The Los Angeles Times has a great story on the cheapening of chocolate today. Since I love my dark chocolate . . . and have been known to find new and innovative ways to eat it while knitting . . . I want my dark chocolate to stay the same chocolate! No vegetable oil instead of cocoa butter, no milk protein instead of milk. This article really lays it all out:

The courage of their confections
Two candy makers are asking chocolate lovers to protest plans to allow cheaper ingredients. Vegetable oil, anyone?
By Jerry Hirsch, Times Staff Writer
April 14, 2007

Calling all chocoholics. Put down the truffles and power up the PC. It’s time to weigh in on a fundamental question: What is chocolate?

Two of California’s oldest confectioners, See’s Candies Inc. and Guittard Chocolate Co., are battling an attempt to loosen government rules that dictate what ingredients go into the sweet stuff.

Legally, the candy that melts hearts and comforts the brokenhearted is made with cocoa butter and, in the case of milk chocolate, whole milk. But the Grocery Manufacturers of America, a trade group, wants to let confectioners substitute cheaper ingredients — vegetable oils and milk protein concentrates.

The rest of the article here.

So, it’s time to head over to the FDA and make your feelings known!

Take a look at the right column! There’s a new completed item (the cowl out of handpainted alpaca). I’ll take some pictures of it at work tomorrow. There are new listings for “Free Patterns”–Ram’s Wool and Southwest Trading. I added a friend to my list: the Schooner Isaac Evans. She sails out of Rockland, Maine and is captained (and blogged) by Brenda Walker. You can see the Evans and her sailing schedule here.

Whew. But, a good whew.

I found a size 17, 29″ circular needle at Reny’s for $4.99. If you aren’t from Maine, you’ve probably never heard of Reny’s. It’s the store that means we don’t miss Target or K-mart; and the prices are better. For those of you local, the large needles are at the Camden store near the Poppycock (nuts only).

My family and I went to see Odiako New England Saturday night. Loud, lovely drumming based on Japanese drumming, taiko. The kids and I really loved the traditional songs; the contemporary ones were less thrilling. The concert was a fundraiser for the Japan exchange program at Camden Rockport Middle School, so it really was a win-win evening. Go see O.N.E. if you get the chance. It was entertaining and educational (but not TOO educational).

Today is Easter, though with over a foot of snow on the ground it’s a bit difficult for me to believe. I was raised in a place where they’ve been mowing their lawns for over a month already. We hunted for (plastic) eggs in the living room and ate the candy around the kitchen table. Because we didn’t make plans for dinner (hey, no family in town means that sometimes you just don’t think like that), we went out for Thai food at Tamarind in Rockland. The food was amazing. Each dish had its own special flavors. It was spicy and tasty. I got to see my kids devour green beans and ask for more (it helps when the green beans crunch and make your mouth tingle). Go eat there when you have the chance. Say hi to Mel, the owner and a woman I just taught to knit. She’s already on her second vest (a man’s small) and she just started knitting the middle of February!

I know this has little to do with knitting, spinning, or dyeing, but life just isn’t worth living without a bit of dark chocolate. I eat it when I’m knitting and spinning (though never when I’m dyeing). I eat it when I’m happy and when I’m sad. I like it dark, very dark–65% or higher. And, I talk about the mouth-feel and “high notes” like a wine connoisseur. I recently was introduced to gourmet chocolates that all come from one field; much like fine wines.

But there’s evil afoot. Some members of the chocolate producing community are trying to get the FDA to change the definition of chocolate. Don’t let it happen! Contact the FDA with the instructions at Guittard. It also explains the plans to use vegetable shortening instead of cocoa butter without notifying the consumer!

It was absolutely lovely yesterday. Here’s Guinness, our lab/shepherd mix, playing in the snow. He weighs about 75 pounds.

And, here are the crocuses that were bravely blooming yesterday.

Today is a different story. We’re expecting a foot or so of snow, followed by sleet this afternoon. The kids are all home from school and I’m paying far too much attention to my computer. So far this morning, I’ve shoveled 300 ft of driveway with T1 and T2, started dinner, and made this:

You can link it back to me from your own page. Email me if you need help doing that. I think it’s a cute little button. When I was joining webrings the other day one of them asked for a button, so I whipped this one up (please note the two, new web rings in the sidebar ;-). If you know of other web rings you think I should be part of, please drop me a line.

Here’s the driveway:

One more pic from yesterday. We tap our maples and make about a quart of syrup every year. Here’s T2 in his hand-dyed, hand-spun, hand-knit hat, tapping in a spile.

Now, I will sit, play games with the kids and knit. Stay warm, all!

For those of you who know me, you know how much I love to eat. (It shows in my waistline ;-). I’ve been on the road for two days and done absolutely no knitting. But, I have done a significant amount of eating.

As you know, I live on the coast of Maine, about two hours north of Portland. There are many restaurants here, many of which are good, but not much good ethnic food. For a person raised in California, who spent a great deal of her adult life in Los Angeles and Berkeley, the lack of ethnic food is difficult to live with.

In Boston we went to eat dim sum at China Pearl, in Providence, RI we ate Indian food at Not Just Snacks, had heavenly bread and pastries at Seven Stars Bakery and Mongolian-BBQ style food at Fire + Ice.

I’m home now and still stuffed to the gills. In addition to dark chocolate and hazelnut biscotti and pecan sticky buns at Seven Stars, I brought spinach and gruyere chese calzones for dinner. There were also two sourdough batards and some kalamata olive buns hidden the bag. I’m having French toast for breakfast tomorrow!

So the kids wouldn’t feel left out I brought home two dozen baked char sui bao and a dozen steamed bao. These are what my mom used to call Chinese hamburgers. They are wonderful buns filled with Chinese BBQ pork (sweet and salty). Some are baked and some are steamed. My children like both.

In chocolate news, I bought this, this, and this. I might share if certain people are nice to me. I obviously have an addiction to dark chocolate!

For those of you who haven’t figured it out, I’m a geek at heart. I play in code, dream in code, and occasionally speak in code. So, in honor of that I share with you my Knitter’s Geek Code (from Knitty).

-----BEGIN KNITTER'S GEEK CODE BLOCK-----

------END KNITTER'S GEEK CODE BLOCK------

I haven’t figured out how to add: I mostly knit socks, and I’ve got a Evil Knitting Machine that calls to me, trying to get me to knit on it.

So, what’s your knitter’s geek code?

I was tagged this morning by Petula * Darling.  So, here are Six Things You Never Knew About Me:

• I used to hunt (small birds: dove, duck) and skeet shoot with my dad when I was a teenager. I hated cleaning the birds, but I loved the skeet shooting.  I used to target shoot at Beverly Hills Gun Club after college (and before grad school).
• I home birthed two of my children (T2 and T3).
• I wanted to be an attorney from the time I was eleven and went to law school for 1.5 years after college.
• I had never been outside California for more than two weeks when I moved to Maine.
• I’ve been SCUBA diving in the Bahamas and Cozumel.
• I’d never sewn a seam in a sweater until this week–I choose or rewrite knitting patterns so I don’t have to do that sort of finishing (so, why did I buy a knitting machine???).

Consider yourself tagged! (Since Petula * Darling tagged the other two bloggers I know)