Saturday night, I had some people over for fondue. It was a dinner that a friend and I put up in a service auction last spring and it was due time to give the winners the event they had won. I did both cheese and chocolate, all with a varied array of appropriate dippers. Someone commented, as they took in the number of things I had put out to dip, that they'd never really been given so many options of things to dip.

I served the cheese fondue with the traditional chunks of bread as well as pieces of grilled and cubed chicken, blanched veggies (broccoli, carrots and brussels sprouts) and grape tomatoes. The chocolate was matched up with pound cake, chunks of rice crispy treats, shortbread cookies, pineapple, strawberries, apples, oranges, banana and pears. I was disappointed with the cheese fondue, for the first time ever, it was sort of chunky in texture. I don't know why that happened. However, it was totally redeemed by the chocolate. Smooth and the perfect consistency, it was a winner. The recipe is after the jump.

I've mentioned before that I'm not a huge chocolate fan, but I do love how beautiful it can make even the most ordinary desserts. If you've ever wondered how chefs prepare some of their gorgeous chocolate creations, Ghirardelli lets us in on one of their secrets with this recipe for chocolate dessert cups which I found via bfeedme.com. Using balloons of all things, the procedure is really quite simple - dip inflated balloons partway into melted chocolate and let set in the freezer until solid.

The cups can be filled with just about anything - mousse, ice cream, berries, whatever your heart desires. Just be sure to remove all traces of the balloon before serving. If you'd like to try making these at home, the full instructions from the Ghirardelli website can be found after the jump.

I come from a family that bought Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa in the packets and mixed it with water. It wasn't until later on in my teen years that I even knew that there were people who drank it with - gasp! - milk.

Now I can't make it with anything else but milk. Making it with water just makes it too, well, watery. I've switched to Ghirardelli (though I still get Swiss Miss if the store is out of Ghiradelli), and it just tastes better with milk (even the non-fat stuff I use). My roommate just bought one of the Keurig machines and it comes with "specially formulated" Ghirardelli chocolate for the Keurig maker (though it comes in the regular sized packets and not those individual cups things, so I'm not even sure how you're supposed to make it - do they sell reusable cups you can put the hot chocolate in?), but I'm not going to use water. I like it creamier now.

So, what do you make it with, water or milk? And do you call it "hot chocolate" or "hot cocoa?"

Ghirardelli has been making delicious dark chocolates since the company opened more than 150 years ago, but to meet growing consumer demand, they have introduced some new, gourmet chocolates. Intense Dark Gourmet Chocolate Bars are blends of unique Ghirardelli dark chocolate with new flavors and varying cocoa contents, designed to appeal to a wide variety of chocolate lovers. The four flavors include:

Twilight Delight - 72% cacao smooth dark chocolate
Citrus Sunset - 60% cacao dark chocolate with orange and caramel crunch
Espresso Escape - 60% cacao dark chocolate with finely ground espresso beans
Toffee Interlude - 42% cacao dark chocolate with toffee and carmelized almonds

Ghirardelli hosted an event with chocolate experts including Alice Medrich and Elizabeth Faulkner to determine the best food and drink pairings with these chocolates, all of which can be viewed here. My favorite suggestion is to pair Espresso Escape with marshmallows to make "adult" s'mores. Yum! The 3.5 ounce bars should be in stores around the country by now, but I have only seen them online so far.