"national chocolate day" 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.

It's getting to be that time of year when we make cookies shaped like humans. This one from Bon Appetit fits into National Chocolate Day quite nicely since the gingerbread cookies are covered in dark chocolate.

Question: when you eat a gingerbread man, what body part do you eat first? I think that tells a lot about a person. I always bite off the head.

As if anyone needs a holiday as an excuse to eat chocolate!

Today is National Chocolate Day, and I thought that instead of having one post where I mention the day and list some recipes I'd do a bunch of posts that have to do with chocolate the entire day. So expect recipes, facts about the history of chocolate, maybe even some posts on things that you can make out of chocolate. I'll let you know what I find. Tune in throughout the day for more.

Mmmm...chocolate.