cocoamoda on the cooking channel

if you've been reading my blog for a while, you know how much I love cocoamoda.  well, my friend ken wilkinson and his amazing shop and restaurant were featured on food crafters this week on the cooking channel.  I saw it and it was wonderful, if you missed it, here's a link to the article on the show with listings of when it will be on again.  if you can, check it out, it is great and next time you are in calvert stop by cocoamoda and tell ken I sent you!

a stop at cocoamoda

so on my way back from college station, I stopped at cocoamoda for a treat.  for mid-afternoon, they were really busy.  the food was wonderful as usual!  I opted for the blackberry crepes and they were magnificent; light and tender crepes with a wonderful blackberry sauce!  both boys just opted for some ice cream, which went great with my crepes.  of course I got some truffles and chocolate covered orange peel to bring home to michael.

girls gone chocolate III

so, we took another girls day trip today to calvert and had brunch at cocoamoda and it was great, if you want to live vicariously though us, here you go:


dee got the best dish in my view, with the croque-monsieur - classic french toasted gruyere cheese and ham sandwich with sauce mornay and garnish of fresh fruit


simone got the omelette aux herb - omelette with cheddar cheese, sauteed onion, potato, and a medley of herbs


I got the blackberry crepes and they were amazing


alicia got the praline crepes and said they were just as incredible as she thought they would be


sarah-jane went for the saumon fume - smoked salmon with chopped onion, capers, cream cheese, fresh lemon,and toasted brioche and it looked delicious and interesting


and of course, we had truffles!

how we drive to houston

since I talked last week about our friday night ritual of prime rib from rudy's as our usual friday nite dinner, I figured today I would tell you about how we eat our way down to houston.  it is about a 3 hour drive from our house in waco to our hometown outside of houston and we have our typical stops that we always make along the way:

the first one cocoamoda in calvert, to get some of their amazing chocolates!  this time I came bearing gifts for ken "the chocolate man", I brought him the intercourses cookbook that I got last month and have fallen in love with.  as a fellow foodie, I thought he would like it and it fit our unique relationship.  as I was standing at the counter waiting for my hubby's decaf coffee, I was reading all the articles that have been written about cocoamoda and I was shocked by how many their were. you know that I can go on and on about cocoamoda, but I thought you might enjoy reading what others have to say, so here are the articles I found about cocoamoda:
gourmet chocolate factory opens in calvert -- kbtx
restorational revival -- the new york sun
cocoamoda chocolate opens in calvert -- houses, gardens, people blog
entrepreneuer aims to put chocolate on the map -- trading markets
texas two-step chocolate style -- chocolate atlas
inside cocoamoda resturant -- flikr

the next stop is wings n more in college station.  there are 4 locations in college station and we used to go to the one that was in the exxon station on the north side of bryan (yes, I call myself a foodie, but one of my favorite places to eat is in a gas station).  they have since moved to a freestanding building, but they are still the location we go to most often.  they have amazing wings and cheese fries and as I tried tonight, pretty good baked beans.  if you are ever in college station, texas or the woodlands, texas I encourage you to give them a try, you will be glad you did.

my answers to tuesday's take 5 -- week #4

here are my answers to this week's tuesday's take five:

1. what are you currently trying to learn/master with your cooking?
   pastry cream (I can never get it to set)
   
2. where do you go for ideas for new recipes (cooking shows, cookbooks/magazines, experiment in the kitchen)?
   cookbooks mainly and experiment with the ingredients in my pantry
   
3. what is one thing that you make, but you don't eat?
   roasted asparagus (for mike) and any thing with mint
   
4. what is your biggest guilty pleasure with food?
   truffles from cocoamoda and eating blue bell ice cream straight out of the pint
   
5. what is one thing that you mom (or who ever taught you to cook) can make better than you?
   her corn casserole!!
   

cocoamoda again, I feel an addiction coming on!

on our way back to waco today, mike and I decided to stop once again in calvert at cocoamoda (the wonderful chocolate shop that I blogged about earlier this month). we went in there just thinking that we would each just get one truffle, but once we got in there and I saw all the truffles behind the case, I knew that one simply would not be enough. I had decided on 3 truffles (key lime, passionfruit, and hazlenut) when the owner, Chef Ken Wilkinson, came out. I re-introduced myself and told him that he may not remember me but that I had been in right after new year's and was so impressed with his chocolates that I blogged about them and that blog post has become my 2nd top post. the owner's eyes lit up and he was so grateful he said that he had gotten lots of traffic from my blog post and the other guy working there said that my blog post is one of the first things that comes up when you search for cocoamoda on google. (I checked it and he was right, my blog post is 4th). the owner was so appreciative that he insisted we take a dozen truffles on the house (and really, who am I to turn down an offer like that!) while we were talking, he insisted that I try one of his newest creations, chocolate covered mango pieces. I am not usually a mango fan, but these were divine, the fruit was chewy sweet and the chocolate was the right counterbalance for it. I couldn't wait to try my hazelnut truffle (you know I love hazelnut and chocolate) and it was everything I could have dreamed of and more. the creamy interior of like hazelnut jelly was surrouded by the best chocolate with a hazelnut piece on top for just a little bit of crunch. I would love to take credit for this great picture of the exterior of cocoamoda, but I found it on flickr on justlooking's photostream. but I can take credit for the picture below of all the wonderful truffles we got!
if you are looking for some great pictures of cocoamoda's chocolates, check out rebecca sherman's blog

cocoamoda in calvert, I think I'm in love!

there is a new gourmet chocolate shop, cocoamoda, in calvert (one of the small towns between waco and college station) that my mom has been raving about ever since she first stopped there on her way to waco for thanksgiving. so tonight we drove down to college station to meet my parents and get the boys back. on the way down we called cocoamoda to make sure that they would be open on our way back and we decided that we would stop there with the boys.

the first thing that I noticed when I walked in was how beautiful the place was inside. it was decorated with what mike called "sleek european" decor, to me it looked like a cigar club with dark wood and dark leather furniture and fixtures. as we stood there, mouths open and drooling, looking at all the beautiful chocolates, the owner came over to talk to us and began offering us samples (that's how all food addictions begin, right?).

I tried a cassis truffle that litterally exploded in my mouth, it was wonderful. it had a black currant jelly center surrounded by milk chocolate and topped with edible gold. mike tried the chocolate orange peel. it had a surpisingly mild orange flavor with a strong dark chocolate coating. my mom raved about the chocolate orange peel. mike said that it met the high expectations that he had for it. they were also nice enough to offer truffles to the boys. ed got a passionfruit truffle that he did not like, so after taking a bite he gave it to me. I never thought that I would have liked a passionfruit truffle, but this was divine. it had, again, a jelly center surrounded by white chocolate with a sugar coating that gave it a little crunch. lee wanted to try the anisette truffle, although we warned him that it would be bitter. just like his brother, lee took one bite of his and gave it to mike who happily finished it. mike said that it had a creme filling with a subtle anise flavor surrounded by a cruchy shell and then covered in dark chocoalte. although not usually a fan of anise, mike said it was really good.

after all of our tasting, we finally decided on 12 truffles that we wanted to get, and mike got a cafe americano for the road. as mike was paying, I looked over the menu and was pleasantly surpised to see that they had some delicious sounding items on the menu as well. mike's ears perked up when they said that they serve breakfast all day on saturday and sunday. we will have to make another trip down to try out their food as well.
their website is: www.cocoamoda.com