Peanut Butter can Glue Your Heart Back Together

Ah - guess what, my beloved readers? Yours truly is back on the market. Yes, I somehow managed to pick yet another man who wants to "keep his options open". Now mind you, he still wants to see me - just wants to see other women too. Um - no.

Yoowee! I sure can pick 'em!! Well - let's just thank goodness I didn't make him famous by putting pics of him on this blog! And at least this didn't waste as much of my time as the Afghanistan Affair. The truth is, it never felt right. That had to be obvious to you all. If things were great, my guy would want pictures of us plastered all over the 'Net. He would be thrilled to be seen with me. I just never felt sure enough to do it. The ol' gut never lies, even when we don't listen to it.

You know what this is going to mean, dear readers? Drum roll please!!!!

More horrifying dating stories!!!!

And if any of you know any solid single guys, just let me know. ; )

Don't worry about me - I'm actually okay with this. Things never felt right, and I'm pretty sure he's been less than honest with me about a lot of things, so it's okay. I think karma gets those people in the end. At least I didn't send him a bunch of care packages! (Although I did book a weekend stay at the beach this weekend for his b-day.) But I'll have a blast without him. I might even meet someone there - who knows? Oh - he did say he knew this was a bad time with my hip and all, but.....

Hey, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do!

Okay, well that was something in a great exterior that turned out to be a nightmare on the interior. Here's something that has a terrible exterior, but turns out to be pretty damn good!

Hee, hee - thank goodness someone put that yellow price sticker on there - we might have no idea how much this was!

I saw this and thought - "Oh boy - this is going to be horrible!! I so can't wait to blog about it!"

When I opened it, I thought:

Oh yeah - look at that - flooring! That looks pretty industrial doesn't it?

I'm thinking - "Ew - oh man - this is gonna be so bad it will be so fun to write about!!!"

You know what? It was pretty good!! I know - I'm scaring myself. It's made by Palmer, and you know I usually despise Palmer Chocolate. I'm sure the bottom layer is mockolate, but peanut butter is ingredient number four - and this tastes pretty good! It's no Reese's, but it's a real surprise. For two bucks it's one helluva big bar and I like it!

(Chocolate snobs are gasping in horror at this, but who cares.)

When will I learn not to judge a book by its cover? At the end of the day, it's the inside that counts.

Chocolate Salt Water Taffy and Dreams

I totally got beach fever last week and took off Friday and drove to the Outer Banks like someone was chasing me. Hey, it's the summer - what can I say? And I'm sooo lucky to live in such a gorgeous state!!

I got to spend a few hours on the beach until a thunderstorm rolled in. When that happened I did the obvious - went shopping. And, of course, for me, shopping means checking out the candy. And what candy represents the beach more than salt water taffy?

Now the store I stopped in was packed and this stuff was flying off the shelves. Yahoo! This taffy is made by http://www.forbescandies.com/ another small candy maker based in Virginia Beach, VA. They say this taffy is full of "sea breeze and sunshine." Yeah and glucose, sugar and hydrogenated vegetable oil. But what the hell.

I also got some salt water taffy at Candy Expo from Sweet's. Sweet's makes those chocolate covered cinnamon gummy bears I didn't love. But hey, they are in the Salt Water Taffy game:

Apparently the sail boat as candy window is vital in the packaging of salt water taffy.

I am going on an assortment rant. I have done this before and I feel certain I will do this again. In the store there were bins of the different flavors. Two of the flavors were peanut butter and cherry chocolate (yum!). Did I get any of those in my assortment? Oh no. I got 12 orange, 12 vanilla, 13 of a flavor I cannot for the life of me identify - some fruit thing, 8 licorice, 6 grape, 6 chocolate, 2 lime, 3 blue raspberry (glaack), 2 banana, 3 peppermint, 1 cinnamon. Next time I'm just going to buy two pieces of taffy - peanut butter and cherry chocolate. The rest of these suck.

Okay, I'm being too hard on them, but I think a Tootsie Roll is 10,000 times better than these chocolate taffy blobs.

Why can't assortments be more assorted? Why do you get 12 orange and no peanut butter? The Sweet's assortment was no better. I got 1 juicy pear and 12 chocolate (although I was okay with that). They also have Neapolitan - good, and peach - horrifying.

And look at these from Forbes:

I thought maybe one was just a poorly colored grape taffy. Oh no - that truly ugly color is licorice. And apparently one flavor is just shoved in after another - I saw many weird combos like the mutant in the upper right. Taffy scares me.

Except for Sweetime's Valentine's Day assortment, which I could eat that until my teeth fell out, I can live without taffy. The Tootsie Roll still reigns in the low-fat-not-chocolate-chew department.

But I didn't go to the Outer Banks for the candy. Every time I go, I have to stop by the Wright Brother's Memorial in Kitty Hawk:

I LOVE this monument. It is absolutely gorgeous, is art deco, and rests on a base in the shape of a star. But best of all is the quote carved on the base of the wing:

"Conceived by genius, achieved by dauntless resolution and unconquerable faith."

What audacity the Wright Brothers had - how brilliant they were. And how they changed the world as we know it. This is sacred ground in my book and it always takes my breath away to stand on it.

What could the rest of us achieve if we had dauntless resolution and unconquerable faith? To what heights could we fly?

This summer - if you go to the beach - eat some taffy and dream some big dreams. That's what summer's for.

Four Chocolate Dessert Balls Recipes

Chocolate Bourbon Balls

1/2 cup butter
4 cups powdered sugar
1 cup finely chopped nuts
1/4 cup bourbon
1 package (6 ounces) milk chocolate chips
3 tbsp. half-and-half

Place butter in medium bowl. Microwave at HIGH (100%) until melted, 1 to 2 minutes. Mix in sugar, nuts, and bourbon. Refrigerate until firm.

Shape into 1-inch balls. Refrigerate until firm.

Combine chocolate chips and half-and-half in a small bowl. Microwave at MEDIUM-HIGH (70%) until chocolate chips are melted, 1 to 2-1/2 minutes, stirring once or twice. Stir until smooth. Drizzle chocolate over candies (reheat chocolate as needed). Chill.

Chocolate Cream Hazelnut Balls

1/2 cup finely chopped hazelnuts
1 cup vanilla cookie crumbs
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp. cocoa
2 tbsp. corn syrup
1/4 cup cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Combine all ingredients and mix well. The mixture should be moist to the touch. Roll into balls about the size of a walnut. Roll in powdered sugar or finely chopped hazelnuts. Store in covered container.

Chocolate Mint Dessert Balls

9 oz. chocolate chips, melted
1/2 cup Creme de Menthe
24 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups pecans, finely chopped
Chocolate cookie wafers

In large bowl, mix together ingredients except pecans and cookie wafers until smooth. Cover and chill 1 hour.

Form into balls. Roll balls in pecans. Serve with chocolate cookie wafers. Store in refrigerator.

Sweet 'n' Peanutty Chocolate Balls

3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1-1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 cup pecans, finely chopped
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup peanut butter
1-1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
4 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. milk

Combine powdered sugar, graham cracker crumbs and pecans; stir until uniform in color.

In a saucepan, melt 3/4 cup butter and peanut butter together. Pour over sugar mix, and stir until just moistened. Form into one-inch balls.

In a separate saucepan, combine chocolate chips, 4 tbsp. butter, and milk. Melt together over low heat, stirring just enough to blend.

Coat balls with chocolate by dipping into chocolate mixture one at a time. Place on waxed paper, and chill before serving. Makes 60 chocolate dessert balls.

I Hate the Naked Cowboy

He's baaaaa-ck! Last time he was suing Mars for using his esteemed likeness as a blue M & M. Now he's running for the Mayor of New York. I think we have enough politicians who can't keep their pants on. Stop being a street freak and get a real job. Or just be a street freak and embrace your freakness. Stop trying to cross over, it's annoying.

Whew - I feel better now. Nothing does a body good like a public rant.

Let me mention my wonderful brother, who has two of the cutest boys in the entire Universe:

They are the spitting image of him - he's a red head. He and his wife, Melissa have done an amazing job with these two. They are the most well mannered kids EVER. There will be no Naked Cowboy activity in these two's future.

But, I digress (as usual). My brother sent me two chocolate links today - one was a study where you have to eat chocolate everyday for a year! I was ready to sign up until I saw you have to have Type Two Diabetes. I'd probably have it after the study. Dang.

The other was about a middle eastern company making chocolate with camel's milk. I dunno, maybe it will be good. I have serious doubts, but who knows. Escazu had a bar with goat's milk at the tasting and I didn't care for it, but maybe I would like camel's milk. Just want to keep you posted. Those of you with milk producing animals might want to get in on this - you might make millions! Or maybe not, I'm kind of creeping myself out right now just thinking about it.

I am still planning to blog about Fritz Knipschildt, but I just had to get the whole Naked Cowboy thing out of my system. And, the more of Fritz's chocolates I eat, the more I think he has a right to the giant ego. Lord, I hope he doesn't run for Mayor of New York.

Chocolate The Exhibition

Chocolate the Exhibition originated at The Field Museum in Chicago and is now right here in Raleigh, NC! I was so excited to see it! Here I am at the entrance with a bagful of purchases - one of which is a sign that says "Will Work for Chocolate."

Here's the entrance:

Well, that's pretty much the highlight of the exhibition. I mean, except for the gift shop.

Okay, I'm jaded. I've been to Hershey's Museum and Chocolate World. I've see the chocolate fountain at the Bellagio. I've toured chocolate factories. I've watched chocolate videos. This just wasn't all that. Maybe my hopes were just too high.

But the NC Museum of Natural Science has some educational events around the exhibition, and I went to one last week. It featured local chocolatier Hallot Parson of Escazu. I'd been into Escazu - it's a tiny shop which seems geared more to catering than to the random walk-in customer. No problem, I'm a die hard capitalist and want these small chocolatiers to make money.

Now you all know how much I love chocolate and how excited I get when I meet cool chocolate people. I loved watching them make the bourbon cherries in Kentucky, had a blast at Just Born in PA, and adored the tour of A Chocolate Fetish in Asheville. (And you know about my crush on Chuao Chocolatier Master Chef Michael Antonorsi.) Hallot Parson is a serious buzz kill.

I was so bummed when I stopped by the shop and tried to get him to talk about his chocolates. Ho. Hum. He was SO serious. I thought maybe I was keeping him from some important task - like saving the free world. I chalked it up to him having a bad day.

Well, Hallot is just like that. His presentation was interesting but he sucked all the joy out of the room. The auditorium was crowded, by the way. Crowded with chocolate lovers just waiting to laugh and have fun and learn. Not with Hallot. He's the most dour chocolate maker I have yet to meet. He didn't smile once - not even in the slides he showed us of him at the cacao plantation. Is this allowed? Shouldn't the fumes alone keep a chocolate maker in a perpetual state of bliss? Apparently not. I don't think Hallot would be fun to hang out with. All the other chocolatiers are the opposite - I would love to be able to pop in their shops and buy what's new and just bask in their coolness. Hallot is more like an Ooompa Loompa than a Willie Wonka. Bummer.

They do have a great logo:

And some lovely chocolates (although I think their bars are really where the action is). They have a sea salt bar that's terrific. But check these out:

I got these on a very hot summer day, so the bloom on the diamond shaped piece was unavoidable. The bad part is that because Hallot was such a grouch, I can't even remember what all these are. He was no fun to pick them out with - and they were not cheap.

The flat disk is a very thin delicious dark chocolate, but whatever is on top left an aftertaste like dirt. Ugh. Not so good.

The diamond was okay - it didn't blow me away, but it was good.

The tiger stripe brown dome was bad - I'm not sure if something happened with the heat. It reminded me of that horrible blue cheese Vosges truffle.

The small yellowish one has cool Aztec-inspired design work and was good, although it's white chocolate. I wish I had more details as I know there were some interesting flavors I couldn't quite identify. I love it when the boxes have identification or the chocolate shop employees fill out a card for you. I wasn't about to ask Hallot to do anything like that.

I really liked the gorgeous Easter egg truffle:

Not only is it visually breathtaking - look at those delicious layers of chocolate - white, milk, ganache. This was a true work of art - both visual and culinary - delicious!!

The personalities of chocolate are fascinating!! Tomorrow we'll meet Fritz Knipschildt - festive but egotistical. WHEEE!!!

The Internet Ate My Baby

I wasted an entire day today.

I did not intend to waste an entire day - it just got away from me, like a fish slipping off the hook. Gone - never to return.

I started off strong - did my 5 mile walk with my buddy Kristina who I hardly ever see - multitasking - good! Then I took a shower and had a couple of hours before meeting another buddy for lunch. I posted a blog entry, screwed around on Facebook (no - I was not taking quizzes, just responding to people, etc.). I took pictures of some chocolate I want to blog about. Before I knew it, it was time to go to lunch. After lunch I dropped off some newsletters to a client - boom - it was 3:00 and zip, zero, nothing done.

Instead of bearing down and getting some stuff done, what do I do?

I decide I need some motivation - I need something to look forward to - I need to get my game back - I need to plan a big trip! Screw the recession and the hip! (I've already got a cool $1,500 in medical bills, why stop spending now?) The Internet sucked me in like a black hole. I considered the Caribbean - I love the sun and the water and scuba diving. But I get bored so fast.....

So I searched chocolate travel and I found some cool options, but not reasonable. One of the Cruise Lines has a chocolate cruise, but it's $4,000 a person. And I usually don't like being trapped on a boat. There's a company that does a cool trip to Belgium, but you have to have a group. I finally decided I might go to San Francisco - there's a lot of chocolate there (Michael Recchiuti, Richart San Francisco, TCHO, Charles Chocolates, and, of course, http://www.ghirardelli.com/) and stay in Monterey. I've never been out that way and hear it's gorgeous.

Oh - add to the complication of my planning that I want to do this around Christmas. I always have to have a plan for Christmas - that is the one holiday I totally run from. Sitting alone looking at the ocean in Monterey I can handle, sitting alone in my townhouse is awful. Plus this is a great time of year to travel because business is dead and few places are crowded. Ho, ho, ho!

That's it! That was my day. I'd like to say I was abducted by aliens, but that would be a lie. I was unfocused and undisciplined. Don't worry, I'll get back on track tomorrow and I know not to beat myself up too much and that it's okay to have an off day once in a while, blah, blah, blah. But, if you are like me, you've had a day like this. And if you're like me, you weren't happy with it either.

Here's the best way I know to get back on track:

1.) I have a list of the things I have to get done tomorrow. I will finish the list before looking at Facebook or anything else.

2.) I don't have much of a routine, but the morning workout thing threw me - usually I just head into the office and start working. This works best for me. Know what works best for you - I need to be working when I'm most focused.

3.) Know what will have the most impact on your goals. I love writing this blog, but it's not as important as getting work done for a potential client - it's just more fun! I need to do keep my eye on the goal.

4.) Repair the damage. I'll feel better if I get a lot done tomorrow. Maybe I should unplug my computer.

Anybody want to go to San Francisco?

On Freedom - Part Two

I promised this entry a while ago and got distracted (so many shiny objects, so little attention span). The first posting about freedom was an introduction and addressed financial freedom.

It also gave these two tips:

1.) You have to believe you are free.

2.) You have to have a source of income. You have to be able initially to provide for yourself, and eventually to have enough money to allow you to do what you want.

This post is moving on to other big tips:

3.) You can’t let others jail you. You hear this all the time, “I’d go with you guys, but my wife won’t let me.” Or, “I’d like to have dessert, but if you all aren’t having any….” How about your mother pressuring you to have children so she can have a grandbaby? Or waiting for someone to call you before you make your own plans? There are a million variations on this. We put our own lives and hopes and dreams on hold for someone else. Now, I’m not saying you have to start being a wild rebel, I’m saying you have to own up to your decisions and choices. Let’s use the “I’d love to go with you guys, but my wife won’t let me” line as an example.

You know what this line is? BS. The deal is that this man is free to do whatever he wants. He just knows going with the guys is going to make his wife angry. He is free to decide if he wants to go with the guys and deal with his wife’s anger or tell the guys no and avoid the wrath of wife. He makes a choice. He is free. His wife is not his jailer; he gets to decide what he wants. He also gets to decide if he wants to stay in the marriage.

Which leads us to another potential jailer – the church. Our guy might say, “I can’t get a divorce, the church won’t let me.” Ah – more BS. If he values his particular faith and that is a tenant of his faith, he can say, “I choose not to divorce because of my religious beliefs.” Or he can reconsider those beliefs. He is free.

If you want dessert, you need to order it – who cares what the other people are doing? They are not the bosses of you. They are not dragging you out of the restaurant. Will they think badly of you? WHO CARES? Part of being free is you have to stop worrying about what other people think. When you are more concerned with what others think than what YOU think, you are allowing them to jail you. The chances are they care way less about what you are doing than you think they do.

Your mother wants a grandbaby? Well, she can adopt her own baby. You need to have a baby because you want one more than life itself. Because if anything is going to alter your freedom, that is it. I believe having a child is the one decision that will have the single greatest impact on your freedom. This is the one relationship you cannot walk away from. You created this person and you are responsible for this person. If you are not 100% sure you want to have a child, maximize your freedom by practicing safe sex. PLEASE.

The key here is to realize that you always have choices and to make them very, very wisely. You chose to be in relationships and you can chose to end relationships. Other people can’t take away your freedom unless you let them.

4.) Deal with your addictions. If you are addicted to anything – drugs, tobacco, alcohol, a person, food – whatever – you aren’t free. I’m not going into detail on dealing with addictions, but if you have one, you know darn well the thing you are addicted to controls you. And that’s about as far from free as you can get. Addictions are some of the hardest things in the world to break and few can go it alone – there are many resources on the Internet to help you. Please use them – you only have one life and none of those things are worth trading it for.

5.) Take good care of your health. We can’t control all aspects of our health, but we can have a big impact on it. And your health definitely impacts your freedom. I’ve had people in my seminars who couldn’t go kayaking because they were too overweight to fit in the boats. If you can’t walk up a flight of stairs without being winded, it will impact what you are free to do. Doing a few things can have a huge impact on your freedom – getting enough sleep, exercising, and maintaining a healthy weight.

I’m going to use myself as an example here. I have arthritis in my hip and it does impact my freedom. I can’t run at all. I can’t walk nearly as fast and as far as I used to. Some nights I can’t sleep. I’m doing everything I can to manage it, but use me as an example of how health issues can impact your freedom. Do everything you can to protect your health – after you lose it, it may be too late.


Back to chocolate next!!