Ghirardelli Chocolate

I've been a huge fan of Ghirardelli Chocolate since my first wandering into one of their downtown Chicago shops many years ago.  The thought of luxurious chocolate shakes and hot cocoa just made me giddy.

Just think of my delight was I was chosen to participate in the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program with Ghirardelli Intense Dark Chocolates.  A few days ago I received my special little package that included the following dark chocolates: Twilight Delight, Midnight Reverie and Sea Salt Soiree.  Ah.  Now, that was a very nice evening.

The next challenge... incorporate them into a recipe, rather than just eat them out of the box.  Well, geez, of course I ate them out of the box.  I couldn't stand to wait.  The Sea Salt Soiree called me and, oh my, was that good.  Kudos to G. for the neat combination.  After eating some solo, I chopped them up and mixed them into my vanilla ice cream that night with a little peanut butter.  Hey...I had lots of chocolate in the house and couldn't just let it sit there.

Don't worry, the next day my neighbor shared a lovely chocolate cheesecake recipe with me.  Over two days I collected ingredients, then made the most luscious cheesecake ever.  I mixed in the Twilight Delight and Midnight Reverie and it was fabulous.  Now take note, I'm not the best baker in the world, so I was more than elated to not only have made my first real cheesecake, but one with my favorite chocolates mixed in.  Another fine day.

Thanks to Ghirardelli and Foodbuzz for sweetening up my week.  Oh, and you can find the tasty cheesecake recipe here. Off for another piece of chocolate delight....