Chocolate is Salad, and Here's Why

 So there are three days in the year that are my favorite: Christmas, my birthday, and today. 

Why today?

Because today is National Chocolate day!

If you know me really well, you know how much I love chocolate. 

Like LOVE CHOCOLATE.

Growing up, I would eat chocolate chips by the handful; 

 through high school and college, I would squirrel away chocolate stashes in my backpack, my locker, and my apartment;  

even now, I have a drawer in my desk at work I have dubbed "the chocolate drawer", for obvious reasons. 

I visited my sister in New York a couple of years ago, and one of the places we went was Eataly--a fabulous Italian marketplace that, among other things, has chocolate by the bag.

You heard me right. 

Chocolate

by

the

bag.

Like, you fill up a bag of chocolate--any chocolate you want, individually wrapped, of course--and you pay by the pound. 

Did I take advantage of this?

Yes, yes I did.

 And then she took me to Max Brenner where I tasted the most amazing hot chocolate I've ever had(at a restaurant, that is, nothing can beat my own made-from-scratch-cocoa).

The only thing other place I spent that much money was The Strand and The Drama Bookshop, but I digress.

No joke. 

Being a quirky thespian, I do things on this day that I don't usually do other days--I mean, I could, but I save these particular things for this particular day. 

Because of course I do. 

Back in college, I was introduced to Regency mystery writer Andrea Penrose. 

She wrote several mysteries centering on a woman named Lady Arianna Hadley and her husband, the Earl of Saybrook, who is a government agent. 

Together they solve mysteries that sometimes include murder but always include chocolate. The headings of each chapter have historical references to chocolate and recipes in the back!

Needless to say, I fell in love.

I've borrowed this book from the library so much I should probably either get my own copy or buy the audiobook.

The other thing that I do--annually, since I actually own this one and don't have to constantly borrow it from the library--is watch the film Chocolat. 

It's a fantastic fable about a woman who transforms a little French village by simply opening a chocolate shop...during Lent. 

Which is all sorts of fun. 

Plus, it's got Johnny Depp in it, which is an added bonus.

 If you want to be my best friend for life, bring me a pound of dark chocolate. If you're real nice, I might share it with you.