chocolate

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What Shall We Then Eat? (Part 3)

A while back, I posted a couple of blogs about eating responsibly—“What Should We Then Eat?” (Part 1 was about eating to be healthy, and Part 2 was about eating with the environment in mind.) Today, I’d finally like to finish this mini-series with “Part 3: Eating with a Social Conscience.”

Here in the U.S., it’s easy to forget that our food choices have a global impact. A quick trip through the market can remind us. There are bananas from central America, coffee from Kenya, and apples from Australia. Tropical species (such as chocolate) have to be imported. Out of season produce is grown in the southern hemisphere and flown north so we can eat oranges all summer and grapes all winter. All in all, when it comes to food choices, we’re pretty spoiled.

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I Love Chocolate

I love chocolate. I admit it. I’m one of those people you could find wearing a T-shirt reading, “Hand over the chocolate and nobody gets hurt.” It’s definitely one of the major food groups. I could hug the scientist who named the cacao plant Cacao theobroma—literally, “chocolate God-food.”

There has been plenty of research now indicating that chocolate (sans the sugar) is actually good for you, but a little more encouragement can’t hurt. I recently read an article containing the phrase, “The incidence of fatal heart attacks correlated inversely with the amount of chocolate consumed.”[1] In other words, eating chocolate reduces your chances of dying from a heart attack. Pass the Toblerone!

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Jeremy’s S’mookies

How much sugar can you cram into one gooey, delicious mouthful? Quite a lot, apparently. My creative son-in-law, Jeremy, came up with this new camping dessert while we were enjoying a weekend in the mountains.

To make one serving (note: Jeremy downed a number of these, so maybe this only makes a partial serving):

  • 2 large marshmallows
  • 2 squares of chocolate bar
  • 2 large, gooey, chocolate chip cookies

Build campfire. Wait until flames are mostly gone, and coals glow red. Toast marshmallows until thoroughly melted, and brown on outside.

Scrape melted marshmallows off skewer onto a cookie. Shove chocolate into marshmallows to melt. Top with other cookie. Stuff into mouth. Repeat.