When I was in the city the other week, as I was waiting in line at a news stand to buy some subway tickets, I got tempted and bought myself a glossy magazine. Not just any glossy magazine, but a French glossy magazine, marie claire idées, and I'm totally entranced by it. The ideés! Honestly, some of the most marvelous and creative ideés, all with a fall theme: fall ideés for the garden, the kitchen, sewing, home decor and so on. Many, many projects, with wonderful photos that are inspirations in themselves, complete with explanations and instructions ... in French, bien sûr! 
As a first, quick project, I made several chocolate leaves to use as a decorative fall topping on a simple cake I baked. I wasn't sure which leaves to use, so I tried two very different kinds: thick and glossy lemon leaves, and apricot leaves which are much thinner. Some I coated on the upper surface, and others on the lower: the chocolate leaves molded on the lower surface have a more interesting texture, as they show the veins better.
By the way, did you know that lemon trees have some vicious thorns? I did, but I'd forgotten ... Not that you really need to know this for making chocolate leaves, because, as I found out, the thinner apricot leaves peel off from the dried chocolate much better than the thick lemon ones. Go for thin leaves.
Now that I have dessert, I'm off to the garden to get some ideés for a main course: we have friends over for dinner!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you for your comments on my first post at the co-op. If you like you can read them (here): there are some very interesting thoughts and views about rural communities worldwide.
