"NationalChocolateDay" news and stories

No excuse is usually necessary to dig into a piece of delectable chocolate, but as Wednesday, Oct. 28, is National Chocolate Day, feel free to eat two pieces.

We've got a few ways for you to celebrate. First, try whipping up a chocolate confection in honor of National Chocolate Day. We suggest 427's Chocolate Beet Cake (shown above), Quadruple Chocolate Brownies, Chocolate Chow Mein Noodles or Vanilla Hot Chocolate.

Next, consider eating chocolate with unlikely ingredients. Vosges' Mo's Chocolate Bacon Bar comes to mind. Scharffen Berger's Chocolate Adventure Recipe Contest is still accepting submissions -- you just have to combine chocolate with one of 16 exotic ingredients: paprika, cumin, smoked sea salt, papaya, rice flour, black-eyed peas, peanut butter (OK not that exotic), Malbec, fresh or whole dried chili pepper, cacao nibs, raw honey, sumac, banana leaf, pandan leaf, crystallized ginger and fresh mint. Two winners will get $10,000.

Or just ponder chocolate in all its forms, from chocolate skulls and radioactive chocolate to Baker's chocolate.