The Idea Was Good

I fell in love with this dessert.   Head over heels.   (if you squint and look close enough, you can actually see this illustrated in the spoon above.)

I had grand visions of recreating it at home.    Bringing back a little taste of Charleston to our dinner table.    

On our final night in Charleston, at FIG, we dined lavishly on all kinds of good stuff.    I was thrilled that they even made me a "very special" vegetarian plate for my entree.   I seriously felt awesome.   Who gets to eat a plate full of beets and sunchokes and farro on their birthday?  (yay, me.)

But the dessert, the dessert, was fabulous.    I couldn't take any pictures as the romantic mood lighting made for some horrendous blur, but trust me when I tell you how good this was.

Chocolate Budino with Sea Salted Caramel and Toasted Hazelnuts

John wasn't super excited about it as he's not a fan of hazelnuts but he definitely jumped in after my first bite.   I'd never had a budino before, an Italian pudding.    It was light, smooth chocolate silk.    As you slipped your spoon through the top layer of chocolate, you uncovered a buttery layer of salted caramel.  Topped with toasted hazelnuts and a light dusting of flaky sea salt.    I'm sure I say this alot, but we did feel like we had died and gone to heaven.  

I knew I was going to try and recreate this at home.    A way of celebrating my blog birthday and sharing something completely fabulous with all of you.

I cleared out my calendar, set aside an afternoon, turned on some tunes, laid out my ingredients and got to work.   The sun was flooding the kitchen (spring, I love you.) and I was happy happy.  

I had the makings of a caramel base going on the stove.    The corn syrupy mixture turned a deep shade of amber and I removed it from the burner to 'gently' add the cream and butter and salt.  

Here's where everything goes wrong.   Apparently, I wasn't gentle enough.  My promising caramel base turned into rock hard solid chunks of extremely salty candy like material.    So I did what all good cooks do and dumped in a ton more sugar and an equal amount of butter followed by a heart stopping amount of cream.     I whisked and stirred.    Put it on the burner and took it off.   High heat, low heat.  Prayed a little.

Eventually, I had what looked like a caramel base.    Looks, however, can be very deceiving.    (It tasted like gritty, salty, sweet, chewy, stomach rotting, grittiness.)

I crossed my fingers that no one would notice and I buried that lump of caramel like base under an almost perfect layer of silky smooth dark chocolate Italian pudding.  

Two seriously bad stomach aches later, one of which morphed into a case of viral like flu and I learned the hard way that sometimes it is just better to start over.

On a more positive note, I've been reading up on food styling and figured my little puddings would at the very least make for a fun photography session.

Any recent kitchen mishaps that you care to share?    (Sometimes, it is just best to admit defeat.)

Our Home and Garden Tour in Charleston

The rest of our lovely spring afternoon in Charleston was just as wonderful as the first part.    We did not get tickets to the Home and Garden tour for this visit as we decided to do our own.   The flowers were out in full force, adding color and lightness at every corner. 

I have fallen a little bit in love with this black and cream house with contrasting grey wall.   I love how the budding tree adds a little bit of an Asian feel to this historic property.    The subtle pops of yellow and green are so fresh against the stone background.

John and I were planning to avoid lunch as we had a big breakfast and were anticipating my birthday dinner at FIG later that night.    But, all that walking and the promise of she crab soup led us to 82 Queen for some time off our feet.    I had been here several years earlier with my mother and as we had done at the time, John and I sat in the gorgeous little spring garden in the back at our own little private table for two.   I love their sweet butterfly chairs and twinkling lights.   We could have sat here all afternoon and the she crab soup was every bit as wonderful as I remembered!

After our rest, we wandered around Charleston some more, heading back to our inn to get ready for dinner.     We were sidetracked every few minutes by a stop in one of the little shops.    Love this antique shop with the dogs in the window!    We made it back just in time as the skies grew increasingly darker as we walked.      As we stepped inside, the rain started pouring.    

Is it spring yet where you are?   Are you enjoying the weather?    We're looking at temperatures heading into the 80s again later this week... can't wait!