i blog for chocolate

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At what age do you stop liking warheads, atomic fireballs,  and sweet tarts and graduate to chocolate?  I score big at Halloween because my kids don’t like chocolate. 

I KNOW!!!!!!!

They are not even adopted. 

Last night at church Jack won the first cakewalk.  He got to pick any cake off the table.  There were lots of chocolate choices including the big chocolate cake that I brought hoping to win back. 

But no. . .he comes back with some sugar cookies with orange icing.

What???

Then my friend’s daughter comes trotting back to the table with some chocolate goodies that she picked out.

Is it a girl/ boy thing?  Do boys not get the chocolate hormone? 

I always tell people who are so kind to point out that I have 4 children and they are all boys. . .insert fake smile here. . . that God knew I had enough hormones for an entire family! 

That must include the chocolate hormone.

Does my chocolate hormone decrease as I get older, so I need more of it to get my daily recommeded amount? 

The real question is:  Can chocolate cure menopause?

I think chocolate will be my drug of choice.  Acutally, it already is.

Thank you to everyone who celebrated National Chocolate Day with me yesterday!  I hope you had a delectable day!

By random drawing the winner of the year’s supply of chocolate goes to. . .

Laura!!!!!!

Thanks to everyone who particpated!  Laura your chocolate will be on its way!  Enjoy!

You can also be a fan of this blog on FB.  Look for the fan page:  iBlogforChocolate.com.

Who Knew???

There is a day for everything else–why not one for CHOCOLATE? 

Wait a minute–I thought every day was CHOCOLATE DAY????

To celebrate National Chocolate Day, I am assembling a few of my favorite things.  All chocolate, of course. 

First, a memory.

When Matt and I went to Hawaii 10 years ago (was it really 10 years. . .wow I need a new travel agent)  we dined at Roy’s.  When we sat down the waiter asked us about dessert. 

I thought, “Now this is my kind of restaurant.”

All that green stuff  is just the pathway to dessert without guilt. 

We ordered a chocolate lava cake.  We had to order it at the beginning of the meal, so it could be perfectly timed to arrive at our table completely molten and delicious. 

Since then we have seen many imitations.  But Roy’s emblazened a special place in my mind as the restaurant who truly cares about what their customer really wants–dessert.

Now to celebrate this year I am preparing something entirely easy yet sinful.  It is called a Chocolate Chip Candy Bar Cake. I have never made it before but it sounds kid friendly and yummy.  (It is on page  337 of our school cookbook if you have one.)  The recipe is below.

And here is another freebie–the recipe for a knock-out:  Missippi Mud.   Ally’s favorite.  More than one step, but worth it. http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1646476

Last, but not least here is my little-black-dress-of-chocolate-desserts.  You know the one you go to when you need something that makes you look great or at least like a good cook.  I can take no credit–It’s Robin’s recipe. (OK maybe I take full credit if she is not in the room. . .)  It is also in the school cookbook on page 446.  It is a one bowl wonder, and I made these to rave reviews last weekend.  Enjoy!

Now, if you made it this far in the post you deserve some chocolate! 

Leave a comment on ANY of my blog posts on National Day of Chocolate before 10:00 PM and you will be entered to win a year’s supply of chocolate.  (That means 365 pieces to add to your stash, and we are talking the good stuff here!!) May the best chocolate lover win!

Chocolate Chip Candy Bar Cake

1 pkg chocolate chip cookie dough
1 6 oz pkg chocolate chips
1/2 c peanut butter
1 c crumbled candy bar (Your choice.)

Grease 9×13 pan. Preheat oven to 375. Slice cookoie dough and press into pan. Bake 10-15 minutes or until done. Immediately top with chocolate chips and spread over entire cookie. then spread peanut butter over chocolate chips. Top with your favorite candy bar. (I will just put peanut butter on half for the picky ones.)

Robin’ s Speedy Brownies

2 c sugar, 1 ¾ c plain flour, 1 c oil, 5 eggs, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp vanilla, ½ c cocoa, Semi-sweet chocolate chips

Add all ingredients in a large mixing bowl, beat well with electric mixer.  Pour into greased 9×13 pan.  Sprinkle with chocolate chips.  Bake for 30 minutes at 350.

Autumn and I completed the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure on Sunday!  We ran the entire time even though Autumn was still recovering from the flu. She deserves a medal!!

We received all kinds of congratulations on FB.

All we did was run for 35 mintues straight.  It is not like we actually formulated a new cancer drug while we were panting uphill.

(I know you are all remembering when I couldn’t even get out of a chair by myself, but God is good!!)

We have actually been running since August. 

We started training with a program called to Couch to 5K which I downloaded to my iphone.  We began running 1 minute then walking 1 minute and worked our way up to running 30 minutes, walking none.

We hung out at the end of the race with a friend who lost her mom to breast cancer when she was just 5 and another mom from school who is a breast cancer survivor.

There is kinship there.  I  can relate to them.  We compared notes on our diagnosis and treatment.  We praised God for sustaining and upholding us in difficult times.

I am thrilled that there are events like this. 

We need reminders of how far we have come. 

We need to remember the experiences that made us who we are. 

We need to raise money to wipe out all types of cancer.

Life is precious.  Thanks to all the volunteers who coordinated this event that helped us remember God’s blessings to us.

I love to count the times announcers misspeak in October and declare that it is Breast Awareness month.  As if women and especially men need to be made aware of breasts.

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month, I want to offer an outsiders view. 

You see, I didn’t have breast cancer. 

Well, unless it was convenient.

Once or twice I just let someone assume that I had breast cancer.  I was tired of explaining what I actally had.  No one had ever heard of it and usually the only women they knew my age with cancer had breast cancer.  It is not that I lied, I just didn’t correct them.

So am I jealous that a whole month is devoted to eradicating their cancer, and no one even can pronounce mine?

No, not a bit.  In fact, I am running in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure this Sunday. 

Almost everytime I talk to someone getting chemo I realize that some of the drugs that they are taking are familiar to me.  For instance, adriamycin can treat all these types of cancer:  bladder, breast, head and neck, leukemia, liver, lung, lymphomas, mesothelioma, multiple myeloma, neuroblastoma, ovary, pancreas, prostate, sarcomas, stomach, testis, thyroid, uterus.

(Did you even know that there were that many types of cancer?)

So any new drugs created to treat breast cancer could be used to help treat other cancers as well. 

My sister asked me if it was OK to give me socks with pink ribbons on them when I was sick.  I said, “Sure.”  Yes, my feet were always cold, but there is some sense of community between all cancers survivors. 

So I am thankful for all the efforts to race for a cure.   After they find a cure for breast cancer, they can start spending  more time and money on curing all the rest.  And they may just find the breakthrough that cures them all.

I would love to give you all the gory details of our trip to the Grand Canyon.  Instead I will refer you to my friend’s blog.  We agree–the Canyon is beautiful AND scary!

http://oliveplants.wordpress.com/2009/10/05/the-grand-canyon/

Here are our highlights:

• Boys were more interested in lizards in parking lot than in looking into “the hole.”
• Grand Canyon gift shop was very popular stop.
• Brady said, and I quote, “It’s not that grand.”
• Jack said while sitting with me at the top of the Bright Angel Trail while his brothers ventured down, “I would rather sit here for 15 minutes than die.”
• BTW nothing is open at 4:30 in the morning which is the time our kids got up the first two mornings out West.
• Favorite part of our trip driving across the Mojave desert and seeing my college roommate.

On Sunday we drove past a farm near our house that has recently acquired 10 turkeys.  My husband turns to me and says,  “That is what we ought to do.”

I said, “ What?”

He said, “We could get a turkey, and I could kill it, then you could pluck it, and we could eat it for Thanksgiving.”

So I say, “That would be against the will of God.”

He doesn’t even respond but gives me a look.

I explain, “God has perfect timing.  He knew exactly when I should live on this earth, and I am extremely grateful that it is when turkeys are readily available in my grocer’s freezer.  He knew I was not cut out for that kind of stuff.”

Although sometimes, I am not certain.  Maybe I long for bygone days.

We have been home 11 days (Jack told me) from our trip out West, and I just got my pictures up on Facebook last night.  I already had to assure several people that I really was going to post some.  Eventually.  OK, OK.  Soon I promise.

Everything is just so instant these days.   My friend, Laurel, was uploading pictures of our night out to Facebook on the way home on her phone.  It doesn’t help that two of my friends who also made trips out West set the bar way high.  One printed her pictures each night at the hotel and completed her scrapbook before driving into her driveway at the end of the trip.  Another friend had her pictures downloaded, organized and published into a beautiful, coffee-table-worthy book within a week. 

So maybe I am not meant for this age.  Maybe I am just stuck in the eighties.  No voice mail, email, instant messaging, texting and tweeting. Time was on our side back then.  Although I think we spent most of it on our hair.

Recently someone commented on a picture of me on Facebook that I looked good. No, in fact, I just  reread it and she said–”Dana looks great.” 

Now I do not in any way want you to think that I let this go to my head.  This particular picture was far enough away to not see all my wrinkles and various imperfections.

But you have to understand this.  After having cancer the bar has been moved way, way down.

Looking great=she’s not dead.

Seriously, some people look at me as if they have seen a ghost or  expect at least to see someone who met death and it rubbed off on her a little.

I think I look pretty normal.   Not too dead. 

There was a time when I was emaciated and bald. Weighing what you weighed in high school is not necessarily a good thing.  And although I have never had great hair, it does keep your head warm and prevents people from staring at you wondering what is wrong.

So one of the best perks of cancer is having people tell you all the time how good you look.  But don’t let it go to your head.  They had all been picturing you in a casket so standing upright is a major accomplishment.

I admit it.  I may have a problem.

I first saw signs of this problem when I realized that the new flip top on the big bottles of Hershey’s chocolate syrup was a life changing invention for me.

Then on our vacation this year, another sign.

My son, Jack,  gave me a Hershey Bar.  He bought it for me at the canteen at First Landing State Park where we went crabbing near Virginia Beach.  Unfortunately, it melted.   All those lines that make it so easy to break apart and eat “just one more square” were gone. Of course, I didn’t want the chocolate to go to waste, so I popped it into the freezer for another day. 

We remembered that it was in the freezer as we are walking out the door to go home.  I started to peel it open as we drove out of the parking lot.  I heard a voice from the back asking what all children ask from the time they leave the comfort of the womb:  “Can I have some?” 

I looked down at the bar.  It was not divided into easily shared squares anymore.  One end was really thick, and I had already decided that I would have to lick the other end off the wrapper.  So I was contemplating how to split it up.

My husband, however, took my contemplation for hesitation.  He thought I didn’t want to share my chocolate.  So he announces to the kids, “You know your mom may not have even had kids if she had known that she would have to share her chocolate with you.” 

There isn’t even a glimmer of truth in his statement.

Yet I have to admit, I didn’t realize how many times my kids would actually want my chocolate.

But maybe my problem is not my selfishness but the actual quantity of chocolate necessary to get through a normal day.  There are those days when I catch myself  thinking that a piece of chocolate will turn this whole awful day around.  And it usually does for the seconds that  I stop the madness to savor some chocolate. 

Maybe my real problem is that I  just don’t stop long enough or often enough to savor all the good things right in front of me.

And chocolate definitely is one of life’s GOOD things!