Dark Chocolate

Dark chocolate is said to have certain health benefits, from reducing blood pressure and stress, to improved brain function. This is due to its containing a high level of antioxidants (polyphenols/flavanols) that fight free radicals (unstable atoms produced through metabolic process). I tend to eat a decent amount of dark chocolate. The wife, who likes to grocery shop by herself, will buy me several bars, usually at Aldi's. I have, however, on occasion been known to snack on some chocolate chips, and this sometimes gets me in trouble, like last week.

"Trouble, starts with T, and rhymes with..." well you get it.  We were asked to bring a dessert for Easter dinner, and my wife found a gluten free recipe that called for several ounces of dark chocolate. I had gone to the cupboard to munch on some dark chocolate chips that were in the container apparently, in my wife's mind, they are set aside for baking and not eating. Over the course of week or so I grabbed a handful to eat. I know my wife does not like dark chocolate, but when she last made a molten cake dessert all she had on hand was dark chocolate chips. When I am allowed to grocery shop, I usually dump a few in the cart. I am not sure of the reason why we were out of regular dark chocolate chips, but they too may have found their way into my palm and by extension my mouth.

Alde Dark Chocolate usually purchased

Perhaps she picked out the dark chocolate dessert since she knew all we had were dark chocolate chips. After she told me she needed seven some ounces, I got out the scale and found that we only had a bit over four ounces. Knowing we would need more, I discreetly grabbed a few more, but then quickly made my way too the basement, our staple overflow storage, where I found we had a second bag of dark chocolate chips. Who knew that my dumping items in the grocery cart would save not only the day, but me. I would have been in a big pile of doo doo. If we did not have the extra bag, I am don't know what my wife could have used to bring down her blood pressure at that moment. She would have needed a whole dark chocolate candy bar to lower her blood pressure if we needed to source more dark chocolate chips, but she is not a fan of dark chocolate, her bp would raise even more. 

I generally have some dark chocolate candy bars down stairs during my forays to the cupboard, but for some reason the chips in the cupboard were calling my name. How long should a person expect chocolate chips to last in a cupboard? Apparently, the wife thinks they are for baking, as in use in  in baked goods, while I often have other thoughts. It has not been unusual for her to find the cupboard bare of chocolate chips when she goes to make cookies or some other treat. I get the blame. One year my sister gave me peanut butter and chocolate chips as a Christmas present, knowing that my wife did not like my peanut butter chocolate chip sandwiches used on sweet breads, like zucchini or banana breads.

So, it came to pass that I was saved by having had dark chocolate chips on hand, or throwing them in the cart when I am allowed to go grocery shopping. When this occurred last week, my wife said "There better be a blog post about this!" I do what the wife says, and this is the blog post.