Post by digresser on Dec 5, 2005 5:57:27 GMT -5
As this article combines Criminal Intent and chocolate, I feel it would be a crime not to share it with everyone!
Life is sweet
By Katya Cengel
Monday, December 5, 2005
The Courier-Journal
www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051205/FEATURES/512050336/1010
(click the link for article, pictures and ordering info)
"In his right hand, Ron Harris holds a naked bourbon ball, in his left a toothpick. With practiced precision, he skewers the ball with the toothpick and swirls it in a bowl of very, very hot chocolate. Then he places the chocolate-coated ball on a sheet of wax paper, twirls the toothpick out of it and tops it with a pecan.
On a busy day, he can do this 400 to 600 times, making enough of the candy he calls "Happy Balls" to get quite a few people happily drunk.
But today isn't a busy day, and he and his wife, Jane, are happy to talk while they work in their candy factory on the third floor of their mansion in Old Louisville.
While Ron dips the balls, Jane packages the completed ones. She picks up each ball and carefully examines it before gingerly placing it in a box with either one, three, eight or 15 other balls. If a ball doesn't meet her standards she puts it in an "ugly ball" tray, reserved for friends and family.
The pretty treats get packaged in a box that says "got balls?" or a more subdued box that boasts "The Official Candy of Old Louisville."
The "official" status is based on the fact that, as far as the couple know, there are no other candy factories in Old Louisville. There aren't any like this one, where two former New York actors watch episodes of "Judge Judy," "Law & Order" spin-offs and "Bill Maher" on a flat-screen television while dipping, rolling and packaging bourbon balls in a Marilyn Monroe and James Dean themed kitchen.
The Happy Ball factory is a small production that started last March, just in time for Derby, and conducts quality control with the help of neighbors.
"I like to say we are the little company with the bigger balls," says Jane.
In front of her are dozens of little boxes filled with two balls for an order being shipped to Rhode Island.
"Sometimes I pick up a big order and I wonder is it going to a party, or just to two people alone," she says.
On the wall near the door are two Marilyn Monroe clocks and three James Dean license plates, reminders of the couple's former life as actors on the set of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" in New York.
Jane was a regular in the squad room on the popular television series, while Ron was a stand-in for the show's star, Vincent D'Onofrio. He would often work 12 to 15 hour days.
"It's so soothing," says Ron, stabbing another ball. "A much more soothing work environment than I had on the set."
Behind him, Aunt Happy smiles from a framed photograph.
It was Aunt Happy who started it all. Well, actually, it was the bus route Ron used to take into Louisville from his childhood home in Fairdale, Ky. Gazing out the window, Ron decided that one day he would live in a mansion in Old Louisville.
He went about it in a roundabout way. First he moved to Brooklyn, married Jane and acted. Then after 9/11 and its aftermath of fear and sadness, Ron, 52, and Jane, 62, sold their little house, purchased for $35,000 in 1980, for almost three-quarters of a million dollars and bought their three-story mansion in Old Louisville. Since May 2004, Louisville has been their home.
At first, they were just going to live a life of leisure, but their old home started demanding repairs, so they decided to go into the candy-making business.
Ron spent six months perfecting his bourbon balls -- using Knob Creek bourbon -- while Jane went about making sure their little business passed all the health codes.
She also made sure the alcohol in the recipe wasn't more than the law allows. Then she busied herself with packaging and marketing.
"I always have a two-pack (of Happy Balls) in my purse," says Jane. "I tip with it."
For the couple, candy-making wasn't that much of a stretch. Back in New York they would bring Happy Balls to the set during the holidays.
"In New York they forget you," says Ron. "If you go 'Here are some Happy Balls,' they remember you."
Hopefully when they are trying to cast a role.
Michael Espinosa, second assistant director on "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," remembers Ron and the Happy Balls well. He had been telling Ron to go into business making them for quite some time.
"I'm very happy to hear he finally did it," said Espinosa during a phone interview. "It's like watching Mrs. Fields before she became 'Mrs. Fields.' "
Before Ron left the show, a cast member gave him two bottles of bourbon. They were meant to be enjoyed on his porch; instead he used them to hone his craft and his first few batches of bourbon balls.
Aunt Happy, the woman whose recipe he perfected, and whose picture decorates select candy boxes, is also known as Gladys Shacklette, a 90-year-old retired school cook who lives at Twinbrook Nursing Home. She likes how Ron has tweaked her original recipe.
"They're better, because I didn't put half the nuts in them," she says.
Jas Smith, head of the gourmet food department at Liquor Barn The Ultimate Party Source in Beaumont Centre in Lexington, likes the bourbon balls too. Liquor Barn is one of a half-dozen stores in Louisville and Lexington carrying the candies.
"They use top ingredients," says Smith. "You can tell where others have cut corners and she (Jane) hasn't spared any expense."
Each month, the couple goes though about 40 pounds of pecans and two cases of bourbon. They keep 500 pounds of chocolate, which will last them three to six months, in storage.
By the time the chocolate is gone, Ron hopes to have come up with a mint julep bourbon ball, just in time for Derby. "
Life is sweet
By Katya Cengel
Monday, December 5, 2005
The Courier-Journal
www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051205/FEATURES/512050336/1010
(click the link for article, pictures and ordering info)
"In his right hand, Ron Harris holds a naked bourbon ball, in his left a toothpick. With practiced precision, he skewers the ball with the toothpick and swirls it in a bowl of very, very hot chocolate. Then he places the chocolate-coated ball on a sheet of wax paper, twirls the toothpick out of it and tops it with a pecan.
On a busy day, he can do this 400 to 600 times, making enough of the candy he calls "Happy Balls" to get quite a few people happily drunk.
But today isn't a busy day, and he and his wife, Jane, are happy to talk while they work in their candy factory on the third floor of their mansion in Old Louisville.
While Ron dips the balls, Jane packages the completed ones. She picks up each ball and carefully examines it before gingerly placing it in a box with either one, three, eight or 15 other balls. If a ball doesn't meet her standards she puts it in an "ugly ball" tray, reserved for friends and family.
The pretty treats get packaged in a box that says "got balls?" or a more subdued box that boasts "The Official Candy of Old Louisville."
The "official" status is based on the fact that, as far as the couple know, there are no other candy factories in Old Louisville. There aren't any like this one, where two former New York actors watch episodes of "Judge Judy," "Law & Order" spin-offs and "Bill Maher" on a flat-screen television while dipping, rolling and packaging bourbon balls in a Marilyn Monroe and James Dean themed kitchen.
The Happy Ball factory is a small production that started last March, just in time for Derby, and conducts quality control with the help of neighbors.
"I like to say we are the little company with the bigger balls," says Jane.
In front of her are dozens of little boxes filled with two balls for an order being shipped to Rhode Island.
"Sometimes I pick up a big order and I wonder is it going to a party, or just to two people alone," she says.
On the wall near the door are two Marilyn Monroe clocks and three James Dean license plates, reminders of the couple's former life as actors on the set of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" in New York.
Jane was a regular in the squad room on the popular television series, while Ron was a stand-in for the show's star, Vincent D'Onofrio. He would often work 12 to 15 hour days.
"It's so soothing," says Ron, stabbing another ball. "A much more soothing work environment than I had on the set."
Behind him, Aunt Happy smiles from a framed photograph.
It was Aunt Happy who started it all. Well, actually, it was the bus route Ron used to take into Louisville from his childhood home in Fairdale, Ky. Gazing out the window, Ron decided that one day he would live in a mansion in Old Louisville.
He went about it in a roundabout way. First he moved to Brooklyn, married Jane and acted. Then after 9/11 and its aftermath of fear and sadness, Ron, 52, and Jane, 62, sold their little house, purchased for $35,000 in 1980, for almost three-quarters of a million dollars and bought their three-story mansion in Old Louisville. Since May 2004, Louisville has been their home.
At first, they were just going to live a life of leisure, but their old home started demanding repairs, so they decided to go into the candy-making business.
Ron spent six months perfecting his bourbon balls -- using Knob Creek bourbon -- while Jane went about making sure their little business passed all the health codes.
She also made sure the alcohol in the recipe wasn't more than the law allows. Then she busied herself with packaging and marketing.
"I always have a two-pack (of Happy Balls) in my purse," says Jane. "I tip with it."
For the couple, candy-making wasn't that much of a stretch. Back in New York they would bring Happy Balls to the set during the holidays.
"In New York they forget you," says Ron. "If you go 'Here are some Happy Balls,' they remember you."
Hopefully when they are trying to cast a role.
Michael Espinosa, second assistant director on "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," remembers Ron and the Happy Balls well. He had been telling Ron to go into business making them for quite some time.
"I'm very happy to hear he finally did it," said Espinosa during a phone interview. "It's like watching Mrs. Fields before she became 'Mrs. Fields.' "
Before Ron left the show, a cast member gave him two bottles of bourbon. They were meant to be enjoyed on his porch; instead he used them to hone his craft and his first few batches of bourbon balls.
Aunt Happy, the woman whose recipe he perfected, and whose picture decorates select candy boxes, is also known as Gladys Shacklette, a 90-year-old retired school cook who lives at Twinbrook Nursing Home. She likes how Ron has tweaked her original recipe.
"They're better, because I didn't put half the nuts in them," she says.
Jas Smith, head of the gourmet food department at Liquor Barn The Ultimate Party Source in Beaumont Centre in Lexington, likes the bourbon balls too. Liquor Barn is one of a half-dozen stores in Louisville and Lexington carrying the candies.
"They use top ingredients," says Smith. "You can tell where others have cut corners and she (Jane) hasn't spared any expense."
Each month, the couple goes though about 40 pounds of pecans and two cases of bourbon. They keep 500 pounds of chocolate, which will last them three to six months, in storage.
By the time the chocolate is gone, Ron hopes to have come up with a mint julep bourbon ball, just in time for Derby. "
