I knew you wouldn’t mind.

While visiting Asheville, NC last week, I was lucky enough to visit not one, but two chocolate shops that sell handmade truffles and other decadent chocolate treats. Normally I wouldn’t tease you by telling you all about truffles you could never taste, but guess what! You can buy all of these truffles and more online! So get ready to take notes…

First up, an old favorite – The Chocolate Fetish. My husband and I visited The Chocolate Fetish on our previous two visits to Asheville. Obviously they’re doing something right because we keep coming back for more! They’ve also doubled the size of their store since our last visit, so we’re not the only ones who think so.

On this visit we picked up a bag of dark chocolate covered pretzels (the perfect salty sweet snack) and a box of 8 truffles. The Chocolate Fetish truffles are generously sized and expertly crafted. Each one has a rich chocolate shell that cracks when you bite into it, revealing a silky smooth ganache center. Truffle flavors pictured above: velvet sin, champagne, high tea, mocha magic, and mid-summer dream. See those last two truffles on the right, with the white chocolate criss cross? That’s the mid-summer dream, featuring lavender, lemon zest and honey. They are out-of-this world good and unlike any other truffle I’ve ever tried. They’re new and don’t seem to be available online, but if you see them in the store you need to buy one.

As if that weren’t enough chocolate, we also visited the newly opened (since we last visited Asheville) French Broad Chocolate Lounge. Chocolate lounge? Those are two words that belong together. The atmosphere at the French Broad Chocolate Lounge is half coffee shop and half bakery. Warm sunlight filters through the large windows at one end of the shop, highlighting the the marble-topped tables, cake stands proudly guarding chocolate cakes, and a large case of seemingly endless truffles. Oh, and the menu? 99% chocolate. Chocolate truffles, drinks, pastries, cakes, cookies, mousse, brownies… basically if you can make it with chocolate, it’s on the menu. They also feature a local cheese plate which I am very sad to say I did not try.

The first thing we tried at the French Broad Chocolate Lounge was the Cold Sipping Chocolate. It was thick, creamy, cool and rich, almost like a cold version of hot chocolate. Of course we couldn’t leave without trying a few truffles too.

You may have noticed there are only 4 truffles in the photo from the box of 6 we bought. About those other two… well, I only have so much self control. These truffles are smaller than the Chocolate Fetish truffles, but they pack a wallop of flavor and are equally satisfying. We purchased the following flavors: maple with smoked sea salt, vanilla bourbon, fresh raspberry, earl grey, buddha, and fig & port. My favorite? Well if you read this blog you’ll guess it – the vanilla bourbon. It had just enough bourbon for the flavor to come through without overwhelming the chocolate. I could eat a whole box of them. At once.

So there you have it – your personal hand-made truffle tour of Asheville, NC. These two chocolate shops did not ask for nor compensate me in any way for these rave reviews – I just love their chocolates and wanted to share them with you. Both companies sell their goods online and make excellent gifts!

I know it’s something most people outgrow by the time they’re, oh, about 12. But not me. One of my small joys in life is wandering down the candy aisle, eyes scanning the shelves for new and exciting candy. You won’t be surprised to find out I prefer chocolate candy over the fruity stuff.

This month has turned out to be an exciting month for candy! THREE new candies to try, all within a few weeks. It’s like I hit the new candy jackpot.

If you twisted my arm and forced me to choose a favorite candy, I’d probably pick Reese’s peanut butter cups. There is little better in life than the combination of peanut butter and chocolate, in my opinion. But I’m partial to dark chocolate, so over the last few years I’ve lamented the fact that they don’t make dark chocolate Reese’s. Sure, the regular ones are great, but wouldn’t dark chocolate Reese’s been ever better? And then, like a wish quietly granted, a few weeks ago they just appeared in the candy isle. No fanfare, no commercials, not even a mention on the Reese’s website. Obviously I grabbed the first bag I saw, ran home and stuffed one in my mouth. And then my life was complete. I was a little afraid they wouldn’t be as awesome as I imagined them to be, but oh, they are! Maybe even better. If you like dark chocolate and you like Reese’s peanut butter cups, you owe it to yourself to go find a bag of the Dark Reese’s – like right now.

Shorty after I accidentally discovered the Dark Reese’s, I heard rumors of two more new candies. You should know that I have a total weakness for special edition M&Ms. I don’t know what it is, the new flavor combinations or the cute little graphics they print on them, but that company totally has my number. To this day, my favorite M&Ms are/were special editions: dark chocolate M&Ms and the holiday-only mint M&Ms. So when I heard there were two new special edition M&M flavors floating around, I set off on a quest to find them ASAP.

First I found the Strawberried Peanut Butter M&Ms, a special edition flavor in honor of the new Transformers movie. I have no idea what Strawberried Peanut Butter M&Ms have to do with Transformers, I just knew I had to try them. The cashier where I bought them raved on and on about how they tasted like peanut butter and jelly, so I had high hopes for these M&Ms. Too bad they didn’t live up to them. They’re not awful, really, but they’re not good either. I found myself thinking if they were just the peanut butter part, they’d be great. But the “strawberried” part? Ew. These M&Ms have a gross, chemically fake strawberry smell and taste that is an almost immediate turnoff. Something about it reminds me of the dentist. A friend said it reminded her of cough syrup. Of the five people that tried them, only one didn’t think they were kinda gross, and he claimed he couldn’t taste any of the strawberry flavoring. I’d save your money for the other special edition M&Ms instead of wasting it on these.

The other special edition M&Ms sent me on a wild goose chase through two different towns in an effort to find them because they sounded that good. Coconut M&Ms. Peanut butter and chocolate may be my favorite flavor combination, but coconut and chocolate is probably a close second. I heard from various friends how good they were, but I couldn’t find them anywhere. Every store I looked in would tell me, “Well, we had them…” Just as I was beginning to think Coconut M&Ms were a figment of my imagination, a friend showed up with some and generously let me try them. I have to say they were worth the wild goose chase! While they don’t have any real coconut in them (just coconut flavoring) they taste fantastic. Very similar to a Mounds, but in M&Ms form. The coconut flavor isn’t overwhelming either. At first you just taste the chocolate but then, as the chocolate melts, you get this wave of coconut. And then you stuff six more in your mouth. Did I mention they have cute little palm trees printed on them too? Needless to say, if you like coconut you should definitely try Coconut M&Ms!

If you love candy like me, you might also enjoy the Candy Blog, which features new candy and reviews way before I ever find them in stores.

(I should note that I have not been paid or compensated in any manner for reviewing these candies. I just love candy! But if anyone from Mars or Hershey’s is reading this, you should know I can be bought with chocolate. I’m just saying.)

My husband and I took a trip to the Finger Lakes region of NY last week. One evening we were walking around the mall, past the usual Old Navy and Abercrombie and Best Buy, when I spotted it. A chocolate shop. No way was I going to keep walking!

The shop was called Gertrude Hawk Chocolates. We walked in and were greeted warmly by the employee, then offered a sample of their chocolate covered pretzel poppers. Did this place know I was coming? I have a serious weakness for chocolate covered pretzels.

While stuffing samples in my face, we browsed the rest of the store. Everything looked good, but I was resisting the urge to buy anything (everything), until my husband suggested that we buy some Dark Chocolate Peppermint Poppers. That was all it took. I caved. By some miracle, we walked out of that store with only those poppers and nothing else.

Later that evening, I cracked open the carton to try them. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much. They were tiny and they came from a store in the mall, how good could they be?

OMG. They taste exactly like peppermint patties, but in miniature. As I stuffed the tiny poppers in my mouth one at a time, I started having ideas.

“These would be really good in cookies!”, I exclaimed, envisioning chocolate cookie dough enveloping the minty morsels.

“Or, you know what else would be really awesome? If I made mint chocolate chip ice cream with these!” My husband’s face lit up at that suggestion. Mint chocolate chip is his favorite.

Oh, I had such grand plans for these Lil’ Chocolate Poppers. One small problem though. I sorta ate half the box before we got home. Now there are too few left to make anything with, but that doesn’t stop me from grabbing another handful every time I walk by the carton. So. Addictive.

Since I pretty much ate the whole box already, I’m going to have to get more. This time I might try a few of their other flavors, like the chocolate peanut butter poppers and the pretzel poppers. Did I mention they come in tiny adorable shapes too, like firemen and ice cream cones? I can’t wait to see what I can make with them (if I don’t eat them all)!

You readers in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey are lucky – you can find a local Gertrude Hawk store and buy some poppers right now. For the rest of us, there’s the Gertrude Hawk website and Gertrude Hawk on Twitter, where they announce sales and coupon offers.

(Gertrude Hawk in no way compensated me to write this review, nor am I associated with them in any way. In fact, they don’t even know I exist. I just loved their poppers and wanted to tell you about them!)

As for me, I just decided it’s never too late to relive your childhood through lunchboxes.

At the ripe old age of 27 (quickly sliding down the hill toward 30), I bought myself a lunchbox!

I’m sure you’re picturing a pink lunchbox with My Little Ponies or Care Bears on it, but this lunchbox is different. Sophisticated, even. It’s a Laptop Lunchbox.

Laptop Lunchboxes are half grade-school lunchbox and half Japanese bento. In other words, it’s one large square outer box that contains 4 square, smaller containers. All those containers? They’re at least 60% of the reason I’m so excited about my Laptop Lunchbox. I love organizing things and those containers let me to organize my lunch! So awesome.

The other 40% of the reason I love it? It’s got me excited about lunch again! As a kid I used to loath packing my lunch (to the point where in high school I just resorted eating fries from the cafeteria every day), but now I can’t wait to pack my lunch every night and I look forward to opening it the next day. Dorky? Probably. But hey, I was never a cool kid.

I’ll be honest, my biggest concern before I bought a Laptop Lunchbox was getting enough food in there. I may be small, but I like to eat! However I’m happy to report that after using it for 2 weeks, I have not been left hungry even once.

So what kinds of stuff can you put in one of these grown-up lunchboxes? Pretty much anything you want! I often put leftovers in mine, which is a great way to use them up without having to take 47 tupperware containers to work. Here are two really lousy photos of some lunches I’ve packed (I pack my lunch the night before, so the lighting is awful):

Contents: Turkey sandwich with champagne cheddar (as yummy as I predicted!), tomato and cucumber salad, a whole fuji apple sliced in half, some dark chocolate pretzels, and a little bit of peanut butter (for the apple) in the tiny container.

Contents: Leftover shrimp scampi (pasta in one container, shrimp in the other), a small salad with carrots, dressing in the tiny container, and some fresh grapes.

There are about a million other ideas for what to pack in your Laptop Lunchbox on Flickr. There’s really no limit to how creative you can be in packing the food in there. You can omit some (or all) of the containers in favor of putting food directly in the outer box, you can leave out the utensils (fork and spoon) in favor of putting extra food on the side, you can use containers within containers, etc.

Other reasons to love Laptop Lunchbox? It promotes healthier eating habits, cuts down on waste, and can be cleaned in the dishwasher.

At the risk of going on and on (and on), let’s just wrap this up by saying that the good company behind Laptop Lunchbox did not pay me or otherwise compensate me for writing this. In fact, they have no idea I’m doing it! I just love my Laptop Lunchbox so much that I thought you might want to get one for yourself, available on the Laptop Lunch website or at Amazon.com.

Or, you know, one for your kids, if you’re too cool for a lunchbox.