocolate is all good too, especially as the chocolate seems to visually disappear as it is added to your hot fruit mixture. Additionally, I added a layer of finely grated chocolate to the top of the hot jam after it had been spooned into the jam jar. This helps visually cue the jar opener to the presence of something special in this jam.

Adding chocolate to your jam recipe will not adversely affect the preservation of your jam. As usual in jam making considerations- keep your chocolate clean to prevent mold contamination in your jars. Do this by keeping your chocolate covered, use only clean sterilized tools and wash your hands before touching.

chocolate jam recap

• In a 1 kg of fruit batch of jam, add 250-500 grams of chocolate.
• Chocolate can be dark, milk or white.
• Chocolate is stirred in as the very last step before adding the jam to the jars.
• Additional chocolate can be added as a thin layer to the top of the hot jam just before it is lidded and heat treated.
• As is usual in jam making- keep your tools clean, and in this particular case your chocolate minimally exposed to the air to prevent mold spore contamination.

more uses for jam

• Jam Soda: use jam as the flavor base and sweetener for homemade soda
• Fruit Popsicles: jam adds a nice flavor kiss when used to sweeten popsicles
• Fruit on fruit: double your flavor punch of thawed frozen berries by tossing them with jam to gloss and sweeten

Then Le Sanctuaire may be the website for your gift shopping!

Le Sanctuaire items for choosy cooks

• Black Garlic: “Aged black garlic is garlic that has been naturally fermented to bring out powerful antioxidants, while removing all of the smell and odor typical to regular garlic. It has a milder aroma and sweet and sour flavor with a wonderful texture which melts in your mouth like a jelly. It contains no preservatives or additives.”



• Black Summer Truffle Juice: “Made from Italian black summer truffles that were hand-picked one by one. This product is completely natural. It contains a high concentration of suspended truffles. Excellent as a base for pasta, risotto, and other sauces.”
• White Poppy Seeds: “Lighter and mellower than blue poppy seeds, they are mostly used in India to thicken and add flavor to curries. They are cooked with jaggery and coconut, enveloped in a case of flaky pastry and deep fried. They are sprinkled over naan bread and cooked in a clay oven (tandoor). In Turkey and Middle East they flavor bread and desserts.”
• Long Cru Madura Whole Peppercorns: “Freshly harvested from our own farms in Indonesia, the spikes of the minute fruits are harvested green and sun-dried, when they resemble gray-black catkins. Mostly used in Asia, East and North Africa in slow-cooked dishes and pickles. It smells sweetly fragrant, and initially resembles black pepper in taste, but it has a biting, numbing aftertaste.”
• Green Sichuan Peppercorn: “Green sichuan peppercorn is rarer and much more citrusy than the red variety. Also known as flower pepper, this sichuan pepper is very fragrant, citrusy, woody, somewhat pungent. It has a numbing effect in the mouth. An important element in Chinese Five Spice, the berries are dry-roasted for 3-4 minutes to release their aromatic oils, then ground with the rest of the spices.”
• Reine-des-pres: “Also known as Queen of the Meadows, this flower has rich medicinal properties. Its perfumey and aromatic characteristics makes its usage common for desserts. Similar to elder flower, this flower can also be made into syrup.”
• Yuzu Juice: “Yuzu is a Japanese citrus that has an aroma and flavor that is distinct from any other citrus fruit, somewhat akin to a cross between grapefruit and lime. It is one of the most important ingredients for Japanese cooking. Our pure yuzu juice is 100% salt-free.”
• Elderberry Vinegar: “The elderberries were harvested ca. 20 km south of Vienna, at the peak of their ripeness, had their stems removed, were pressed only by their own weight (“strain must”), and brought to an alcoholic fermentation by adding pure cultured yeast. Ideal for roast meats and game, giving balance to sauces, and jams and pastries.”
• Inulin: “Inulin is a specific type of dietary fiber that is naturally found in hundreds of common foods such as leeks, artichokes, asparagus, onions, garlic, bananas, wheat, rye, and chicory root. Inulin has excellent nutritional and functional characteristics and can be used to replace fat, flour, and sugar. Inulin has several health benefits: it promotes healthy digestive system, helps manage diabetes, and improves bone health. Inulin also improves flavor and texture. Its taste is comparable to sugar and can be used as a sugar replacement.”

Besides- this is a great excuse for me to buy the perfect cat food bowl (aka the
“FEED THE !#!@*!!!CAT ALREADY!!!” bowl).

Tom Edwards, the maker of this genius bowl, is offering some great deals at his online store:

• Type the word “fan” at checkout and receive a 10% discount
• We are now offering FREE SHIPPING on all orders over $100.
• We also have “no frills holiday gift wrapping” for a mere seventy-five cents per item.

And this foodie is going to indulge her odd sense of humor by buying more friends LSD dip bowls for Christmas.

My favorite Wally pottery

• the LSD dip bowl
• 
  Bowl: “FEED THE !#!@*!!!CAT ALREADY!!!”
• Bowl: food police
• 
  Guacamole Bowl: Mars needs guacamole!
• 
  carbon paw print plate: Wally calculates his carbon paw print and decides to make the switch from canned dog food to the rabbit family that lives next door and owns a Hummer
• New Mantra Plate: Wally’s new mantra is: “Friends don’t let friends eat partially hydrogenated fats”

Made out of polypropylene, these fold and flex up into shape on demand. They are liquid tight, and can be used for eating your soup and cereal too.

I see an immediate need to use these for my lunches at work, and am curious how else they would fit in my habits.

Links

Orikaso folding instructions
Orikaso Flickr Group

Available flavors include:

• orange
• cinnamon
• peppermint
• root beer
• bubble gum
• cherry
• grape
• watermelon
• fruit punch

Each individual pencil comes in a resealable plastic tube, to contain help isolate the scent. In or out of their tube, their scent is guaranteed to last for two years.

The website also offers kits for making your own strawberry, pineapple, toasted marshmallow and bubble gum scented pencils.

Currently available in Eugene at Letterhead, 25 E. Eighth Ave. Downtown.

This square box holds a lustrous mix of chocolate covered everything- sunflower seeds, pistachios, almonds, apricots, blueberries… these chocolates give one the rare opportunity to color coordinate their candies! One can choose by color shades or by high lighted flavors. Pictured is the Eclectic Mix Dragee, which contains pale yellow lustered coated almonds, and an abundance of white coated sunflower seeds.

Currently available in Eugene at Letterhead, 25 E. Eighth Ave. Downtown.

The Cocoa Room- Cool Chocolate. No drama.

This cold metal tin contains everything but the warm summer dirt, to create a tasty garden plot. Included are:

small metal tins of seed, one each for:

• Mesclun Salad Mix
• Sweet Cucumbers
• Garlic Chives
• Baby Leeks
• Sweet Apple Peppers
• D’Avignon Long French Radishes
• Babette baby Carrots
• Zephyr Summer Squashes
• Edible Jewel Mix Nasturtiums
• Yellow Pear Tomatoes

• garden stakes
• pencil
• reference guide with planting instructions and specifications

gluing magnets to the sushi pieces and putting them up on the fridge would be a great way to play with this kit, and yet not have to deal with having toys stashed somewhere out of sight.

I don’t suggest gluing magnets on if you intend for this to be played with by young children.

I was given a barista action figure as a present in honor of my Halloween zombie barista costume. I think I’ll be sticking a magnet onto that as well!

• four Velcro’ed California roll pieces, inside out, gajin style
• two Velcro’ed tekka-maki (tuna roll) pieces
• two Velcro’ed kappa-maki (cucumber roll) pieces
• one Velcro’ed ebi (shrimp) nigiri
• one Velcro’ed tamago nigiri
• one Velcro’ed maguro nigiri, with a cute ribbon nori belt
• one Velcro’ed ikura nigiri (salmon roe), also with a cute belt
• a small dish of soy sauce
• a set of Velcro’ed chopsticks
• two felt pink ginger slices
• one wad of wasabi
• one wooden knife for cleaving the sushi rolls

It’s time for another vanilla bean purchase!

I just bought one pound of organic Tahitians from eBay for $18, shipping included. This eBay shopping is jolly good stuff!

I plan on giving these out for Christmas this year, mostly stuffed in bottles of bourbon: that magic ju-ju to add to eggnog.