You would think this is a holiday I could get a little crazy with. Kind of like the day that all the other days were leading up to. I mean, it’s all about chocolate! What would I do today? Would I create a bust of Lola’s head made entirely of chocolate? Would I tour the Necco Candy factory? Would I fuse chocolate into a savory dinner – a nice mole sauce perhaps? Would I stand on the corner and throw chocolates to people as if I was some kind of deranged mash up of Willy Wonka and Rip Taylor?
None of that happened today. Sometimes, you have to know your limitations and I couldn’t find the motivation. It happens and when you are on a 365 day journey, there will be days (maybe even multiple days) where you just do enough to get by. I think that’s where I was today. It was cold out and the wind was making it feel like it was yelling at us to stay inside. Lola was sick and we both were tired. It had been a long week, so I took it easy and kept my celebration easy as well.
We did motivate to join Cherie and Pete for some Trick or Trunk at Brickie’s school – I suppose that is a celebration of chocolate. It was a cute little scene. Cherie had decorated the back of their car with all kinds of construction vehicles (Brickie is what you would call a truck enthusiast and has a vast collection of Tonka trucks. He’s actually pretty proud of his collection and he will ask you to come see it if you are ever chatting with him). She added in some construction tape, some tools and some orange cones to add to the trunkscape which made it fin and festive. Then her and Pete (and Calix too) were all dressed up like construction workers with hard hats and safety vests. Becky was there too and she was in her construction gear as well. Lola and I were the odd balls as we came dressed in a liberty mohawk mask and a tiger mask. We didn’t fit the scene, but we tried to be festive.
Brickie was dressed as Batman and he gave us the biggest smiles when he saw us. The kids would all walk around the parking lot from trunk to trunk of all these decorated cars and fill their bags with all kinds of goodies from strangers, and yes chocolates were given out too (it was the holiday). You couldn’t help but smile at the cuteness of it all. Afterwards, we were all serenaded by the class with a few Halloween jingles to add to the festiveness of the day. It was a pretty nice little pause to take in the midst of our busy chocolate day.
When I was skimming through my Facebook feed on Chocolate Day Eve, I noticed a recipe for a brownie that looked pretty amazing. I thought this was a sign from above because I was still up in the air about what to make for chocolate day. The recipe was from a site called Recipe Girl and it was for something she called Basement Brownies (brownies so good you have too hide them in the basement). I was intrigued.
They only require a minimum of ingredients including a box of cake mix, a bag of caramels, butter, chocolate chips and some condensed milk. The hardest part was unwrapping all the individual caramels which you would then place in a pan on the stovetop and melt. For the brownies, you cook the base first for a few minutes, then take them out of the oven, add on the chocolate chips and the melted caramel, top with more batter and then cook the rest of the way. They look and smell fantastic when the come out of the oven.
If we are celebrating chocolate, then these did not disappoint. The batter, which is made from German Cake mix, firms up to brownie texture and gives a nice underlying chocolate taste to the whole brownie. The chocolate chips melt down but give every bite that extra little chocolate kick and also keep it nice and moist. Then the caramel kicks in and struts its stuff all over every bite. I’ll admit, it’s a lot of sweetness. I might even say the caramel was too much, but to be truthful, they are just ridiculous. We dug into them before they really had time to set up because we’re human and we were hungry. It was nice to try them good and warm and melty and oozy, but they were kind of messy. I think they are going to get better as they set up. We will see.
So that was the extent of my Chocolate Day celebration. Nothing too big, but I took time to try a new chocolate recipe, I got to enjoy it with Lola and I also got to be part of chocolate distribution to a bunch of little kids who were as excited as you could be to be getting big bags of chocolate. All things considered, that’s a pretty nice way to spend your chocolate day.
At night, we watched a movie called “Hunt for the Wilderpeople” which is a movie about a boy from New Zealand, his foster family and a journey that the embark on. This has nothing to do with chocolate or with chocolate day, but it was probably one of the best movies we’ve watched in a long time (and we watch a lot of movies). I won’t spoil it (as I can sometimes do), but it’s just a story that brings you all the feels and all the laughs and it’s a movie I want more people to know about. Check it out. It’s in the new release section at Blockbuster under “Lola’s Picks” (also available for rent on your streaming devices). Enjoy it with a nice brownie.
Next Up: National Oatmeal Day (It’s also National Cat Day, but I can’t find any good cat recipes).