I Posted This In A Coment

over at Big Brass Blog so I won't be bothering with a crosspost. But it was a cool little moment during the day.

During the email exchanges to get the payment made and the shipping information covered I found out some great information about the lady I bought the tempering machine from. It turns out that she is closing a chocolate shop of her very own and is selling off the equipment. I sent her a link to let her see the truffles and other good stuff that is going to be made using her machine. She then offered to send a grip of molding equipment and other specialized chocolate tools. She said that she would rather have them be used than watch them gather dust. She also asked for a box of the Sofia's Mexicali Spice truffles. Turns out that her name is also Sofia.

I explained to her how the truffles that have names got that way. About five years ago, on a whim, I decided to ramp up and make truffles for my family and friends. I had some down time and it just was something that I wanted to do. A couple of big boxes went to a cousin in Idaho's family. The day after they were received I got a call from his beautiful daughter Audrey. She said "Uncle Steve (I know we're cousins technically but among the Apache "uncle" is a catch all term of endearment for any older male) I was thinking that a great truffle flavor would be S'mores." As soon as the words were out of her mouth I knew exactly how to achieve this. Next batch of truffles I made a run using graham cracker crumbs and marshmallow creme. They were exquisite. Thereafter I called them "Audrey's S'mores." Thing was there were a whole lot of other kids in the family who all began to claim their very own truffles. Sofia was the daughter of a close friend of mine in Mexicali. She is a total charmer and one evening she flat out demanded to have a truffle that was not only named after her, but one that reflected her heritage. There was no way I could refuse. I started sampling mexican chocolates like Ibarra and Arbeulita, but quickly found that they would not do for making a ganache. I instead headed to the spice rack and began to experiment with the proportions. I hit upon a combination of, in order of proportion, cinnamon, fresh grated nutmeg, and cloves (all mixed in with a heavy dose of Santeria and VooDoo). It is a complex, and intruiging flavor. A fitting homage to the Aztec and Maya people who were the ones who brought chocolate to us.

Later that same morning my nephew from down the road, a guitar playing demon, came by to say goodbye. I noticed his guitar loving eyes wandering with love and longing over some of the guitars that he has been allowed to have free play with while I lived here. I remembered the generosity of Sofia and her wanting to see things be used and appreciated rather than simply stacked and stored off somewhere. I did a quick inventory and realilzed that the guitars I am mainly planning to use over the course of the next several months were already loaded for the trip so I gave into my impulse and said "Go ahead and pick one of the electrics. It's yours now."

His eyes lit up, first with disbelief and then with joy. He picked one of the Strats that I built myself. I was thinking that was extra perfect because if I need a project post-op to keep from going apeshit building another Strat should I need one would be a great choice. He's going to have a ball with it. He takes a guitar class at his high school and has taken most of my guitars in for it. The homemade Strats were huge hits with the teacher and the class. They are real screamers that beg to be played.