Showing posts with label Chocolate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chocolate. Show all posts

Monday, January 30, 2012

Happy Monday

What a whirlwind of a weekend. A lot of potential changes coming up for me! This weekend could pretty much be summed up in one word: chocolate. 

Friday night I picked up my friend Allan from the airport, he just moved from New York to Oregon for work. We met last summer when he co-habitat-ed with Alex at the condo. He was doing an internship at Intel for the summer and was offered a full time position. It's his dream job (so exciting to see a friend achieve a goal they've been working so hard to get to!). For picking him up from the airport and letting him crash on the couch he brought me Max Brenner chocolates. If you don't know about Max Brenner and you love chocolate, I suggest you get acquainted. Apparently his restaurants are entirely chocolate based, NY here I come.


"Chocolate is passionate sexy and prestigious, and I always start my mornings by eating a tablet of milk chocolate with nuts." -Max Brenner 

New. Personal. Hero.



The box comes with a booklet where each chocolate's pattern corresponds to a picture and you can find out the flavor. The chocolate row 1, column 3 is a hazelnut cream with coasted coconut. Unbelievable. 


Saturday: Allan was patient with me while I did chores/ran errands all morning and into the early afternoon> Then I could drove him to Beaverton and we got sushi for lunch. 

Cream cheese and asparagus rolls; I can't get enough...



Sunday: I spent two hours in the am at the gym with Ryan. He always inspires me to do more at the gym but sometimes we catch up too much. After more chores and homework Alex and I headed to Moonstruck Cafe.  (Which is kind of a big deal considering Alex never eats sweets, his suggestion made me a very happy lady.) Moonstruck is a chocolate confection store based in Portland. They have a total of 5 stores in Oregon and their chocolates are mini works of art. 


Their peanut butter cream cone (row 1, column 3, coincidence?) is to die for. Honestly we went back and got a few more cones.


We also tried their 68% fortunato no. 4 dark chocolate drinking chocolate. To be honest it wasn't my favorite. The Columbian hot chocolate created by Paul at The Confectional will probably always be my favorite.


We had to order this little guy being the ambitious dog lovers/owners that we are. And then Alex bit it's head off.... disturbing. :/



A few photos of the pups while we were driving around, just because they're adorable.





PS --> from Friday, I forgot to actually post it (I blame stress):

What a week! Whew... so glad it's over. Between work and school I need a day to unwind. 

I'd give anything to be here:



The things that made me happy this week:

I want to get this book. I'm curious to see if the author has medical backing for her thesis.

I want to get lost in this library.

My brother took a ride in a hot air balloon a few weeks ago, and just posted pictures, I'm jealous.

This is why you don't leave your teething pups unsupervised in the car for more than a minute.

Have a lucky weekend everyone!

Photo credit: http://endeavourztraining.com

Monday, January 23, 2012

Weekend Recap

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending Chocolatefest at the Oregon Convention Center. Basically it's heaven; a bunch of vendors providing samples of chocolate, does it get any better? 

Kate and I fell in love with cocotutti. Based in California this artisan chocolatier won us over with their outstanding flavor combinations and beautiful designs. Their Fig with Roasted Walnuts confection stole my heart and made my inner chocolate loving kid do cartwheels. Closely followed in favoritism by the Raspberry with Housemade Jam. Kate's fling with their Florentine confection was short lived as their Jasmine confection turned into full blown affair. Basically what I'm trying to say is these are well worth the cost. Fair warning: you will be addicted.



Also, a perk for my fellow Portland/Vancouver ladies these gems are available at three PastaWorks locations in Portland.

Our runner-up for unique taste was Theo. Kate had brought their Coconut Curry Fantasy Bar to girl's night the week before so we were very pleased to see their stand at the convention. Not only is their chocolate amazing but their story is inspirational. They are the first and only fair-trade organic chocolate factory in the United States. Their factory offers tours in Seattle. I know what I'm doing on my next trip up! 

And we loved the salted caramel by George Paul Chocolates.

After a chocolate overload I headed to celebrate Brittany's birthday. We met a large group at McMinemans before heading downtown for a night of dancing. Two cute photos of the birthday girl and I.

Outfit for the night: (I snapped this on accident before I smiled but it was the best view of the full outfit. I will master self portraits someday!)


Career jacket, sequin top and gray skinny jeans: Forever 21. 
Shoes: Nine West.