My website is finally up!

Yaay! I have reason for excitement.

On Tuesday night, I woke up at 12:30 am, unable to sleep. I found myself on the internet and soon checking my email. Glaring at a screen in pitch dark, I found myself looking at a sale on domain names and I just suddenly decided to finally snatch up my domain name: http://www.chocolateshakti.com/.

I don't know what came over me. I had been resisting doing so for a long time. However, in the wee hours of the morning, I just figured, if I don't do it now, I will never do it. So sooner than you could blink I had purchased the official rights to have the domain name Chocolate Shakti.com.

So now it's time to celebrate before I have to start research hosting companies and start figuring out what my logo will be. Celebrate good times come on! Now let me see you do a little dance while I sing this song!

Soft Baked is the way to go

I finally realized what was causing my cookies from becoming ultra chewy like the ones at the bakery. It was the way I was mixing the dough.

First of all, I had to add extra flour to toughen up the dough. It just can't be liquid it. When I scoop it onto the cookie sheet, it has to clump up and not ooze down.

Secondly, I had to change the oven temperature up to 400 from 350. This increase in heat aids cooking the cookie faster. The last part is to be sure to pull the cookie out sooner - so rather than pulling out at 10-11 min, I will be taking it out at around 6-8 min. The result is an ultra soft baked charmer. Try it with you fav cookie recipe and I promise it won't dissappoint!

White Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

It's been one of those days....

You look in the mirror and see a person you no longer recognize. Not only has lack of sleep changed my appearance, I seemed to have lost count of what day of the week it is.

You see, I just recently gave birth to my 2nd child, and with motherhood comes many sleepless nights.

It's been a very long time since I have dabbled in chocolate in my kitchen the way I used to in my free time. That is partly because I was just too exhausted and nauseous while pregnant to even step in the kitchen.

Now that I am close to six weeks past birth, I finally got a chance to make my first chocolate related snack in months.

Enter... (drum roll).. White chocolate covered strawberries!

Yaay!

While my dear mother entertained the babes (yeah, I've got two in total now), I was able to dash off to the kitchen to create my first real chocolate creation in God knows how long. As I went searching for my aluminum bowl to make my makeshift double boiler, I paused as I remembered that my darling MIL had taken it 'by accident'(hmmm...). So I was left to use the microwave to melt the chocolate.

Surprisingly, the chocolate melted quite easily and I was able to dip some very ripe juicy red strawberries into the melted mix and lay them to harden. Once it was ready, I called over my poor diabetic mother to try my new dessert snack.

She took one taste and her eyes lit up! Yesss! I still got it! No Mom, sorry, but that's all you can have. (I don't want to be responsible for any high blood sugar problems! )

Chocolate Milk hits the spot

This morning I woke up with a chocolate craving. Instead of eating straight chocolate I decided to keep it on the healthy side and just drink a glass of Nesquik chocolate milk. It was so delicious that it brought back memories of my childhood.

When I was younger there, I hated the taste of plain milk. So to entice me to drink milk my parents added the beloved chocolate flavored Ovaltine. After that my affection for chocolate has never waned.

I know there are a lot of people out there with childhood memories about their favorite beverage or snack. Mine will always be chocolate milk. What's yours?

I am Koo Koo for Chocolate!

I'm craving it, but I'm dieting!!

My New Year's resolution is to lose 10 pounds. So how am I supposed to do that when I have chocolate cravings all the time! The answer: dark chocolate baby!

One problem though, I lack an adequate supply in my house. All I have leftover from the holiday stocking stuffers are those sugar filled milk chocolate treats, filled with plenty of sodium and fat, nothing quite as high quality as the Valrhona or Callebaut I am used to eating.

I have got the 8 glasses of water, giant salad filled plates, and plenty of lean protein.. but I still need a chocolate fix. Looks like there is only one option that can both help knock away the cravings and still give me a minor amount of vitamins: Cocoa Puffs cereal with skim milk... yum! Hmmm, you can't go wrong with 1 serving: 150 calories and not even 1.5 grams of fat! Excellent!

Web hosting - Business beginnings

One of my best friends bought me the domain name of my choice for the company I want to start up on the internet. Unfortunately, unless I buy web hosting, I will always have adds displayed on the page.

Initially, finding the felicitous hosting company seemed like an easy task. However, I became disillusioned as I found that my choices were endless. So many companies over variations of the product that I have become confused.

To make matters worse, I am just a surface computer geek. Sure, I like to think I have web savvy talents, but when it comes to understanding what really goes behind running a site, I am pretty clueless.

Lucky for me, another friend of mine happens to be a software engineer, so I bombarded him with questions that were bothering me: How much space really is a GB? Is it important to have more than 1 SQL database? How much is a standard amount to pay per month for hosting?

After a long in depth conversation, I finally figured out my problem: I needed to know what kind of product I needed and then search and hunt.

I've narrowed it down to two criteria: Cost (the lower the better) and the option to have unlimited domain names per hosting plan. Now I just need to find the right company and I am on my way...

It's that time of year again...

When everything around you looks absolutely fabulous!

I love Thanksgiving because its when pumpkin pie and other delicious holiday treats are in great abundance! This year, I will finally be celebrating Thanksgiving in my own home, unlike Thanksgivings' past. I have a lot of preparing to do, therefore I am getting excited as I see holiday bargains at the grocery store.

I just can't wait until I can make some delicious pumpkin pie! I am going to see if my guests will allow me to add a chocolate twist to a delectable holiday favorite. I want to be sure everyone is in agreeance first. If all goes as planned, I will be back up posting my chocolate treat!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Chocolate Bloom

Chocolate bloom has nothing to do with chocolate and flowers. Actually, it really is not as pretty as it sounds.



An example would be when you bought yourself a chocolate candy bar only open it to find a strange white tint on the exterior of the chocolate. The appetizing deep brown color is completely gone.



This white staining on your chocolate is called chocolate bloom.

Chocolate bloom occurs when your chocolate has been exposed to temperatures not conducive for keeping it in the best quality. Typically this happens when the chocolate had been exposed to heat on a hot summer day with no adequate air conditioning keeping it from losing its color aesthetic appeal. This can also occur if the chocolatier did not properly temper the chocolate when it was made.

The bloom itself does not necessarily mean the chocolate has gone bad, or rather that it has lost the proper crystallization to keep it looking delicious. However, if you take a bite and the texture is nowhere near what you would have wanted, then indeed the chocolate has expired.

If you have a solid hunk of chocolate, you could try to melt the chocolate and bring it to temper to try and save it. However, if you don’t have the time, I would not fault you to just get another one. ;)