Gorgeous Chocolate and Its Lessons

You might have noticed the new pic on the blog.  I'm so proud that one of mine turned out so well.  Of course - the subject matter is simply beautiful and sooo festive! They are from the Chocolate Bear.

This is the autopsy photo of the dark chocolate truffle in the lower right corner:

It's a wonderful, rich dark truffle.    Good, wonderful if you love dark chocolate.

But you know me, this is more up my alley - this is the one at the very top and as, you can tell, is filled with peanut butter:

A nice touch is the thin dark chocolate lining of the milk chocolate shell.  And while this is a mighty fine peanut butter truffle, it's just not that salty, sweet amazing Reese's peanut butter.  I know, I know - don't get me wrong - this is a fine, fine truffle, but there's just something about Reese's that I adore.  And God knows it's a helluva lot cheaper!

This one fell apart a little after the autopsy - it's the pretty salted one on the bottom left:

I love the salt, was not as crazy about the flavor - kind of coffee like (I thought it was a caramel truffle) but the flavor is strongly of coffee.  Not my fav.  Love the salt, though.

At first, I just couldn't bear to autopsy the other two - they are so damn pretty.  But the white chocolate one on the right in the middle with the milk chocolate "turban" was a BIG disappointment.  It has a pink fruity filling with a thin coating of milk chocolate, than white.  Too fruity (and not in a good way), too sweet.  And those sparkles on top are sugar.  Very pretty on the outside, no substance on the inside. 

And the prettiest one of all?  Gooey chocolate inside, but all that pink crap and the round sprinkles on the top ruin it!  They taste like sugar plaster!  Boo!

I'm going to show you their insides just for spite!!

They don't look horrible in the photos, but I'm telling you, these are not very good.  Fabulously gorgeous, but not so good to eat.  VERY expensive and very disappointing.  I would have been better off covering them in resin and using them as decorations.

Their chocolate and cookie combos are so creative!  You have to love this dark chocolate frog sitting on a cookie lily pad!  This one was delicious!

This one is their signature cookie - the Chocolate Bear paw, I guess.  It 's a great idea - the pad of the paw is a dollop of caramel and the back of the cookie has some extra chocolate to sweeten it up:

But I didn't like the cookie as much -it has a smokey flavor - like maybe the almonds were smoked?  I dunno - it didn't work for me.

The best chocolates to look at tasted the worst!  Once again, fooled by an attractive exterior.  Just because something is pretty and expensive doesn't mean it has lasting value.  Paris Hilton, anyone?

And sometimes the frog turns out to be the prince.

Chocolate Gifts (It's Administrative Professionals Week!)

This is one of the busiest weeks of the year for us keynote speakers. It's Administrative Professional's Week and there are appreciation luncheons and events galore. This year all my speeches are Motivation by Chocolate! And if any of you are in the Pinehurst area - I speak there tomorrow and near Hickory, NC on Friday - please come! Both events are open to the public and are three hour seminars. Chocolate for three hours - how much fun is THAT going to be? Woohoo!!!

I thought to honor the week - and Mother's Day is coming up and my birthday (and the birthdays of several other chocolate lover's I know - Taureans love their chocolate!) - I thought we'd talk about chocolate gifts. These are all the non-edible kind.

Several of these photos are courtesy of my good friend Diane Fain-Worthen who I don't give nearly enough kudos to. Diane - thank you for EVERYTHING!!!

This is Diane's pic from Cracker Barrel - she turned me on to their cool chocolate stuff - I have dropped a great deal of money here - and the stuff is soooo cute! Diane has also sent me several goodies from here - she is worth her weight in chocolate!!

How great is all that stuff? I love the pink T-shirt - "Put the chocolate in the bag and nobody gets hurt." And they have great lotions and candles with cocoa scent. Diane sent me a gorgeous lip gloss that's chocolate dipped strawberry. Yum! This would be a great place to take Mom or your favorite Administrative Professional or hell, just all your girlfriends! And don't even get me started about their biscuits. Dear God.

This is where I scored my giant Hershey bar - isn't it gorgeous? Thanks for the pics, Di!

Now this isn't from Cracker Barrel. Diane gave me this at Christmas after the hip surgery. It's a custom printed t-shirt - this is the logo on front. How cool is that? It's like I have my own chocolate company! (Diane, you really are the coolest!)

She also sent a pic of this hilarious shirt:

And I snagged this one at The Chocolate Bear - here's the front:

Love the back:

This is a little door hanger from Cracker Barrel:

and I completely agree with that statement.

Although this one cracks me up every time I see it:

Here's a great gift for any chocolate loving woman:

And this is on the inside along the lip of the mug:

My good friend (and fellow speaker and wild woman) Laura Hamilton gave me this cute bowl:

I love it - it sits on my desk and holds all my post-it note pads. And let's face it - chocolate pretty much IS my life. And you know what? I'm okay with that. In fact, I really like that! : )

Harry & David has these adorable kitchen towels:

Perfect for luring small children like Hansel and Gretel into my lair. (Hey - I need SOMEONE to help me eat all the chocolate!)

And I got this guy for $4.97 at Harry & David's after Easter sale. Isn't he the cutest ceramic chocolate bunny candy dish?

And all these magnets are on my fridge (thanks to Diane and Jay Rowe) for some of these babies!

I dropped this one and glued it back together. See the chip? I love it too much to let it go.

Now while this one is a perfect gift for the chocolate lover in your life:

You'll want to be very careful who you give this one to:

I don't think I can ever thank all my friends enough for the wonderful chocolate gifts! Sometimes we don't realize how much a simple gift like a magnet or a t-shirt can really make some one's day. And, unlike chocolate, they LAST! (Although don't get me wrong - I LOVE it when my friends give me chocolate too!)

Happy Administrative Professional's Week! Make some body's day with a little show of your appreciation - I bet it will mean more to them than you can imagine.

Easter Odds and Ends

I was lucky enough to go by Harry and David's candy tasting on Sunday and found these little babies on sale. My Harry and David store had so much extra Easter candy, they were allowed to mark it WAY down. This bag of milk chocolate chicks was originally $8.95. I got it for $1.97:

Pretty and colorful (although looking a little tropical for baby chickens):

Cute! No Peep, mind you, but still cute:

These guys are a solid milk chocolate choice. They are not as good as the milk chocolate rabbits below from The Chocolate Bear, but they melt in your mouth and are pretty darn good. (I'd put them somewhere between Hershey and Lindt.)

I also snagged this gift tower for $19.95 (I figure the boxes alone are adorable!):

There were a lot of different things inside. The most interesting were these larger than normal jelly beans:

These INDIVIDUALLY wrapped malted milk balls (who's ever seen that?):

And these spring pretzels:

They are billed as yogurt covered:

While these (Easter Pretzels) by the South Bend Chocolate Company, are coated in white chocolate:

I love those Easter eggs floating all over the bag! In the Catholic Church pretzels are historically associated with Easter and were hidden like Easter eggs. The Pennsylvania Dutch make pretzels and I toured a factory or two in PA. I like pretzels. Although I would have been bitter if my parents had hidden them instead of Easter Eggs. In fact, I probably would have grown up twisted. (Bwah, ha, ha!)

You know, both are really good and it's pretty hard to tell the two flavors apart, but the yogurt is a little lighter and I like it better. Both have about the same calories, so it provides no big health benefit. The best (or worst) thing about these is you can't stop eating them! It's the salty and sweet combo - delicious!

For the most part, I find those gift towers to be a rip off - $5 worth of stuff in $20 worth of packaging. But it was pretty and on sale, so what the hell.

This was the single most impressive Easter treat I got this year (drum roll please!) from our friends at L.A. Burdick:

Love the elegant label! And look at this fancy packaging!

This egg - about the size of a small football is inside:

See how big it is? It's a Rocher Egg - a dark chocolate egg coated with chocolate-covered, caramelized almond slivers AND:

Filled with assorted truffles! Can you say, "OMG!" Screw pretzels!

This is simply and extraordinary act of chocolate wizardry. Those almonds in that dark chocolate are to die for!! And the truffles inside are so rich (made in the French fashion with cocoa powder all over them) it's mind boggling. L.A. Burdick is an amazing chocolatier and one bite of this creation will convince you. These almonds were put to a much, much better use that marzipan - bah! A+++++ I will definitely be enjoying this for a while! And will order more treats from this amazing chocolatier!

This little guy (cute) was in Mast General Store. You don't see very many dark chocolate bunnies:

Made by Canipes Chocolates and Candies from Myrtle Beach, this dark chocolate was pretty sweet. Must be low on the cacao. Average at best.

I was completely prepared for these to be horrible:

Don't get me wrong, I love the way they look - the nostalgic scenes in great detail and color:

But I was convinced they would taste terrible. Yet again, I was wrong! The chocolate is much better than you would expect. The label says they are made with Belgian chocolate and that they are made for CVS, so I don't know who really made them, but they are unique as hell, very pretty, and they taste pretty damn good! Shut my mouth!

I saw this in The Chocolate Bear and when I read the sign - "Bunnies on the Half Shell" - I had to buy it. How hilarious is that?

The bunnies are dark, milk, white, pink and tan:

Dark is my favorite. White, pink and tan did nothing for me and after having the dark chocolate, I wasn't as excited about the milk chocolate. The half shell was festive but that horrible hard decorative edge (technically edible) is vile. But funny - damn funny! And great dark chocolate.

How cute is this delicate mini Easter basket?

A "big" milk chocolate bunny (maybe three inches tall - these guys are little), and a baby dark, white, and pink. Adorable - and all resting on Easter grass!

The milk chocolate one was delish - a nice milk chocolate with some depth - not too sugary. Dark was great - the other two - bleech. But adorable!

How's this for a creative combo also from The Chocolate Bear?

A painted cookie background (Easter egg) with a chocolate bunny on top. And you know what? It works! The cookie is good, but bland enough to suit the chocolate. Creative and delicious - the winning combination!

So what are the final thoughts?

Candy tastes better when you buy it on sale.

But glamour candy (L.A. Burdick) ROCKS!

I still can't be sure what will be good and what will be terrible from looking at it. Meaning I still can't judge the interior by the exterior.

Creative and funny (bunnies on the half shell) will always win my heart.

All those who experiment in chocolate, I salute you!!