Truffles Newsletter

On my way to Vienna, I stopped at Zotter Chocolate Factory, a bean-to-bar chocolate producer that I wanted to learn more about.    My visit started with a film featuring Josef Zotter.  His sense of humor and concern for the environment and fair trade was evident.  I even sat on recycled cocoa bean sacks.  I sampled chocolate every step - from raw beans to roasted beans to milling powder to chocolate bars in every imaginable flavor.    Josef Zotter's creativity came through not only in his chocolates but in the displays and sampling equipment - including this robot that dispensed...

Welcome to Part 3 of my report on my visit to Croatia.  This week I’m focusing on the beach, countryside and some history of my native country. Hope you enjoy it.  If you missed the first two parts, you can see them here:  https://sweetdesigns.com/blogs/truffles-newsletter  Ines    Of course, the beaches here are picturesque!  But they are not much frequented by the locals, it is mostly tourists.  Instead of sand, the beaches have pebbles.  You put the towel down over the pebbles and it feels like a massage – they are comfortable and warm to recline on.  The water here is also...

Our store in Lakewood is approximately 4,500 miles from my childhood home in Croatia, but as soon as I arrived in our village, I was instantly back in the land of childhood memories - life on our farm and the joy of locally sourced food.  Today, I'd like to share my thoughts about some of the homemade meals and foods that I enjoyed on my recent trip.  Food Facts, Favorites and Recommendations!  Nothing beats Mom’s cooking. My mother’s chickens give us the best eggs - the yolks are so big and orange. Here we are cooking them on an old wood-burning...

  Mother’s Day became a federal holiday in 1914 under Woodrow Wilson, thanks to the unwavering efforts of Anna Jarvis. Jarvis, who was a single woman without children, believed her own mother to be deserving of a day of honor and wrote to every state governor in1908 petitioning for an official day for moms. In the 1930s, a Mother’s Day tradition was born: breakfast in bed. Thanks to many newspaper articles recommending that children and fathers alike honor their matriarchs with breakfast in bed, the practice stuck. Read on to learn about some unique ideas to serve your matriarch the...