I ate last night at a restaurant in Charleston, SC called Tristan. I had previously visited this chic little place on the Charleston Chocolate Tour where they made the best hot chocolate I ever had. So I went back for dinner to see what other chocolate treasures they would have and I was pleasantly greeted with their newly available Chocolate Barbeque Sauce! Tristan is no road side barbecue joint, my friends, it is fine dining that stands up to all its competitors in Charleston. I had a wonderful appetizer of shortribs grilled to perfection and a side of the chocolate barbecue sauce and I was in chocolate heaven again! Not too sweet, and went great with the smoky barbecue flavor. It is will be availabel online in 1-2 weeks for anyone wanting to give it a try. Chef Duffy was there to greet all his guests and said the bottles were not quite ready to ship yet! The sauce was served to Vanna White and Pat Sajak when they were recently in Charleston taping the Wheel of Fortune and it must have been a hit! Here is the site for Tristan if anyone is interested in buying the sauce when it comes available!
Archive for January, 2007
Chocolate on the Verizon!
January 26, 2007Verizon Wireless LG Chocolate VX8500 phone comes in Chocolate, Cherry Chocolate, Mint Chocolate, and White Chocolate! It is awesome! The LG VX-8500 Chocolate is the Verizon answer to the iPod. Part MP3 player, part cell phone. Megapixel camera, Bluetooth, sleek slide design. MicroSD port for extra storage. I just wanted to share this and give some information on purchasing! I am definitely gonna get one of these too!
http://www.amazon.com/LG-VX8500-Chocolate-Verizon-Wireless/dp/B000H7GVA4
Never do I pass up a good brownie recipe!
January 23, 2007In my travels to find out where I was listed on the google listings for www.chickslovechocolate.com, I came across a site called the www.kitchenchick.com and a blog full of great recipes! I thought I would pass this recipe to others since everyone loves a good brownie-young and old love them! You can do so much with them too- cut them up in pieces and layer them with chocolate pudding for a great truffle, serve them with vanilla ice cream and a great hot fudge sauce, or add a nice raspberry sauce and fresh raspberries with a dollop of whipped cream or just alone with a glass of milk! So simple, yet so awesome! So check this site out and the brownie recipe!
Dipping Candies/Strawberries for Valentine’s Day
January 22, 2007I was given the this link by a friend that was blogging. The link is for a fellow blogger who dipped cinnamon bears in chocolate over the holidays. I think this might be useful for anyone wanting to do chocolate dipped strawberries too especially for Valentines’ Day! Take a look!
If you want to go directly to the ghirardelli site for the recipe, go to:
www.ghirardelli.com/bake/chocolate_dipping.aspx
Sometimes Valentine’s Day is not for the weak at heart but here is a tip on how to make the best of it!
January 21, 2007I have had many a Valentines’ Day that I did not have a significant other. I remember one such Valentines’ Day when I was a just-graduated pharmacist living in a new town a few hours from home (where I didn’t know a soul!). I was doing my laundry at the local laundromat the night of Valentines’ Day, reading a novel to pass the time. Out of the blue, a man whom I had never met, brought me a red rose! He said he couldn’t bear to think I was alone on Valentines’ Day and immediately left. I really was stunned and it was so unexpected. He was a real angel and I remember smelling my rose the whole way home. There are some really special people in this world and it may be that God sends us an angel now and then to remind us of this. So if you are alone this Valentine’s Day, think of some of the people in your life who you are grateful for and try not to dwell on what you don’t have and what you do have. I am sure you can think of a special angel who came into your life at one point or the other too!
Can’t get your kid to brush their teeth? They may with chocolate toothpaste…
January 21, 2007Hi Mom chicks out there. If you are looking for further bribes to get your bedtime routine going, here is one more. Chocolate flavored toothpaste! At Tanners Tastypaste, you can get toothpaste in vanilla, vanilla orange or our favorite, chocolate!! Love that idea! Parents magazine already did a story so I am gonna keep the word out on this going!
Dark, Milk, or White Chocolate? and What are all those percentages?
January 21, 2007Sometimes, the wold of chocolate gets a little confusing. I want to make this a simple thing for all. The reason white chocolate is white is because there is no cocoa liqueur or cocoa mass in white chocolate but there is cocoa butter which is white. When buying white chocolate, look for the whitest color! Yellow/white chocolate is usually poor quality. Got that? Moving on to milk chocolate. Milk chocolate contains milk solids and lots of sugar. The beans that milk chocolate comes from are usually less quality. Dark chocolate has been found to contain the healthiest compounds because it really is from the rawest of the substances from the cocoa bean. The higher the percentage, the higher the cocoa mass or liqueur. Do not bake with a higher percentage than 50-55% because it is usually too bitter. But if you develop your tastebuds, the higher percentages are usually better for you because they have less sugar and higher cocoa content so you get all the healthy cocoa compounds in a very potent piece of chocolate. Kinda of like extra strength! Higher than 70% is a little too bitter for most of our palettes but that is an individual preference. Here at Chicks Love Chocolate, are dark chocolates are 55% cocoa. Hope that helps!
Chocolate Walking Tour Paris!
January 20, 2007My friend Sarah gave me an idea to look and see what was going on in the world of chocolate in Paris because she has a website packed with information for anyone who loves Paris! (www.bonjourparis.com) I looked to see what was available and one of the best authors on chocolates, David Lebovitz, has a whole website on Paris and Chocolate! There is an upcoming tour in May 2007 for a whole week visiting local chocolate shops and bakeries that is done by David himself! I love talking about tours since they are so much fun and informative. Please take a look at this tour in Paris. What a better way to enjoy chocolate!
Chocolate and Apple or Banana? What do you think?
January 17, 2007I am thinking about putting up some new candle fragrances for my soy candles at www.chickslovechocolate.com. I am fairly confident that the combinations with chocolate that I am thinking about will do well. There are a couple suggestions from friends and family that include things like chocolate/apple, chocolate/banana, and others that I think people relate to mixtures from their last visit at the fondue restaurant. I was wondering if there weren’t some better options,though, and what others’ thoughts were on the matter. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. I would love the feedback from anyone who has recently come across a chocolate combination that they thought was so unique and of course, wonderfully smelling! Thanks!
Chocolate Tobacco? Who knew?
January 14, 2007 I was in Charleston, South Carolina and visited two wonderful tobacco shops looking for cigars for the hubby- the Tinker Box and the Smoking Lamp. I was so amazed to see that chocolate has now entered the world of tobacco! There is cigarettes in Chocolate Mocha flavor called “Sweet Dreams” and cigars in Chocolate tobacco flavor as well. The smell is just wonderful ! So if anyone is a smoker (and I don’t really condone it due to my having a medical background) and loves chocolate, these are some new twists on cigarettes and cigars. My girlfriend tried the Cherry flavor “Sweet Dreams” cigarettes and said that they would go great with some dark chocolate because they leave a sweet cherry flavored flavor in your mouth!!!
Sweet Dreams Chocolate Mocha Cigarettes
