A month filled with Food and Travels!

It has been a month filled with adventures all around Europe and back here in Tel Aviv

In Israel we have a holiday that we celebrate at the end of January that gives thanks to the f

ruits and vegetation of Israel. So what we eat as celebratory food on this day is TONS and I mean TONS of dried fruits. So for the occasion I decided to bring a lovely, celebratory dessert to Yair's families Shabbat dinners. Now dessert is sometimes a problem, since because they keep kosher, it means that once we've had the necessary meat for Shabbat dinner, we have to find a dessert that has no milk!! So, what did I create?

Dark Chocolate bark!!! And here it is:

I Melted 6 bars (I know, a huge amount, but HEY! it was for a lot of people!) of 70% cocoa chocolate; before hand that morning I had gone downtown to a particular Health Food Store that I knew sold a really great selection of dried fruit, also a selection of dried fruit without any added sugar, which is great and hard to find.

While I was there I picked up candied orange peel, dried cranberries, dried

Papaya and dried Apricots, as well as some candied pecans and sliced raw almonds.

I sliced and diced the fruits and nuts before I put the chocolate on the double boiler so that It would be ready to mix in right away before the chocolate got too cold to mix. Once the chocolate was as liquidy as it could get (be careful not to burn it, burnt chocolate is just a tragedy) I mixed in the fruits and nuts, and poured the mixture into two aluminum trays; I had made sure ahead of time also so cut enough of the addings to sprinkle ontop so that you could see what was in it! I put the chocolate bark in the freezer overnight, and the next morning broke it into lovely un-unform, rugged, gorgeous chocolate pieces!

Yair's family just fell in love with it, being just amazed that I had

created something that looked so gourmet - well, after all, look how I presented it to them! I used an empty Ferrero Rocher box and it looked just unbelievable!! Anyway, It's something I'm definitely going to it again not only because Yair's family essentially fell worshiping at my feet, but also because it was super easy and looks so difficult and elegant!!

The day after I presented Yair's family with this dessert, he surprised me with a wonderful Horse riding session that he knew I was dying for, and it was a dream come true - riding on beautiful, brown thoroughbreds on the foggy mountains in Jerusalem? Nothing like it! Don't we look like professional horseriders?? :) Sweet gift, from a Sweet boy!

Next, I travelled to Sweden, Berlin and London, where I spent endless lovely hours travelling around foreign cities, with my dear friend Miranda

and then met my mother in London!

London is a place that I reall

y feel that I need to live in one day, the people, the buildings the FOOD! everything is perfect there in my opinion.

Most importantly however, was this experience I had just a few days ago where my brother and I were taking my grandmother around Israel and we found ourselves at a Mar

zipan Museum! It was amazing! They showed us how to harvest the almonds, remove their skins, mix them with horrid amounts of sugar and water and eventually grind it into a pasta that can be died and moulded into anything or anyone you want! The Almond is a fruit that grows on beautiful white blossomed trees, and according to our tour guide, they bloom literally on the same day every single year for hundreds of Years!!! However, due to glo

bal warming, they bloomed an entire month early this year, which shocked everyone - but meant that we had the treats to see earlier than usual! :D There it is!! Isn't that amazing! They are donuts and pretzels and bagels! It was just such an interesting medium or edible art!!

That's it so far, its Purim here on Thursday, which is essentially the Israeli Halloween which means ideas for Halloween themed treats and for my Princess Peach from Mario Cart costume must come quickly!

Any Ideas!?