These are testers for a fundraising project we’re working on for May! That’s all I can say right now…

June 21, 22, and 23:

June 2013: Foraged Feast

As many found foods as we can stuff into one giant meal. Depending on what’s in the fields, forest, backyard, and garden, here’s a loose idea of the menu:

• May wine
• Almond deviled eggless eggs with backyard chives and sautéed daylillies
• Schav (Yiddish sorrel soup) with garlic chives, white chicken mushrooms and fried pickle lace
• Creamed spring spinach, garlic mustard, and dandelion with burdock
• Beet salad with woodruff, cashew cheese, radish, yuzu, and pine oil dressing
• Spring mushrooms (ideally morels and chanterelles, we’ll see what’s out there in the world!) with pickled ramp béarnaise
• Lilac sorbet with strawberry flowers and fraises du bois
• White chocolate mousse with chamomile sauce and wild walnut cream
• Mignardise: Spruce sablee cookies

The fine print:

• Unfortunately we can’t accommodate substitutions for the menu.
• Want to bring your own alcohol? Bring it! (Glasses of whatever you’re drinking sent to the kitchen wouldn’t be turned down…)
• Dinners contain all kinds of things like nuts, wheat, gluten, soy, & sugar—but never any dead animals or animal products. ‘Course not!
• If you have a birthday in your party, let us know when you place your reservation.
• Mignardises are a secret treat we give you at the very end of the meal to take with you…or eat as you linger with your new besties all night long!
• Dinners are $60 per person, plus tax.

It’s happening! Our first savory dinner of the season. Mark your calendars and buy your tickets now. May 7, 8, and 9 we are excited to present to you:

May 2013: Imagined Shanghai

A fantasia of urban Chinese excitements. Please note that menus can and most likely will change based on whim, whimsy, and market availability.

• Lychee and pink grapefruit slushy
• Xiao long bao: soup dumplings: pockets of tender dough with a soupy surprise
• Braised eggplant with stinky tofu
• Hushi Suanla Geng: Hot and Sour Soup with woodear mushrooms and daylily buds
• Dry fried green beans
• Hand pulled street cart noodles with XO sauce and fried arame
• Ma-po tofu
• Dessert congee
• Corn ice cream with burnt sugar caramel
• Mignardises

The fine print:

• Unfortunately we can’t accommodate substitutions for the menu.
• Want to bring your own alcohol? Bring it! (Glasses of whatever you’re drinking sent to the kitchen wouldn’t be turned down…)
• Dinners contain all kinds of things like nuts, wheat, gluten, soy, & sugar—but never any dead animals or animal products. ‘Course not!
• If you have a birthday in your party, let us know when you place your reservation.
• Mignardises are a secret treat we give you at the very end of the meal to take with you…or eat as you linger with your new besties all night long!
• Dinners are $60 per person, plus tax.

This year I’ve planned one dinner a month, starting in early May and ending in October (when our holiday chocolate orders become so intense that doing anything but making chocolates becomes impossible). I wanted to share with you some highlights of the menus I’m planning, but unfortunately I don’t have dates yet for most of the dinners. My partners in the dinner series are Jacob, who takes care of all the logistics like designing the menu and the table and transforming the back room from a chocolate box-packing factory into a beautiful, twinkling dining room; and Lucy, who is our beautiful hostess and always makes herself flashcards about each dish so she can answer every diner’s question about it.

Without these two this little scheme couldn’t happen, and because Jacob sometimes tours around with indie rock bands as a sound engineer, it’s super-duper hard to make plans for when he’ll be around to work at his much more important job of setting the table.

So, we’ll be adding dates as soon as humanly possible.

In the meantime, it might be a good idea of subscribe to this blog (I think there’s a button somewhere where you put your email in and every ice age or so when I post something you’ll get an email…) so you’re the first to know when tickets go on sale. The very first thing we do is post a blog post about each offering, and post on our Facebook page.

We’re hoping to do each dinner for two or three days with ten seats at our big communal table for each day, but last time those 20-30 seats sold out in a few hours, so, ya know, stay in the loop! : )

Coupla things:

• Unfortunately we can’t accommodate substitutions for the menu, although if there is a complimentary alcohol beverage we can make you a virgin one—just tell us when you place your reservation.
• You wanna bring your own alcohol? Bring it! (Glasses of whatever you’re drinking sent to the kitchen wouldn’t be turned down…)
• Dinners contain all kinds of things like nuts, wheat, gluten, soy, & sugar—but never any dead animals or animal products. ‘Course not!
• If you have a birthday in your party, let us know when you place your reservation.
• Every menu has “mignardises.” These are a secret treat we give you at the very end of the meal to take with you…or eat as you linger with your new besties all night long!
• Dinners are $60 per person, plus tax.

Please note that these dishes are only partial highlights of the menus—each menu will be 8-12 courses (yep) and will definitely be changing depending on what I can weasel out of farmers that week. There are just a few teasers and working ideas to get you excited. 

May 2013: Imagined Shanghai

• Lychee and pink grapefruit slushy
• Xiao long bao: soup dumplings: pockets of tender dough with a soupy surprise
• Braised eggplant with stinky tofu
• Hushi Suanla Geng: Hot and Sour Soup with woodear mushrooms and daylily buds
• Dry fried green beans
• Hand pulled street cart noodles with XO sauce and fried arame
• Ma-po tofu
• Dessert congee
• Corn ice cream with burnt sugar caramel
• Mignardises

Early June 2013: Forager’s Delight

• May wine with Japanese knotweed straws
• Almond deviled eggless eggs with backyard chives and sautéed daylillies
• Schav (Yiddish sorrel soup) with garlic chives, white chicken mushrooms and fried pickle lace
• Creamed spring spinach, garlic mustard, and dandelion with burdock
• Beet salad with woodruff, cashew cheese, radish, yuzu, and pine oil dressing
• Spring mushrooms (ideally morels and chanterelles, we’ll see what’s out there in the world!) with ramp béarnaise
• Lilac sorbet with strawberry flowers (if Pete will sell me some, even though “Why would you want the flower, when a few weeks later you could have a STRAWBERRY?” “Because it’s pretty, Pete! Please!”) and fraises du bois (foraged by moi, those)
• White chocolate mousse with chamomile sauce
• Mignardise: Spruce sablee cookies

Late June/Early July 2013: Early Summer in Paris

• Vodka gimlet with basil-meyer lemon syrup
• Socca (chickpea flour crepes) with braised Belgian endive
• Soupe au pistou with creme de pissenlits (dandelion cream)
• Compressed asparagus with nasturtium leaves, candied peas, and baby leek vinaigrette
• Molecular nicoise salad with olive oil spheres
• Potato gratin with swiss chard
• Shiitake stroganoff with straw potatoes
• Crêpe cake with fresh Huguenot Street mulberry jam
• Chocolate chervil tart with tempura strawberries and mint
• Mignardises

Late July 2013: A holiday in Corsica

• Roasted lemonade with vanilla bean muscat
• Minestra with heirloom beans, cabbage, applewood smoked potatoes
• Fresh apple and parsley vinaigrette with lamb’s quarters
• Pea mousse with lemon
• Mediterranean braised green beans
• Swiss chard cannelloni with eggplant fries
• Lavender-melon soup
• Torta Pisticcina (chestnut flour tart) with candied zucchini
• Mignardises

August 2013: Mad Men Summer

• Peach punch with thyme
• Barbecue potato chips with caramelized onion and shallot dip
• Heirloom iceberg lettuce salad with cashew blue cheese dressing
• Cream of tomato soup with fried curly parsley
• Macaroni and cheese casserole with croissant crumbs and potato cracklings
• Gin and Tonic gelee shots
• Deep dish peach pie
• Chocolate-covered neapolitan ice cream bombe
• Mignardise: Chocolate caramel nougat bars with chocolate Bavarian cream

September 2013: Smoke and Spice (for people who like spicy, super weird dishes)

• Manhattan with local whiskey and smoked ice
• Citrus salad with fried rosemary, olives and long pepper
• Green chile corn chowder with smoked oyster mushrooms
• Invisible ravioli with homegrown tomato ragoût
• Cauliflower with rye crumbs and sage air
• Salim: Thai green bean noodles with incense-smoked coconut syrup
• Grilled pineapple tart with raspberries and aleppo pepper cream with oven dried pineapple
• Mignardise: Fiery hot pepper smoked sea salt caramels

October 2013: Fermentation Fetishist’s New York Deli

• Pickleback
• Shrub
• Soft sourdough pretzels with violet mustard
• Beet and celery root tartare with horseradish and caraway
• Beer brined kale salad with yuzu kosho
• Onion soup with sage, croutons, cashew cheese “truffle” slices, and lemon peel
• Tiny tempeh reuben with four homemade fermentations (gin caraway sauerkraut, sourdough rye, cashew cheese, housemade tempeh)
• Peaches and cream ice cream cake
• Mignardise: Black and white cookie with white miso

It’s going to be a fun year!

I’m happy to, because I love this recipe so, so, SO much.

Like most good recipes in this world, it’s adapted from Bloodroot.

Like most good recipes in this world, it’s a bit of work. Not too much though. And it’s fun work.

And look what you end up with:

Cabbage rolls stuffed with sauerkraut, apples, and rye bread

with creamy dill sauce

makes about 30

2 large onions, chopped

4 stalks celery, stems and leaves, chopped

olive oil and grapeseed oil

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2  c diced tart, crisp apples, such as Mutsu or Fortune or Pink Lady

2 packed c sauerkraut, rinsed and squeezed

1 Tb. caraway seed

1 1/2 Tb. sugar

3 Tb. apple cider vinegar, or to taste

sea salt

fresh pepper

1 1/2 c cubed rye bread, toasted until crisp

1-2 large cabbages, depending on size

small amount ground seitan, optional

1. Sauté onions and celery in a mix of ¾ grape seed oil and ¼ olive oil until lightly browned. Add apples and sauerkraut to frying pan and turn heat to high. Add more oil as necessary. Add caraway seeds and sugar and fry until sauerkraut begins to brown a little. Add garlic and sauté one more minute, stirring often to make sure garlic doesn’t burn. Turn off heat and add vinegar. Season to taste rather aggressively with salt and pepper.
2. If using seitan, roast or sauté it until lightly browned, then add to mixture.
3. Turn mixture into a bowl and mix with breadcrumbs. Let cool and adjust seasonings.
4. Use a small knife to cut out the core of the cabbage. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and place cabbage in, stem end down. Cook until leaves begin to soften, about 3-5 minutes, depending on size of cabbage. Remove cabbage to a colander over a bowl and gently pull off as many leaves as are par-cooked. Return cabbage to pot as often as necessary until all leaves are par-boiled.
5. If center vein of leaf is thick, cut most of it out. Hold one leaf at a time in your hand or on a plate, top generously with filling, and roll up. Tuck sides in and place in a shallow baking dish. Repeat. The smallest inside leaves of the cabbage will hold just a little stuffing like a cup.
6. Lightly brush tops of rolls with oil and refrigerate until serving time. Rolls will need ½ hour to 45 minutes in a 375°F oven to heat thoroughly and to glaze the tops. If you want, you can baste the rolls with the Dill Sauce as they bake.

Creamy dill sauce

Makes about 5 c—you definitely won’t need this much, but I like to make a lot and freeze it. It’s great on roasted vegetables.

¼ c grapeseed oil

¼ c flour

3 Tb. prepared mustard

2-3 Tb. shoyu or tamari

2 Tb. nutritional yeast

sea salt to taste

fresh pepper to taste

3 Tb. chopped fresh dill

1. Heat grapeseed oil and flour, whisking constantly. When mixture begins to bubble, add remaining ingredients except dill along with 4 c water. Bring to a boil, whisking until thickened.
2. Remove from heat. Season to taste with more salt and pepper as necessary, and add chopped dill.

That’s it! Go forth! Make them, post photos of ‘em on Instagram and tag them #lagustasluscious! Then eat up.

Oh, and psst, if you like Eastern European heavy duty wintery dishes, you’ll probably go crazy for my Cabbage and Onion Pie. 

Enjoy!

Think there’s no difference between organic and conventional produce because of That One Study?

Think again. 

I had planned on writing a blog post all about the many reasons using almost all organic ingredients is hard for us (our organic colors are so much more difficult to use than artificial ones, our powdered sugar clumps up more [sounds like not a big problem, but it REALLY IS!], it costs often twice as much, distributors [which make it easy to actually buy good stuff] are hard to come by (every day I ask Baldor, my Fancy Stuff Distributor, about a cool ingredient they’re advertising: “Do you have it organic? Do you have anything cool organic?” They have nothing cool organic, my friends, except our chocolate, which Tcho arranged for them to get, just for us.), our sugarwork is never pure white because of our comparatively unrefined sugar, etc etc forever!) but, you know, vacation stepped in and all that.

My point is: no matter what, we’re committed to organic. Even if it had absolutely no health benefits for the human beings who eat the produce (which, see below, it totes does)! Just the benefits to the farmworkers (not being exposed to zillions of chemicals) and the Earth are enough.

Organic is a very complicated issue. (If you’re interested, I’ve been hashing it out over on Twitter for the past half day) But right now, for us, buying from beyond-organic local farmers (who go above and far beyond the USDA organic model), and from faraway organic producers is our methodology.

Which, honestly, is kinda weird for chocolate.

Almost all cacao pods are unsprayed because pesticides cost money cacao farmers do not have. They also can’t generally afford to pay for organic certification. But we buy organic chocolate anyway, and to be honest, partly it’s because in the US that means something to consumers, even if it doesn’t actually mean anything at the source except that a lot of paperwork has been filled out and a lot of fees have been paid.

Sad, but true.

We believe in organic.

Even though we know it’s more complicated than that.

Happily, we believe in nuance, too.

Here’s how my little chocolate business has gone:

In 2003 Jacob and I started making truffles for family gifts, inspired, like all good things are inspired, by an article in Martha Stewart Living. I didn’t know what on earth I was doing.

In 2004 everyone we gave the truffles to in 2003 wanted more of them. And I saw that this was a little hole in the vegan marketplace, so I decided to start selling them on the internet. I made them once a month, in-between cooking for the meal delivery service I ran, and kept a little email mailing list I’d announce the shipment on. People would email me back to order, I would send them a PayPal invoice, and off their chocolates would go.

Things went pretty much like this until 2010. Over the years we got a website, a fancier ordering system, and a bunch more customers (not just friends). I made chocolates once a week, not once a month. It was nice. The chocolate holidays (Christmas, Easter, and, of course, V-day) slammed me, made it difficult to get my cooking work done and difficult to sleep. The chocolate side of things was growing, without me feeding it. (The meal delivery would have been growing too, but it was so exhausting that I kept it to 20 clients or less so I could manage it and have a reasonable life, too.)

In 2010 I decided to shut down the meal delivery service and focus on a sweeter life, with less onions to peel and less pots to scrub.

Here’s the difference, dish-wise, between the two jobs:

• Meal delivery dishes took hours of scrubbing giant pots, leaving you with oniony, wrinkly hands and exhausted arms. 
• Chocolate dishes can go right into the dishwasher with no scrubbing, and make the entire kitchen smell like hot chocolate.

Looking back, the choice was easy.

In 2011 we scraped up our pennies and borrowed pennies from wherever we could and bought the building. It was an 11-month-long odyssey, my friends (buying a building in foreclosure with almost no money—patient persistence is necessary, and since I am the most impatient person in the world, it was constantly tough for me. Thankfully, Jacob is amazing at smooth-talking banks and having patience, so while I was ranting and renting my garments with stress, he was cooly Making It Happen. It’s all detailed here, along with some TMIness about my own internal state at the time.)

Then began the renovation process (detailed rather haphazardly here). The word “renovation” still fills my heart with a cold chill. Oh, the months!

OH, THE MONEY! The delays, the work, the schlepping, the buying, the designing!

It was so much work.

(Was it worth it? Every night when I switch off the lights and lock the door [yes sometimes it's technically morning when that's happening, but still], I take a moment to look at the shop and get the same frisson of pleasure that I got the first day we opened. Opening the shop is my favorite thing I’ve ever done, and I love it every single day.)

We finally opened on June 28, 2011. (Jacob’s birthday! He was on tour in Europe at the time, and I sent him a photo of the shop and told him that instead of any presents [I was a little busy and a lot cash-strapped at the time, OK?], I got him a chocolate shop.)

It was fun from the start.

2012 was our first full year of being open, and it brought lots of changes in our Luscious little world. Here’s a rundown of the biggest ones:

• 2012 was the year we went from being a micro-business to a small business.
• It’s the year I had to learn how to be imperfect in front of other people, too. 

The biggest change in my personal work world was how many more people I work with on a day-to-day basis.

As late as June of this year I was still clawing on to Solitude Sundays (what I always called them in my head) where I worked alone. Alone! It was super tough, yes (every time we had a party of five who all ordered Drinking Chocolates, I’d set a new record for how fast one person can stir ganache into hot almond milk, top it with almond whip, marshies, and cinnamon, pour it into a cup, put a lid on it, and get it to them), but I loved having a day all by myself at the shop, so quiet and still in the back of the house.

I could use all the space, live completely in my head, work on secret formless projects I didn’t have to chat about to anyone until they were more complete, nailed-down, ready to be tasted. Sometimes things like Thyme, Preserved-Lemon and Sea Salt Caramel need a little marinating time in one’s own head before they’re ready to be trotted out for a tasting. I’m like that (I used to be like that?)—I want things to be perfect before anyone sees them.

I’ll never go back to Solitude Sundays, I know that.

That’s a good thing, but it’s a little bittersweet, too. Change is good, Lagusta! Moving forward is good!

Now I work more collaboratively, and it’s one of the most exhilarating processes I’ve ever participated in. I’m continually blown away by the brilliant ideas of the women I work with, how they help me solve problems and come up with amazing new ideas. If I don’t have an idea down perfectly, I know I can bring it to them and they’ll help me make it better.

It’s terrifying not to perfect things before I show them to other people, but I’m getting better at it.

Around August, we ramped up like crazy for the chocolate season ahead. It’s good that we did. We needed every body we could cram in those 1000 square feet. And I LOVE the amazing women we hired. Still, it’s been a major shift for me in the way I always figured the shop would run. It’s so strange to me when an order, or even a Drinking Chocolate, goes to a customer and I didn’t have a hand in any of it—I didn’t make the ganache or fold the boxes or dip the truffles or even ship out the package. (I started doing this thing where I write “Enjoy! XO, L” on all the packages I ship out, like I’m a fancy person, like people should be excited to get packages from the great Lagusta herself!! Oy!)

All this is strange.

I know in the scheme of things we are still a very, very small business, and always will be, no matter how much we grow. But I always thought we’d be a micro business. Just me, with Maresa helping out when she wasn’t making cupcakes and cakes.  And it went like that for a long time—I’ve been unable to get rid of Maresa since the day 5 or so years ago when she showed up at my old kitchen in Rosendale and said she’d work for free. Now I’d pay her anything she asked because she’s not only the sister I never had, but also so essential to the business that I sometimes wake up from nightmares where she went on a short vacation (really though, Reesey, you should take more days off!). We’ve had other people working on the shop since it opened, but never more than 3 of us at a time. From when the Oprah thing came out (keep reading!) in November until we went to Hawaii we were averaging 5 people a day working in the shop, and there were a few days when I looked up and we’d crammed SEVEN PEOPLE, each working with elbows tucked in their little stations, stirring flavorings into ganache or checking the temperature of caramel.

Unbelievable.

• The finishing of the façade.

This article came out about Chocolate in the Hudson Valley in the early part of 2012 in one of our the fine local alt-weeklies.  It mentioned all the chocolate shops in the HV except us. Our customers kept coming in and saying “Why didn’t they mention you???”

Everyone working in the shop was kind of outraged.

Secretly (ok, maybe not so secretly), I was pleased as punch. Do you know what this means? I kept saying to the little crew. We’re still an underground business!! 

The publisher of the magazine, however, happens to be a regular shop customer. One day he came in and apologized profusely about the omission. He didn’t happen to see the article before it went to press, otherwise he would have made sure they covered us. He promised some press to come to make up for the oversight.

I was honored, of course, but also a little rueful.

Being an underground business REALLY pleased me.

If it were up to me, we wouldn’t even have a sign on the door. I had this idea that we’d be a secret around town that you had to know someone to find. You’d open this unmarked, plain teal door and walk into a wild chocolate wonderland. How cool would that be?

As everyone reminded me, banks need mortgage payments in exchange for the building, and utility companies need money in exchange for power to power tempering machines. And student loans from a certain someone with a double major in English and Women’s Studies (oh, and the French minor) still has student loans to pay. So, concessions needed to be made.

Our friend Molly made our amazing sign. I liked it. Most particularly, I liked that it didn’t tell what we sold. Keeping the mystery!

In time though, everyone else got REALLY tired of saying, “We’re a chocolate shop!” to people who popped in just to ask what the crap it was that we sold.

So. Over my objections, we got these fancy letters for the front of the building. I got to pick out the font, and I picked Futura, so we could seem as much like we were living inside a Wes Anderson movie as possible.

Speaking of the chocolate letters:

• I made this really cool banner for the website. 

Maybe it’s not a year highlight to you, but to me, who manages to screw up the website majorly every time she touches it, who has pretty much been taken off website duty by Erin and Jacob, who are constantly tinkering and improving and fixing and perfecting, being able to make and upload the rotating banners on the top of the page was sort of a minor miracle.

How Wes Anderson-y does it look??

• I created the hardest, bestest recipe of all time. 

Oh, Peanut Butter Toffee Crunch Bars! Your butterfingery devils, you. How we love to hate you. 

• Pate de Fruits.

I love these little gems. Finally making them after years of wanting to was so satisfying. The cantaloupe was my favorite, but I loved them all.

• Ice cream. 

I LOVED making ice cream this summer (and milkshakes!). And we’ve got so many fun summery plans for cold treats to come, I can’t wait to share ‘em…

• Ridding the shop of corn syrup

I’m so proud of our Innovation of the Year: homemade organic cane syrup to replace corn syrup!

• Flowers. 

Candied homegrown flower tablets. Sigh. My heart is bursting.

• Molly’s window project

Our resident genius artist, Molly Rausch of Postage Stamp Paintings, painted our windows so beautifully, I don’t think we’ll ever take it down.

• Oprah Magazine + press

I guess I should stop with things that were important in my personal soul and all that and get on to the actual tangible markers of the year.

One of those was that we got some mega press.

We were in a bunch of local magazines and papers, and that 1/4 page mention in Oprah magazine sure raised our profile quite a bit. From when the magazine came out until the end of the year, we were solidly slammed with orders.

• Donations

Not being so terrified that we weren’t going to make mortgage payments every month has meant that we can afford to do more donations!

I knew there was a reason why being a bigger business was good—this is one of the major reasons.

As someone who always figured she’d be a penniless activist for a “living,” doing good is a huge part of our mission at the shop. Nothing feels better than being able to support the groups, people, and work we believe in. Here’s a partial list of donations we did in 2012:

• We donated to the animal shelter my mom volunteers for, CARE.
• We made sure our pal Nicole’s dog Beija got medical care when she desperately needed it.
• We donated a lot to Friends of Animals—when you buy our Rosemary Sea Salt Caramels boxes, $10 of each box goes to FoA’s fine work.
• We continue to give shop-discounts to members of Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary and Catskill Animal Sanctuary. We also do chocolate and cash donations to them whenever we can.
• We made a few hundred dollars for Family of New Paltz, our local food pantry, and so much more.
• We raised over $2000 to the Teal Cat Project in March, through sales of Tabby Toffee chocolates!
• We donated lots of Peach-Tarragon chocolates to Phillies Bridge Farm’s annual Meal in the Field dinner.
• Lots more donations I can’t remember/forgot to enter into my accounting program.

• The wildest Halloween ever.

There were so many sad events in the wider world this year. They’re beyond the scope of this blog post, but it’s crushing to remember them.

Hurricane Sandy was responsible for the cancellation of the Google NYC Halloween party, for which the Google folks had ordered hundreds of chocolates from us. They said we should give the chocolates out to New Paltz trick or treaters, which meant we had the craziest, most fun (in spite of the Sandy sadness living in our hearts) Halloween ever in the shop, which was crammed with people for hours and hours—long after the chocolate ran out, actually. My oh my does word spread fast in this town.

• The dough sheeter!

We bought a dough sheeter, thus ending 10 months of a croissant desert that we (me!) barely survived. Croissants are back forever, woo!

• The launch of the Savory Dinner Series
  

The most fun and the most work I’ve had in a long time (which is saying a lot—I have a lot of fun and work a ton on the regular). I hope it continues forever. We did two dinners last year (you can see millions of photos of ‘em at the link above), this year I’m hoping to do one a month March-October.

• Partnership with Tuthillltown Spirits

Tuthilltown has quickly become a household name in the Hudson Valley as well as the country (the world, maybe?) for well-crafted whiskies and more. We were honored when they asked if we wanted to partner up on a special chocolate to be sold in their distillery shop. Our Four-Grain Bourbon Caramel Chile Bars are one of our best-sellers, and it’s always so nice to meet people who found us from a bar they tasted at the distillery.

The whiskey is delicious on its own, too, which is nice for a whiskey drinker like me. Manhattans (and chocolate!) for all!

I asked everyone who works at the shop for their best-ofs, too:

• DawnMarie: Unlike everyone else, is probably out having fun and not immediately responding to emails, so I’ll update this post with her best-ofs when I get ‘em. (I’m hoping one of her favorites will be that crazy day she wrapped ten zillion bars…)
• Favorite thing to make:
  Sundaes in the summer!  Especially with gooseberries on top. (Customer-”you mean the ice cream, marshmallows, AND whip are all vegan? *face lights up*)
• Favorite thing I ate:
  Chocolate- ginger orange blossom truffle
  Cupcake- pistachio & rosewater
  Savory- latkas with sour cream & apple sauce!
  Drink- lavender lemonade
• Highlights:
  -Learning from and working with empowering, progressive, and witty women. Plus Jacob!
  -Actually being able to eat anything in the shop without worry of the ingredients.
  -Listening to good music all day
  -Maresa’s cake scraps!
  -Lagusta’s training nights & whatever she cooks for us.
• Favorite moments:
  I was having just your typical case of the rainy-pms-ing-monday-finals week-blues. My day turned around when I walked into work and my senior recital was being played as the shop’s music. What a supportive, loving feeling. And then I got to make chocolate all day. Chocolate shop therapy at its finest.
• During one of our busy days, I messed up and used black rasberries instead of red rasberries for a recipe and I already added in the balsamic syrup. I felt awful even telling L since we were pressed for time but  she didn’t even break a sweat. She just looked at it and went, “don’t worry- I’ve got an idea!” And just like that she made a tangy, fruity, amazing truffle out of my mistake- with black rasberries, balsamic syrup, lemon, lime, and strawberry that the customers all loved! Lesson learned: when life gives you lemons, make a new chocolate.
• Jayme: 
• Favorite thing I made: Holler Mountain bark. The first thing I made from start to finish.
• Favorite thing I ate: Pear, clover, & brown sugar cupcake.
• Beet coriander truffle!
• Highlights: when Non vegans walk in and are surprised & impressed that we are a cruelty free/Vegan shop. When vegans realize they can have ANYTHING they want! Putting bows on a zillion barks.

• Eating any food that Lagusta makes us (awww). Learning some real knife skills. Being able to work in an amazing, caring, human/animal/environmentally conscious environment.
• Favorite Moments: Working from 10a-730p with Maresa & Lucy without sitting down once and then enjoying a Taco Shack feast before finishing up the last 3 hours of work.
• Erin:
• Dipping truffles. (LY note: Erin is really great at dipping truffles!)
• Making ganache start to finish is pretty fulfilling- from the recipe, to flavoring, piping, rolling, dipping, decorating…
• Favorite moment was the night we all did yoga together, talking about our favorite poses. (very inflexible LY note: THIS WAS MY LEAST FAVORITE MOMENT.)
• Favorite eating was shiitake sea salt truffle, RSSC (Rosemary Sea Salt Caramels, natch), and turtles- and mac and cheese! (LY note: I like making snacks for the crew!)
• Funniest was when I called her “teal nail girl.” (LY note: Maresa and I almost hired her right off the bat because her nails matched our logo. [Even though you're not allowed to paint your nails in a food service environment. But this was just at the interview, so it was OK.])
• Fave customers- maeve and julian
• Fave times- when vegans come in expecting one or two vegan things and get SUPER EXCITED when they fing out every last thing is vegan. (LY note: this is my fave time too.)

• Jacob:
• STUMPTOWN! And indulging in a coffee obsession and taking it to unforseen heights.
• Maresa’s macarons!
• Sweet Pea Green Tea chocos.
• 
• Lucy:
• Turtles. (Lucy is our turtle expert, for sure.)
• I loved learning how to make caramels.
• Christmas rush. in the middle of it, I realized how much all of us has learned and how we could just bang it all out and do a good job.
• Favorite eating was pickle tempura, and chocolate lemon confit caramel.
• Fave customers- any shy old men. and the Smylies. also, the guy who gets gifts for his girlfriend “just because he loves her” and is always really polite.
• BOTH Erin and Lucy loved the chocolate tasting night!
• Maresa:
• Favorite eating: every last bite of the savory dinner (LY note: Maresa came as a diner! It was so great to cook for her.). and, apple caramels. and maui macadamia cream.
• Successfully making pb bars in less than one day (this happened once. it’ll go down in history like rudolph).
• Favorite customer: susan blickstein, who was with us through our coffee evolution, and would always give the lowdown on town-happenings.
• Favorite moment: sitting on the bench with L, eating pistachio ice cream, and comparing legs. also, realizing that our gals are totally the best ever. (LY note: this is my favorite moment, too.)

• Jeeeze, there’s a lot more!

Fun events, amazing customers (truly, amazing), delicious tempeh, our anniversary party, so many delicious chocolates (cream eggs!), wrapping paper with yours truly’s mug on it, the back room renovations, PARIS, that crazy cute caramel apple I made!

But this is getting too long, and I’ve got to start my New Year’s Eve dinner preparations.

If you have Lagusta’s Luscious-related highlights to share in the comments (or on Facebook or Twitter), I’d be honored.

Here’s a much overdue photo roundup of the experience.

 First, I’d just like to state that I cooked basically this whole entire thing in THIS TINY WORKSTATION. I was so proud of my space savingness!

Complimentary White Bloody Mary

A Bloody Mary made with tomato water instead of tomato juice. Ok, ok, it’s pink.

Tomato essence, cucumber juice, vodka, lemon twist, celery stick.

Chilled lemon zucchini soup

Lemon thyme foam, lemon thyme crystals, shaved green almonds.

Amaranth and arugula salad 

Meyer lemon dressing, crystallized maple syrup, watermelon, nasturtium

Small plates:

Cipolline in agrodolce, peperonata, caponata

Making the cipolline in agrodolce with hundreds of teeny tiny cipolline onions.

House-baked Kalamata olive focaccia

Sweet potato tortelloni with cashew cheese filling

Lacinato kale olive pesto

Slow cooked eggplant with white bean cream

I love my induction stove! Cooking in a bowl!

The ever-amazing Lucy, our server, who made flashcards for each dish.

Continuing with the menu:

Plum crostata with Meyer lemon curd

Nectarine ice cream with nectarine spheres

Broken sphere!

Mignardises:

Pine nut cookies with rosemary

Red wine-apple ganache bonbon

All done!

First, make your almond mayo. Here’s my recipe. It’s the best! (Not to brag or anything).

Now that you have your almond mayo, you can use it as the basis for a classic French rémoulade sauce. Related to tartar sauce, rémoulade is a mayonnaise-based condiment. It’s zippy and creamy and wonderful.

Rémoulade

Whisk another two tablespoons of good prepared mustard into the basic Almond Mayonnaise recipe (see above), and toss with a tablespoon or two each of chopped cornichons or other pickles, chopped parsley, chopped capers, and chopped fresh tarragon. That’s it!

I like rémoulade best in the dish Céleri Rémoulade (Celery Root Rémoulade): thinly sliced celery root (also known as celeriac) mixed with a mustard-flavored rémoulade. Celery root is not a widely-used vegetable, and if you’ve never cooked with it this is a great entry into the wonderful world of this tasty root vegetable. It’s a round, celery-flavored root often available at farmer’s markets in the fall. Choose a medium-sized root, as large ones can be woody inside. Celery root is usually served mashed or roasted, but you can eat it almost raw if served with a flavorful sauce—like rémoulade!

To make Celery Root Rémoulade, peel one celery root and slice very thinly with a mandoline slicer or vegetable peeler. (Optionally, to be super traditional you’d then cut the slices into matchsticks.)

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil, then stir in the celery root. Cook until just tender, 1-3 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water, then toss celery root with rémoulade sauce. Let the flavors meld in the refrigerator for a few hours before serving. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Randy, if you make it, take a photo I can steal for this page! No pressure or anything to make this AMAZING DISH WITH ALL THAT CELERIAC I KNOW YOU HAVE…. ; )