On Adventure - Big and Small

I'm a big fan of adventures - of not letting your life get boring.  

This past weekend I had persimmon pudding for the first time.  Pretty good.  I went to the NC Persimmon Festival just to try it. 

I also visited two Walmart stores to find the new Gingerbread Oreos.  They are pretty darn good.  The cookie part is the golden (vanilla) Oreo, it's the filling that is gingerbread.  Yum!

Basically if I see something I haven't tried, I try it (well, if chocolate, sugar, peanut butter, cake or frosting are involved).  Why not?  What a great way to have a mini-adventure!  And you may not be a fan of sweets, so you can name your thing.  But it sure helps if it's inexpensive!

My next big adventure is not inexpensive, but it will be fun and will push me out of my comfort zone.  I've always wanted to go to Italy.  To stand in the Sistine Chapel and see all the glories of the Renaissance.  And who doesn't want to see the canals of Venice and the coliseum in Rome?  I've been putting the trip off, waiting until after the recession or until the European economy settled down.  I was also waiting until I met Mr. Right.  Well, I've met Mr. Right, and he just started a new job and can't go!  If you wait to live your life, you'll never live it.  

I'm headed to Venice on November 15th.  Recession still here, Europe far from settled down, and going solo.  I'm going with a tour group, so I'll make new friends.  The recession might hang around for a long time to come, and who knows when Europe will get it together.  Meanwhile the great wonders of history are eroding.  There is no better time to go than now.

Is there something you've always wanted to do?  What are YOU waiting for?  There will never be a perfect time or a perfect situation.  The only time you are guaranteed is now. You'll never be any younger.  Your life is now - live it!

Hell Has Frozen Over

Those of you who have followed my dating travails (endless match.com dates, speed dating, horrifying singles events, etc.) are going to be shocked. After 13 years of seeking, I have finally found the ever-elusive good guy who is not a geek, boring or gay. This guy (Tim) rides a Harley, has a good job, is great with his kids (and sweet to his mom), is tall, handsome, smart, loves candy, and most importantly, likes me! We have a blast together and that is why I have been completely off the grid since my last post.

This is us at the Renaissance Faire (with his cute son Brett - good looks run in the family, he has a lovely daughter too):

But I have not been off the sugar train.  Tim was with me when I saw an add for Krispy Kreme's snowman donuts and I said how much I wanted to try them.  I think I licked the picture.  I knew he was the man for me when several days later, out of the blue, he suggested we go by Krispy Kreme and get the snowman donuts.  Clearly he is my soul mate.

And these donuts are amazing - no filling, but sooooo good with the frosting.  Can anything really be better than a warm, frosted, glazed donut on a cold morning?  And how cute are they?

These didn't last long.  But any man who shares my love of lard and sugar is a keeper!

Remember the Grove Park Inn's national gingerbread competition from last year?  Well this year I took Tim (another bonus, a man who will go to a gingerbread house competition).  He is the best!

Here's the first prize ribbon:

And here's the first prize gingerbread creation:

Gorgeous Christmas nesting dolls made out of gingerbread.  So perfect!  There were plenty more fantastic creations - a rocking horse that looked as if it were made out of wood, not gingerbread; several amazingly detailed houses - so much fun!  And we got to drink hot chocolate, eat gingerbread and watch it snow.  Finally a romantic Christmas!!  Usually I'm off on a solo trip somewhere - it's so much better to have someone to celebrate the season with.

I don't want to be one of those sappy people who go on and on about their good fortune, but I do want to share some tips for those of you who may not yet have the relationship you dream of:

1.) Don't give up.  I've been single since my divorce 13 years ago.  I've been on more bad dates than anyone should have to endure.  But every single one of them was worth it - they make me really appreciate the man I've finally found.  And all that BS about stop looking and then it will happen?  Well, if I had taken my match.com profile down, we would have never found each other.  Keep doing something!  The UPS person is not your only option!

2.) Don't settle.  You'll meet plenty of people who just don't want to be alone.  They just want to be with someone, anyone.  You don't want that - you want to hold out for the one who wants to be with you.  Someone who loves you with all your crazy quirks - hell, someone who loves you because of all your crazy quirks.

3.) When it's right, you'll know it.  There's no drama.  There's trust and openness, and in this case, a whole lot of laughter.  Angst, worry, doubt - those are all signals that it's not right.  It was weird, but the feeling I had on our first date was that I had come home.

4.) Being alone is better than being with the wrong person.  I've been with the wrong person, with several wrong people and it's awful.  Broken promises, lack of trust, no real talk of the future, secrets, lies - all of it makes you feel bad, makes you doubt yourself.  A good relationship makes you feel better about yourself.  You feel like you're part of a team.  It's full of openness and light. You can be lonelier with the wrong person than you will ever be by yourself.  If you can learn to walk alone, you can hold out for all the love you deserve.

5.) The Universe doesn't work on our time table.  Thirteen years was a long, long time to me.  I went through my mother's death alone, I went through hip surgery with no one to hold my hand.  There were so many times when I would be the only one at a function without a date.  Just because you want something doesn't mean you'll get it when you want it.  Try hard, treat others as you would like to be treated, and keep holding your hand out.  Someday the right person will take it.

6.) Choose your associates wisely.  The people you let share your life will have a huge impact on it, for better or worse.  Don't be afraid to walk away from those who cause you pain.  You'll free up time and space for those who can bring you joy.

A Poxie on Choxie

Hang in there, gang! We are almost done with all the holiday chocolate!

I've got some more Choxie we need to review. The first is a three pack of holiday bars:

This one is a milk chocolate creme brulee truffle bar:

Wow - this is a pretty good, albeit RICH bar. It is "caramel and vanilla infused white chocolate truffle with a touch of toffee, blanketed with milk chocolate." It's the toffee that makes it so good - I wasn't expecting it. It mimics the carmelization on the top of a real creme brulee. I am shocked and astonished and thrilled. VERY sweet and rich, but a good bar.

Of all the Choxie gingerbread offerings, this one is the best. It's a milk chocolate gingerbread truffle bar. It has some gingerbread cookie pieces in in, but they are relatively small (unlike those horrible bits). But this is nothing to run out and buy. Nothing great.

The hazelnut bar had a lot of bloom on it, looking pretty crappy I must say:

This is the milk chocolate hazelnut biscotti truffle bar. The description reads: "satiny milk chocolate yields to reveal a duet of tastes and textures, with pieces of crisp almond biscotti and hazelnuts throughout." Oh la, la! After seeing that bloom, I was skeptical. But damn, this was the best one! I love nuts, so the hazelnut flavor was a big hit with me. I thought the biscotti might make it too dry, but no - delish! I am shocked!!

But I will not remain so for long:

These are dessert truffle meltaways and the assortment is pretty even:

You know how I hate it when you get ten of one flavor and three of another.

The first one is apple pie:

I think apple pie is one of those flavors that doesn't need to be a chocolate. This did taste like apple pie, but was such a poor rendition of apple pie that it's not worth it. Maybe if the center was creamier? I don't know - let's just say one of these was enough to last me the rest of my life. And I like apple pie. But not these.

Pumpkin Pie:

Yucko - all I can taste is a weird spice - no pumpkin. Gross. And I love pumpkin. Evil.

Dark chocolate mousse:

This wasn't too bad - had a good rich dark chocolate taste. But it isn't the best dark chocolate in the Universe. And everything else in the assortment is horrifying.

Gingerbread:

What happened? The bar was good! This is horrible! It doesn't taste like gingerbread and has a weird aftertaste.

All I can say about this box is YUCK.

So far, all I can endorse are the bars. The rest of this stuff is pretty terrible. This is the last of the Choxie holiday stuff - the "Slice of the Holidays" truffle collection:

More pie. I'm scared. First up is milk chocolate pumpkin pie:

Huh? I can't taste any pumpkin. The outer truffle shell is pretty thick and these also have more chocolate in the center of the truffle. Unusual - something about their production. Boo!!


This is dark chocolate cherry pie:

Tastes a little like cherry, but nothing great. Again, maybe too much chocolate? See the lines of chocolate through the filling?


Key lime pie:

This was very not good. I'm not sure I'm the best one to judge because I don't really like key lime, but it tasted kind of fake - kind of chemically. Ew.

White chocolate banana creme pie:

Ugh - same for banana. These are really just not good. The chocolate isn't very smooth and the flavors seem off - not authentic.


Apple pie:

Again, awful. Chemical? Weird spice? Makes me want to taste an apple. Creepy.


Pecan pie:

Glaaack. These are all bad, bad, bad.

Here's what I think about Choxie to date:

Very cool boxes and the chocolate is great to look at. They have some awesome designs.

The bars are good - we'll try some more.

The other stuff - truffles, etc. - is really bad. And this stuff isn't really cheap (a la Palmer), so it should taste a little better.

Thoughts:

Just because it can be chocolate, doesn't mean it should be chocolate. Apple pie ROCKS. Apple pie chocolates are the spawn of Satan.

Another example - Quaker just made a creme brulee rice cake. Would you like to ponder that for a moment? I'd go so far as to say the exact culinary opposite of creme brulee is the rice cake. No good can come of this.

Fancy packages do not mean good content. Over and over we learn this. I'm going to start wearing burlap.

Two rights can make a wrong. Apple pie = right. Chocolate = right. Apple pie + chocolate = wrong. Very wrong.

Two rights can make an even better right. Chocolate = right. Peanut butter = right. Chocolate + Peanut butter = yahoo!!!!

Food math is confusing. I need a Reese's.

Eggnog, Pecan Pie, and Gingerbread

Well I've been regaling you with reviews of cheapie chocolate, how about some of the fancier brands? Both Ghirardelli and Godiva did some special seasonal flavors.

Let me just say - WOW! This has a great flavor with that smooth Ghirardelli chocolate. This is more than just chocolate with some pecans tossed in - it smells great, just like real pecan pie and has that special pecan pie taste. I think the pecans are carmelized. Very, very good. and I live in the land of pecan pie, so I should know.

They also did eggnog:

Okay, I don't like this. I like the fact that I can taste the cinnamon, but I don't like this one. Now, I'm not a big eggnog person, so if you like eggnog, you might like it.

Godiva did eggnog (boo!) and gingerbread (yay!):

The dark chocolate one is the eggnog. and yep, I don't like it. Too eggy. I liked the cinnamon taste of the Ghirardelli, which I didn't taste here. But I did like the dark chocolate. The perfect one in my mind would combine dark chocolate and cinnamon with the eggnog. Wait, the perfect one in my mind wouldn't have any eggnog. Yuck.

The gingerbread is much more up my alley:

I actually like this one. The gingerbread taste is fairly subtle. It's good. Is it better than chocolate covered gingerbread? Not in my book? I am standing by my assessement that Godiva is overpriced. $2.25 a truffle? Please! I can get a whole bunch of Archway gingerbread men for that. And they are better!!

Two more gingerbread concoctions - the first from Crate and Barrel. is gingerbread caramels:

I had high hopes for these. I love gingerbread and love carmel. And when I first starting eating one, I thought it was great. BUT over time the spices really came out and were overpowering, leaving a terrible aftertaste. So disappointing! And so NOT good. ARGH! Not cheap and now I have a whole tin full of awful caramels. Don't get these, even if they are half price.

These are by Choxie, Target's chocolate. I haven't tried Choxie yet, so we're going to see more of them. They are not off to a good start:

The box reads: "the home-baked crunch of warmly-spiced gingerbread pieces, dipped in sweet white chocolate swirled with dark." The box lies.


These are spitters. Yep, they are so bad you have to spit them out. They have a weird salty taste that makes me wonder what really is in the middle of them - it sure doesn't taste like "warmly-spiced gingerbread". It's bad. this doesn't bode well for Choxie.

Just because a flavor is good, doesn't mean it needs to be a chocolate (or a caramel or a jelly bean or a martini.) Stop the madness!

Some Chocolate is Too Horrible to Live

Welcome back to work after a long holiday break! For those of you who are finding it hard to get back into the swing of things, I have just the ticket:

http://www.chocolateweapons.com

How'd you like to use one of those on your boss or an annoying co-worker? How cool would it be to pull out that gun and them take a big bite out of it? I'm thinking of building my own arsenal. Thanks to my brother, Russ for sending the link. THAT'S the kind of chocolate I want for Valentine's Day! (And given my relationship history, it's the most appropriate.)

I also have it set up so you can buy my awesome, cool, inspiring book, Do You Burn, online. There's a link on my website http://www.firestarspeaking.com/.

Now on to the great holiday chocolate massacre!

I have found Palmer chocolate that I like. I like Reese's. I like M & M's. I am no chocolate snob. But some chocolate is so bad, it really should not exist. I found this box in Walgreen's. And at first glance, it seemed to have good potential:

There were dark and milk chocolate pine cones. Nicely molded, festive:

These little guys were also festive - the snowflake is raspberry, the red and green one is peppermint and the other is dark chocolate:

This was a gingerbread truffle:

This is a peppermint truffle:

This is a dark chocolate truffle and an autopsied salted caramel truffle:

Can I just say, "GLAACK!"? These were terrible! So terrible I couldn't even identify the salted caramel by taste. It just tasted like bad chocolate with a vague bit if salt. The chocolate was yucky - not at all smooth - waxy - must be mockolate. If it's not, it should be. These are produced under the Hazelwood Gourmet label by Riviera Brands. Danger! Danger! Don't waste your money!! I got some of these after Valentine's Day last year (at half price) and I obviously forget how God awful they were. Boo!!!

I also bought these crazy things also by Hazelwood:

Now I had no idea what to expect when I bit one of these. For some reason I thought they might be hard, like a lollipop. But they are the creepy chocolate truffles from the box (a little bigger maybe) on a stick. The red and green sprinkled one is gingerbread - so they say. It sure didn't taste like gingerbread to me. More like some weird spice. Gross.

This one was really pretty - I like the bronze metallic over the chocolate. This was a giant dark chocolate truffle on a stick. Not as heinous as the "gingerbread" but nothing great. Definitely not worth the calories. Although I do give them points for trying something different. I don't think it works - the hard outer shell pretty much just crumbles. But hey - it was different.

Note to self - truffles don't need to be on a stick. Second note to self - stop buying this crappy chocolate.

I also found this at Walgreen's:

It looks like there is a lot more in the package than there really is:

Not very green! Someone call the EPA!

But it turns out that's a good thing:

Because this is awful. Rock hard waxy slabs of chocolate with some crumbs of something they say is gingerbread. Ewww! This was truly awful. From Harry London. That bastard.

Now you know if I'm talking about bad chocolate, I'm going to have to talk about Russell Stover. I keep giving them a chance and they keep sucking. I am done with them, I swear! (How many times have I said that? and I just keep going back. Apparently Russell Stover is my Charlie Sheen.)

I hadn't tried a maple cream Santa (and I like maple):

Ah - the Russell Stover artistry! Look at that Santa! I think that looks more like the baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes than a Santa. Zero points for artistic skill.

How does it taste? Slightly mapley. The filling is more fluffy than creamy. Not horrible, but not anything I would buy again. The chocolate did better than usual (i.e. not all crumbly and cracking off) and seems a little less waxy. But maybe that's just because the other ones I've reviewed today have been so, so, so bad.

At the beginning of the holiday season, someone commented that the RS wreath was not as good this year as it has been. Their coconut wreaths were one of the only things I liked in the line. They were reworked for each holiday, but they had great shredded coconut and were good!

But I think our reader was absolutely right! Look at the difference between last year's wreath:

And this year's wreath:

Russell Stover, you suck!!!! This is so lame compared to the old version! You can barely taste the coconut!! The one thing I liked, you ruined! I hate you!

Where's a chocolate anti-aircraft gun when I need one?

So what do we learn from this?

That apparently I am one step away from entering the mental ward. But besides that...

Believe chocolate when it shows you how it tastes the first time. How many times have I purchased Russell Stover and how many times have I been disappointed? (I am completely ripping off the saying that you should believe people when they show you who they are the first time.) Someone who will lie to you once, will lie you to again. (If Charlie Sheen tried to kill you once, he's gonna beat on you again.)

There is a place for bad chocolate. It makes us appreciate good chocolate! People who treat you badly make you value people who treat you well. Bad times make you appreciate good times. Cold weather makes you appreciate warm weather. (That's for those of you freezing right now.)

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me! Okay, if I buy Hazelwood or Russell Stover again, I only have myself to blame. What mistakes might you be repeating? And are you blaming the right person?

Here's to making NEW mistakes in 2010! And learning from the old ones.

And carrying a loaded chocolate handgun.