Recipe: Spinach and Fake Bacon Salad

I’ve never reviewed a chocolate bar before and I will, furthermore, confess a shameful love for plain Hershey’s bars that dates back to the time my grandmother was first left with me unattended and violated my mother’s up-to-that-point successful “no candy” policy.

However, the Stonewall Kitchens Dark Chocolate Chili Cinnamon and Nibs bar is a very far thing from that Hershey’s bar. It is dark as a stormy night, but carries a surprising amount of heat (of the various chili-augmented chocolate bars I’ve tried, it is the most fiery.) The darkness is a mellow one, developing a deliciously unctuous mouth feel. This is a nibbling bar, to be savored, bit by bit, each time edging up to almost too spicy and then backing away at the last moment.

My only nitpick with the chocolate bar overall would be that the cocoa nibs add texture, but I’m not sure I found them necessary. They seemed more like dry little distractions from the chocolate experience.

The ingredient list is substantially shorter and freer of long chemical names than that Hershey bar: dark chocolate, cocoa nibs, chipotle chili pepper powder, cinnamon powder, and cinnamon bark oil adding up to 440 calories for the three-ounce bar. Definitely a bar that I’d buy again if the opportunity presented itself, and it makes me curious to try their other products.

You can read this review at http://thegreenmanreview.com/food-and-drink/stonewall-kitchen-dark-chocolate-chili-cinnamon-and-nibs-bar/

As some readers know, I do like to cook. I’d mentioned this soup on Facebook and people wanted the recipe. It was an improvised soup, so I’m recreating it a bit. I christen it….Autumn Soup with dumplings.

Ingredients:
3-4 shallots, minced
2 T olive oil
2 chicken breasts, cut into inch size
3 c chicken broth
1 butternut squash, peeled, deseeded, cut into 1/2″ thick slices
1 can black-eyed peas or 2 cups frozen
2 T mirin (sweet rice wine)
2 T apple cider vinegar
fresh ground pepper

Dumplings:
1 c flour
2 T baking powder
1 T dried dill weed
1 T sugar
1 T butter
1/2 milk

Saute shallots in olive oil until brown around the edges. Throw in chicken chunks and sear for a few minutes. Add three cups chicken broth and rest of ingredients. Add enough water (2-3 cups) to make sure everything is submerged if needed. Cook at a low boil 45 minutes.

Meanwhile make dumplings:
Mix dry ingredients, cut in butter until mix is crumbly. Add milk. Dough will be sticky. Form into six equal sized balls, drop in soup. Cook covered for an additional fifteen minutes.