Trial Date is Set

Indeed, it is Monday, 24 November, 2014, whose afternoon will find me in Courtroom A of the San Diego Superior Court for my traffic violation trial.  I chose to go to trial because I want Officer Ryan, who gave me the ticket, to tell the court exactly what happened that evening (or at least what he witnessed).  I remember he'd told me, that evening, that he'd come to court and testify, on my behalf, that I was not driving in an unsafe manner, and that although I did not follow the letter of the law, that I surely followed its spirit...

After having spent most of my morning hours yesterday waiting for my arraignment, I spoke to the magistrate (they're called Commissioners here), and told her that I want a speedy trial date set.  I was given an appointment in the cashiers' room, and then left.  I had the chance to stop into the restaurant supply shop down the street to take a look at a few items.  

Peter's looking (casually, I believe) for a bamboo steamer basket for the dim sum that he'd bought, frozen, from the Korean market we visited (on Clairemeont Mesa Boulevard).  I saw a few Chinese-made baskets, but they did not look that well made, so I gave them a pass.  I also looked for a small offset spatula, which would come in handy for frosting cakes and cupcakes, as well as frosting cookies (yum!).  They were out of stock (of course!).  Finally, I searched (in vain) for an Asian-style vegetable peeler, one of which I'd used when I volunteered at a food event preparing vegetables for a festival taking place in Balboa Park.  I saw lot of other things in the store's show- and storeroom that would come in handy, but then I realized that, with a kitchen the size of mine, I've really got no space to store much in terms of additional equipment.

On Monday, and yesterday, I was finally able to successfully make chocolate ganache!  The ganache I made on Monday has the proper consistency for forming truffles, and the second ganache is the right consistency for pastries (like topping eclairs or cream puffs, which I intend to do tomorrow afternoon).  I've tasted both and each is delicious.  The difference between them is the cream-to-chocolate ratio.  For the truffles, it's a ratio of about 1:2 of cream to chocolate.  For the dip, it's the opposite, 2:1 cream to chocolate.  I bought some Ghirardelli's bittersweet chocolate baking chips and shaved & chopped them into small bits with my Ulu knife.  I then placed these bits into a Pyrex bowl, then poured boiling heavy cream over them.  By allowing this to sit, undisturbed, for fifteen minutes, I allowed the heat of the cream to soften and melt the chocolate, which then mixed into the cream perfectly, forming a creamy, smooth mixture...

I might actually form some truffles this morning, since tonight, I'll either be attending a cheese tasting at the Venissimo Cheese shop located at a small shopping center near the waterfront downtown, or going to the near opposite, Fuddrucker's, here in Mira Mesa, for games, with SDBG.  Each will be fun and interesting, in very different ways.  I invited Kat to come to the cheese tasting with me, so when she comes home this afternoon (I think she might be stopping into Wangenheim to help Ms. Vanderhurst with JMUN today), I'll see if she still wants to go.  If she does, I will plug the address into my phone and set the GPS to give me turn-by-turn directions.  I might make it a completely decadent evening and, after going to Venissimo Cheese, come home and devour some bittersweet chocolate truffles, coated with cocoa powder and confectioners' sugar...  Ooh, I can feel my thighs and belly aching at the prospect! (No, I don't mean to "bellyache.")

I'd watched, on the Food Network, a program in which Alton Brown demonstrated making chocolate truffles.  He used latex gloves (powderless, of course) to prevent his hands from becoming completely chocolate-coated as well as preventing, I would assume, his body heat from melting the chocolate.  I might go to Albertson's and buy some gloves for that purpose, although I'm not especially bothered by the prospect of having my hands coated with bittersweet chocolate...  Might be good to keep my hands from melting the chocolate, though.  My hands tend to be relatively cold, so not as prone to causing truffles to melt during formation.  Oh, who am I kidding?  I may as well form them with my bare hands.  It's a cool enough day so the truffles won't immediately soften and go gooey, and I won't be too pained at licking off the chocolate from my fingers (though I wish Peter were here to do that for me).

So:  I'll fill a couple of small dishes with confectioners' sugar and cocoa (each in its own bowl, of course), and get rolling!  I'll write again after rolling some truffles, and describe the process, if it entailed anything interesting.  Otherwise, I'll just relate the number of tablespoon-sized truffles I was able to make with 168 grams of heavy cream and 248 grams of bittersweet chocolate...