Chocolate and beef? Yes - read on...

Tom Sfetkopoulos, category manager for bakery for Longo’s, has noticed a change in consumer interest in chocolate over the last few years. “It hasn’t been as rapid as the rise in cheese, but there has been a large shift toward higher-end chocolate and now lots more shoppers are curious about the different types and sampling it,” he says. Canadians, in particular, may be more open to new types of chocolate, he says, because of our multi-cultural make-up.

But the rise is also driven by people looking for different ways to entertain friends. Tasting parties — as opposed to sit down dinners — are a relatively easy and affordable option. Consumers are responding enthusiastically to his company’s Origin line, which uses cocoa beans from all over the world to create in-house chocolates. As with wine, each will have a flavour influenced by the soil, humidity, temperature and salt content in the air of the area in which the cocoa beans are grown. “Chocolate made with beans from Ecuador, for example, have a slight whiskey aftertaste,” he explains.

Sfetkopoulos doesn’t necessarily hold with the notion that wine drunk with chocolate must always be as sweet or sweeter, and he advocates an adventurous approach. “So much is about personal preference, so have fun with it. I discovered a few months ago that I love dark chocolate with merlot, simply because I popped some in my mouth while I was drinking a glass.”

He does suggest limiting tasting parties to three varieties, starting with something light, like white chocolate (although it’s technically not chocolate, since it’s made with cocoa fat from the beans, not the beans themselves) then moving into a milk chocolate and finishing off with something with a higher cocoa content that has a stronger, more bitter taste.

Chocolate can also play a role in cooking, adds Sfetkopoulos. “Think about a beef tenderloin with dark chocolate sauce,” he suggests. Another great tip – dip the rim of martini or shot glasses in chocolate before pouring drinks in them. It’s trick he says he’ll use at his New Year’s party. What a sweet way to welcome in 2010!

Beer and chocolate go together? Does my husband know about this?

I know I promised to include them both today, but found I just got too much good information from my conversations with Sommelier Sarah Goddard and Tom Sfetkopoulos, category manager for bakery for Longo’s, to cram into one blog post. So we’ll hear from Sarah today and Tom tomorrow. Sarah loves the idea of pairing wine with chocolate, but says choices have to be carefully considered. “The wine should always be as sweet if not sweeter than the food it’s being paired with,” she advises. A few other tips from Sarah:

Try a pink ice wine with chocolate

Late harvest or ice wines work really well with fruity desserts

Fruity wines, such as Southbrook Framboise, go well with chocolate served with raspberries or strawberries

A ruby port goes well with darker, spicier chocolate

Banyuls are complex sweet wines from the eastern corner of France that work well with chocolate served alone or in a dessert

Choose lighter, sweeter wines with milk or white chocolate – perhaps a Moscato d'Asti from Italy

Sarah also thinks beer is often overlooked as a mate for chocolate and sweet desserts. She’s even written an article on pairing wine with beer on her excellent blog in which she points out that unlike wine, it’s not necessary that the beer be as sweet or sweeter than its food pair, because beer has a bitterness that cuts through sugar — as does dark roasted coffee. She loves serving fruity Lambic beers from Belgium with sweet treats, and thinks darker ales, stouts and porters marry well with darker, stronger flavoured chocolates.

A more measured approach to chocolate (HA!)

Every Christmas, I promise myself that I won’t overdo the chocolate. But by December 15th, my limbic brain seems to take over and I go crazy. This holiday, I’m going to stop the madness by focusing on quality rather than quantity. It’s theoretically do-able, now that even mass brands, such as Hershey’s and Cadbury’s, are turning out specialty and dark chocolates that are heavier in cocoa content and have interesting additions such as ginger and cranberry. These are pretty good, but I’m more tempted by Green & Black, which makes gorgeous chocolate that’s now widely available. As a bonus, it’s also responsibly produced and organic. Having said that, very occasionally bigger is better, so I always buy a 300 gram bar of President’s Choice milk chocolate ($4!!!) and chop it roughly to add to some of my shortbread (I can hear the shortbread purists gasping in horror!)

If you’re looking for a relatively cheap and very cheerful way to enjoy chocolate with friends and family, consider hosting a chocolate tasting party. I have one planned for the weekend and I’ll report back here on my bash — ­ that is, if things don’t go awry and find me lying in a torpid chocolate stupor long into next week. In the meantime, here are a few tips for hosting your own party:

Buy a variety of chocolates, but don’t go much beyond six - you don't want to overwhelm your tastebuds

Arrange bite-sized pieces of chocolate on a platter going from lighter to darker. Generally speaking, the darker the choc, the stronger the taste, so you want to leave the big guys for the end

Give everyone a small pad and paper to make notes about the different chocolates - a bit silly, but fun. Of course, you have to compare notes

Have chocolate at room temperature

Encourage guests to savour the chocolate, and let it melt a few minutes on the tongue for a bit before swallowing

Have a “palette cleanser” available between bites – a light bread, such as a baguette, world work. Lukewarm water should also be available. For tips on pairing wines and beers with chocolate, check back here on Tuesday, when sommelier Sarah Goddard shares ideas on pairing drinks with plain chocolate and chocolate desserts — I’ll also be talking to  the choc expert at Longo's about their Origins Belgian Chocolate line, and have some yummy-licious recipes.

Can you say Bah-Humbug?

Stop the, er, presses! This just in from a new Ispos Reid poll:

One in ten Canadians re-gift at least one of their Christmas presents;

Albertans are the most frequent re-gifters, with 63% admitting to passing along a present (well over the national average of 48%);

One in five Canadians think the traditional family Christmas letter is annoying and wishes people would stop sending them;

One quarter of Canadians will spend at least an hour on Christmas day packing up trash (Here's a tip - grab a glass of wine and leave the clean-up till Boxing Day, already!);

One quarter of Canadians have canned their paper holiday greetings altogether, opting for digital cards.

Personally, I LOVE the corny family Christmas letter, especially the ones that we get from Herb and Caroline that this year started with the admission that at 85, they’re not as spry as they used to be and ended with the delightful news that their teenage grandsons are studying ballroom dancing (last year it was uni-cycling!)

Self-cleaning? Say no more.

Ceramic tiles that clean themselves and contribute to a better atmosphere? Bring it on.

 

Savoia  has just unveiled its Active ceramic tiles. It works like this: when natural light falls on tiles treated with the Active finish, bacteria on the surface is reduced. For the science nerds among you, the production method uses titanium dioxide to clean organic substances when either sunlight or artificial UVA rays shine on the tiles. The chemical process underlying the reaction is oxidation. Whatever, they had me at self-cleaning! Look for more details in an upcoming Hot Home Products column.

Quick gift idea #1

St. Ives is one of my  favourite drugstore brands of skin care. And I really like that the line has recently been reformulated to include more natural ingredients. So I was pleased to learn that right now, gift packs of the line are being offered at promotional prices. For just $10, for example, you can get a gift pack with a 600 ml bottle of lotion and 150 ml tubes of facial cleanser and scrub in pretty white carrying case. For $15, you get all that, plus facial lotion and cleanser.

I plan to pick up one or two of each one for an extra under-the-tree gift for my sister Cathy, one to stick in the linen closet (in case I unexpectedly get a gift from someone for whom I have not bought), and one to place in the guest bedroom - to create a hotel/spa feel for the folks who will stay there over the holidays. Okay, okay, I admit it - I'll probably keep one for myself. But I have, after all, been pretty good this year....

Gold medal reporting

Samsung is holding a contest that will send 10 Canadians to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. The electronics giant is searching for social media-savvy types who can attend, and report on,  the Games. The winners get round-trip, economy-class airfare to and from Vancouver, accommodation for 20 nights, meals and a Samsung Omnia II mobile phone. But hurry, you have to enter by December 6^th. Hey, wait a minute, now that I think of it, why can't I go? I’m social media savvy, aren’t I? Sort of, in a way. And I want to go to the Games. And I need a new phone....

The Michelangelo of house painters - and he's mine!

I don't usually give shout-outs to tradespeople, even those who come into my home and do superlative work, but I simply cannot resist it this time. People of the GTA, I have discovered a truly great house painter.I met Rene when he came to my place in the summer to repaint the living and dining room (so glad I went with CIL’s Apricot – I love it, especially with cranberry red accents). I was impressed with Rene back then because he did great work. But I’ve become a true fan since he returned a few weeks ago to finish the painting associated with the never-ending reno (it's ending soon, I really mean it.) My husband John and I decided that we just did not have the time to finish the painting that needed to be done in the closets and the stair well, which includes a hard-to-get-at pitched ceiling. I was further intimated after I stripped the vinyl wallpaper (??//***!!! is what I have to say about vinyl wallpaper) from the hallway and realized the walls beneath were a bit beat up. They needed the kind of TLC that I just could not give them. Not only did Rene skim coat the wonky walls beautifully, he used his plastering skills to touch up the little shelf in the landing and smoothed out the baseboards and door trim so well that they look like new. Plus, he gets here on time and cleans up spic and span after himself. It was one of those time when it was absolutely worth it to have someone else do the job. Rene has recently come to Canada from Eastern Europe by way of Chicago, so he doesn’t yet have his own website, but if you have your own little paint job that you can’t seem to get to, you can contact him at 647 990 5492. Tell him Vicky sent you.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I love the holiday mantels that Arren Williams styled for HomeSense, and plan to try some of the affordable decor ideas he’s suggested, such as making “bunting” out of Christmas cards cut into triangles and glued to a pearl trim (seen in the icy blue and silver-themed mantel at left). But since I’m a traditionalist (sort of), I’m truly, madly, deeply drawn to his modern romantic theme (lower  pic) — I love the mix of gleaming copper and gold.

 

The ever-clever Janette Ewen  offers an online demonstration of how to make an easy, elegant centrepiece. While I don’t have Janette’s eye, I recently created a centrepiece simply by piling strings of inexpensive gold beads in a crystal bowl and then nestling gold ornaments in among them. This was a great way to use those older bulbs that have lost their lustre — they look almost like mercury glass.

One bit of advice — don’t feel compelled to use ALL your Christmas ornaments every year. Do a bit of judicious editing to avoid a jumbled look. And keep in mind that even if you don’t celebrate Christmas — this is also a great time of year to ready your home for winter entertaining. Why not, for example, finally hang all those family photos that have been sitting around forever? Click here to go to the website for Hang and Level (a great gadget  for DIY-challenged homeowners), which has good tips for hanging art.

Santa wants you to be safe

I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer, but it behooves all of us right now to think just a little about holiday safety. Coz as my dear old ma used to say, it's all fun and games, isn't it, until someone gets hurt. So check out the following no-duh tips from CSA International, which provides product testing and certification services for electrical products in Canada and the U.S.

Don’t buy electrical products that are missing a certification mark from an accredited certification organization, such as CSA International. Without such, they could be fake. Tell-tale signs include packaging with inferior design, partial illustrations and misspelling. Be wary of very low prices.

Discard Christmas light strings with frayed cords, cracked lamp holders or loose connections. Use insulated fasteners such as tape or plastic clips — never tacks or staples — to hold lights in place.

Don’t run electrical cords through doorways or under carpets and rugs, and don’t hang decorations on or near fire sprinklers, fire extinguishers, exit corridors or exit signs. It is, however, okay to string unlit lights around your head - especially if you're an impossibly cute child (see pic above).

Before working with outdoor wiring, turn off the electricity to the supply outlet and unplug the connection.

When hanging lights outdoors, keep electrical connectors above ground, out of puddles or snow and away from metal gutters.

Make sure your home is equipped with carbon-monoxide (CO) alarms. One smoke alarm is not enough; install them on every level of your home and outside all sleeping areas.

Don’t store holiday wrapping paper and decorations near your gas furnace.

Click here to see a short animated video on potential holiday dangers. Click here for more info on holiday  safety tips.