The Chocolate Contest Continues!!!

Okay Gang - post those stories or recipes or whatevah!  The big Chocolate Week contest ends on Sunday at midnight!!!  I got my bag from the National Confectioners Association today and it is cool!!!

It has a great tag from the mysterious and all powerful Chocolate Council:

Looks like a bag of cacao beans:

And here are all the goodies - you could win!!!!  Come on - your odds are really, really good!

I've never seen these adorable mini Green & Black's bars:

This one was toffee and was so so delicious:

Now, remember, the actual contents may vary - but what the heck - it's free and it's chocolate!  Life is good!  Post an entry and you could be opening a great goodie bag like this one!

And don't forget to check out http://www.thestoryofchocolate.com/.  Here's a tidbit from the site:

There is no scientific evidence, however, that chocolate is addictive. Instead, people who desire chocolate likely do because of its sensory properties, its melting sensations and intense taste. Its aroma and flavors are highly complex. More than 500 compounds responsible for aromas have been found in roasted cocoa beans, and chocolate has more 1,500 flavor compounds—three times the number found in wine.

So see?  We are not addicted to chocolate, we simply love the way it tastes.  And clearly, it is more complex than wine, which makes us even cooler than those snobby wine people.  Chocolate lovers of the world - arise!!!!!

Candy Corn Gone Wild

Halloween is fast approaching!!  And I have to say that, compared to last year, this year's Halloween candy is lame.  Thank God Just Born offered something new with their chocolate covered Peeps pumpkins.  The rest of the crew just served up the same old boring stuff.  I couldn't even find the mini Reese's peanut butter pumpkins this year.  Hershey, hast thou forsaken me?

Target, however, has a line of candy corn in flavors including green apple, strawberry and loads of others.  I picked a couple to try.  Pumpkin Pie:

These taste just like candy corn with a hint of pumpkin.  Not enough pumpkin as far as I'm concerned.  If you like candy corn, I think you'll like these.  If you're looking for pumpkin pie, look somewhere else.

Now this is a good idea - chocolate covered candy corn:

I like the way it looks better than the way it tastes.  Although chocolate covered candy corn is better than naked candy corn, it's too sweet for me.  But a great idea!

I thought I'd also try chocolate covered toffee candy corn:

YIKES!  This was just terrible.  I like toffee, but definitely not toffee candy corn.  Remember our old adage - just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean you SHOULD do it.  This was really terrible.  Yipes!

Whoa - look at this crazy marshmallow candy corn from Whitman's:

I have to admit - it's festive as hell. 

And, shockingly - it's pretty good!  Now - you have to consider that it's just marshmallow covered in a sugary candy shell, but the marshmallow was really creamy.  I am now diabetic.

These are some weird things I found in World Market - they are made in Ireland:

This might be one of the weirdest candies ever.  They have a really strange "tutti frutti" smell - so I was kind of scared of them.  But they were oddly good.  Weird green candy eyeballs from Ireland - what more could you want for Halloween?
Yahoo!!!!  The holidays are beginning!  Are you having fun?

Chicago Chocolate Tour continued

Whew! I got up this am and went to Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House - more on that later. It's another gorgeous day in Chicago - albeit a little chillier than yesterday. But the sun is shining and it is spectacular.

I do have to share with you the key they gave me at check-in:

And this was left in my room today:

Ha, ha, ha! I love Candy Expo already!!

Okay - back to the Chocolate Tour! After More Cupcakes, we went to my favorite place on the tour - Sarah's Pastries and Candies (http://www.sarahscandies.com/):

Sarah Levy is the second Saint in the Church of Chocolate (that would be my C of C - I can't speak for those other C of Cer's - they'll have to find their own Saints). Sarah is in her 20's and is selling her candies and pastries to Macy's! She has it together - and her stuff ROCKS!!! She also is incredibly nice and amazingly humble. She has great energy and enthusiasm and I know if any of you met her you would like her. I wish I lived in ChiTown so I could eat her chocolate all the time and hang out with her!

I love the quote she has on the back of her business card:

"What you see before you, my friend, is the result of a lifetime of chocolate." Katherine Hepburn

See how cool Sarah is?

She gave us samples of her chocolate delight: A delicious blend of milk chocolate, caramelized almonds, roasted pistachios and crispy rice. Can I just say "YUM!?" And her to die for brownies. The samples were so great, I had to buy a t-shirt, a box of chocolates, two cookies, and several more goodies. I say if you're going to go, go big!

Today I had her peanut butter square:

My only regret is that I didn't buy 4 or 5 hundred. These things are amazing. I don't know what the heck is in them, but there is something light and crunchy. Maybe some of that crispy rice? But they are also very peanut buttery. It's the perfect balance, because they are awesome, but not too heavy like most slabs of peanut butter would be. Ah.....

Then I tried her chocolate-almond toffee:

Also delicious. Sarah told me what she does differently is mix almonds in with the toffee as well as rolling the chocolate coated toffee in almonds. It really is fantastic. See why she is a C of C Saint? Sarah's confections are fantastic!!!!

As I try the rest of her stuff, I'll post more reviews.

From there we went to Lindt:

I love Lindt. I think their chocolate is smooth and creamy and fabulous. I love the way their stores are decorated (no fake flowers, lots of dark wood and shiny wrappers - love it!). Their sales people are nice and helpful. They have a frequent buyers program. I bought several things here which I will review in upcoming blogs. They gave us samples of their awesome white chocolate truffle with dark bits and a dark salted bar. Both delicious. Yay Lindt. (Boo teuscher again. Maybe I can start a Swiss war! Although that's not very C of C of me. But then again, there were all those Holy Wars.....hmmm....)

Crusades, anyone?

From there we went to Frango:

Now Frango used to be Marshall Field's signature candy, but Marshall Field's has been bought by Macy's. Frango is blobbed in with a lot of other chocolate brands here in Macy's candy department. And the Frango employees were completely lame. They gave us samples but acted like it was killing them. Actually one of the girls was okay but the other one was awful. I overheard her ask if she could go on break now. (Hello - how often does a chocolate tour come through, slack girl? Will working 15 more minutes kill you? I guess rolling your eyes and sighing IS pretty tiring.)

They gave us a sample of their famous mint and a new sea salt caramel:

Note the sea side box? Cute. I did buy a box of these because I am a sucker for the salt/caramel combo and these were pretty good. Not Chocolate Fetish good, but better than average. Frango also had some new flavors I would have liked to try - cherry almond, pomegranate pistachio - but I didn't want to buy a whole box. And it wasn't like Break Girl was helping me. Not many options, horrible customer service - look for Frango to disappear into candy history.

Our final stop was Argo Tea. Now, as usual, I was being judgemental and thinking this was a gyp. I didn't want tea, I wanted chocolate. And when we walked past Hershey and Ghirardelli stores to get there, I was even less happy. But, as usual, I was wrong. When will I learn to keep an open mind?

Here we sampled a double chocolate muffin (okay) and chocolate chai tea (fabulous). And doesn't this guy look like someone who should serve you chocolate chai tea?:

Ooops - there goes that judgemental thing!

The tour ended here and I, of course, headed straight to Hershey. The adventure picks up there tomorrow!! Big thanks to Valerie Beck and Heidi Holladay of Chicago Chocolate Tours for a great adventure!

Round and Round We Go

This has been a challenging week on the dating front. (A fantastic week on the business front, however, just so you know I'm not a total loser.)

I met a man in the real world - i.e. not on match.com. He seemed okay, not scared by the big personality. He seemed to have quite a big personality himself. We talked for a while and he asked me to dinner - all good. But, since I am trying to learn from my mistakes, I asked how long he had been divorced. (This apparently is the money question!) Aw, shucks, dear readers, guess what? Not divorced. Separated.

Let's recap - the Afghanistan Affair resulted in me waiting for nine months for a recently DIVORCED man who upon his return decided he needed to date more. Well, after that, there's no way in hell I'm going to start dating people who aren't even divorced yet. I don't want to be the transition person (or whatever I was) again! I say - get your party on! Play the field! Go wild! Don't bother me until there's at least a remote chance of an actual relationship.

So I tell this guy - oh - sorry - I only date the divorced. He didn't want to give up at first - called me twice, sent e-mail, but I did not give in. I know the only person who's got my six is me. I gave my heart away too easily last time - I will not do it again.

Tonight I went out with a man who is successful, handsome, and you would think, a good catch. Only problem is that when he talks, he is engaged. When I talk, he immediately checks out. Since I blather about myself endlessly in this blog, you all probably think I do the same thing on dates. Not so. How else do you think I find out about things like restraining orders? I listen.

If there is a chance to share something about myself, if I like the guy, I will. Tonight we were talking about travel. When he talked about his travel - I listened and asked questions. (For example I know how much his boat cost, how he decided to buy it, if it was hard to learn to drive, and many other details.) I mentioned that the last big trip I took was to Australia. He leaned forward and looked at the clock across the restaurant. I stopped talking. That's all he knows about my travel. This makes me sad. I would really like to meet someone who would like to know who I am. Sigh. This blog is now my diary. Just call me Bridget Jones.

After dinner we took a salsa lesson. I learned something. You should never take dance lessons with someone you are not into. You have to touch them. It is creepy.

And depressing. I left thinking how awesome it would have been to take that dance lesson with a man I was into. Another deep sigh.

Okay - so let's look on the bright side. I am not getting involved with someone who is actually still married and I have some new hot dance moves. (At this rate, I'll have a relationship about the same time we pay off the federal deficit.)

Thank GOD there is chocolate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

These are rounds from The Chocolate Fetish. Many chocolatiers do chocolate bark - this is Fetish's version. I like the concept here - not as thick as bark or a bar, these are nice and thin. But I wasn't as blown away by them as I expected to be. They are about the size of a large saucer.

This one looks gorgeous - it is peanut butter swirl:

My comment won't surprise you - not peanut buttery enough for me. WAY too subtle. It looks fabulous and like it would really taste peanut buttery, but the swirl is very thin resting on a thick base of chocolate. : ( Sad face, very sad face. Not creepy like the dancing, however.

This one looked great also - it's Rocky Road with milk chocolate:

Nuts, marshmallow, rice crisps - sounds great. I say - eh. Not as amazing as it looks. I'm not sure what I think it needed. Marshmallow and rice crisps are kind of bland. This just didn't rock my world. Not bad at all. But I like Baby Ruth bars better if that tells you anything. Now this chocolate blows the "chocolate" on a Baby Ruth away, but as a total confection? ZZZZZ Boring! (Apparently like my conversation.)

Now look at this! Like a work of art! Look at that thin drizzle! The mix of textures - like lacework over the cashews!

And I adore cashews - I thought this would be delish! But the chocolate overpowered the nuts. And there is some type of caramelized stuff on the cashews. Again - not as good as I had hoped. Maybe if the divorce papers were signed.......

Now this one was my favorite:

An outstanding dark chocolate - the word lovely comes to mind again. It's just so smooth and not bitter - it's quite amazing, really. And those giant lumps are toffee - like in Heath Bars (which I adore) but better. More buttery. THIS did live up to my expectations and was fantastic. I guess I like my men like I like my chocolate - tall, dark, a little rugged, but with a sweet side. And okay with the idea that I might not want to share them.

I Want Candy!

My personal life may be a disaster, but my professional life ROCKS!!! I had a great time in Florida with my friends at Republic Finance. We read all this negative press about corporate executives, but the leaders at this company are fantastic people who really care about their employees. They are energized by what they do and a joy to work with. (And they love me too!! )

After my recent relationship debacle, I can use a little love. Thanks, Republic Finance!

Speaking of love, when I got back from Florida, there was a box on my doorstep from Sweet Services. A big box. A big box containing 5 pounds of candy! Wheee!!! Who needs a relationship with a man when I can have a relationship with candy?


It's hard to show you how much candy 5 lbs. really is:

I put a pen in the upper right to try and give this some scale. The bag was bigger than your head. Much bigger. Almost two heads. It was loaded with cinnamon and butterscotch discs, Smarties, Charms Blow Pops, Andes Mints, lollipops, and these really good toffee chews.





Picture and description from the Sweet Services Website:

Primrose Asst. Toffee Description
Who can resist soft chewy Toffee! These candies are available in 5 YUMMY flavors: Vanilla, Raspberry, Chocolate, Buttered Rum, and Maple. Candies are individually wrapped in bright foil wrappers. These are sold in bulk.

These were like high speed Tootsie Rolls. I REALLY liked the raspberry ones - delicious!! I've never had these toffees before, but they were rally good.

Sweet Services has a TON of candy, but they sell in bulk - so they are the go to people when you need a LOT of candy:

http://www.sweetservices.com/index.cfm

And don't we all really need a LOT of candy?