Day 154: Life is Like a Box of Chocolates

So I don't know how this will sound, but I've done stranger things before, I guess. On Day 154, I bought myself a heart-shaped box of Valentine's chocolates.

It's a not-so complicated story. I go to Kroger most days to pick up something for lunch at work. That way, I tend to eat less (pita bread and hummus, an apple), don't eat fast food, save money because I can eat that pita bread and hummus for four days, etc. Well, Day 154 was two days after Valentine's and upon walking into the store, I saw just gobs and gobs of candy that needed a home...and was discounted LIKE CRAZY. $9.00 boxes of chocolates down to $4.00. Bags of perfectly good fun-sized Snickers, covered in heart wrapping, 25% off.

I just...couldn't...resist...the deal!

But when I thought about actually BUYING one of those things AFTER V-Day, it's crazy uncomfortable. You look like you're single, desperate and making up for it, or that you're negligent of your own health, or just over-indulgent. It's so strange how purchasing a heart-shaped box of crappy chocolate is sweet and assumed for someone else when you buy it before V-Day, but an admission of a higher problem after V-Day.

Or do I just think too hard?

Day 44: Gold, Brains and Blogging Regrets

First, Happy National Chocolate Day!

Phew, now onto less important details...

About a week ago, I bought customized chocolate bars from Chocri (I've mentioned them twice now and I'm thinking I should get them to advertise!) and they finally arrived today in my mailbox. On my concoctions, I selected goji berries, cocoa nibs and real gold flake--almost exclusively for the decadent pleasure of eating gold.

Now I should say that at the close of the markets today, the price for one ounce of gold came in at around $1,340. While people will tell you up and down that you should be investing in gold, today, I ingested gold. The amount of gold was nowhere near a whole ounce, but it was still more than I should have eaten.

Frankly, there isn't too much to relay to my dear readers about eating gold. It doesn't taste like anything, good or bad. It did make my chocolate sparkle, but I would've enjoyed it the same if there wasn't the natural glitter. I should have known that it wouldn't taste like much, but I was so excited at the time and thrilled by the possibility of eating gold that I just went with it.

I'm thinking I might dress up in my fanciest attire and try again. Maybe something magical will happen, like I inherit more gold. Or the gold will make me rich. Or something. So far, I just feel overly decadent and like I maybe should have invested that extra cash for the topping in real gold. 

The chocolate is amazing all by itself, and I think I got carried away with a novelty. 

But I do feel like a badass just SAYING I ate gold. Maybe that's what this is for after all.

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Also, I have to mention to my readers that I have a blogging regret. I should have shared something with you when it happened, but alas, it will have to suffice for now. 

I ate brains on October 12.

Mark and I celebrated our year and a half anniversary at Paul's Restaurant. There, I ordered the sweetbread small plate, which, to the non-foodies, are sheep brains.You're wondering why on earth I could restrict you from such valuable, controversial, highly interesting information, I know.

Here's why:

First, I don't want to do many food posts. Food is easy to switch up in your daily routine, between three meals a day, countless restaurants and more food in the grocery store than I will eat in my lifetime, I think the "I ate (at) ____" posts could become overwhelming. There are already thousands of blogs like that and I want to offer you something new.

Also, that was the day I did my 5-Hour Energy mini-blog, which still ranks among the top 3 posts in pageviews so far, so I didn't (at the time) want to get greedy with two-fers. 

But these are BRAINS!!! Eating brains should be on my list of new things.

Now I'm going to tell you about this experience. It can be summed up that brains are bad on texture and good on taste.

Brain texture is bad because, for one, brains are hard to cut. When I'm slicing brain, I'd like to make it quick and not think too much about how this organ was just helping that little sheep "BBAAAA" to it's friends. 

Brain texture is also bad for chewing. Toughness makes me think about the fact that it's an actual brain when you have to chew it a lot, and think how much you must be jumbling the thoughts of that poor innocent creature. If you spit it back out and returned it to it's rightful owner, it would probably be singing ABBA. 

Brain taste is good. Brains are SO RICH. Like, tasty rich. And I didn't want to enjoy them too much, but I did, because they were covered in pancetta and butter. I'm only human.

Now that I've shared this with you, brains are officially on my list of new things, regret free. I'll never hold out on blogging about a really worthwhile food experience again, but I will keep those food posts interesting.

Day 36: My Chocolate, Indian Indulgence

Yesterday I learned about Chocri and I will never, ever be the same. The website's premise is simple enough--use fair trade chocolate and high-quality 'toppings' to create a customized chocolate bar. The toppings include hundreds of ingredients as diverse as basil, bacon and banana chips to satisfy any desire you could dream up. Oh, and you can name them once you're done.

So, as any chocoholic would do, I created and named my own chocolate bar.

Perusing the website yesterday was clearly a bad idea, as I have been thinking about the ideal combination of toppings and chocolate flavors ALL DAY. No joke, I even had dreams about the perfect bar.

Today, armed with chocolate dreams, I really went over the top. The first chocolate bar "Indian Indulgence" is the bar I thought up all day and night. It has goji berries, cocoa nibs and real gold flake, because they are all "new things" and because now that I know I can, I want to eat gold. I named it "Indian Indulgence" because I thought anything less than highfalutin, cheese-tastic language would really be failing the essence of creating and naming a chocolate bar. That chocolate bar alone came to twelve dollars, but when I went to check out, they said I had to order a minimum of two bars.

Shucks.

So for the next one, I allowed myself to experiment with the "wildflower" option. Yes, I am getting a bar with wildflowers on it...and blueberries. Because I'm sure I'll like that. And I went all-out on cheese-tastic names on this one, calling it my the "Exotic Wilderness" bar. You love it, don't play.

Can't wait 'til they arrive!