On cheese and chocolate

A couple weeks ago I was faced with the challenge of deciding what to bring to LGG's kindergarten party.  ZDG suggested chocolate chip cookies, but in our two local grocery stores I hadn't seen any baking chocolate.  Lots and lots of eating chocolate bars of every flavor of your heart's desire (my favorite is Frey's Dark chocolate with lemon and black pepper), but no baking chocolate.  So instead I went for Grandma's walnut balls.  I ended up using a lot of my precious store of vanilla extract in the cookies, but they were a big hit.  I've already had three requests for the recipe.  However, vanilla sugar is more commonly used than vanilla extract here, so I'll have to make a couple more batches to make sure the substitution is good before I hand out the recipe.

Yesterday LGG and I went to pick up some "special cheese," aka Pecorino Romano.  LGG is particular about the cheese for her noodles.  She doesn't like the more easily found Grana Padano or other Parmesan-type cheese.  And of course our two local grocery stores do not carry Pecorino Romano, but it is available at other Coop grocery stores in the city with a cheese counter.   

We took the trolley/tram down to Bellevue and I suggested that we look for a cookie to feed ourselves before we feed the ducks our old bread.  However, we couldn't find anything that would satisfy the cookie craving.  Lots of fancy pastries, tarts, and croissants, but no simple cookies (I was trying to avoid Sprüngli because she would want Luxemburgerli).  So we went to the lake to feed the ducks.  Afterwards we went into Globus one more time and I noticed they had some "brownies."  So we stopped for a brownie for LGG and sfogliatelle and latte for me.  However, LGG was quite disappointed in the brownie.  First it had nuts in it, and second it wasn't really sweet at all.  So lesson learned, don't buy brownies.

Afterwards we went next door to the Coop and picked up the Pecorino Romano and also some Pecorino Brigante which we like.  We went by the baking section to buy some cake mix, marzipan carrots to decorate, and happily found some baking chocolate.  Today is ZDG's birthday and today we are baking him his favorite lemon cake and topping it with a chocolate glaze and marzipan carrots.

Added later:  Darn, the glaze never thickened.  I guess we're having lemon cake with chocolate sauce.