Admittedly, we have a hard time getting behind the roses-and-stuffed-animals Valentine's Day celebrations, but what we can get into is the chocolate. As a result, we hope that your Sunday had a lot of latter and less of the former (unless the former's your thing)—and now that the most romantic day of the year (and one of the most chocolatey days of the year, second only to Halloween) has passed, you may need some ways to make your slew of V-Day chocolates a little more everyday appropriate. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Butter two slices of bread. Sandwich around chopped up chocolate (this would also work with chopped up truffles—your choice). Toast, grilled cheese-style, in a hot pan until everything is melty and golden.
- You can chop up nearly any kind of chocolate treat and fold it into a cookie or brownie batter. (Danger, Will Robinson!)
- Melt it all down into chocolate chips for your next batch of ice cream.
- Or keep it melted and dip pretzels (or potato chips or corn chips or, heck, just about anything) in it. Fondue!
- Stir a little cream into that fondue and you've got a perfect hot fudge sauce. Invite some friends over for ice cream.
- You can roll almonds through that melted chocolate, too—and take them to work as a perfectly acceptable 3 P.M. snack.
- Transform your chocolates into Nutella! Or cashew-tella! Add it to any kind of homemade nut butter. (Your secret's safe with us.)
- Make chocolate bark! Toss on any nuts, seeds, dried fruit, or flakey salt you happen to have lying around.
- Melt chopped chocolate in milk, whisk together (adding any spices you might like), and top with whipped cream for hot chocolate. (Add coffee and you've got a mocha. Bam.)
Tell us how you're using up your stash of chocolate (especially if you've got some not-so-sweet ideas!) in the comments.
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