Tootsie Pops and Glue

I am so sorry I haven't been blogging! The past few weeks have been nuts! After Candy Expo in Chicago I went to Birmingham, Alabama. Then I was in DC for the American Society of Training and Development Conference. The next weekend was a conference in Asheville. When I got back from that, I had to go to Atlanta. I flew in that day, spoke and tried to fly out. I say tried because the flight was over two hours late. By the time I got home, I was able to get a whopping three hours of sleep and had to drive out to the western part of NC to give a training program. Then to Charlotte for an event with the boyfriend (still seems to be going well).

It's great to be busy in this economy, so I am not complaining. Well, maybe about the flight, but overall I'm damn lucky. There is some white space on my calendar coming up, so you all may be sick of me soon!

I do, however, have a serious blogging backlog. So much to share with you all!!

First I have to share with you my favorite recent completely random chocolate quote. It was said by CBS golf analyst David Feherty in reference to John Daly's golf clothing (which was God awful and WAY colorful):

"...looks like he put glue on his body and ran through Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory."

They PAY this man for this??? I'm a little scared he was thinking about John Daly putting glue on his body and running through anything, but we all have our fantasies.

Here's another new product from Candy Expo:

These are good. Are they extraordinary? Nah. I like regular Raisinets better. The raisins just taste better with chocolate than the cranberries. And these bother me. Why are they called Raisinets? They are not raisins, they are cranberries. I mean the whole point of RAISINets is that they are RAISINS. Right? At least they could have done Craisinets.

A trendy tip of the hat to the cranberry. I predict these will not stand the test of time.

When I went by the Tootsie Roll booth and asked what was new, they gave me these:

Now, these really aren't new. I found some in Cracker Barrel well before Candy Expo and I remember having them as a kid. Maybe the blue raspberry is a new flavor, but these are just a re-release. I'd rather have regular ol' Tootsie Rolls. There isn't enough Tootsie Roll here - too much boring hard candy. ZZZZZZZ...........

Now this was really new for me - a new flavor of Tootsie Pop - banana:

GLAACK! I thought this was awful. The banana flavor was no good. A waste of a Tootsie Roll center. But, hey, finding a dog every once in a while makes things exciting! Bow Wow!

And here's a tip - all that cool chocolate stuff Cracker Barrel had is on sale for half price!! It's great stuff, so you might want to run in. Just don't cover your body with glue first.

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

2-½ cups blanched almond flour *
¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
10 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
½ cup agave nectar
1 cup dark chocolate 73%

1. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Stir together wet ingredients in a smaller bowl.
3. Mix wet ingredients into dry.
4. Form 1-inch balls and press onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
5. Bake at 350° for 7-10 minutes.
6. Cool and serve.

Makes 24 cookies

Vegan and Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

2-½ cups blanched almond flour *
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup grapeseed oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
½ cup agave nectar
1 cup dark chocolate 73%

1. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Stir together wet ingredients in a smaller bowl.
3. Mix wet ingredients into dry.
4. Form ½ inch balls and press onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
5. Bake at 350° for 7-10 minutes.
6. Cool and serve.

Makes 24 cookies

* Please note: Bob's Red Mill almond flour does not yield successful results when used in these recipes because of the coarseness of the flour. Other brands: Honeyville or Lucy's Kitchen Shop.

Source: Elana's Pantry - Gluten Free Recipes

I am Still Alive!!!

Oh my friends - thanks so much for hanging in here!! I was in DC last week, Asheville all weekend for a conference, and I leave for Atlanta in the morning. (Giving my Leadership Lessons of the Kings of Chocolate for a group of students in a leadership program - should be fun!) I've been too busy to do anything much less blog! My house is a mess and I am a bit overwhelmed. But things slow down a lot after this so I should be back full speed next week - don't give up on me!!

Also - get this - remember I told you the man I'm dating went to the CPA Awards Banquet with me? Well, a picture of us there ran in the CPA Magazine distributed to all the CPAs across the state! Toby Page - loyal friend and blog reader - sent me an e-mail immediately when she opened her copy. So the cat is out of the bag. I'm heaving a BIG sigh over this because I'm so afraid things will go bad.

But - all I can do is my best, right? And don't worry - I'll post the picture here soon. When I get braver.

Back to regular posting next week, I promise!!! And more chocolate!

Chocolate Chip Bars - Two Recipes

Chocolate Chip Bar Recipe
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
6 oz. chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
   
2. Cream together sugar and butter. Beat in egg.
   
3. Stir in dry ingredients.
   
4. Mix in vanilla.
   
5. Fold in chocolate and nuts.
   
6. Spread in greased 15x10-inch pan (batter will be a thin layer).
   
7. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes.
   
8. Cool slightly, then cut into 48 chocolate chip bars.

Chocolate Chip Bars #21 stick butter1-1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs1 cup flaked coconut (optional)12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate morsels14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk1 cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
   
2. Melt butter in oven in 13x9-inch baking pan. Remove from oven.
   
3. Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs over butter.
   
4. Sprinkle with coconut and chocolate morsels.
   
5. Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over mixture.
   
6. Top with pecans; press down.
   
7. Bake for 22-27 minutes or until golden brown around edges.
   
8. Cool completely in pan on rack. Cut into chocolate chip bars.

Technology is Not Chocolate

Hi Readers! I know - SLACK!! But I have what I consider a good excuse. I am currently in DC attending a American Society of Training and Development conference with 8000 other people (good God!). And before I came up here, I decided I should finally cave in and get a PDA. Yeah, yeah, I'm behind the times, whatever.

So I spent several hours Saturday securing one and struggling to set it up. Not that it's that hard - it's just different. The buttons seem really small to me. The track ball is a pain in the butt. I know I'll get used to it, but.....ugh.

I already see how people get addicted to these things and it is a little scary. When there's a second of downtime, instead of making small talk with the living humans sitting next to me, I whip out my new Blackberry. (Why no IPhone? I tried one in the store and it was way too hard to hit the right "keys". I have giant hands and that thing was a trip straight to hell.)

So I'm losing interaction with the people around me for the sake of checking my e-mail. Is this a good trade-off? I have to say I don't think so - it's not like every e-mail I get is someone wanting to hire me for a speaking engagement. Most of them are not important. Hell, most of them aren't trying to buy from me, they are trying to sell me something. But it's the way of the world, isn't it? I got the darn Blackberry so I would stay connected - to Tweet more (like the world really needs more Tweets) and to be more responsive to clients.

BUT I also got it so I could receive pictures from my hot new boyfriend! I could send him pics on my old phone, but I couldn't receive his. Well, guess what? I still can't get his pictures and now he can't get mine. GRRR! So that will be yet another time waster trying to figure that out. Ah - I long for the day when all this technology stuff will be seamless. I'll probably be dead by then, but I'll be smiling from beyond the grave.

No big chocolate news, although in the giant Expo here (nothing like Candy Expo, by the way - this is all training stuff - zzzzzzz) most of the vendors are using chocolate to lure attendees in. They aren't even bothering with other types of candy - well, a few are, but by and large the others have seen the light! Chocolate is irresistible. People will even endure the attentions of a sales person for free chocolate.

I also saw a session by Mars about how they are changing their corporate culture. It was lead by one of their high corporate HR people and an outside consultant and I felt like I was trapped in a Dilbert cartoon. No real world examples, but loads of jargon. I have an MBA and it totally hurt my brain. There was no free chocolate. I asked.

I'm off to sessions, but don't worry - I'll be back home and back to chocolate soon!! Keep the faith!

CPAs and Chocolate

Now you probably don't immediately think of chocolate when you think of CPAs. But you might want to change that.

Remember I told you I was thrilled to be the NC CPA Association's Speaker of the Year? Well, look at what they served at the awards banquet:

This Chocolate Pyramid is filled with an awesome creamy chocolate mousse:

My pictures don't do it justice, but it was AWESOME!! I really wanted to lick the plate, but I was a guest of honor, after all. I think licking the plate would really be a compliment to the chef and should be more socially acceptable. This was the best chocolate dessert I have ever had - no kidding! Lots of chocolate desserts are too rich, but this was perfect! I wish I had one right now.

And remember last week after Chicago, I went to Birmingham to speak at a women's conference for the Alabama CPA Association?

Well - look at what they gave me after I spoke:

Taking the chocolate top off, you get this:

And look at how cool these are:

Even the "paper" cups are chocolate!

I ate one of the turtles tonight and it was delicious. Turtles are really growing on me. (Although I'm still partial to Mama Laura's, these were damn good. They were covered in dark chocolate (rather than milk) with white drizzle. YUM!!!

Do I have the greatest job EVER or what?

And are CPAs WAY cooler than you thought?

Things are still good on the dating front - but it is hurting my blogging! Sorry readers! There are only so many hours in the day! This week he and I went to one of those Get Motivated seminars where the big names speak. (His idea - pretty impressive, huh?) I was thrilled to see Rudy Giuliani, Colin Powell, and Zig Ziglar.

Rudy and Colin were masters - not taking themselves too seriously and making excellent points on leadership (and who better?). But I was sad to see Zig Ziglar. He suffered a fall not too long ago and now his daughter takes the stage and interviews him. Having seen him speak about 10 years ago, this was heart breaking.

It was great to see some of the world's best speakers - who better to learn from?

I learned from Zig yet again - this time it was that no one is at their best forever. There really is a time to walk away. I was reminded by Rudy of what 9/11 was like although I thought I would never forget. And Colin Powell reminds me of our best military leaders - those who put their lives on the line for us and expect nothing in return. Colin has given his life in service of the American people - how lucky are we?

So - CPAs have cool taste in chocolate and I've managed to keep dating the same guy for two months. The world is a wonderful and mysterious place.

Raw Chocolate Fudge Recipe

1 cup raw cacao powder
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup coconut butter
1/2 cup macadamia nut butter
1 cup agave nectar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon celtic sea salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1. In a large bowl, combine cacao, coconut oil, coconut butter and macadamia nut butter.
   
2. Stir in agave, vanilla, salt and cinnamon.
   
3. Mix well, mashing lumps against side of bowl with a fork to smooth out batter.
   
4. Pour mixture into a 7 x 11 glass pyrex dish.
   
5. Place in freezer for 1-2 hours, until firm.
   
6. Cut into squares and serve.
   
7. Store in refrigerator or freezer to maintain proper texture and consistency. Serves 24,

Source: Elana's Pantry - Gluten Free Recipes