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Recchiuti Confections – Almond Bar

By
Edel Alon
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0

The news of my chocolate snobbery quickly spread threw my office floor after I gracefully declined FREE CHOCOLATE. People found it strange that I’d turn down free chocolate. I had to explain that it’s hard to go back to regular chocolate after you’ve tasted real chocolate. I don’t push artisan chocolates on people.  Especially to the ones who really like Hershey’s dark bars. I just gracefully decline chocolates made for mainstream/daily use.
One of my favorite chocolate bars is the Almond Bar from Recchiuti. This bar is filled with toasted almond pieces. One of the first things you’ll notice about this bar is that there is a delicate touch when it came to assembly. The toasted almonds are not drenched in chocolate. After unwrapping, you’ll find areas of the bar that expose the almonds. I would have taken a picture except I was enjoying the bar too much.

Here’s the description:

Toasted almond pieces are coated in Burnt Caramel syrup and sea salt and then toasted again before being added, by hand, to our custom Semisweet Chocolate. The subtle, delicate nut is an ideal complement to the smooth and complex semisweet flavors.

Try Recchiuti! I know you won’t regret it. You can find them here:

One Ferry Building, Shop #30
San Francisco, CA 94111
Store Hours: Mon-Fri 10am-7pm, Sat 8am-6pm, Sun 10am-5pm
Phone: 415-834-9494

About Recchiuti

In 1997, after years in the test kitchen, Michael was ready to bring his creations to a larger audience and to introduce Americans to real chocolate. With his wife, Jacky, he founded Recchiuti Confections. Their idea: when you introduce people to truly exquisite chocolates they will be won over instantly and forever. Then, as now, he achieved those exquisite chocolates by painstakingly selecting each ingredient that would go into the final confection. He’d visit the San Francisco farmers’ market for bundles of fresh lavender, tarragon and lemon verbena, which he’d carefully dry for use in his signature infusions. He made frequent trips to local chocolate manufacturers, trying their latest offerings and deciding if it had the right texture, color and acidity for a new blend he was working on. And he’d meticulously see to each step that turned those fine ingredients into finer confections, using traditional European techniques and equipment. But taste and technique only tell part of the story. Michael’s life is filled with art, music and lots of friends, so the look of his chocolates act as a show and tell of his favorite things. Some feature drawings, etchings and paintings from his favorite San Francisco artists, while others are adorned with Japanese block prints.

Thanks Helen for the wonderful birthday gift of chocolate.

 

 

Stella & Dot: Sidewinder Bracelet

By
Edel Alon
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3


A friend of mine recently joined up with Stella & Dot as one of their stylists. I went to one of her Trunk Shows to see what the jewelry is all about. One of her items she had on display was the Sidewinder Bracelet. Immediately, I fell in love with it. The online description doesn’t do it justice:

A single rose gold plated brass serpent with Czech crystals in the center of a hand woven nylon cord.

  • Adjustable sliding closure.
  • 5 ½” shortest and 9 ½” at longest length.
  • Lead & nickel safe.

They fail to mention that the hand woven cord is woven in the same way survivalists weave parachute cord. This technique is called Cobra Braid or Cobra Knot. The Cobra Braid takes cord such as parachute chord and weaves it into a compact and manageable length. The rule of thumb is every inch of cobra braid equals about 1.5 feet of cord. Not that I plan on adding this bracelet to my survival kit but I think it’s a nice piece to show the outdoor/survivalist in you.

Stella and Dot, an Inc. 500 Fastest-Growing Company, is a San Francisco based social selling company that creates flexible entrepreneurial opportunities for women. Their boutique-style jewelry and accessories line is available exclusively through in-home Trunk Shows by Independent Stylists and online.

Stella & Dot Blues and Greens

By
Edel Alon
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0

I’m helping out a friend with her Stella & Dot adventure. I was looking at matching all of her marketing material with the Stella & Dot theme. While there are a couple of variations of the colors that are used on the website, I found that the ones I listed below make a better match when making print materials.

Green:
HEX: #71AD53
R: 113 G: 173 B: 83

Blue:
HEX: #50ACA8
R: 80 G: 172 B: 168

Pork, Salmon, Risotto, Asparagus Schedule

By
Edel Alon
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0

I made the following course this past weekend (100 portions):

Salmon with risotto and asparagus
Stuffed pork tenderloin with risotto and asparagus

Each with a side salad.

I figured that the salmon and pork would go well risotto and asparagus. It’s one of the reasons why I chose those meats. Also, I think that the salmon preparation was easy. Out of everything here, I think the hardest part was making the risotto. It was something that I’ve never done for 100 people. While it worked out in the end, I didn’t get the deep rich smoky flavor I like in other risottos.

Now, how did I do this? Prep and cooking was a one-person show. I had assistance in plating. Here’s the schedule.

The thing to note is that I had access to 2 ovens in order to get this accomplished. While the entire process took 3.5 hours, I spent a good 10 hours planning and role playing in my head how each dish was going to turn out. This helped me prepare for mistakes and unexpected catastrophes.

Marvel Avengers Movie 2012

By
Edel Alon
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0

Since Hulk came to movie theaters I’ve always wondered, more like hoped, they would make an Avengers movie.   The superhero movies of late have been hit-or-miss, usually squashing about ten years worth of comic book content into an hour-and-a-half of *shudder* Jennifer Love Hewitt.  Personally, I prefer unknowns performing superhero roles.  I don’t need the attributes of a known actor splayed over an already infamous character.  For example, did anyone actually see Catwoman in Catwoman?  There was too much Halle Berry to watch.  That being said, I think Patrick Stewart was a good pick for Xavier, and…hmm…Robert Downey Jr. was okay too.  I worry about Scarlett Johansen as Black Widow.  Could they not find a hot Russian?  The Iron Man flicks and Hulk were good.  I didn’t even see Thor or Captain America because no one said they were worth seeing.  Whether Avengers lives up to the best of them, or even the cartoon movie, remains to be seen.

 

For Bloggers, Know Your Audience

By
Edel Alon
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0

I was sitting around wondering who visits this website and realized that it’s been a while since I ran some reports. I believe that knowing your audience will help you bring in more readers by understanding what technologies they use and what they are interested in.

Now how do you get to know your reader? I don’t have a solid solution to this but I do look at a couple of things on this blog.
Here’s a list of what I look at:

  • The most viewed page.
  • Search results that point here.
  • Web browsers used.
  • Operating systems used.

I have the results of the first 2 items in my blog reports. I then use Google analytics to review the web browsers and operating systems used.

Why is this important? It helps me understand what technologies are used to view this page. Unfortunately, people are still using Internet Explorer to view this page and what’s more unfortunate is that this website is not 100% Internet Explorer compatible.

Knowing the operating system is somewhat helpful for me because every once in a while I’ll write a technology tool article that helps people with things like Microsoft Office or other software. It’s good to know that I should concentrate more on Windows systems than the others.

There goes my random thought for the day. Oh, the interesting part. Chrome is becoming a more frequently used web browser. The last time I ran this report (about a year ago), Firefox was the leader in browsers.

Bacon Ipsum

By
Edel Alon
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0

When making drafts for websites, many web designers use the following paragraphs to fill in for content:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus laoreet interdum leo, id elementum augue posuere sit amet. Morbi non est tortor. Suspendisse accumsan ligula quis lorem vestibulum ac mollis nunc vulputate. Donec rhoncus dui et libero rhoncus et tristique lacus feugiat. Praesent ornare sem in ipsum condimentum id dapibus dolor rhoncus. Duis placerat faucibus lorem, quis suscipit justo porttitor aliquam. Aliquam varius ante non tortor rutrum tincidunt. Sed accumsan felis tristique nibh fringilla at scelerisque arcu luctus. Nulla rhoncus, eros vitae lacinia ultricies, urna orci luctus velit, non faucibus dolor ligula a lorem. Sed consequat, purus nec vehicula iaculis, dui arcu dapibus nulla, in gravida erat sapien sed ante. Proin facilisis, ante eleifend sollicitudin suscipit, magna metus dignissim mauris, ut iaculis turpis nunc in odio. Vivamus odio felis, sollicitudin sed adipiscing non, porta ut enim.

The latin has some kind of meaning but for most of us, it doesn’t mean anything. Web designers like to use this text to illustrate the font and spacing of what real content would look like.

For me, I prefer words I recognize. I found Bacon Ipsum. The random text displayed looks something like this:

Flank pork chop hamburger kielbasa biltong. Strip steak rump ham hock, beef ribs spare ribs kielbasa brisket frankfurter speck jowl. Speck bacon cow, tri-tip filet mignon pork loin leberkas shank chuck pork prosciutto short loin boudin pastrami jowl. Speck ground round boudin, capicola short loin swine turkey tri-tip fatback tongue chuck tenderloin strip steak. Corned beef bacon t-bone, biltong capicola leberkas pork shoulder. Rump pork belly leberkas ham hock, meatloaf shank turducken filet mignon bacon turkey bresaola jerky.

For complete website mockups, I also like to add pictures. Forget the pictures of cover shots or studio pictures. Let’s add some pictures of meat. For pictures, I use baconmockup.com.

References:
http://baconipsum.com
http://baconmockup.com

How You Know I’m Enjoying My Day

By
Edel Alon
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1

If you ever see me drinking one or both of these drinks, you know I’m enjoying my day.

Just Olives

By
Edel Alon
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0

Sometimes it’s all about presentation.

Seared Tuna Sashimi

By
Edel Alon
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0

My recent adventures to the grocery have been without a shopping list. I feel that going without a shopping list gives you the opportunity to see what’s fresh and available in order to have the best tasting dish. The other part is that it feels like “hunting and gathering” and then bringing home what you find. While I love the structure of going to a grocery and knowing what you want and where to get it, I like the freedom of going outside the box.

Going outside the box has pros:

  • You buy what’s fresh.
  • No disappointment if the ingredients are not there.
  • There are chances you’ll find more creative food ideas.

The cons:

  • You spend a lot of time in the store.
  • You buy stuff you don’t need.
  • You buy stuff you don’t need.

With all this being said, I went out to the market without a list and came back with a great piece of sashimi grade tuna.

Seared Tuna Sashimi

Ingredients
Sashimi Grade Tuna

Tools
Knife
Blowtorch
Cutting board

Method
Place tuna on plate. Turn on blowtorch. Sear the outside of the tuna. Slice and serve.

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Welcome to the curated chaos of curiosity and creativity—brought to you by Edel Alon: maker, thinker, and hands-on problem-solver. This blog is part journal, part resource hub, and entirely dedicated to the art of doing. From culinary experiments and car tinkering to tech deep dives and DIY builds, you'll find stories, guides, reviews, and reflections designed to inspire, inform, and occasionally make you laugh (or at least raise an eyebrow). It's a celebration of learning by doing—with a few detours along the way.

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