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#SundayBlog, adorable, animal, animals, author, bunnies, bunny, chocolate, Easter, Easter Bunny, entertainment, fun, jokes, puns, Stephanie Beavers, writer
16 Sunday Apr 2017
Posted Fun
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#SundayBlog, adorable, animal, animals, author, bunnies, bunny, chocolate, Easter, Easter Bunny, entertainment, fun, jokes, puns, Stephanie Beavers, writer
13 Monday Apr 2015
Posted News
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author, chocolate, cocoa, health food, healthy, IFLS, News, Science, science news, Stephanie Beavers, writer
Well, okay, not really, but scientists have discovered how to make it healthier than it is!
Scientists Work Out How To Make Chocolate Healthier And More Flavorful
So binging on cheap chocolate with never reduce your waist-line, but as IFLS puts it:
Good news, chocoholics: Scientists have found a way to not only make chocolate more nutritious, but also to enhance its taste. Praise science!
We’ve all seen the articles touting the benefits of chocolate, especially dark chocolate, with some of its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Eating small amounts regularly can theoretically help result in lower blood pressure and a reduced chance of stroke and cardiovascular diseases.
The good news is, scientists have figured out how to enhance those beneficial properties. The great news is, they’ve found out that enhancing the beneficial properties of chocolate also enhances the taste. For ONCE, making something healthier makes it taste better instead of worse!
In short, these cheer-inducing results are brought about by adding a step to the bean-harvesting process (temporary storage of the pods before beginning processing them), and roasting the cocoa beans longer at a lower temperature.
Now, longer typically means more expensive (this is conjecture on my part), so I’m guessing that not all chocolate-producers are going to embrace these new methods. But we should still see this new chocolate around, and I, for one, look forward to it!
07 Tuesday Apr 2015
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author, chocolate, Easter, Easter Bunny, easter egg, eggs, entertainment, fun, history, holiday, Lent, Stephanie Beavers, writer
This week we get a Tuesday blog ’cause it’s my blog and I feel like it.
I hope you all had a wonderful Easter full of chocolate (yay for chocolate holidays!) and whatever else floats your boat (family, friends, and hopefully days off). Anyways, Easter got me thinking. About the Easter Bunny (what a shocker, hey). But when you do actually stop and think about the Easter Bunny, it’s really a rather strange phenomenon. I mean, a rabbit that delivers eggs?
My boyfriend insisted that the Easter Bunny originated as a practical joke. Like, “Hey look kids, that bunny left some ‘chocolate eggs’ under that bush for you, you should eat them.”
So I looked it up.
Wikipedia knows all. Here’s the DL.
In antiquity, both rabbits and eggs were symbols of fertility and thus, springtime. At the same time, eggs were a popular food to abstain from during Lent. People would boil eggs to preserve them through Lent. Presumably, they painted them for kicks and because they’d be looking at them for awhile. German mythology arose that good children would be given eggs by the Easter Hare (not rabbit). Chocolate eggs seem to be a more recent development (sorry, hon). But maybe the bad children got rabbit poop.
Now you know.
So tell me, readers, did you know about the history of the Easter Bunny? Ever wonder? Ever…have theories of your own? :D Let me know in the comments!
16 Monday Feb 2015
Posted Fun
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advice, author, candy, chocolate, entertainment, food, fun, hearts, humor, life, Stephanie Beavers, sweets, Valentine, Valentine's Day, writer
I know it’s a little late, but Happy Valentine’s Day. Whether you rocked it solo or spent it with someone (or someones), I hope you had a grand time and ate lots of chocolate. After all, it IS one of the “Chocolate Holidays.” Valentine’s, Easter, and Halloween (and, to a lesser extent, Christmas) are all chocolate holidays. They’re all holidays that are, regardless of anything else happening, wonderful because they’re excuses to eat scads of chocolate and/or candy. Wonderful sweets litter the stores, just begging to be sampled.
I know break-ups spike around Valentine’s Day, but at least there’s lots of chocolate to console all the sad people. Could they have planned it better?
Or maybe you like healthier Valentine’s treats.
So if you find you’re bummed by the commercialism or the pressure or because you have no beau, just change your mindset.
Mmmmm, Valentine’s Day. Yum.