Obligatory 2010 Wrap-Up: A (Partial) Year in Chocolate

The bloggin' thing to do at the end of the year is to summarize all the bloggish stuff you did. Despite having only started this blog in late July, I suppose I've been up to a lot of chocolate business. So here goes a recap of 2010.

I went to Milwaukee. To eat frozen custard and to bake for family members.

Then I went to Chicago. Mostly for a business meeting, but also to check out a Vosges boutique and subsequently fall in love with their entire concept, though not every bar they produce.

Back home in DC, I was delighted to find that Cacao had opened shop about half a mile from where I live. A lucky event. A not-so-lucky-event: my experiment with meringue buttercream in August heat and humidity. A truly brilliant event that followed: covering the frosting with chocolate.

Reasonable adults consider balls of frosting covered in chocolate to be appropriate food. I promise. They also make nearly 200 mini cupcakes to share with colleagues and swimming buddies to celebrate their birthdays and believe that cake is a great vehicle for vegetable consumption.
All things that reasonable adults do.

In the midst of all my "reasonable adult" behavior, I had another business trip. This time to Dana Point, CA. It was there that I found a shop that sold gigantic truffles that tasted like stale Tang. Luckily, my faith in the availability of good food returned when I came home to a box of fudge from Chip's Chocolate Factory, which was pretty awesome.

When I got back, I also made way too many banana mini cupcakes for a coworkers birthday. Oops.

As the DC heat and humidity left for good in October, I tackled a crazy project for my brother's rehearsal dinner. And then I met Nick Malgieri, which has to be just about the coolest thing ever.

Seriously, he is really, really cool. He even commented on one of my posts, which involved two of his recipes.

In November, I was excited to go to the Chocolate Show in NYC, but was waylaid by my kidney (it happens). Instead, I stayed home, went to a sample day at Biagio, and made a cherpumple. From scratch.

Before December rolled around, I joined Daring Bakers. And had Leigh visit from Germany. I gave her macarons, because it was the right thing to do.
Much of my time in December was devoted to making cookies. Thumbprint cookies. Cinnamon Roll Cookies. Really unusual but tasty Swiss Cookies. Again, it was the right thing to do.

For Christmas, I went back to Milwaukee. And fed my family an outrageous cake.

And I have a bold prediction for 2011. Want to make bets on whether or not it will happen?

Here it is: I will eat chocolate.

Do you have any predictions for 2011?