Archives For November 30, 1999

Chocolatier Blue

Ashley Walton —  January 31, 2013 — Leave a comment

chocolatier blue 2

Even though I’m usually anti-chocolates on Valentine’s Day, just in case, I feel it is my duty as a good citizen to notify the world of the greatest boxed chocolates money can buy. They’re from Chocolatier Blue and be warned: they will ruin all other chocolates for you.

Our photo hardly does these beautiful, hand-crafted gifts justice, but pictured we have spiced apple, white Russian, spiked egg nog, peanut butter and strawberry jam, peanut butter crunch, and cookies and cream. We’ve also had the pleasure of consuming banana split and s’mores.

These are no ordinary chocolates. Each chocolate is gorgeous—with glossy luster, hand-painted accents, and even, occasionally, a hint of golden glitter. And they are made with some of the finest ingredients. Now, many cheap food companies say that phrase to the point that it becomes meaningless—“made with the finest ingredients”—but in this case, it’s true. We’re talking the world’s best butter, Fleur de Sel salt from France, and fresh ingredients. They are not kidding around.

The flavors are constantly in flux with the seasons. Some new flavors that have caught my eye: French toast, coffee and donuts, waffle cone and ice cream, cinnamon roll, and strawberry milkshake. So, if you insist on buying chocolates for Valentine’s or any other occasion, go with Chocolatier Blue. Order online, or if you’re in the Salt Lake area, stop by Caputo’s.

geek love

Even when I was single, I loved Valentine’s Day. I used it as an excuse to go out to dinner with friends and buy myself something nice (after all, I was saving money not being in a relationship– so I figured I deserved it!). So whether you’re looking for a gift for a special someone, or you’re just looking to get gift for yourself (which I highly recommend), here are some geeky Valentine’s gift ideas, for men and women, the committed and single alike.

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django-unchained-fan-poster-foxx-waltz

This is a spoiler-free review. Tune in soon for a review so full of spoilers, you’ll cry.

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communal restaurant provo

We had a pretty killer New Year’s Eve dinner at a little place called Communal. As its hippie name might imply, Communal is a trendy place that offers local, organic food– we’re talking the chef hand-picks veggies in the morning and cooks with them in the afternoon. The upscale comfort food is often interesting, daring, and perfectly balanced. So, here’s what we had for our NYE dinner (a steal at $50 a person for 5 courses). All the beautiful photos were taken by Jeff.

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macadamia nut

Important news: we made some of the best pancakes we’ve ever had. The fluffy clouds from heaven were macadamia nut pancakes with coconut butter, bananas, and peanut butter. They may not have been from scratch (don’t judge us too harshly!), but they were unbelievably good, thanks to a few things:

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More Christmas Geekery

Ashley Walton —  December 22, 2012 — 2 Comments

We’ve been busily enjoying time off from work and general holiday merriment, but we wanted to share a quick post with some more of our Christmas geekery. We hope everyone has a happy winter solstice with good memories and, of course, good food!

geek presents(wrapping paper from ThinkGeek: Christmas bots, zombies, and bacon patterns)

geek tree(tree)

skull ornament(skull ornament, Target)

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Christmas Geekery

Ashley Walton —  December 11, 2012 — 2 Comments

We don’t swoon over Christmas the way we do for Halloween, but we’ve picked up some pretty cool decorations that are slowly melting my ice-cold heart. Here are some things we’ve obtained in the interest of holiday cheer:

1. Popcorn Ornament. Hallmark. $7.95.

popcorn ornament

It says, “I like you more than movie popcorn with butter!” That says a lot, really.

2. Geeky Wrapping Paper. ThinkGeek. $3.99–$5.99.

wrapping_paper_6up_new

We’ve made it a small tradition to get our wrapping paper exclusively from ThinkGeek (except for the one with Justin Bieber’s face plastered on it that we got from Target– no joke). This year we stocked up on the Holiday Zombies and Christmas Bots, but the Non-denominational paper is also a winner. We also got some bacon wrapping paper, because BACON. Link here.

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I learned the hard way that while people throw around the terms “yams” and “sweet potatoes” interchangeably, they’re not the same thing. Wanting to make what’s commonly called “mashed sweet potatoes,” I bought something at the store labeled “sweet potatoes.” When I returned home and peeled the “sweet potatoes” I found that they were hard, white potatoes– not what I was looking for. So on the second trip to the store, I bought yams, and these were right on. Peeling them revealed their soft, orange flesh. Score!

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These cupcakes are super easy (we cheated, using a boxed cupcake recipe, much to my husband’s protests– there’s only so much time in a day!) and we winged the recipe for the filling, and they turned out awesomely good.

Here’s what you need:

  • 1 box yellow cake mix (and ingredients for mix, usually eggs, oil, water)
  • 1 cup whipped chocolate frosting
  • 1 cup whipped butter cream frosting
  • 1 cup peanut butter (we used Jif all natural)
  • 1 cup whip cream
  • cupcake pan and cupcake paper inserts
  • piping instrument (to inject cupcakes with pure yum)

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When guests to our apartment step into our bathroom without  warning about the décor, they’re usually a bit startled. (Who am I kidding? We never give warning. We love seeing our friends’ horror-stricken faces.) Our bathroom screams slasher horror or perhaps zombie apocalypse. Personally, I like to think it’s reminiscent of the shower scene in Psycho. Our shower curtain and bathmat are soaked in tasteful blood splatters, as well as bloody handprints and footprints, and we have a lovely saying about zombies hanging on the wall (from our wedding, of course).

Now if we can just get the rest of the apartment looking this cool, we’ll be in business. (Literally. We could probably charge for tours due to pure awesomeness.)