Christmas is full of memories for me. My Great Grandma, mom and I would make chocolates every year and that was a lot of fun. Now my Great Grandma is gone and I am carrying on the tradition. Today I dipped chocolate covered cherries and almond joys. Just one batch of each to see how much I had. Well... I need to make a couple more batches of each. I love standing in the kitchen reminiscing about my childhood when I was just learning how to make chocolates. When I was little... like 8 I think. I was in charge of whittling the chocolate. Nonnie would always order a 50 pound block of chocolate from Ghirardelli Chocolate. I remember the big eagle in the center of the block. It seemed like it took forever to whittle away that block (and it did). Then I would sit and listen to Nonnie tell stories about her childhood. Her and mom would be busy mixing up different batches of chocolate on the stove, shaping the cooled fondants, and then dipping them.
My favorite part was when they would make fondant. It's the creamy centred candy. Nonnie would whip out her 2 marble slabs and put them on the table with a couple dollops of butter in the center of each. Mom would pour the hot mixture on the marbles and then with wooden paddles they would work the mixture until it went from glossy to smooth. Then came the flavoring and food coloring. I would sit there mesmerized watching them work. This continued every year through my junior year of high school. Of course as a teenager I was using the paddles to work the fondant.
I am grateful for the time that I had with my Great Grandma (Nonnie). I learned a lot of life's lessons from her. During this time of year I really miss her. I wish Jacob had known her. And Emma and Linnea. I like to think that she played with Emma and Linnea before they came to Earth to be with us.
A funny story I remember that happened the very last time Nonnie and I made chocolates together was while I was stirring the fondant in the pan trying to get it up to temperature... for a little background, Nonnie LOVED maple nut flavored fondant. No one else liked it. So as I'm stirring Nonnie says "Why don't we make this batch a maple nut batch?" I pretended like I didn't hear her, hoping that she would forget. After a couple minutes of silence I thought maybe it had worked. Boy was I wrong! All of a sudden she's next to the pot pouring chopped nuts into the fondant on the stove. I was so mad! How could anyone like that flavor!? Sick! But this year I'm making fondant (if I can get a marble slab that is) and I am going to make maple nut flavored fondant. Even though I don't like it I will take a couple pieces of my own and I will eat them in remberance of Nonnie. And when Emma and Linnea are older and ask me why in the heck I make that nasty flavor I will smile and tell them the story.
