Easter Countdown

It's time to color your Easter Eggs. Even if you have lovely Sweetique eggs, you probably have to boil and color some of your own.

First, boil some eggs. We have some brown ones here, and they can give you fine subtle colors, but white ones present a blank canvas.

I'm told, by the way, that you can tell what color egg a hen will lay by examining her earlobes. I thought you'd want to know.

Boil the eggs in lots of cold, salted water with a bit of white vinegar in it. As soon as the water boils, cover the pan and turn off the heat. In about 10 minutes, you'll have hard-cooked eggs. Plunge them into cold water right away to give yourself the best chance of peeling them successfully when you get around to peeling them.

You can buy a kit to dye your Easter eggs, but you can also be more adventuresome:

• Float a bit of oil and a bit of paste food color on top of 1/4 cup of water. Dip the egg in and bring it back out fairly quickly for a marbled appearance. If you like, you can dye the egg a solid color first for a base coat.
• Wrap the eggs in cheesecloth with flowers and herbs between the egg and the cloth before you cook them. You never know what you might come up with this way, but they'll be subtle compared to food coloring. Throw some onion skins in if the eggs are white, for a warm cast.
• Put stickers such as circular paper reinforcers and price tags onto eggs -- either natural or with a base coat -- and then dye them. Pull off the stickers for cool geometric shapes. Rubber bands will do a slightly less sharp version of the same thing.

Easter Countdown

With less than a week to go till Easter, it's a great time to decorate and get your place ready for the holiday.

If you're an ambitious holiday decorator, you've already brought out your Easter tree and the large collection of  mixed-media bunnies. We know. For the rest of us, there are some really easy ways to brighten up the house for the holiday:

• Eggs are the quintessential Easter decoration. Bright eggs like ours look terrific in the Sweetique Egg centerpiece, but any clear or open container looks great when you fill it with colored eggs. Look around your house with an open mind -- do you have a brandy snifter, an old fish bowl, a low planter you haven't used lately?
• Flowers are always a good choice, and they're particularly appropriate for spring. We've said it before, and it's still true: if you have limited talent with flowers, use lots. If you have the skills, use a few choice blooms and some twigs for an inexpensive and artful arrangement. It's a trade-off.
• Animals -- not just the Easter bunny, but lambs and chicks and butterflies and ducklings, too -- are charming at Easter. Bring an air of whimsy to the table with a collection of toy baby animals in a basket, or use PDF files from The Toymaker or Martha Stewart to make old-fashioned paper decorations.
• Spring colors can do the trick, too. Change towels, napkins, and table cloths to pastel shades or grab some paper party dishes and napkins in clear spring colors for a quick transformation.

Get the kids in on the fun, too.

Easter Countdown

Have you done your shopping yet? Some things should not be bought until the last minute -- delicate fruits and vegetables, for example -- but you can go ahead and get sturdy vegetables like carrots and of course all nonperishables.


Here's a list:

• Quick like a bunny, get your last-minute orders in for Sweetique Eggs. We're getting them sent out so fast that we can still fill your orders today.
• Buy all nonperishable foods -- check your menu to make sure you aren't forgetting anything.
• Frozen foods can be bought today, too. Get an extra loaf of bread for making sandwiches from leftovers and throw it in the freezer, too.
• Are you expecting guests with special needs? If you know you'll need baby food, artificial sweeteners, or pet food for visitors and you don't usually keep them on hand, add them to the list.
• Overnight guests? Check to make sure you have coffee and tea for those who can't start the day without caffeine.
• Easter brunch may be the main meal you prepare. If not, consider planning something simple for family and overnight guests. Add granola, other cold cereals, and dried fruit to the shopping list for a simple, healthy start to the day.
  

Last Day to Order for Easter Delivery

Order your Sweetique Eggs today!

How to Eat Sweetique Eggs

 

Just crack, peel, and enjoy!

Remember to put your Sweetique eggs into the refrigerator for a few minutes before peeling them.

That's all there is to it!

Countdown to Easter: Easter Baskets

If there will be children at your Easter celebration, there should be Easter baskets.

Here are some great things to put in the baskets:

• boiled and colored eggs
• Sweetique eggs
• candy eggs
• chocolate bunnies
• stuffed rabbits
• bubbles and bubble wands (make it yourself with dish soap -- add glycerin for long-lasting bubbles)
• art supplies
• toothbrushes
• seeds to plant
• sports gear (golf clubs will require huge baskets, so don't get carried away)
• harmonica, kazoo, or other small musical instruments
• small books

If your kids are too old for Easter baskets, they can still enjoy a Sweetique gift basket.

Easter Countdown

So what are you doing for fun this Easter? We put silly marzipan carrots on our carrot cake to set the mood, but when you get friends and family together for the holiday, you might want to plan some entertainment.

• Play games. Whether it's Rock Band or charades, games can be fun for all ages.
• Take a hike. Or a short stroll, if that's more your speed. Either way, enjoy spring.
• Hunt Easter eggs. If you're hiding Sweetique Eggs, remember to put them into the fridge for 15 minutes before peeling them, to make it easy to get to the luscious chocolate inside. 
• Dance. Do the Bunny Hop, even.
• Play sports. Touch football or croquet? Up to you!
• Try egg rolling. Set an end point, such as a tree, and push eggs across the lawn with spoons. Make it a race, or just give a prize to everyone who makes it.
• Still feeling competitive? The traditional egg and spoon race has competitors hold an egg in a spoon and race to the finish line. If you have lots of competitors, make two teams and line up to make it a relay race. Each runner has to race to the finish line and then bring the egg back to the next runner and tip the egg into the next runner's spoon before the next runner can take off.

Easter Countdown: What's for Dessert?

We usually have a dozen or two guests at Easter, so we can generally make several different desserts. This year, I'm having just a few, so we have to make the difficult decision: what's for dessert?

I always like to have something citrus and of course something chocolate. This year, I'm combining the two with a Chocolate Bonbon Cake. It's a firm butter cake, like a pound cake, and a good-quality orange marmalade will give a tart flavor and a lovely texture. It'll remind you of chocolates with orange centers.

I used a decorative Bundt pan. The chocolate glaze hardens over the design but lets it show through. However, you can also make this cake in a sheet pan for easy buffet service. Just watch the baking time -- it'll be closer to half an hour. 

Chocolate Bonbon Cake

1 c butter
3/4 c sugar
3 eggs
1 T orange liqueur or vanilla
3 1/2 c. self-rising flour
1 1/3 c fresh orange juice
1/2 c orange marmalade
zest of 2 oranges
2 oz. dark chocolate
2 T butter
1 T cream

Cream butter with sugar till fluffy. Beat in eggs and orange liqueur or vanilla. Alternately add orange juice and flour, beating well after each addition. Stir in orange marmalade and orange zest. Bake in a Bundt pan at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes, or till a cake tester shows it's done.

Melt chocolate with butter and stir in cream. Pour over cooled cake. Garnish with candy orange slices.

Sweetique Chocolate Easter Eggs

Sweetique's delectable chocolate Easter eggs are real eggshells filled with a special blend of milk and dark chocolate with hazelnut praline. You have time to order Sweetique Eggs for your Easter baskets if you're quick!

Chocolate Salon 2010

San Francisco is host to the fourth annual Chocolate Salon at the Festival Pavilion, beginning tomorrow.

It's a chocolate competition, bringing together an international assortment of chocolatiers in a 50,000 square foot chocolate overload. You can watch a video from 2009 if you're curious about what people might do at a Chocolate Salon.

Oh, come on. You know what people will do at a Chocolate Salon. Tickets are still available if you're in the City. Not only will there be 70 chocolatiers offering samples, there will also be some special wine and chocolate events. TasteTV will be broadcasting, if you prefer to follow along from home.

Easter Countdown

Continuing our Easter countdown, we've settled our guest list, most of our menu, and the time and place. Now, let's think about getting our space ready.

Spring cleaning makes everything fresh and welcoming. Clear out the winter stuffiness by opening up the house and scrubbing everything. Get the whole family to pitch in, and it won't take as long as you think it will.

Plan the Easter decorations. It's too early to buy cut flowers, but it's just the right time to bring branches in for forcing.

Forsythia, cherry, quince, laurel, redbud, and dogwoods are all good candidates for forcing, if you have some in your yard. Pussy willow and witch hazel are good, too, and they grow wild. Wherever you get your branches, be sure to choose some that have budded nicely.

Cut them and bring them into a warm room. Full a vase with warm water, submerge the cut ends of the branches, and cut them again under the water. Put the branches in the sun. You'll have blossoms for Easter.

If you'd rather go with cut flowers, this is a good time to order them from the florist. You can also do it yourself. If you have nothing in your garden that's ready to cut -- or you don't want to sacrifice the look of the garden for the sake of the indoor decorations -- scope out sources of cut flowers now.

Here's the secret of do-it-yourself floral arrangement: it takes skill to make a few blossoms look elegant and lovely. It takes hardly any skill to make dozens of blossoms look good. So if you have limited knowledge of flower arranging, scout around for the best prices and plan to buy a lot of flowers.

Mass them in pretty vases or jugs on your mantelpiece, coffee tables, or any other flat surface. If you have enough, it'll distract guests from any lack in your spring cleaning, too. For the table, order a Sweetique centerpiece now and you'll have it in plenty of time for Easter.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Best of Irish Luck to you all!

Irish Chocolate Coffee

Continuing our preparations for St. Patrick's Day, we offer a chocolate variation on traditional Irish Coffee. Irish Coffee is brewed coffee with Irish whiskey and a good dollop of cream. 

Start by brewing up some good hot coffee. For each cup of coffee, add 1/8 cup of ground chocolate and 1 tablespoon of whiskey. Whisk it all together, pour it into cups, and top it with whipped cream. With a steady hand and a stencil, you can decorate the cup with a shamrock for extra festiveness.

Irish Chocolate Cake

St. Patrick's Day will soon be upon us, and you might want to celebrate in Irish style, whether you're of Irish heritage or not. Here's a very special chocolate cake with an Irish air:

Irish Chocolate Cake

3 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 T cocoa powder
1/3 cup strong hot tea

1 tsp Irish whiskey
1 1/4 cup self-rising flour

Beat eggs till they're very light and foamy. Gradually beat in sugar. Blend in remaining ingredients and bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees, or till a cake tester shows it's done.

Meanwhile, prepare Chocolate Mousse:

4 large eggs
1/3 cup sugar
12 oz. dark chocolate, chopped
1-1/2 cups chilled whipping cream
1/4 cup Irish cream liqueur

Whisk eggs and sugar together in a double boiler over hot water, whisking constantly, till smooth and thick. Remove from heat and beat till cool. Melt chocolate . Whip cream to stiff peaks. Fold chocolate and cream into egg mixture along with liqueur.

Cut cake horizontally with a serrated knife to create two layers. Fill and frost cake with chocolate mousse. Decorate in traditional Irish style by wrapping ribbon around the outside of the cake.

Serve this with tea, or with whiskey. Possibly both.

The people of Ireland buy 5 million chocolate Easter eggs a year, making them one of the most serious consumers of the delicacy in the world.

Chocolate Easter Eggs

Sweetique Chocolate Truffle Easter Eggs are natural eggshells, emptied and sterilized and filled with a delicious blend of milk and dark chocolate with hazelnuts. These amazing eggs are then colored with brilliant designs.

You need these in your Easter baskets.Your Secret Pal, your favorite teacher or secretary, and all your kids will love them and be astonished by them.

Order Sweetique Eggs now so you'll be sure to have them in time for Easter.

Easter Countdown

Now is a good time to plan your menu for the big Easter meal. It's early enough to arrange for helpers and to watch for good prices on special ingredients. You also still have time to order your Sweetique Eggs, and what could be more special than that?

As with so many  holiday meals, Easter often has a traditional set piece: a ham or lamb for the main dish. Your family might be disappointed if that were replaced with something else, but they might be fine with a different way of preparing it. If you usually stud your ham with cloves and glaze it with marmalade, you might find that your family would enjoy a pineapple and mustard glaze instead. If you usually serve a rack of lamb, you might try a leg of lamb instead. However, the main dish is often part of the tradition, and something people look forward to.

You can get creative with your side dishes, though -- especially vegetables. Here are some of our favorite spring vegetable dishes from around the web:

• Grilled Asparagus
• Roasted Vegetables
• Grilled Leeks
• Spanish Salad (I like to add chopped black olives)
• Broccoli Salad

Have carrot sticks for children whose palates might not be ready for these more exciting tastes.

If you're doing all the cooking, it makes sense to have just one or two elaborate dishes and keep the other things simple, so choose simple rice or potatoes if you're doing a show-stopper of a green vegetable. If you're going with plain steamed broccoli or green beans, though, you might like a classic potato dish like these:

• Potatoes Anna
• Potatoes Dauphinoise
• German Potato Salad

We'll be sharing bread and dessert recipes, but these are good choices either to buy or to ask guests to bring. Go ahead now and call that cousin who makes the famous babka or your brother with the perfect tsoureki and invite them to bring their specialties -- they'll be flattered that you asked.

Once you've decided on your menu, make up a list of all the ingredients and carry it in your purse or billfold. Pick up the nonperishables along with your regular grocery shopping, and get the perishables a few days before Easter. If you need to order something -- a special cut of meat at the butcher, for example -- it's time to do that now.

Chocolate-Powered Car

Lola has a steering wheel made from root vegetables and she runs on the waste from chocolate manufacturing plants, so I guess we can say she's balanced.

The kids at the University of Warwick's Innovative Manufacturing Research Center came up with Lola, along with a nice fleet of other racing cars made from recycled materials. Unfortunately, race cars using biofuels are not allowed to compete (what's up with that?) in ordinary auto races, so we won't know how she stands up against the competition, but I bet she smells better than most.

Check out the Chocolate Car video.

Easter Countdown

We're getting ready for Easter, one day at a time. Once you've got your general logistic planned -- family feast, private celebration, or something in between -- it's good to make yourself a timeline.The bunny here clearly isn't ready for the arriving guests, and we don't want to be in this position.

We've got just about four weeks to get ready, so we can divide the upcoming tasks up that way:

• This week, decide on the place, time, and guest list. Talk with anyone else who should be involved in the decision. Go ahead and order your Sweetique Eggs, too. Make any travel arrangements now.
• Next week, send out the invitations and plan the menu. If you need to shop for Easter baskets, outfits for the children, or supplies for houseguests, go ahead while the selection is good.
• The following week, assign potluck duties, have family portraits made if that's part of your tradition, and clean and decorate the house.
• The week before Easter, shop for food and do advance preparations for the meal. Confirm with your guests and arrange airport pickups and so forth.

When the big day arrives, you'll be calm and ready to enjoy it.

Easter Countdown

Easter Sunday this year is on April 4th, just about four weeks away.That means it's time for the Easter Countdown.

Easter is second only to Thanksgiving for festive family dinners in the U.S., so right now is the time to start making your plans.The first thing to consider is the guest list:

• Can you get the whole family together in one place, at one time? If so, consider the possible locations. If there are too many people for anyone's dining room, you have other options, from renting a pavilion in the park to setting up a buffet and having everyone balance plates on their laps. Just figure it out now, so you won't have last-minute problems that interfere with the pleasure of the occasion.
• Do you have to divide up? Blended families, divorced families, unmarried couples whose families still expect them home for the holiday, and families with two sets of grandparents in distant cities all have to be prepared to compromise. Now, before anyone has baked anything, have those conversations. Maybe the kids can have breakfast and attend church with one family, and join the other for dinner. Maybe you can feast with one side of the family at 1:00 and the other at 6:00. Maybe brunch on Easter Saturday would work for one family just as well as Easter Sunday dinner. Planning ahead avoids hurt feelings.
• No family? Plan a gathering with friends on the big day, so none of you has to feel like you're missing out. If you're the only singleton in your set, or all your friends are leaving town to be with their families, tell someone -- chances are, one of the families you know would love to add you to their guest list, but they won't ask you if they figure you're going to be with your parents.
• And some people don't want to take part in a big family meal, either with their own families or with others. Make another plan right now, so you can tell all the well-meaning people inviting you that you can't join them, because you've made other plans. If those plans involve you, a Sweetique egg, and your cat, no one needs to know. It's the telltale deer in the headlights look and "Uhh.... I... uhh... I don't think I can..." response to invitations that gets you dragooned into social events you don't want to be part of.

Get On Our Email List!

We send luscious emails, with special offers and information. You will imagine the scent of chocolate as you read, and the experience will just generally improve your day.

Head right over to our contact Sweetique page, and tell us you want a free subscription. That way, you won't miss a thing!

Bread and Chocolate

When I was a little girl, we used to have bread and chocolate for a snack. This was in France, so it was a matter of begging the cook for a nice crusty roll, tearing it open, and tucking in a bit of good chocolate. On a special occasion, bread and chocolate might even be a croissant and chocolate, though this involved getting the croissants from a bakery.

In the U.S., we can't keep things this simple (though I think we might like it, if we make sure to have the same high quality of simple ingredients). Here are some American takes on bread and chocolate from around the web:

• Grilled Chocolate Sandwich
• Chocolate Bread
• Pain au Chocolat
• Petits Pains au Chocolat 
• Fried Chocolate Sandwich

The pains au chocolat have French names, but they are the chocolate pastries we eat here in America, not the pain au chocolat of my French childhood. The last one reminds me both of French Toast and the infamous Scottish deep-fried chocolate sandwich, but all of them involve bread and chocolate in some way. Let us know which ones you prefer!

The World's Oldest Writing?

Researchers in South Africa have found what they believe might be the oldest human writing, or at least the oldest attempt to convey information graphically. The writings, 60,000 year old ostrich eggs with regular patterns of scratches in geometric shapes, look very intentional and quite different from random markings.

Linguists, pointing to the fact that current residents of the area used to mark ostrich shells with geometric patterns to show ownership, suggest that the decorated eggs are in fact an extremely early evidence of human language. The speculations, reported in New Scientist, contrast with the traditional view that true language began about 50,000 years ago.

While some have always held that some sort of symbolic representation of communication must have been present among homo sapiens as part of the definition of the species, putting the origin of language at about two million years ago, writing has been thought to be a much later development.

Having seen the images, we think that they may be the forerunners of the "Picturesque" design of Sweetique Chocolate Easter Eggs, which you can see in the photo above, on the right.

Chocolate and Coffee

Chocolate and coffee have a lot in common. Both come from tropical plants, both have undeserved bad reputations when it comes to health and growing bodies of evidence for their benefits, both have complex flavors that go well with many other foods, both inspire levels of dedication and fascination amounting to obsession.

No wonder they go so well together!

There are some obvious ways to enjoy coffee and chocolate together. First off, you can mix them up in a cup. One part espresso and two parts steamed milk give you cafe au lait to begin with. Put a tablespoon of sugar and  two tablespoons of cocoa powder into the cup before the hot liquids for a cafe mocha. Gild the lily by topping it with whipped cream, a drizzle of honey, and chopped almonds, and you have something perfect for a party.

Chocolate coffees are an intriguing innovation. Godiva makes a Chocolate Truffle Coffee which brews up like ordinary coffee. It isn't sweet or chocolate flavored, but it does have a special luxurious finish which makes it very nice for after dinner.

You can also serve hot, strong black coffee with your favorite rich chocolate dessert. The two will balance each other perfectly. Better yet, make a Gateau Moka or Tiramisu to carry the coffee and chocolate flavors through the entire dessert experience.

Try a square of chocolate with a cup of your favorite coffee, slowly savoring both. This is a good way to get your daily dose of antioxidants.

Serious about the combination of chocolate and coffee? Don't miss chocolate-covered coffee beans. Not for the faint of heart or people who want to go to sleep soon -- perfect for decorating a mocha cake.

National Pig Day

It is March 1st, National Pig Day.We're not quite sure what people usually do to observe National Pig Day, but it's clear that this is the perfect day to discuss the latest chocolate fad: chocolate bacon.

We've been ignoring this fad, because frankly it doesn't sound that appealing to us. We have to try stuff before we tell you about it, after all. We have to test those recipes and check out the chocolate we offer and look at the raw data for the studies.

We have not been able to persuade ourselves to try chocolate bacon.

You can buy bacon-flavored chocolate, in candy bars, made by everyone from Bella Mia to the haute chocolate Vosges. But you can also make your own chocolate-dipped bacon. Instructables has complete step-by-step instructions for homemade chocolate bacon. The authors tried a variety of chocolates and types of bacon and other pork products and reported fully and, it seems to me, fairly on their results.

We feel that we are off the hook. If you decide to make chocolate bacon, please tell us how it turns out. Shudder.