Half Hour Meals

Featured Community Member: Married to Chocolate

Written Friday, December 4th, 2009 by Penny Hawkins

Half Hour Meals Member Kris lives in New York and writes a fun, flirty, blog dedicated to her all-consuming love for chocolate. One look at this fun and lighthearted blog is enough to convince you that this lady is serious….she really loves chocolate! In fact, her blog profile states that her first love is chocolate and her second is words, which explains why she lists her profession as “journalist/chocoholic”. Read on to learn more about Kris and perhaps join her in her devotion to chocolate:

Your blog, Married to Chocolate, is dedicated to your intense love of chocolate as well as your passion for journalism. What inspired you to start a blog that combines your two passions? Married to Chocolate was part of a grad school project at Syracuse University where I got my MA in Magazine, Newspaper and Online Journalism. We launched a magazine and web site targeted at divorced women (get it? Married to Chocolate!) That's the long answer. The short answer--I followed my heart!

What is your earliest chocolate memory and how did it spark your lifelong love affair with chocolate? Lucky for me, I grew up in a house where my grandparents baked cakes on a regular basis. I remember our kitchen table being a constant mess of flour, eggs, and cocoa powder. And chocolate cake was my grandfather's specialty! He would make an extra batch of fudgy chocolate icing for me, and a tub of homemade caramel for my sister. Come dessert time we would each grab a spoon and dig in. How we didn't grow up to be morbidly obese, I don't know.

If you could eat your favorite chocolate anywhere in the world with anyone you wanted, where would you go, who would you take, and what would you eat? That's a loaded question! Eating chocolate is such a normal occurrence to me that I can't really isolate it into this single momentous event.. but I'm dying to go to Tuscany to meet chocolatiers Alessio and Cecilia Tessieri of Amedei. I've been salivating over their pralines for some time now. And I would probably take my favorite guy in the whole wide world with me-my three-year old nephew Logan. He's a little chocolate-lover too!

You obviously love chocolate in pretty much any forms and flavor. If you could have only one thing that is chocolate from now on, what would it be and why? One thing? Wow. I'm actually not a fan of all flavors of chocolate--I appreciate the creativity but I'm not crazy about the spicy ones.  I also tend to favor chocolate I can chew (hot chocolate is purely a Christmas indulgence for me). That said, if this nightmare were to come true, I would have to choose dark chocolate truffles--the soft ones--dusted with cocoa please.

White chocolate. Is it really chocolate or not? No it's not and that's exactly why I don't like it! I take my cocoa content seriously. I like my chocolate deep and dark.

So what’s your obsession with Red Velvet Cupcakes all about?  The reason why I love Red Velvet Cupcakes--and this I found out after I fell in love with them--is because they have cocoa in them. Figures! And hello, cream cheese frosting? What's not to love? To me, it's just one of those flavors that works. Pure genius.

I just love your “No-Bake Mondays” posts…each one featuring a delightful way to enjoy a no-bake chocolate treat! Where do you get the inspiration for your no-bake recipes? I once lived in a studio apartment with a tiny kitchen. I had a toaster oven but it couldn't do hardcore baking so I had to be creative.. I was also a student then and I couldn't exactly splurge on Callebaut chocolates and whatnot.

I look at recipes, strip them down to the basic ingredients, and play mix and match. I like recycling leftovers (leftover Halloween candy or cranberry sauce) and turning them into quick and easy desserts. No-Bake recipes have limitations (like no eggs, usually), but once you know how to work around them, there is so much you can do with ingredients that are probably already in your cupboard. I really believe no-baking is an underrated art- you just have to use your imagination!

Your recipe for No-Bake Microwave Chocolate Chip Bran Muffins looks amazing, quick, and oh-so easy. What is your absolute favorite no-bake treat? I'm a HUGE fan of fridge cakes! Graham crackers and vanilla yogurt can go a really long way if you're creative. My favorite to-date is the bastardized Nigella recipe I made--vanilla yogurt, whipped cream, dried mangoes, graham crackers--I swear by it! The Frozen Smores Bars were not too bad either.

Do you see yourself still blogging several years from now? I would like to think that as long as there is chocolate in the world, Married To Chocolate would be around. In the future though I do want to develop this into a full-blown chocolate extravaganza with a full editorial team of chocolate-obsessed people like me. I need someone to split the calories with.

Why did you join Half Hour Meals? It was a pleasure to be invited by TonyB!

When did you join Half Hour Meals? Pretty sure I joined the site in October.

What's your favorite thing about the site? I'm a huge fan of quick and easy stuff. Who has more than half an hour to cook anyway??

Have you tried others' recipes from Half Hour Meals? Unfortunately, not yet, but I do hope to try the desserts soon. I saw a No-Bake CHocolate Fudge Tart recipe on there that looks very, very tempting. 

If others were to ask you about Half Hour Meals, how would you describe the site to them? The go-to web site for people who don't want to slave away in the kitchen all day and still come up with pretty amazing stuff! If you want to spend more time on the dining table than in the kitchen, this web site is for you!

Thanks for sharing with us, Kris! I hope you all will stop by and visit Kris’s page at Half Hour Meals, and be sure to check out her wonderful blog as well!

Tags: blogging, community member, food blogging

This entry was posted on Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 09:36 am and is filed under Featured Member. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.