Bittersweet Chocolate Day "Bittersweet chocolate" is chocolate liquor (or unsweetened chocolate) to which some sugar (less than a third), more cocoa butter, vanilla, and sometimes lecithin has been added. It has less sugar and more liquor than semisweet chocolate, but the two are interchangeable when baking. Bittersweet and semisweet chocolates are sometimes referred to as 'couverture'. Many brands now print on the package the percentage of cocoa in the chocolate (as chocolate liquor and added cocoa butter). The higher the percentage of cocoa, the less sweet the chocolate is. ( Source ) I am a dark chocolate person myself, when I choose chocolate at all. But I do bake with bittersweet. Recipes Using Bittersweet Chocolate Houseplant Appreciation Day Oh dear.  I do appreciate houseplants but I should never, never, never be a caretaker of them. EVER. I unintentionally kill houseplants.  I have even managed to kill off the "unkillable" bamboo plant -...

Seriously?  Do *you* seriously think I am actually grateful for those Village People?!  I mean, YMCA is a catchy song but they aren't who I am talking about today. To pull off an event of any kind - milestone birthday, wedding, graduation, whatever your big event is - takes a village of people.  And today I worked with a small village of people to pull off a wedding for some incredibly dear friends.  At 8 am this morning a bunch of us gathered to completely overhaul a backyard into a ceremony and reception space.  Btw, it's incredible to me what can be done AND undone in just a few short hours.  Now back to the point.  I didn't know probably 2/3 of the village people asking for direction from my friend, Amy, and I.  But because we all know the bride and groom in some way we were instantly connected by them and by our desire to see our friends have the day they envisioned.  Not only did these village people participate but there were so ...

No, not *those* Village People - haha! I'm talking about the people in our lives that help us out when we are in a bind or when we have a need and they have the knowledge to fix it, etc and we don't.  For example, the hub has a group of guys at work that are certified mechanics so we know we can go to them first with car issues and potentially save ourselves a lot of money.  The hub isn't a handyman so we have had "village people" help us hang a microwave, fix fences, work on our hot water heater, etc.  I'm grateful for all the people in our lives that we know and are willing to come alongside of us in the places where we have weaknesses and help us out.  The saying it takes a village doesn't apply to just raising kids I'm thinking.