Thirty Days of Thanks - Chocolate

I know...it's one of my sillier and simpler things to be thankful for.  But on a bad day, chocolate is second only to cuddles from my dogs in making me feel better.

If you're going to eat chocolate - eat the good chocolate!  Nothing against Hershey's, but it just can't compare to what you can find in Belgium, France, Germany or the UK.  Chocolate there is less sweet but vastly creamier.  It is amazing!

While I was in England, my last stop before getting on the plane was to the HUGE Cadbury section in Duty Free.  I know, I can get Cadbury in the US, right?  Wrong...kinda.  Technically, they use a similar recipe here, but it's made by Hershey's after they banned Cadbury's from importing directly to the US on their own. Now I have a little stash to get me through the next few months...then I have to go back to England to restock!

I Miss Lent in the UK

It's Lent folks. I was going to give up coffee for Lent... but I drove myself to Dunkin' Donuts yesterday and thus ended that little foray into being good.


Instead - I'm going to share with you something that I gain from Lent. For quite a while, I was lucky enough to enjoy February vacations to England every other year. My mom was a school teacher and quite the Anglophile (as am I). It kept us away from the crowds of Disney (Don't get me wrong - I looooove me some Disney!), travel to the UK is cheaper during the winter and it was still a break from the harsh winters of New England.

One of the biggest perks to being over in the UK during February is that you were either bumping up against lent, or lent had already started. While I'm not particularly religious - the English do tend to take church a bit more seriously than we do. Church over there is more fun. OK...maybe not; but the architecture and history make up for it.

The best part is that Lent meant my favorite candy. The Cadbury mini-eggs! Yes, they have Cadbury here, and they are still my favorite candy of all time. These days - Cadbury's USA division is run by Hershey's. That means that classic flavor of these little treats has changed. The color and shape of them are different, as is the crunchy coating. Which totally bums me out....

Laugh if you must - but I'll be looking online over the weekend to have some mini eggs shipped to me from Canada or England. Those branches haven't been sold off or had the recipe change! Feel free to make fun of me for posting on food and religion. :-) I even think I'm weird!

Do you have any favorite seasonal foods that are better/different in other parts of the country or world?

Chocolate Makes The World Go- Round

It's a bit weird... but chocolate has been at the center of many conversations this week.

My parents went to Texas to visit my dad's side of the family. As per family custom - you bring gifts back to half the world. What did dear mom and dad bring me? Chocolate covered pecans. TOTAL YUMMY-NESS! The can of them resides in my fridge, and I eat a few each night as a treat. (They also bought me a Coach contact lense holder! Who knew that Coach made them?!?!)

Every.single.meeting this week has had a bowl of chocolate at it - M&M's, Hershey Kisses, chocolate covered raisins... I've seen it all this week.

One of my "girls" has a fabulous husband. On Tuesday, her hubby sent an Edible Arrangement to work. Chocolate covered strawberries, pineapple and bananas. Everyone feasted on dark and white chocolate...and fruit. Ultimately, we were eating fruit - so it's a healthy snack, right?!

Wednesday we had a firedrill. What did we eat whilst ogling the firemen??? You guessed it - CHOCOLATE! Godiva truffles, baby!

Know that fab hubby mentioned above? Yep, about 2 hours ago another Edible Arrangement arrived. A bouquet of chocolate covered strawberries as a bribe to his wife to let him go to the basketball game tomorrow.

Did you notice that I skipped Thursday? I'm saving the best/weirdest for last. Yesterday was an obserational conversation on the joys of chocolate - which led us into "What food is best w/chocolate". I think by favorite is pretzels! Anyway... we got on this weird tangent of what do you think could be made "better" by adding chocolate. Someone mentioned bacon. (barf) So, I decided to Google it...and damn skippy - it exists. In fact, here an old blog entry I found with instructions! (http://karagitz.blogspot.com/2005/09/chocolate-covered-bacon_28.html)If you decide to be daring enough to try it; let me know. I'm curious!

I also found bacon and chocolate cupcakes. (http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com/2008/04/dark-chocolate-bacon-cupcakes.html)Weird.. but just enough that I think I might need to make them and see if anyone notices the bacon.

What do you think? Can just about everything be made better with chocolate?