John and I don’t get out on many baby-less dates, so tonight when we did we did it in fine style by attending the Utah Chocolate Show.

Oh. My. Goodness.

Let’s talk about the chocolate. Vendors everywhere are trying to sell you their stuff, which means tons of FREE CHOCOLATE SAMPLES. We purposely ate a light dinner to better enjoy the chocolate goodness. Utah Truffles alone had five different truffles to try. See’s candy had their chocolate mint truffles. Rebecca’s Chocolate had several different kinds to try. A new chocolate company called Chocolot (based in Ogden) was there and when I asked to try their English toffee the owner whipped out a fresh pan of the stuff that she had made earlier that day in a stage demonstration. I was happy to see Amano Chocolate because I’d heard about them but never tried their chocolate. They’re new and based in Orem, and they are fast becoming recognized all over the world. They’ve won a bunch of awards, and at a chocolate show in London this year they were the first American company to ever win an award for chocolate.

Moreover, there was chocolate popcorn, a chocolate fountain (I went back for seconds), and even chocolate coffee. Except it wasn’t coffee; it was cacao beans roasted and brewed like coffee beans and you drink it like coffee with cream and sugar–and it’s the nastiest drink you could imagine. But apparently if you like the taste of coffee it’s pretty good.

John and I splurged and took a class together on hand-dipping chocolates. It was a fun experience, although when John realized he had to get his hands dirty he hesitated momentarily, but got over it. We learned how to temper chocolate. You heat the chocolate up to at least 100 degrees, then cool it to 83-89 degrees, which is the perfect temperature for dipping chocolate. They provided a cool marble slab that they poured warm chocolate onto.

We swirled the chocolate around with our (very clean) hands on the slab until the chocolate was cool enough to dip the fondant centers in. Smearing warm chocolate with your bare hand is the BEST feeling in the world. Like finger painting, only better.

Plus, when we were done we got to lick our hands clean.

The actual dipping part is an art form that takes a lot of practice to perfect, so our chocolates turned out a little more sloppily than the examples the ladies did for us beforehand. Here’s what our chocolates should have looked like (done by the professionals):

In reality, John’s finished chocolates:

And mine:

(Note: Yes, mine turned out slightly better than John’s. And he admits it. I think it was because he was trying to get over the whole having-your-hands-covered-in-chocolate thing. Which, to be honest, most people wouldn’t mind at all. I could probably swim in a vat of chocolate and not mind it one bit.)

We got to bring home six chocolates apiece that we hand-dipped. But we’re waiting until tomorrow to taste them; we are so full of chocolate!

And finally, a photo of the little guy who missed out on the chocolate goodness tonight:

Today I made a couple loaves of Amish Friendship Bread. You make it from a sourdough starter that sits in a Ziploc bag for ten days before you can make bread (the fact that it sits out, unrefrigerated, for ten days really grosses John out; but I didn’t hear him complaining when he was eating a warm slice of the bread today).

When I was adding the final ingredients I realized I didn’t have enough sugar, and I didn’t feel like trotting next door to borrow some. I substituted brown sugar for what I was missing, and I had to completely forgo the cinnamon-sugar coating on the loaf pan.

While the bread baked I bemoaned my sugar problem to John, but all he did was look at me funny.

“What?” I said.

“Hon, we’re not out of sugar.”

I thought about it. And, sure enough, he’s right. We’re totally not out of sugar. There are about fifty pounds of sugar in big tin cans in our basement that I not only helped can but also lugged downstairs to our basement single-handedly. Surely I should have remembered that.

It’s OK. The Friendship Bread turned out tasty anyway. And if anyone who lives in my area wants a Friendship Bread starter, let me know. I have four in my freezer, waiting to be given away.