Rêvez-vous en chocolat?

I don't have much of a sweet tooth but I do love chocolate (I'm really a fruit, pastry and custard girl - especially if they're all together!) However, I fully confess I am guilty of chocolate snobbery. I would rather eat one piece of really great chocolate than one of those nasty "King-Sized" candy bars on the supermarket shelf. This is definitely a trait I share with French women - what's the point in wasting calories on something that is made of corn syrup, inferior chocolate (and little of that as it is), wax and other stabilizers? Where's the artistry in that?

I had one chocolate guilty pleasure: chocolate-covered hazelnuts (doesn't noisettes sound so much prettier? I bet they even have fewer calories.) Until tonight. I have picked up a freelance writing gig and in addition to spending a ton of time online applying for jobs, networking for introductions, etc., I have also been sitting in front of the computer, staring at the monitor, willing myself to come up with something interesting to write about so I can get paid. Needing a break, I remembered a confection I had picked up about a month before Christmas just in case I needed a last-minute hostess gift. (I always have hostess gifts on-hand, it's a Southern thing. I truly don't know the origin of the hostess gift, but I'd be willing to bet it's a tradition we inherited from European settlers by way of New Orleans or similar.)

Copyright © 2008 A Southern Belle Goes to Paris, y'all.

Anyway, I passed by my un-gifted hostess gift and thought I could go for a little treat. I also had a full bottle of La Demoiselle (my favorite) champagne in the fridge which was my hostess gift when my best Parisian friend visited me this Fall, gifted as "La Demoiselle pour ma demoiselle favourite" (oh my God, swoon!) I had planned to drink it on New Year's Eve but never got around to it. So I thought, I have a great bottle of champagne, a box of un-gifted chocolate, let's go to town! But... then I thought I would save my bottle of champagne to celebrate a new job (I thought it might lend a better sense of celebration than a can of diet root beer.) So I whipped up a café crème and cracked open the box of Hot Pralinés. Lordy, they were good. Three flavors: Maracuja (Passion Fruit) & Jalapeño, Pomegranate & Chili and Papaya & Chili. (This blogger likes them, too.) The standout for me was the Papaya & Chili - the chili really brings out the freshness of the papaya. So now I have a second pleasure, though admittedly an un-guilty one. Who can feel guilty about eating a little piece of heaven?