February 14, 2007

• "Happy Valentines Day!"

                                                                                                                

   Dear Friends,

  Today is the day we celebrate chocolates and roses

  and all the sweetness that goes with Valentines Day.

  (I wonder what the guys give their wives who don't

  like chocolates or possibly the smell of roses? lol

  My B.D. was last week and my dear Hubby gave

  me a bouquet of a dozen roses (reds, pink, coral 'n

  yellow w/white baby's breath....very pretty!) so I

  don't expect another bouquet just yet.                         Chocolates?? He knows I love chocolates, but he also knows that I'm one of these people who can so easily put on another pound (almost for every gooey piece that goes in my mouth, and since the race is on for our daughter's wedding in May...well, we'll just share them with whoever comes around

                                                          

  How many of you know the origin of chocolate?

   "One of the greatest treasures ever discovered was the bean from the tree Theobroma cacao, the original source of chocolate. Smoothe in texture, intense in taste, subtly perfumed, and elegant to behold, chocolate is a rich sourse of sensory pleasure, adored by almost everyone!"

     Chocolate comes from the cacao tree, a tropical plant that thrives in hot, rainy climates. It does not grow well more than twenty degrees north or south of the equator, and it is a delicate and sensitive tree that needs shade and protection from the wind, especially during the first years of it's growth. A newly planted cacao seedling is often sheltered by another tree, such as a banana, plantain, coconut, or rubber tree. Once it is well established, though, the cacao tree can grow in full sunlight, so long as it has care and fertile soil.

    "Like the cacao tree, love only thrives under certain conditions. It needs to be sheltered, especially when it is young. Once our love grows deep roots, though, it too can withstand the sun and wind--so long as we are careful to nourish it with care and attention."

     "Chocolate is a universal symbol of love. Ever since it's discovery by the Aztecs in ancient Mexico, it has been used as a gift--a concrete expression of a thousand feelings too sweet, too complex for mere words. Love needs a tangible language, for love cannot be contained nor expressed by even the most sophisticated vocabulary. Music expresses love to our ears....flowers are a visual symbol of our feelings....and chocolate allows us to taste love's sweetness."

      The cacao tree is an evergreen, with large glossy leaves that are red when young, and green when mature. Moss and bright lichen cling to it's bark, and small orchids often grow on it's branches. All year long the tree sprouts thousands of tiny pink or white blossoms that cluster along the trunk and older branches. The fruit comes from green or maroon colored pods that turn to gold and scarlet as they ripen. (Can you imagine what a gorgeous tree this must be?)

     "The love between two individuals is much the same, ever-green and life-giving. Others will be drawn to this love, for real love is fertile, nourishing....and it makes the world a brighter, more beautiful place to be!"

     The job of picking the ripe cacao beans is not easy. The tree is so delicate that the workers cannot risk injuring it by climbing the branches to reach the pods. Instead, the pickers use long-handled, mitten-shaped steel knives to reach the pods w/out wounding the tree's soft bark. Each pod holds from twenty to fifty cream-colored beans that quicly turn lavender or purple as they are exposed to air. Although each pod holds so many beans, harvesting cacao beans takes time and patience, for approximately four hundred beans are needed to make one pound of chocolate.

     "Love is also a delicate tree, easily wounded, requiring time and patience before it yields fruit. Its sweet harvest, though, is well worth the effort!"

     During the 17th and 18th centuries, chocolate consumption spread throughout Europe. At 1st, only the very wealthy could afford it, but the French revolution also meant that chocolate began to be consumed by common folk as well as the aristocracy. In 1828, the Dutch invented a cocoa press that further reduced the price of chocolate. Just as the Aztecs had considered chocolate to be sacred, Europeans now thought of chocolate as a therapeutic, health-giving substance. Quaker families in England began producing chocolate, promoting it as 'healthful and flesh-forming,' a far better alternative to gin. (flesh-forming is right!!)

    This divine drink, which builds up resistance and fights fatigue, also permits a man to walk for a whole day without food. Chocolate, also, when carefully prepared, is a wholesome and agreeable form of food....is very suitable for persons of great mental exertion, preachers, lawyers, and above all...travelers. It agrees with the feeblest of stomachs, has proved benificial in cases of chronic illness....

    "If you swallow a generous cup of good chocolate at the end of your meal, you will have digested everything perfectly three hours later." (??)

     In 1847, the Fry chocolate factories in Bristol, England molded the first chocolate bar, and in 1850, Richard Cadbury made the first Valentine's Day heart candy box. Milk chocolate was invented in 1879 by two Swiss chocolate manufacturers, Henry Nestle and Daniel Peter. In the United States, Milton Hershey brought mass-production to chocolate manufacturing. He was also the first to experiment with the use of vegetable fats instead of pure cocoa, which raised the melting point of a candy-bar. Chocolate could then withstand the heat of American summers-and could also be shipped to troops during World War II. The U.S. government recognized chocolate's importance to both the nourishment and morale of the Allied Forces-so much so that it allocated valuable shipping space for the importation of cocoa beans. Today, the U.S Army D-rations still include three 4oz. chocolate bars.

     "Chocolate melts instantly in the mouth-an exquisitely pleasurable sensation. Then the flavors come flooding through-overwhelming our taste buds with over 500 of them, two-and-a-half times more than any other food. With such a wealth of sensory pleasure in store, no wonder chocolate should be eaten slowly!"

     Quote: Nine out of ten people love chocolate....the 10th person always(??) lies. (or at least his sensory taste buds aren't working right!

     Last but not least....many of us feel that chocolate is guilty pleasure; our culture worries so much about calories and fat that we're convinced anything that good can't be good for us. In fact, though, earlier cultures prized chocolate for it's therapedic value-and they weren't all that far off. A 100 grams of milk chocolate contains 8.4 grams of protein, 220 milligrams of calcium, 55 of magnesium, and 1.6 of iron. It also has zinc, carotene, Vit. E, thiamin, niacin, and folate. And well, yes, it does have 529 calories (so don't take it as your daily vitamin ration!) but it also offers natural chemicals that help lift our spirits and balance our moods. It's scientific name is Theobroma Cacao-which literally means "the food of God."

    "Like chocolate, love is sweet and heady....it nourishes our hearts, for love is of God."

     And guess 'what else' is wonderful about chocolate? It is heavenly, mellow, sensual, deep, dark, sumptuous, gratifying, potent, dense, creamy....silky, smooth, luxurious, and it is also happiness, pleasure, love, ecstasy, fantasy.....want to add some descriptions of your own?

     P.S. Just as a reminder so you don't pig out on chocolate, (unless it's unsweetened the sugar content of chocolates is what causes you to become sick when you eat too many of them, and also it's the dark chocolate that has the therapeutic value...milk chocolate just tastes good!

  "It is not true that Love makes all things easy; it makes us choose what is difficult." -- George Elliot 

       to all and hope you all have a very good day! ttyl CK

     P.S.II I was hoping to find a "red heart" skin or something for a Valentine's background....no such luck, but if you have any advice, send specific steps on how to do it; send me a Message (I'm xanga delinquent, you know!)

  • 4:30 am
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