With Strings Attached: November 2014

Friday, November 14, 2014

I Heart Chocolate

It seems like there's been a lot in the news lately about chocolate.

First of all, did you read the article in the New York Times about flavanols? They're an antioxidant which improves memory, blood circulation, and heart health, and they can be extracted from cocoa beans. (Yay! I always knew chocolate was a health food.) The article does say, disappointingly, that the flavanols need to be processed and taken as a dietary supplement, since it would take about 7 chocolate bars a day to get the high levels of flavanols necessary to reap the benefits. You know what I say to that? "Challenge accepted." (Just kidding. Sort of.)

Then this morning, I saw a TV commercial for Chocolate: The Exhibition at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Chocolate? It's science, people!

And I just ran across a link to the Huffington Post's 2012 list of Hot Chocolate Recipes To Warm You Up On Chilly Days. I'd love to try a la mode's Lavender Hot Chocolate and Minimalist Baker's Mexican Hot Chocolate.

So now, it's time for me to contribute to this pre-winter chocolate-y celebration. Feast your eyes on the Mayan Hot Cocoa Blanket. Remember the Mayan Hot Cocoa Tea Cozy? This is a coordinating blanket knit in worsted weight yarn. It's large enough for a sofa and being double-knit makes it thick enough to be mega-warm.