Giving Chocolate Thanks

Things are still going well on the dating front - I know this is so not as juicy as all my disaster stories! But have faith, dear readers, either one of two things will happen - things will work out well enough that I can tell funny stories about my relationship with this man (we just can't scare him off yet) or the whole thing will go up in flames and I'll be back out there. Oh God. Let's light a candle at the Church of Chocolate and hope that doesn't happen again. At least not for a while. Hell, while we're at it, let's munch on a communion wafer or two. Maybe start some holy fondue.

Let's examine the Seven Suggestions in a little more depth.

If you'll remember, Suggestion One is about gratitude.

One of the best things to do when you feel blue is be grateful for what you do have. Actually this is one of the best things you can do anytime, but it's especially effective as a pick-me-up (or a pick-you-up...you know what I mean!). Everybody has those days when they feel a little low. Usually what you do is obsesses over what you feel you're lacking - a job, love, a great body - whatever the heck is it that day. This does no good and just makes you feel worse. Then you progress to comparing yourself to everyone else who seems to have those things - and you are off to the pity party! This spiral takes you away from chocolate heaven and down to emotional hell.

So I hope you'll join me in expressing a little gratitude.


The awesome Diane Fain-Worthen (she of the gorgeous red scarf and the Vann's Chocolates) hooked me up again! Diane, I don't know how you knew I would need this, but you did! Diane sent a box with some delicious home made cookies (which I devoured before I even thought about taking a picture of them - cookies have that effect on me), and this cute magnet and the best smelling lip gloss EVER! The flavor is chocolate dipped strawberry. And it's sexy too! (Now that I have someone to share this with, I'm pretty excited!)

How sweet was that of Diane to think of me? Diane, you're the best!!!! (And there is SO a place in Chocolate Heaven for you!)

And last week I spoke for the Mid Day Professionals Chapter of the ABWA (American Business Women's Association). Now these women have been great fans and friends since I started FireStar and they have set me up with speaking engagements many, many times. I don't think I can ever thank them enough. Toby Page sent me those great Seattle Chocolates (blogged about earlier) and this time she brought me some Wilbur Buds:

Cool box! I've reviewed Wilbur Buds before, but how sweet is Toby?? She also is the cutest human alive.

At this same meeting, Gwen Taylor showed up with two boxes from Mama Laura's Chocolates. The website is http://www.mamalauras.com/.

I have three words for these chocolates - OH MY GOD! The caramel (upper left) was so smooth and creamy and gooey, it should be outlawed. The others are truffles and are filled with the smoothest, creamiest dark and milk chocolate ganache you can imagine. And the second box had turtles which I'll blog about next. (They are so good, they would be considered a sin in several religions, but not ours!!! I actually think our first Saint may indeed be St. Mama Laura).

I just want to give thanks for such great friends. None of them had to go out of their way to do these things. They just have hearts of gold. They didn't even know I was making myself a Priestess when they gave me these gifts, so they weren't trying to buy their way into Chocolate Heaven. But, hey, wait - three wise women bearing gifts.....OMG - it's our first chocolate miracle!!

May the chocolate be with you.

What Could be Better than Chocolate Kisses?

One of my fondest memories of the Chocolate Spa at Hershey is of women stuffing the pockets of their fluffy white robes with Hershey's Kisses. There were bowls filled with them everywhere. I sat by one and just could not stop unwrapping and eating Kisses! It was like a beautiful dream....

Hershey's makes over 80 million Kisses EACH DAY! I'm not sure I can get my brain around that. But I am glad to know it's happening! Go Hershey, go!

I recently tried three new (at least to me) Kiss flavors - raspberry special dark, marshmallow filled, and pumpkin spice (the Halloween adventure continues!). All of these were good. Raspberry doesn't have a filling, it's just a nice flavor added to the Special Dark Kisses. Not too strong on the raspberry - subtle, very well done. Marshmallow was good too. The problem for me is just that I only want one or two of these, and then I'm done. This could be a good thing!! I recommend these, especially if you like raspberry and/or marshmallow.

But let's talk about the Pumpkin Spice Kisses:

The first thing you'll notice is the scary orange color. I was shocked when I unwrapped the first Kiss. But, if you like pumpkin, you'll get over that fast. These are AMAZING!!! I love them!!! I am biased because I adore pumpkin. But I must be honest - there is nothing chocolate about these. They are more like white chocolate or maybe orange white chocolate. All I know is, so far, these are my favorite new Halloween candy. (All they have to compete with at this point is Chocolate Candy Corn, but they are WAY out in front.) I say, get some as soon as you can - they ROCK!!! And they won't be around forever!

Since I was on a Kiss roll, I decided to revisit the Wilbur Bud. Wilbur Chocolates claims Hershey stole the idea for the Kiss from the Bud. Whatever.

Okay, the Buds are kind of the same shape, a little smaller than the Kisses. They have Wilbur and a spiral design on the bottom. They are lame. I was unimpressed by all the candy from Wilbur. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't especially good. I've never thought of chocolate as bland before, but most of their candy was bland.

The Lesson of the Kisses? I think Hershey knows what we love about Kisses - it's the shape. We love it and the size is perfect. Flavor experimentation is great here - it's a celebration of the shape. And I love the different color foil wrappers and the little white paper label popping out the top of the Kiss. The packaging makes each Kiss special (just like real kisses!). Remember - be the best YOU you can be.

Sorry, Wilbur, Buds just aren't Kisses. But they might be sour grapes!