Chocolate and I have a love affair that goes back as far as I can remember. From my first cake, to the time when I was five and my mom had to restrict my Hershey bar intake to one a day because I just couldn't handle myself. All the way through to adulthood I didn't go a day without chocolate.
Enjoy these fun videos from the recent Fresno Food Expo! They include Almond Butter, Siracha Ketchup, Chocolate, Sweet Peppers, and Pistachio Bites.
This week we have three fun chocolate mysteries! The Diva Steals a Chocolate Kiss by Krista Davis, Death of a Chocolate Cheater by Penny Pike, and Truffled to Death: A Chocolate Covered Mystery by Kathy Aarons. Details on how to win copies of all of these books at the end of this post, along with a link to purchase them.
Avery opened the copy of Missy’s Magazine she had grabbed at the grocery store.
“Wow!” It sounded too good to be true. She whirled around and waved the magazine. “This is the best diet ever.”
Avery and her roommate, Alexa, were just returning to the apartment after their monthly shopping expedition. Avery flipped over to page three and scanned as Alexa started emptying the bags. After a short perusal she shoved the magazine in front of Alexa.
Except for that one incident with the Godiva chocolates, my marriage would have been perfect.
My wife wasn't beautiful, but she was intelligent and rich, qualities a man looks for when he climbs the corporate ladder. My marriage had survived the seven-year-itch twice before I hired Marvella to be my secretary. She had a figure that would make any man re-think his marriage vows.
I have to admit that when I was asked to write a piece around Valentine's Day, I did roll my eyes a bit. Well, since I received this request over email, it was probably a rather large eye-roll. It was the same eye-roll that accompanied the moment when I got to the, "You complete me," line in the movie Jerry Maguire.
Regardless of how commercial Christmas gets, I will always love Christmas. Even though I can do without the retail craziness that the holiday season has become, I have always loved spreading Christmas cheer. The religious significance remains important to me today but I have always enjoyed the activities that go along with it: decorating the Christmas tree, getting presents, giving presents, wrapping presents. I would always watch A Charlie Brown Christmas, Miracle on 34th Street, and It's a Wonderful Life. I also consumed more baked goods around Christmas time than any other time of year.
My dad was crazy about chocolate covered cherries and every Valentines Day my sisters and I would go to the local drugstore and buy him a box of these sweet treats. Mom, a frail, delicate woman, favored milk chocolate with nuts or dark chocolate with coconut and we gave her Hershey or Mounds bars, all of which she ate sparingly, nibbling the bar as though she were a bird pecking at a treasured crust of bread. Nothing says “I Love You” like something made of chocolate.
Okay, I admit it, anything that says ‘chocolate’ on it has my immediate attention. You do not need to be a chocoholic, like me, to enjoy this book. This happens to be my favorite type of mystery, one in which a series of tragic incidents in the past cause a chain reaction resulting in murder in the present.
