This afternoon it was cool and rainy - *almost* felt like Austin in the winter. The boys were pretty grumpy though, and I was too, so I decided to forget my to-do list and pull out one of those "been wanting to do forever but never have the time" type of projects... making dark chocolate covered coffee beans.
I am very much a dark chocolate person and my stash has been a tad low lately, so I pulled out my prized dark chocolate baking bar from a package... from a LONG time ago and found Brant's stash of unground coffee beans. Coffee grows here like weeds, so nice coffee beans are cheap and easy to find.
The whole process was a lot of fun - you just melt the chocolate in a double boiler, stir in the beans, and then lay them out to dry... except that at room temperature here chocolate only exsists in liquid form :) so we put them straight into the freezer. They turned out pretty good, though I admit they don't taste quite as good as the ones you get from the store. But I'll take what I can get. :)
I let the boys lick the pan. I'm pretty paranoid about letting them lick any kind of batter with eggs in it here in the land of bird flu, so it's a rare treat for them, and I figured dark chocolate is *supposed* to be healthy. :) They had a ball. I don't have any pictures of Ezra, but I dipped my fingers in the chocolate and then let him lick them... except he didn't quite get the concept and bit them. :)
The only downside to the whole process was that I sampled way more than I should have and it looks like I'm going to be awake for a LONG time tonight!
Okay, boys, it looks like you are having a very good time. I am so glad! I once knew someone who called rubber scrapers "child cheaters" because they don't leave much in the bowl for the children, but it sure looks like they were your friends this time. I'll have to send your mom more chocolate, especially because she is so willing to share with you guys! My love ~ Grandma
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