Lessons in Chocolate

By Mirah W. (mwelday)

I’m not too sure I trust people who don’t like chocolate; it seems to me those people might be a bit shady.  I thought I should just be open with you from the beginning.  I don’t want you to think I malign the person who might occasionally choose strawberry shortcake, for example, over chocolate cake; I’ve been known to indulge in non-chocolate dessert from time to time.  But I always return to chocolate and I don’t quite understand how someone else couldn’t love it.  There are so many different kinds and it comes in all forms.  Plus, it’s good for you.  It’s been proven that dark chocolate has antioxidants. And even though chocolate can be a migraine trigger for me, I still eat it, but it smaller quantities.  I just tell myself it’s too much goodness for my mind to handle at once.

A few years ago my husband and I went on a tubing trip and on the drive to the water the tour guide started one of those ice breaker, ‘let’s get to know our tour companions’ sort of thing.  He asked us what super power we would want to have.  People named all kinds of normal super power abilities: flying, invisibility, time travel.  What did I choose?  I wanted to be able to turn anything into chocolate.  True story.  I wouldn’t lie about chocolate.

Here’s another story to attest to my love of chocolate.  On my recent cruise to Alaska we spent a day cruising inside the Tracy Arm Fjord.  The views were so fantastic I didn’t want to leave my balcony to eat lunch so I ordered room service.  Chocolate cake was on the room service menu so, needless to say, I ordered it.  While I was sitting on my balcony, enjoying the views, relishing my cake, I thought to myself, ‘Self, this is what heaven will be like.  Cool temps, beautiful views, and scrumptious chocolate cake.’  And so, to make my day complete, I took a picture of my cake with the Tracy Arm Fjord and Sawyer Glacier as a backdrop.  I’ve included it here for your enjoyment.  Or so you can laugh at my level of wackiness.  Either way, I figured you’d like it.

Mirah’s Cruise Chocolate Cake with Tracy Arm Fjord & Sawyer Glacier in the background

So when it came time to prepare to write this piece to celebrate Chocolate Day I realized I needed adequate preparation.  You, the reader, deserve my dedication to truth and my time to get the whole story.  In preparation, I downloaded some research materials to my kindle (Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke) and baked some cookies.  I’ve included photographic evidence of my endeavors so you realize the depth of my dedication to this blog.

Mirah’s Photographic Evidence of Blog Research

In my reading and taste testing I made a few deductions.  1) Melted chocolate can burn.  Take precautions and allow hot-from-the-oven cookies to cool.  2) If you are going to commit petty crimes and find dead bodies, befriend the local police with cookies so they don’t arrest you.  3) Always carry an extra bag of chocolate cookies in your car for emergencies.  And 4) If a recipe calls for 2 cups of chocolate chips, use at least 2 ½.

I hope my efforts have not been in vain.  I hope you can take something away from my research.  As long as you don’t try to take my chocolate, we’ll get along just fine.  Now, if you’ll excuse me, there are some leftover bits of research in my kitchen that need my attention.  And a glass of milk on the side.

Happy Chocolate Day!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

Chocolate: The consuming Passion by Sandra Boynton

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke

Fudge Cupcake Murder by Joanne Fluke

The Chocolate Cat Caper by JoAnna Carl

The Chocolate Frog Frame-Up by JoAnna Carl

Candy Freak by Steve Almond

Tags: Book Recommendations, Book Suggestions, Members

This entry was posted on Monday, July 9th, 2012 at 10:36 am and is filed under Holidays and Special Dates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.