I’ve been struggling – really struggling – to come up with header notes for my posts. I have completed stories already written; that’s not my problem. My difficulty lies in wanting to tell you about my encounter with Carlito, a charismatic Native American drug-addicted art peddler from New Mexico, and somehow tying that to my recent recipe for savory scones. I’m aware that my headers and recipes have never really synced. That red-thread between my life and my cooking has always been tangential at best. I don’t want to talk about Braeburns vs. Golden Delicious when posting an apple tart recipe – I want to tell you about the absurdity of my single girl life. But, some sort of transitional segue needs to be there – no matter how loose the connection.  There’s a file folder full of delicious anecdotes and stories, like Carlito’s, languishing on my computer like the dibs and dabs of ingredients tucked away in Tupperware on the shelves of my refrigerator, just waiting for the right moment to be used.  They never quite work with the recipe – or I forget about them.  Weeks go by and the stories become stale and moldy, never seeing the pages of this blog; eventually they’re discarded.

Speaking of those dibs and dabs, I’ve been surreptitiously sneaking spoonfuls of leftover ganache from my fridge as my nightly dessert. Yesterday, I finally decided to turn the Tupperware of half-eaten chocolate crème into something I could proudly savor in public…and serve to my guests: Chocolate Truffles. Handmade truffles look impressive, yet they are so simple to make – and a basic ganache recipe can be transformed into dozens of flavor combinations that belie the limited hands-on time in the kitchen.