Valentine's Day 2021

As a Valentine's Day celebration, our local independent chocolate shop, Sweet Cascades, offered a "make truffles at home" class. We signed up, which meant we picked up a kit the week before and started work the day before.

The first step was making the ganache. The kit contained a half pound of dark chocolate. We heated up half a cup of heavy whipping cream (which was not included in the kit because of refrigeration requirements) to mix with the chocolate.

Start of cooking

Once the cream simmered, we took it off the heat and added the chocolate. We patiently waited for the melting to happen.

Combining ingredients

My daughter whisked the mixture until it was smooth. Finally, we covered it and stuck in the fridge for the next day. We found out the next day that if we wanted to add flavor, we should have added it during the mixing. The trick is to keep the liquid level the same. So if you are adding a tablespoon of rum or bourbon, take out a tablespoon of the heavy whipping cream.

Whisky (not whiskey) business

In the fridge

The next day (i.e. the Saturday before Valentine's Day), we took out the ganache and melted the other chocolates in small bowls for dipping/coating the ganache. We had a half pound of milk chocolate and half a pound of dark chocolate. According to instructions, we microwaved each for a minute at half power, stirred, and heated them more until we had a smooth consistency. A chocolatier needs to be careful as chocolate can easily burn! We also took out the ganache about an hour early, but it got too warm and didn't hold its form as well as it could. Possibly we mixed in too much heavy cream the day before.

The kit included a melon baller for rolling the ganache and various items for sprinkling on the truffles.

A ready work station

We started up the Zoom and enjoyed a bit of conversation before we got to work. The work was messy enough that we did not take pictures. Since our ganache wasn't as chill as it could have been, the balls were a bit lumpy. Dipping was tricky too. We used spoons and forks to dip the ganache balls into the melted chocolate. The chocolate outside solidified fairly quickly, giving a good coating.

Finished work

We had leftover dipping chocolate. We checked our cabinets and then dipped some marshmallows, some peanuts, and some cashews. The nuts we did as clusters, not individual nuts, because that would be...nuts.

Nut clusters

We sampled some of the chocolates that night, and then enjoyed the fruits of our labor on Valentine's Day. 

Naughts and Zeds: Valentine's Day

Naughts and Zeds is an ongoing series of posts on the differences between language, culture, and everyday items in America and in Britain. For a list of previous posts, go here.

In America, Valentine's Day is a big deal. The stores are crowded with cards, candy, and other collectibles that show just how much you care. The shelves are stocked in the UK too, though one item is missing. That's those little Valentine's Day notes for school-age children to give to everyone in their class. I looked in the grocery stores. I looked in the card stores. I looked in the book stores. No one had any in stock. It was surprising to me. We'd had a flurry of cards at Christmas from J's and L's classmates. Sure enough, such Christmas cards were on sale all over the place. Well, for Valentine's Day it's just not available because it's just not done here in Britain.

We sent a note in to J's teachers and they wrote back saying kids don't send Valentines in the UK but we were welcome to if we wanted. J decided against it. L did want to, so we sent in a bunch of notes we had from a previous year with a nice Wizard of Oz theme. She forgot they were in her backpack, so they never got delivered. I should have checked when I picked her up! Whoops.

At home, we did exchange some gifts. I bought my wife some nice chocolates from a fancy local store, Hotel Chocolat. She bought me the first season of Once Upon a Time, which I am excited to watch. Probably while we are eating her chocolates!

Happy Valentine's Day to all!

Valentine's Day Eve 2011

Valentine's Day has a regular tradition for us. My mom will buy a singing Valentine for us from my sister's Vienna-Falls Chorus. The chorus is part of Sweet Adelines International, the four-part acapella barbershop harmony organization for women. One of their annual fundraisers is to send out quartets to serenade people in homes, restaurants, and businesses. We've enjoyed many visits by quartets.

Last year, my sister's quartet came to serenade us at our house:



This year, another quartet came and sang us two songs and gave us a box of chocolates. Here's some pictures of J with the quartet:

And here's some videos from two years ago. Alas, the Dejabel Cafe in Wheaton has since closed.