Arrested!

Posted on 04/04/2011 by

Cookbook author and chocolate guru, Cece Neef Brune,  sent Alyssa and I each a chocolate cook book to review a few weeks ago.  Alyssa went to rehab (and was released on good behaviour).  I, on the other hand, received 20-years-to-life for Chocolate Crimes.

At first I was paralyzed by the choice with over 200 recipes. It was intimidating. But then my rap sheet began to grow. I started as a mere juvenile delinquent with the No Bake Cookies (my son’s fav) and I quickly progressed to petty theft via Banana Chip Cake (perfect comfort food!) and a misdemeanor with Mint Brownie Bites (yummmm).  I sealed my fate with “Betty’s Poo Poo Cookies” felony and am on my way to committing the ultimate chocolate offense with Chocolate Pecan Toffee (my husband can hardly wait).

I had every intention of reviewing this book weeks ago but got so lost in it’s pages I thought I might never surface.  Like any good criminal (or baaaad food blogger – sorry!) I have no photo evidence. None. But one look at my waist line will tell ya I am officially a hard-core chocoholic criminal.

The other crime? I intended to do a book giveaway to our loyal Blog Chocolate readers but it’s so covered with guilty chocolate finger prints that you’ll have to wait until next review for some chocolate to win instead.

What I loved most about this book (in addition to the fact that a portion of the proceeds were donated to the Aphasia Center of West Texas) is the recipe format.  Brune takes pitty on us hardened criminals and makes following her recipes easy as pie (or cake, or brownie, or fudge, or…). It is so annoying to get to the middle of a recipe and find out that you should have melted chocolate and let it cool before you started baking.  In Chocolate Crimes you are virtually assured a no-fail baking experience thanks to it’s logical layout.

A culinary goddess I am not. I prefer other people to make chocolate for me.  But I am now a convert and look forward to working my way through every sweet crime from cover to cover!

~ Sandra

Posted in Chocolicious Reviews, Cookbooks | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

They tried to make me go to rehab..

Posted on 03/25/2011 by

I’ve never been a cooker-type person. In fact, I’ve often joked that I would love to put out a cookbook made up of all the recipes that I’ve clipped from newspapers or magazines (or simply salivated over) but have never actually made. I really could fill a book.  So you can understand why I was a little worried when Cece Neef Brune asked us if we would like to review her cookbooks, Chocolate Crimes and Five Steps to Chocolate Rehab.

My lovely partner in chocolate crimes, Sandra, had the excellent idea that we should share the wealth and each take a look at one of the cookbooks. I’m easily overwhelmed by the kitchen. She gets that. So, I took Five Steps to Chocolate Rehab because clearly, I need help. I have a cupboard in my kitchen devoted to chocolaty snacks. That I don’t share. (Have I not told you about this? I totally do. It’s a problem.) I repeat: I need help.

Luckily for Ms Brune, if I’m going to make anything in the kitchen, it will most likely be a dessert and involve chocolate. So, I went through the book from cover to cover, and all the recipes sounded delicious but I was confused about the noticeable lack of chocolate. Oh, right. I’m supposed to be on the mend from my addiction. Sigh.

Naturally, all the recipes that captured my imagination were the ones that did include chocolate (or peanut butter – chocolate’s best buddy): fudge tarts, peanut butter and chocolate pie, peanut butter brownies, truffle brownies and peanut butter cupcakes. I also decided that if I was to truly review a cookbook, I’d better woman up and actually make something. I chose the peanut butter brownies, mainly because I already had most of the ingredients. AND because they involved me buying mini Reese peanut butter cups. Woot!

The recipe was really easy to follow, thanks in main part to the formatting. Instead of listing the ingredients and then the instructions, the instructions were interspersed amongst the ingredients so that you knew exactly when you needed what and why. Perfect for the kitchen-challenged like myself.

What I liked even better than the recipes, however, were the helpful tips at the beginning of each chapter. Brune holds your hand through some baking basics that are really useful for the inexperienced cooker, such as: how many bars each pan size will yield, how to expertly remove and store your bars, cooking times for various pan sizes, how to make a great pie crust, and how to adapt your cookie recipes to make them thin/chewy/cakey or regular. These tips alone would have made the book worth buying for me.

The bars turned out very well, if I do say so myself. And, thanks to a tip – lining the pan with foil and then greasing it – they came out of the pan easily and with no mess. The bars were sweet and rich, and for a “blondie” bar, delicious. Personally, I would have preferred them to be more chocolaty. Next time, I would probably double the amount of mini Reese cups. But that’s just me. I should be in chocolate rehab, but I ain’t going anytime soon. My son gave them a 10 out of 10, and his friend declared them the best brownie EVER. (Kids. Gotta love ‘em.)

All in all, I think Brune has come out with a great little cookbook, and one that I’m glad I own. And the fact that a part of the proceeds for every sale goes to a very worthy cause – The Aphasia Centre – just makes me like it even more.

~Alyssa

Posted in Chocoholics Unite, Chocolate!, Chocolicious Reviews | 5 Comments

Kim

Posted on 03/09/2011 by

“There’s nothing better than a good friend,

except a good friend with chocolate.”

I first saw Kim when I was 14-years-old and I was instantly jealous. I coveted her hair, admired her confidence and wished I had the nerve to tell her so. I’d never have imagined one day to be the maid-of-honour at her wedding.

Kim has been my kindred spirit for well over two decades.  She understands my fierce love for my son, gets my insatiable ambition, shares in my unapologetic addiction to 80s music, duplicates my idealistic dreams for the future … and rivals my love of chocolate.

She’s a hopeless romantic who isn’t afraid to wear pink or cameos or fill her home with fragrant flowers.  She’s gorgeous and smart and funny and loyal and brave. She’s raising three incredible children who have inherited her kind heart and her love of life. And she’s been the steadfast friend who I can most be myself with.

I’ve often been heard calling her “Indiana Kim” because she has an unquenchable thirst for adventure. And although her adventures today look different than they did in her castle-stomping youth or when she worked as a brilliant reporter, they are just as important – if not more.  She’d say she’s the “Diana Barry” to my “Anne Shirley” but I think over the years we’ve taken turns in those roles.

She courageously left our small-town high school and went on exchange to Germany for a year when we were in grade 11.  She wrote me letters every two weeks, without fail, and invited me to join her in her adventure during my March break.  Because of living vicariously through her that year, she is responsible for igniting my passion for travel and inspiring me to see the world. She is also single-handedly responsible for my insistence that no chocolate is as good as European chocolate.

We’ve created countless traditions over the years that revolve around our incredible friendship. From “Dead Poets” nights in the park to morning-after-the-party chocolate pancake extravaganzas to annual weekends away.

When I almost lost my mother a few months ago and spent nearly two sleepless, emotionally-charged weeks in ICU by her bedside, it was Kim I called first.  She emailed and called every few hours knowing not only the right thing to say to keep me grounded but also the right thing to say to keep my mom’s spirits up.  Her playfully teasing messages to my mother were the quips that mom retold over and over to nurses to show she wasn’t scared.  When my world was falling apart, it was my incredible friend Kim that was holding it together.

We’ve logged thousands of hours philosophizing about the meaning of life and family and the kind of women we want to be.  We’ve celebrated each other’s successes and been there through all of the tough stuff too.  I am extraordinarily grateful to have someone in my life I that can trust with my deepest darkest secrets. I am just as grateful to have someone I can even trust with my chocolate.

It really doesn’t get any better.

Kim, in honour of the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, I am celebrating you. I am telling the entire world (okay, the entire chocolate loving internet) how important you are to me. How my life would not be the same without you. How you make me want to reach higher and live louder.  Thanks for being in my life.  I am so excited to make a donation to the Assaulted Women’s Helpline in your honour – because not everyone is as lucky to have a kindred spirit like you to make their life even sweeter than chocolate.

~ Sandra

~~~~~~~~

Have you heard of the “Who Would You Call?” campaign? This post was written as part of that initiative. Do you have a friend who is as amazing as Kim? Join in the fun of the campaign to honour them!

Check out their video to learn more:

Posted in Life Is Like A Box Of Chocolates | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Strong Brü

Posted on 03/07/2011 by

It probably doesn’t come as much of a shock that a person who is addicted to chocolate also has the companion addiction: coffee. The good news is that they’re both addictions that are completely legal. (Ahem. I’m looking at you, Charlie Sheen..) And, I can stop either of them whenever I want to. I just don’t happen to want to stop. So there.

So, when the people at Crio Brü asked us if we wanted to sample their revolutionary new beverage, I jumped at the chance to try it out. Haven’t heard of Crio Brü? I hadn’t either. Luckily, they have tons of information on their website. But here’s the low down on what I think are the salient points:

  • it’s a brewed drink – like coffee – but made from 100% roasted cocoa beans
  • low-cal and low-carb, no fat, sugar, sodium or gluten
  • rich in antioxidants
  • claims to boost your immune system, increase energy levels, reduce stress, and help you sleep better
  • claims to curb your appetite and help you lose weight
  • you can reuse the grounds in smoothies, baking, compost, body scrubs – or to make more Brü!

Well, with all that goodness, how could I not want to try it??

The different types of Crio Brü available come from different areas of the world, just like coffee. The one I tried, Cavalla, is from the Ivory Coast. I was a bit worried about brewing it properly, because I don’t own a French Press. You can make it in a regular coffee maker, but I suspected the flavour would be different in a press. Luckily for me, the smart people at Crio Brü were one step ahead of me and sent along a Bodum too! It’s really very easy to brew, even for newbies like myself, but they do have a video online if you’re nervous.

Cavalla smells ridiculously chocolately while brewing. To taste, it’s like a very, very strong dark chocolate. Both times I brewed it, it came out more watery than I would like, but I suspect adding more grounds would solve that problem. You are supposed to be able to suss out hints of dark spice, coconut and cinnamon, but I’ve never been very good at that kind of thing. It did remind me pleasantly of drinking hot chocolate in Italy, though.

It was too strong for me to drink straight up, although I could see how I might develop a taste for it in time. I drink my coffee with milk and sweetener, so I added it to my Cavalla. After that, it was like night and day for me. It became a silky, softly chocolate drink that I could enjoy time and again. A grown-up, sophisticated version of hot chocolate.

An especially good companion to the Cavalla are the Crio Beans. I’ve always had a taste for chocolate covered expresso beans, but hate the bitter aftertaste. The Crio Beans take the cocoa beans and cover them with rich dark chocolate. All chocolate, no bitter. I am in love.

The verdict? While I wouldn’t give up coffee entirely, this would be an excellent choice for people trying to cut down or cut out caffeine. It would be especially good for, say, after dinner when you’d might like a cup of coffee, but don’t want to stay up all night. And I would feel very chic offering it to my book club along with sweets.

I haven’t drunk enough to attest to the weight loss claims, but I did feel markedly less hungry on the days that I drank the Brü. I’d love to do a long term experiment to see if the claims of increased energy and decreased weight are true.

A healthy alternative to two of the most widespread (legal, Charlie, legal) addictions? Definitely worth checking out.

Alyssa

Posted in Chocolicious Reviews, Drinking Chocolate | 5 Comments

And the Oscar goes to…

Posted on 02/28/2011 by

My mom and I have an ongoing dispute discussion regarding chocolate. She claims that if she has one really good square of chocolate, she is satisfied and doesn’t need or want to eat any more. I argue that if the chocolate is that good, how is it even possible to eat just one square??

Well, apparently, I have been eating the wrong chocolate.

When Julia Baker Confections contacted us here at Blog Chocolate, my heart started to race just a little bit. Have you seen their website? If not, go over and have a little look-see. Go on. I’ll wait.

OK, now that you’re back I know we’re on the same page. (Wipe the drool off your face, btw, it’s distracting.) The lady knows a little something about presentation, am I right? Even my hard-to-impress mom gasped out loud when I showed her a picture of the Red Hat Box:

Trained at the famous Le Cordon Bleu Paris, as well as learning from several other renowned culinary artists, it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that her chocolates are, well, a work of art. I had the immense pleasure of sampling the 18-piece Window Box:

Mmm, they’re so pretty it’s almost a shame to eat them. (But I “forced” myself. You know, for the team.) The chocolates are handcrafted, and it is easy to taste that they are made of superior quality ingredients. Hands down, the winner around here were the French Caramel Truffles (not shown, as they were on the second layer). Luscious caramel surrounded by chocolate and covered with crunchy toffee bits. Much to my surprise, my runner-up was the Coconut truffle. I don’t even like coconut all that much, but this was coconut on a whole other level.

However, if you’re looking for something a little less fancy, but equally delicious, may I recommend the Dark Gooey Chocolate bar:

With a combination of dark chocolate, creamy caramel and sea salt, this chocolate bar is quite simply irresistible. No, really. I kept offering a sample to other people and ended up eating most of the bar myself because I was loath to give it away.

According to her website, she has gained some notoriety as “Chocolatier to the Stars”. I can see why. Julia Baker’s chocolates are so intensely satisfying that this diehard “chocolate devourer”, this “more is better, and less is simply not enough” chocolate fan found herself eating 2 or 3 chocolates and being completely satiated. I don’t think that has ever happened.  The stars could eat their fill and still fit into their Oscar gowns.

And so, I will have to give the Chocolate Oscar for Best Chocolate Craving Solution to Julia Baker Confections. Kudos.

~Alyssa

Posted in Chocolate!, Chocolicious Reviews, Favourites | Leave a comment

Tasty Image

Posted on 02/18/2011 by

I love writing reviews about chocolate that I adore. It feels great to gush about a product that is truly extraordinary and share it with fellow chocoholics.

I don’t love writing reviews about chocolate that I don’t like.  I am a quintessential uber-polite, niiiice Canadian. It is not fun to give an unkind review about an eagar chocolatepreneur who is hoping Blog Chocolate will promote their products.

But this blog is authentic.  We are honest.  We are not for sale. If we recommend a chocolate – you should covet it because we genuinely applaud it. Not every chocolate is a 10 out of 10. Not all chocolate it is good. I wish I didn’t have to tell you that  Tasty Image is not good chocolate.

The idea is interesting. Sincerely. Print high-quality photos or images directly on chocolate gifts. What a terrific concept for a kid’s birthday part or a corporate give-away.  It’s a fresh twist on the customized chocolate craze. Their website is great and their product line is vast.  They have many different shapes and sizes and the images really are crisp and clear – the photos are so good that it’s almost hard to believe they are edible.

While the photos are absolutely safe to eat,  I am sorry to say that the images are anything but tasty. The chocolate quality is poor – waxy texture, cheap-tasting flavour.  I can forgive that. Not every chocolate must be artisan quality.  There are many kinds of chocolate consumers and it’s the kind of chocolate children would likely eat enthusiastically.

Where the flavour falls short for me, is with the images. The photos are screen printed somehow onto a candy-esque, chalky disk that sits on top of the chocolate.  The flavour is bitter and the texture is strange. It was such an unpleasant taste that I hope I somehow received a bad batch.  Not a 10 out of 10.

I let my 9-year-old son try. He made a grimace and declared he didn’t like it – but then he finished the entire thing.

So, it’s not a complete miss. They know their target. Personalized chocolate is very popular and they have a new exciting way to tap into that category. Tasty Image has come up with a very unique and special business idea and judging from their site they are very successful and have plenty of fans.

This chocolate snob is just not one of them.

~Sandra

Posted in Baaaad Chocolate, Chocolicious Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Putting the heart back in Valentine’s Day

Posted on 02/14/2011 by

Alyssa’s husband rocks Valentine’s Day. (Seriously – that green M&M story is one of the cutest things I’ve heard in a long time).  My husband does not rock Valentine’s day (but that’s my own fault).

Today is a romantic, fantastic, epic chocolate-palooza. Lovers all over will receive gorgeous boxes of chocolates (or hastily purchased drug store candy with tacky red hearts all over them). Whatever your chocolate taste, I am in full support of a day that encourages the giving and receiving of my favourite sweets.

But despite this blog’s name, our Valentine’s Day post has nothing to do with chocolate.

I want to put the “heart” back in Valentine’s day.

February is Heart Month.  The Heart and Stroke Foundation uses this time of year to get people talking and thinking about heart and stroke.  This is the first year I’ve paid much notice to Heart Month because it now has a special meaning for me.

Until recently I did not know that …

  • Heart disease and stroke is the #1 cause of death among women in Canada.
  • Heart disease kills 7 times as many women as breast cancer.
  • Every 7 minutes in Canada, someone dies from heart disease or stroke.
  • Every 10 minutes in Canada, someone experiences a stroke.
  • Less than 5% of people who have a cardiac arrest outside of the hospital survive.

Two months ago my mother suffered a massive cardiac arrest.  At 4am on a Friday, she sat up in bed gasping for breath, lost consciousness and fell to the floor without a heart beat.

More than 95% of people who have cardiac arrest at home do not survive. My mom lived because my amazing, brave father saved her life.

My dad is retired and drives a school bus to keep busy.  As part of his driver training, he’d completed a CPR course just a few weeks prior. With a calm resolve and quick action, he called 911, performed CPR to get her breathing and the EMS arrived in less than 7 minutes to defibrillate her.

I sat by her bedside for 5 days in ICU and then again for a week when she was air lifted to another city for two heart surgeries.  Her recovery has been nothing short of miraculous. If you saw her today you would have no idea we almost lost her. No idea that she was one of those lucky 5%.

The technology available today, thanks to extraordinary research, saved her life.  CPR training, that is constantly evolving and improving, saved her life.  A responsive EMS team with the latest equipment saved her life. Two skilled surgeons saved her life.

My dad saved her life.

So for this Heart Month, and to mark Valentine’s day I made a donation to the Heart and Stroke Foundation. I hope you’ll consider doing the same. Or sign up for a CPR course. Or start exercising. Or learn about your own risks and take steps to improve your heart health.

Happy Valentines day to my hero. The man who put the “heart” back in Valentine’s day for my entire family …

My 9-year-old bought Grandpa a cape for Xmas to thank him for saving Grandma. Every hero needs a cape.

Happy Valentine’s Day!
~Sandra

Posted in Chocolate Activism, Life Is Like A Box Of Chocolates | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments