Links, mostly fanfic

[azurelunatic]

Some people should not be allowed to open their mouths.
Chocolate Alchemy. I really do need to find some good non-abrasive chocolate. (Hershey bars are actually abrasive when licked.)

"Drinks for the House" Hermione/Draco (dubious consent, kink), Hermione/Harry (kink).
"Flame and Shadow" Ron/Pansy, and not so horribly fluffy.
"Seven Things That Didn't Happen On Valentine's Day At Hogwarts, Or Maybe They Did." by rageprufrock. Remus/Sirius, with extra James-makes-an-arse-of-himself and accidental potion-aided genderbending.
"Night-Blooming Heartsease" Snape/Neville, plot with character development & sequel, Final Battle with assorted character deaths.
"Severus Snape and the Ghostwritten Romance" A clever pastiche of Cyrano de Bergerac: Harry/Draco, Harry/Snape.

Fearsome things from fanfic (culled from the worst) -- the daily_sporfle
Pairings of Fear! -- theferrett

Comments

[bekijane.livejournal.com]

This icon comes from the illustration to night-Blooming Heartsease that can be found on the Theban Band website Here

Snape is done so well in it. I don't ship that pairing, but man! What a story.

[godai.livejournal.com]

http://www.trackertrail.com/survival/fire/cokeandchocolatebar/

How to start a fire with a coke and a chocolate bar. I've done it with a hershey kiss.

At least the polishing aspect. :)

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

Regular Hershey's bars or are you talking about the specialty bars? Cadbury, Symphony, and couple others are a lot smoother than the standard issue Hershey bar. Toblerone is not smoother, but this is a virtue, for toffee and nougat are *yum*. Callebut is pretty smooth as well, but rather hard to find and overpriced IMO. Last two are not Hershey's products, but are very nice. If you're on the West Coast, See's makes good chocolate that isn't obscenely overpriced.

Most of the fancy chocolates that you see recommended in cooking magazines and such are not spectacularly good, but the prices are breathtaking.

Not that I grew up in the chocolate industry or anything...

[azurelunatic]

I recognized it! There isn't a Neville in yours, but I looked at that Snape and said, "Wait, that's the same style Snape as Beki's icon!"

[azurelunatic]

Sweet!

heh.

Good to see you back on LJ again. How's life?

[azurelunatic]

Regular. And there's a See's in the mall. When I was doing a weekly library run, I'd usually stop in there and get a half-dozen tasty things.

I just got home from Trader Joe's, and I have some ghirardelli's (white and milk) for some confectionary experimentation. I want to get truffle-making down to a precise and quick science for those last-minute social events...

[godai.livejournal.com]

Confusing, frustrating, directionless.

So same old, same old.

[smmc.livejournal.com]

Chocolate: Lindts. Mmmmm.

Bulk Chocolate (Usually found at Whole Foods and the like): Callebaut and Mmmmm.... Valrhona. *Swoon* Callebaut however is half the price of Valrhona. It's next best in line for fine chocolate confections. I use it for my xmas chocolate presents from rum balls to brownies. :)

That aside, I think Sprouts has some bulk chocolate blocks too. Not Callebaut, but another comprable brand. Can't remember it's name.

But they're all worlds better than Hershey.

Oh yeah, and by bulk I mean the huge 8-16oz hunks of chocolate you have to smack with a hammer into chunks, or chunk up with a knife or fork. :)

[azurelunatic]

Something tells me I'm moving up in the world of chocolates. Mmmm, holiday cooking.

[smmc.livejournal.com]

Halloween displays are already out. Why not start the holiday cooking experiements now? *grin*

Ever since you brought up truffles, I've been dying to make some. Damn you. :) Whole Foods and Sprouts both are just a few blocks away and I can't really afford the chocolately goodness right now to play. *cry*

Plus I can't find my big ass bottles of Baileys. :(

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

Ghirardelli's is smooth, but I don't care for their milk chocolate much. Bit too melty for my taste.

Cadbury and Symphony are both European style chocolates. Cadbury is classic British chocolate, so it has a very caramel flavor blended in with the chocolate. Symphony is Hershey doing Swiss chocolate (both brands are made by Hershey's in the US). Symphony is a bit more flexible in what it's willing to blend with.

If you're looking to get truffle making down, biggest factors are batch size and equipment. Other biggie is technical skill... if you can temper chocolate reliably, that helps loads. Batch size is one of those bigger is better kinds of things, provided you have the equipment to do bigger. Pretty much every candy recipe is wildly unreliable at a 1 lb batch, tolerably reliable (meaning totally unsuitable for commercial work, but it'll generally come out tasty) at a 5 lb batch, and really 20 lbs or so is a much better small size. Yes, there's a reason why candy is mass produced *g*.

[azurelunatic]

I've been using good-quality semi-sweet chocolate chips with decent results. I really want a double boiler or something, because the microwave is so touchy.

[azurelunatic]

I've been working with the semi-sweet chips, and those are fun to work with.

I found Cadbury abrasive. Symphony is nice, but a little too sweet unless it has other things in with it.

I've never actually followed a truffle recipe. I've made butterscotch from a recipe, but never anything chocolate. I just improvise. I learned the basics of dipping candied fruit in chocolate, and then started playing around from there.

[othercat.livejournal.com]

*remembers why she know longer reads the ferret*

The number of people responding, who seem to think slash=any non canon pairing makes my brain melt.

[azurelunatic]

Fanfic is a very specialized corner of the internet culture. I finally did find an appropriate analogy that I think he'll get:

Saying that slash is any non-canon pairing to a serious fanfic writer is like calling the entire computer tower/box "the CPU" or "the hard drive" in front of a geek. The offender may not get hit, and it's a mistake that the casual user makes daily, but it's the same level of wrong in the terminology.

[smmc.livejournal.com]

I have a double boiler that I use for it. BUT! Before I had it (Inherited from grandmother, I didn't buy it), I used metal or glass bowls set over a pan of simmering water (they should fit snug). You don't have to buy anything unless you don't have metal or glass mixing bowls. :)

[azurelunatic]

I have an odd, ill-assorted lot of kitchenware. It would probably be worth my while to get a slightly larger glass bowl than the tiny custard cups I currently have.

[smmc.livejournal.com]

uuuuh, yeah. That size bowl is probably too small unless you have one of those tiny butter melting pans around somewhere. =)

[azurelunatic]

I have a pan just enough larger than that to make me think it would almost work and then actually swamp the chocolate when I do try it.

[smmc.livejournal.com]

Bleh.

Well, you can use metal bowls. Walmart has a set of metal mixing bowls for 3-4$. It's 4 bowls. Metal works just as well as glass. Their glass is pretty cheap too. You just need one that will fit snug over one of your pans. :)

I don't think you can get a double boiler as cheap. Unless you luck out with a garage sale. :)