Does Chocolate Make Things Better?

My dear readers, I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas!! I hope you ate loads of cookies and chocolate and other goodies. YAHOO!!

I was out today and actually purchased my first Valentine's Day candy. God help me. If you saw how much Christmas candy I still have you would drive me to the mental institution. I'm telling you - watch for me on an upcoming episode of Hoarders - the Crazy Candy Lady.

I have to show you these cookies just because they are my fav of the season and if there are any left you should buy them. Immediately.

Cute box. Cute cookies. If you like almond shortbread cookies - these are the best. Ever.

Are you still reading? Get in your car - go to Trader's Joe's! They can't last forever - go NOW! I'll still be here when you get back.

Today we have a serious issue to cover. Does chocolate make everything better?

I'm going to say, "YES!" and "no." Do you like how I made the no in lower case? It's a no, but a quiet no, a subtle no. This is Motivation by Chocolate, after all. Hang in there, munch on an almond snowman and watch my philosophy unfold.

In the case of gingerbread (yes, more gingerbread), the answer is HELL YES!!! Chocolate and gingerbread are a match made in heaven.

Bahlsen (www.bahlsen.com) (check out http://www.germandeli.com/bachco.html also) is a German company that makes some great, great gingerbread. These guys are cute:

You know me, I love all the different designs. But what really makes them good is:

Oh yeah, baby! The layer of dark chocolate on back. YUM!! Soft, cakey and spicy offset by the dark chocolate - these gingerbread men are my new boyfriends. I love them.

Now, I typically prefer men to boys, but in this case:

The white chocolate works too. By Nikki's Cookies, this guy was nice and moist and the white chocolate was a much thicker layer than the dark chocolate on the Bahlsen men. But he was great too - not as spicy as the German cookies, but still good. The chocolate seems to help keep the gingerbread moist. It's a kickin' combo.

These cookies started my love affair with gingerbread. They still rock my world. I have these stashed everywhere because I can only find them around Christmas so I bought like a million. They are in my pantry, my cookie jar, my cupboards, even my silverware drawer. They are everywhere. They are sooooo good!!!

I know - you think - whatever. Here's the deal - they are like cakey spice cookies. They have a wonderful fruity, spicy flavor that is so fabulous with the dark chocolate I can't even explain it. I can only find them in World Market and A Southern Season. And you may not be able to find any because I have bought them all. Bwah, ha, ha! Just call me Moriarty (yes, I saw Sherlock Holmes last night).

This is Harry & David's Gingerbread Cookie Boy "coated in chocolate flavor" (which means mockolate). But I don't care - he's really good too! I'm telling you, this gingerbread and chocolate thing is very, very beautiful. Gingerbread needs a little help and chocolate is just the thing. Although H & D's GBB is a little dry. The German's are kicking our butt on this I'm afraid.

Look at that cute smile! And that swirl of hair! Awwww!

These beauties were made exclusively for Williams-Sonoma by Two Hearts Bakery in San Francisco. They were insanely expensive - the box of eight was $25:

And you have about a week to eat them before the marshmallow starts to get hard and yucky. They "do not recommend refrigerating or freezing them." I read that as "Don't refrigerate or freeze." And they are not big:

With a winter Oreo

with the H & D Gingerbread Boy. Damn.

Now according to Williams-Sonoma, these Gingerbread Boy S'mores are well worth $3+ each. Listen to this:

"Two Hearts Bakery in San Francisco creates these "boys" for us by hand, one batch at a time. Their graham crackers are baked with a touch of wildflower honey and Saigon cinnamon, then dipped in a silky blend of Guittard couveture milk and dark chocolates and piped with vanilla icing buttons. Sandwiched in between is a fresh, hand-cut marshmallow flavored with Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon vanilla beans."

Well good God! Was Martha involved? Where are my maps? Did they drive these cookies through the Holy Land too? Where they blessed by the Pope?

Okay, I did notice that the chocolate on these babies was super delish. However, the wildflower honey, Saigon cinnamon, and those vanilla beans with four names went right by me. Didn't even notice. Liked the milk chocolate better than the dark. Glad I tried them, but you won't find them stashed in every nook and cranny of my kitchen. And I won't buy them again. A little too rich for me, both in taste and cost.

For $25 I can assemble an Archway army and go kick some Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon vanilla bean butt. Wow - first I decapitate Santa, now I'm assembling a gingerbread army. What will be next?

Here's the "no":

These are from Crate and Barrel - yep - they have Christmas Treats in their catalog. They are Rice Krispy treats covered in milk and white chocolate and sprinkles:

The white chocolate was the better of the two, but the chocolate didn't work here. Too much, too heavy. A drizzle of chocolate or chunks of chocolate are okay, but this was way too much. Rice Krispy treats are pretty damn good on their own. They don't need this much help from chocolate.

So sometimes, YES, chocolate makes things better. And sometimes, no, chocolate doesn't make things better. There is no single solution to every problem. What works for a vanilla bean may not work for a hazelnut. Some days even chocolate can't solve your problems. But as long as you know that things WILL get better, you'll be okay. Chocolate may not be able to solve all your problems, but you can. And if you don't think you can, call me - I'll bring my army.

A North Carolina Christmas

The Sorbet Sistahs and I just got back from a trip to Asheville, North Carolina. We wanted to check out the Gingerbread House Competition at the Grove Park Inn and the gorgeous Biltmore House.






Would you believe that the winning gingerbread houses were all in New York City for the filming of Thursday's Good Morning America? What a bummer!!!! But that's good news for you all if you want to see some amazing creations. Here are just a few:


This was one of my favorites because it was absolutely PACKED with candy - can you see all those gingerbread men and snowmen and a penguin? - it was out of control! Love it!

Thursday - 8:00am to 9:00am Good Morning America - check it out!!

Today we stopped by the Biltmore - it's so gorgeous with every room decorated for Christmas - an amazing feat. I've never seen it in the snow before - gorgeous. America's Largest Home - it's 4 acres INSIDE.

Snow on the gargoyles!

And a snowball fight on the front lawn:

Remember how I confessed to you all that I love gingerbread? I said those Little Debbie gingerbread men were crappy and that I loved Archway's gingerbread men? Well, someone from Archway contacted me and asked if they could send me some of their holiday cookies. I said YAHOO!!! They sent two types of gingerbread and this totally cute plate:

Isn't that sweet? But you know me, I can't review in a vacuum, so I got us some more gingerbread men to compare.

Let's start with Keebler - I mean elves should have it going on at Christmas, right?

Okay, not the most exciting design. Inside we get:

Okay - the sprinkles liven things up. But overall, these are lame. Cheap hard cookies that really don't taste that much like gingerbread. The elves must be focusing on toys.

Let's check out Pepperidge Farm. They have three entries:

The whole freakin' gingerbread family! Reminds me of those annoying stickers on the back of vans that have a stick figure representing each member of the family. Dad, Mom, kids, pets - why for God's sake? To do a quick check in case someone is missing? To tell everyone that you can indeed reproduce? Ah - I digress.

There is a nice idea on the back in case the gingerbread family can't pay their mortgage:

Although I think that might be a big waste of some mighty fine cookies - especially if you use Milanos for the shingles. Mmmmm.......Milanos.........

But look at how nicely these cookies are packaged:

Pepperidge Farms makes their cookies seem special even if they aren't. Sorry - not enough ginger, hard as rocks, and why are those kids attached to each other? I had a brother and we would have killed each other.

On closer inspection maybe they really are beating the hell out of each other.

But Pepperidge Farm isn't done:

I love the man - Ginger Man - like he's a superhero or something.

Okay, these taste like sugar cookies that someone waved ginger over. I can barely taste any ginger. Also hard as rocks. I like gingerbread cookies to have a little give to them, a little softness. And they should taste like ginger! Maybe they are just calling them ginger man because of the shape. Boo!!

How about Stauffer's (known mostly for animal crackers):

Okay - look at the cookies on the bag. Now look at the cookies here. What the hell happened? Is that a ginger ghost? They all look like this and they too taste like hard rocks. Crappy.

Now here's some cool packaging I found in World Market:

But it was hard as hell to get the cookies out of the tiny opening:

Good thing they too were as hard as rocks so there wasn't much breakage:

Made by Orbit Cookie out of Canada. Still pretty crummy, but at least had a better ginger taste. I like the train.

Okay, let's talk Archway:

These were not the Archway cookies that won my heart. At least these aren't as hard as rocks and they do have a ginger taste, but THESE are the money cookies:

Sprinkles, icing - soft cookies, really taste like gingerbread - oh yeah! These blow everything else completely out of the water. These ROCK!!!!!

I even compared then to cookies that cost almost ten times as much:

By Monaco Baking Company in the good ol' US of A - these were dry and the candy coating kind of yucky. They look gorgeous, but the taste didn't hold up.

And these from Williams - Sonoma:

These are usually really good, but this year they were kind of dry also. And for $22 dollars a pack - I kid you not - they should be the ones rocking. Good looks can't offset crummy taste.

Take aways?

Once again - looks don't mean everything, although we often get fooled by a pretty face or other attractive exteriors.

Try lots of things to figure out what YOU like. You might like the Ginger Man or you might love the Archway - but you won't know if you don't try them!!

Holiday adventures can't be beat! Biltmore is amazing at Christmas - and the snow turned out to be a great gift. And I'm so thankful I have my Sorbet Sistahs to have fun and adventures with! Get your friends out there - someone has to get the party train started!! Just make sure there is plenty of room for the cookies.