Happy New Year!

Welcome 2010!!

This will be a perfect year to accomplish just a few things.

"Just a few things" you ask?

Yes, just a few.

With each new year we all try to set lofty goals to achieve during the year and by the end we look back and see that we only reached a few, and feel disappointment for not reaching them all. So, logic says...set just a few and celebrate!!

I have a few that I am looking at. The biggest one is to expand my horizons with chocolate. For those of you who do not know me, let me explain. Although I am a chocolatier and I know chocolate really well, I'm really bad in the kitchen. The story I love to tell that describes my talent in the kitchen has to do with pasta. I was having guests for dinner one night and I decided to serve spaghetti. It is a pretty easy recipe and it would serve a group of friends. The sauce was simmering and approaching that peak of perfection. I put a large pot on for the noodles and once it reached boiling the noodles were added as instructed. I went to my computer to catch up with a few friends and my senses returned to my cooking with the smell of something burning. I rushed to the kitchen to find the pot of noodles furiously boiling away and, to my amazement, flames were leaping out of the pot through the splashing water!

Really...I caught spaghetti on fire while it was boiling in a pot! I have burned everything imaginable and as a result I get a little intimidated when it comes to baking, or creating anything that takes too much time or effort. Any cook will tell you how disappointing it is to spend 2 hours preparing a dish only to have it go up in smoke.

In 2010 I am going to go beyond my kitchen fears and make a few amazing things! I don't know what I should make first. Will it be a cake? What about chocolate mousse from scratch? Oh, the possibilities are limitless! Through 2010 I will share this adventure with you. I will be publishing this adventure through stories and photos. You will witness my successes and laugh with me through my failures!

Now, to keep this all fair I will be needing a few recipes. When I go to my vast selection of cook books I look through them and feel overwhelmed and quickly slam the cupboard shut leaving those books in the dark. You, my sweet readers, are so much braver than I and can open a cookbook. I would like you to send me a recipe and I will prepare it to the best of my ability. Because this blog is about chocolate everything I attempt needs to have chocolate as at least one ingredient. It can be chocolate in any form: cocoa powder, semi-sweet, bitter, chips, chunks, etc. You can post your recipe here as a comment, or send them directly to me via my website.

So, here's to a few new goals! I raise my glass to you and pray that I don't burn too much this year!!