How do you say "I Love You"?

With Valentines Day having come and gone, I ask you how you said "I Love You" to that special someone. Many choose a romantic dinner, some a teddy bear, and still others choose the classic treat of a box of chocolates. Well, not all chocolate is made the same. For example, there are new ideas for chocolate that come from all over the world. One that interested me the most which I found thanks to Dr. Cohen comes from a Japanese idea.
First off, in Japanese culture, apparently, only the woman gives people chocolate. It's not even only for her love interest, instead, she must also provide candy for people like her boss, father-in-law and other people that she feels she has an obligation to. While this seems like a nice idea, is it really worth giving chocolate to everybody in one's life? Wouldn't that take away some of the significance of the gift of chocolate that one gives to their boy/girlfriend?

I have found this awesome website after I Googled chocolate one day that sells chocolate bars and gives a 10% net proceed to endangered species, the habitat and humanite. The website is www.chocolatebar.com and I encourage you all to take a look at it. It sells chocolate bars in flavors that will make your mouth water, such as Dark Chocolate with Esspresso Beans and Dark Chocolate with Deep Forest Mint and many other flavors for $2.79 per 3 ounce bar. Now, admittedly, the chocolate is a bit more expensive than your average Hershey bar, but they are all-natural and grown and traded ethically. The candy wrapper has artwork of one endangered species and there is information about the animal on the inside.
This company also makes organic bars and even do wedding favors. It is a good excuse to indulge in some chocolate when you know that you could be helping tigers, dolphins, gorillas and many other endangered animals.

Chocolate Fudge Scones

After finding this recipe, I could not resist sharing what looks like a delicious treat:

Chocolate Fudge Scones

Chocolate Fudge Dough:
4 cups bleached all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened alkalized cocoa powder
4 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup plus 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size chunks
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup plus 3 tablespoons heavy cream
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
About 1/3 cup crystallized sugar (or granulated sugar), for sprinkling on the tops of the unbaked scones

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F: Line 2 heavy cookie sheets or rimmed sheet pans with lengths of cooking parchment paper.
Mix the dough: Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, and granulated sugar into a large mixing bowl. Drop in the chunks of butter and, using a pastry blender or two round-bladed knives, cut the fat into the flour mixture until reduced to large pieces about the size of large pearls. Reduce the fat further to smaller flakes, using your fingertips. In a medium-size mixing bowl, whisk the eggs, vanilla extract, and heavy cream. Pour the egg mixture over the sifted ingredients, scatter the chocolate chips over, and stir to form a dough. Gather the dough into a rough mass. Knead the dough lightly in the bowl for 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Form the scones: Divide the dough in half. On a lightly floured work surface, pat or roll each piece into a disk about 7 inches in diameter. With a chef's knife, cut each disk into 5 wedges. As the scones are cut, press in any chips that may stick out of the sides. Transfer the scones to the prepared pans, placing them 3 inches apart. Assemble 5 scones on each pan. Sprinkle a little sugar on top of each scone.

Bake and cook the scones: Bake the scones in the pre-heated oven for 17 to 19 minutes, or until set. Begin checking the scones at 16 minutes. Transfer the pans to cooling racks. Let the scones stand on the pans for 1 minute, then carefully remove them to cooling racks, using a wide offset metal spatula. Cool completely. Serve the scones freshly baked.

Bake and serve within 1 day.

For Chocolate Fudge Chunk Scones, substitute 12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chunks, for the semisweet chocolate chips.
Makes 10 scones.

Reprinted by permission from ChocolateChocolate, by Lisa Yockelson. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Copyright © 2005 by Lisa Yockelson. All rights reserved

What's With All The Chocolate?

What are you doing this Valentine's Day? Yes I understand that it is a highly commercialized "holiday" and mature adults should realize this and frown upon all the teddy bears and sappy cards but lets face it...we all want to get a box of chocolates on February 14th. What makes us crave chocolate so much on this holiday. I've heard that giving flowers means "I'm sorry" and giving chocolate means "I love you" but is this really the reason for the increased chocolate sales in February? Maybe we eat so much of it because according to my bottle of Herbal Essences, eating chocolate gives the sensation of falling in love. And all we need is love, right? Well apparently, we need love to be inside a heart-shaped paper box with a pretty flower on it. But just how much chocolate are we buying and eating each Valentine's Day?
Ghiradelli, Mrs. Fields, Hershey, Dove, Lindt and countless other companies have offered their chocolates at your local neighborhood Walmart and people have been buying them. One can even go online and find even more, even a Hershey's basket that is filled with 365 miniature chocolates. Charging about $60 for this is just a little ridiculous. Why pay so much money for a product that is just supposed to show that you care?
The three most common gifts to give on Valentine's Day are flowers, chocolate and diamonds, so I'm not surprised that chocolate is seen in bulk everywhere towards the end of January and most of February. While diamonds may be a girl's best friend, chocolate tastes better and can be shared!!

Chocolate Com Pimenta

Sitting in the library recently, eating my lunch which consisted of a Grande White Chocolate Mocha and a cream cheese brownie from the Starbucks downstairs, I began thinking about why people started to mix foods, such as chocolate. It made me wonder who thought of mixing chocolate and coffee and calling it mocha and how it suddenly becomes a gourmet coffee drink after this. And what about the brownie? It was interesting that people would even attempt to put cheese on a dessert. The last thing I would think to put cream cheese on top of would be a brownie, many people would think that cream cheese only belongs on a bagel. I also thought of that Mastercard commercial that everybody has seen entitled "Restaurant". In this short commercial, a woman is eating a chocolate covered jalapeno pepper for dessert. It is about living in the moment and I would say that to try something like that would be pretty spontaneous. We have seen chocolate everywhere and as coatings and flavorings to some strange things. One chocolate-flavored item that I recently tried and have no intention of eating again is the chocolate Skittles. I had high hopes since I love the fruited variety, but upon opening that package which consisted of "vanilla" "chocolate pudding" "brownie batter" "s'mores" and "chocolate caramel" I was thoroughly disappointed. In this case, chocolate just should not be mixed with other flavors and textures, especially the chewy kind. But like the chocolate covered jalapeno, you do not know if you like something until you try it, so I suggest you try some new chocolate concoctions and maybe you'll like what you come up with.
**If you would like to see the commercial, visit www.priceless.com and look under Priceless TV for "Restaurant."**

Food of the Gods

Warning: This blog may cause you to crave chocolate, lots and lots of chocolate. Chocolate can be found in many forms, flavors and textures. One can find it being used as a topping, especially on ice cream; a filling, such as in my personal favorite, chocolate cream pie, and in a variety of other ways. This rich delicious treat has been both friend and foe to many people for centuries, even dating back to the Aztecs who used to make a hot chocolate-like product out of cacao beans for their warriors to help regain strength and is still used today as a snack and even an aphrodisiac. Going down the aisles of a supermarket, one can find chocolate or the misleading "chocolate flavor" anywhere, from powders, syrups, bars and chips to cereals, pie crusts and toppings on granola bars. Throughout this blog, there will be information pertaining to everything chocolate, from lip glosses, to sodas, to plain old chocolate bars, and there'll be some recipes thrown in on the way. ENJOY!!