Chocolate and BBQ

I’m a little behind in sharing this with you. These longer posts take longer to write and I just haven’t had the time to get to it until now.

Two Fridays ago, my daughter and I got up at 4:30 am to meet some other crazy women who were also up. No we weren’t going to go running (done that before, though) and no, we weren’t hitting some odd time of the year super sale, either. We were going to the Van and Bonnie Chocolate Breakfast!

Yes, you read that right. We got up at 4:30 am to have chocolate for breakfast. The radio station, 1040 WHO, sponsors a chocolate breakfast the last Friday in January and it is free to go to. This is my 3rd year to go to it and Audrey came along.

5:00 am, we meet my sister-in-law, Jessica, niece, Cora, and mom, Linda, and other sisters and relatives on Jessica’s side (they’re important, too, I’m just not going to list them) to carpool down to Des Moines. I had made Audrey and I an egg-in-a-hole each  beforehand along with some grapes and almonds. You must eat something protein before you go! The car ride was kind of quiet. We kind of kept up small talk just to keep the driver awake, but personally, I would have preferred to sleep.

5:30 am: The Chocolate Breakfast is held at the Hy-Vee Convention Center. It’s a nice big area for a line to wrap around and wait inside. Thankfully, the line moves fairly quickly.

This is Audrey, barely awake, thinking this better be worth it, although last year she didn’t come and was grumpy that I didn’t take her.

Now here’s Grandma with Audrey and Cora. If anything, she is determined to leave a legacy of loving chocolate to her granddaughters.

Here’s Ritchie Lee and the Fabulous 50’s band. If you can’t guess, he plays and sings music from the 50’s. I just snooped around a little bit and found out that he’s only 19! He’s pretty good. But it’s also a little weird seeing someone dressed up like that. I tried to snap an inconspicuous photo but he saw me.

Here’s Audrey reaction to him (and to Grandma singing along). She’s totally embarrassed.

Audrey and I right before we start consuming chocolate. If I look a little puffy, it’s because it’s barely 6:00!!

Once you get to where the chocolate starts, it’s 3 aisles with booth after booth of tiny chocolate samples. You are tired and lethargic, but excited before hand. Once the first bite of chocolate hits your tongue, you instantly feel your blood sugar rise. Your spirits lift. A smile spreads across your face.

My personal chocolate breakfast tips

1. Bring water. They don’t supply any and you will want it.
2. Pace yourself. Skip the Hershey’s Kisses, if you must. Slip those into your bag because you can eat those later, but you can’t save the ice cream.
3. Eat some solid breakfast pretty quickly afterwards. If you don’t regulate your body with some real food, you are going to have a major blood sugar crash and get sick.

See here is what you can tuck away for later. Included in this pile are two chocolate bacon fudge samples. I was going to eat it, but then I saw Jessica’s face and decided not to. Later, I decided to try it. After all, a mouse bite wasn’t going to hurt me and I didn’t want to confess to you that I didn’t at least try. I would say by itself it wasn’t that great, but it also wasn’t as horrible as one might imagine chocolate and bacon together to be.

Now if that wasn’t the perfect segue way to the next part of the day, I don’t know what is. You remember I told you about the new bbq place in town. Well, that Friday also happened to be B Fabulous BBQ’s grand opening and I was not going to miss it. I called my mom and invited her to come along for lunch. After chatting in line and picking up our meals, we signed up for some drawings, and each of us got a 5 minute massage from the ladies at Huxley Massage and Bodywork! We really needed it too. We were having a rough day of… um, eating.

Luke spun the wheel for prizes and got a tattoo and a balloon. Then we headed home to dig in! But before we could eat, I had to take pictures! (again, complaining by my meal companions- I guess they get hungry and want to eat, not have their food photographed)

I had the smoked pork loin and the BFF burger along with broccoli salad and fresh fruit salad. I also got some fried chicken for Luke. Drumsticks are his favorite from there, but they were out. My mom got pulled pork, pulled chicken and brisket along with the broccoli salad and coleslaw. We all gave it double thumbs up!!

By the way, I stopped by there for lunch the other day (What can I say? I have a weakness for brisket!) and got the mac and cheese corn. OH MY GOODNESS!! If you need your mommy, if you need comfort food, if you just need a gosh darn so yummy, warm your tummy dish, you HAVE to try the mac and cheese corn!! ‘Course, this is just my opinion, though I have confirmed it with at least 1 other person, right Heather?

Oh, I almost forgot to mention who my favorite chocolate vendor was: Cake Me, I’m Yours. They have this flourless chocolate cake/ bite of chocolate heaven. It has been my absolute, hands down, favorite the past two years.

Remember, the last Friday of January, every year. Yum!