Once again the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) served as the backdrop for a food celebration this one hosted by Dessert Professional.com. The annual Top Ten Chocolatiers Hall of Fame event on Wednesday, January 27th was an indulgent festival of chocolates with deep flavors, new combinations, and stunning presentations.
Navigating my way through the main ICE floor in FiDi I was given directions to make a few turns but after the first turn I simply followed the intense smell of chocolate which led me to my destination. ICE staff offered pockets of people hors d’oeuvres while weaving through the incoming crowd. This was the pregame before tasting all the decadence that the Top Ten Chocolatiers had on-hand.
Read moreIn addition to the annual list of readers you know it’s also time for the annual list of desserts I had, the good, the bad, the ugly. And it seems fitting to post it on my birthday! Yay sweets! As you know I like to keep it honest. Life is too short for bad books and bad desserts.
Sweet Buttons Desserts – This place has been around for about 3 years in the Lower East Side. It’s in walking distances from Sugar Sweet Sunshine and they specialize in small treats. Passionfruit is one of my fave items on dessert and when done well in a tart it can be refreshing and perfect. Sweet Button’s had a great gelatin filling and thick buttery crust with meringue on top that was delectable and worth a winter splurge. I loved it big time. In fact I owe that place a visit.
Read moreToday's my 35th Birthday! It seems fitting to post a reflective piece being another year older. Here goes... The day it released I received a copy of Shonda Rhimes’ Year of Yes. I don’t often read self-help(ish) type books. But hey the book came with the tickets of her appearance at the 92Y so why not?
Here’s the premise: One day Shonda Rhimes of all people has a metaphorical wake-up when she realizes she’s not happy. One of the most power women (of color) in television was not happy. She tended to hole herself up and not do things that scared her or took her out of her comfort zone. She was happiest when with her kids, in her jams/sweats, and/or writing. She was not someone who was into parties or public speaking, these things freaked her out easily.
So she decided to challenge herself for one year. She was prompted by a comment from her sister who essentially said she never said “yes” to anything instead going on to complain about all the invites to events, being super busy in her success, and so on and so forth. However, she didn’t indulge in the celebrity life people were asking her to be a part of. She really wasn’t living period. And then, voila she made a change and while it wasn’t immediately soothing over time she got over those hurdles and realized that once something that terrified her was over and done with she didn’t die. Life goes on.
Read moreI'm going to preface this post with the fact that I had written this back in December to go live first week of January and it was gone. Thanks a lot WP. Anywho, I redid it and here goes. Gotta keep with tradition.
I think last year was stronger for books than previous years for me. I’ve been trying to spread out more in terms of reading more nonfiction and poetry, not just a handful but a significant amount to combat the amount of fiction I read. One can dare to dream for a job where this is your soul day-to-day. Alas, perhaps that is in my near future.
So here’s a breakdown of the books that totally tugged at my heart strings after I placed it back on my bookshelf.
Read moreLast crawl of the year was a Doughnut Crawl in Manhattan! Seven stops and many sweets, many highly recommended.
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