There are several things I will miss about Lewisburg, West Virginia when we leave (trying to get health insurance is NOT one of them). I'll miss the beautiful summer and fall, the mountains, the green space downtown, the bakeries, knowing people in all the shops, aaaaand: THE CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL! Every town should have a chocolate festival once a year. Ours was this past Saturday.
I was looking forward to walking around downtown with Lucy on Saturday and sampling different chocolate tasties, but I was kind of sad about having to do it by myself since Jason was (and still is) madly working on a show that opens this Friday and wouldn't really be able to come. Then, happy coincidence!
Our friends Ryan and Greg (NY and NC respectively) apparently decided to have an existentialist crisis, sell all their possessions, quit their jobs, and take the Great American Road Trip. Go them! Sounds like fun to me...well, not with a baby....which - I'm guessing - is why they're doing this now. Anyway, thanks to some cold weather and lack of cold weather gear, said friends ended up at our house late Friday night! Saturday was spent at the chocolate festival. Pictures of us will come when Ryan e-mails them to me, since he was the only one who thought to bring a camera.
Most Unique:
- Amazonia Dark Chocolate Truffle with Vermont Creamery Goat Cheese and Italian Citrus (very odd, kind of spicy)
- White Chocolate Fennel Bisque with Orange Salt (it was SOUP! Soooo good! Didn't really taste chocolaty, just had a hint of sweetness...and who knew they made orange salt?)
Basic chocolate tastiness:
- Flourless chocolate mousse
- Espresso Brownie
- Mini Chocolate lava muffin with espresso sauce (very light and not too coffee-ish)
Absolute Amazingness:
- Amy's thoughtful rich chocolate cake (oh my goodness, soooo rich, 3 bites was plenty!)
There was also the chocolate bake-off where you could sample various chocolate concoctions not made by professionals. I don't remember everything we tried, I think we got around 10 or 12 samples between the 4 of us (Jason joined us for an hour at lunch) and we all tried all the samples. My favorite was the chocolate cake with pumpkin spice frosting (except is wasn't exactly a frosting). I didn't think I'd much care for chocolate and pumpkin spice together, but it was amazing.
Not bad for a Saturday. I think we spent about $18 between the 4 of us, sampled around 20 different kinds of chocolate, and walked around downtown (and visited a couple cemeteries and one mass grave) for 4 1/2 hours. Plus getting to visit with old friends! (on a side note, while we were standing around with our variety of bake-off goodies, who should call but Campbell University....asking for money)
Sunday morning the boys went rock climbing (Jason included!), then Jason went to work and Ryan and Greg cooked dinner (what nice guys!). Monday the road trip continued and I'm back to square one, trying to un-addict myself from sugar.
I read your post drooling. Seriously. I think I might have even splurged for something like a chocolate festival! The one with goat cheese and the one with pumpkin spice frosting sound amazing since those are two of my favorite things!! (or, eh, were...?)
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's probably good that every town doesn't have a chocolate festival...I wasn't too sure about the goat cheese one, but goat cheese by itself isn't my favorite, a little strong for me. You probably would have loved it. The chocolate/pumpkin spice cake however, I really wish I had the recipe for...and I'm REALLY glad I don't =)
ReplyDeleteI have to say though, I didn't realize how much of a difference gradually cutting back on sugar was making and how little I was craving it compared to before until after the festival. That one day and I feel like I'm starting over *sigh* I would do it again in a heartbeat, I just wish that afterward I could go back to being where I was!
Did that second paragraph make ANY sense? Wow, talk about a jumbled sentence structure!
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