Hey, would you like to try a piece of radioactive chocolate? I'm not sure how popular this was, but apparently during the first part of the 20th century manufacturers were putting radium in everything. Seriously, check it out (unfortunately it's all in French and I can't read anything on this website).

After Marie Curie discovered radium, everybody wanted a piece of the action, according to Neatorama. This chocolate bar was sold in the early to mid 1930's and was advertised as a rejuvenating food. I wonder if this was discontinued because it was unpopular or if people discovered that radium was harmful?

Modern science is an amazing thing. Scientists are working on coding the DNA sequences of just about everything, nowadays. You can add cacao to that list.

According to the BBC, the Mars Company, in conjunction with IBM and the US Department of Agriculture, is working on coding the DNA of cacao, which is the tropical tree that we get chocolate from. They're calling it the Cacao Genome Project, and it should take about five years to complete. Some of the aims of the project include finding ways to make the trees more disease resistant and less susceptible to water shortages, as well generally improving crop yields.

One thing about this research project that is particularly admirable is that all of the information will be publicly available as the information comes. Everything they learn will be put into the Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture, so researchers all over the world will have access to the information.

Are you a fan of the Kit Kat candy bar? I must admit to enjoying one occasionally. Well, whether you do or don't like Kit Kats, I think you'll get a kick out if this.

Over at Supersized Meals, you can see, step by step, the making of a giant Kit Kat bar! I mean, seriously, this thing is awesome. If you ever wanted a candy bar that has about 45, 888 calories but still fits in the refrigerator (barely), then this one is for you. Enjoy, 'cause you're gonna need a lot of breaks for this Kit Kat bar.

When I was a kid I was addicted to chocolate ice cream (side note: a lot of my posts start out talking about how I was addicted to some junk food when I was a kid - I'm amazed I don't weigh 350 lbs). But when I got older, my tastes changed from pure chocolate to other flavors, usually based in vanilla: chocolate chip ice cream, Heath Bar Crunch maybe some other flavors. Your taste buds must get more sophisticated as you get older.

Anyway, today is National Chocolate Ice Cream Day. Check out the recipe for a very decadent-looking chocolate ice cream at The Joy of Baking, and here's one from CD Kitchen that promises to be like Ben & Jerry's.

Yesterday was National Donut Day. This isn't a good week for people on a diet.

Are you a chocolate lover with nothing to do this weekend? Well, perhaps a chocolate tour would be fun.

The Los Angeles Times Daily Travel Blog brought us a post about chocolate tours in some cities. San Francisco was the first one mentioned, but you can also find tours in Boston, New York, Seattle, and Chicago. Unfortunately, but understandably, the tours are limited to big cities.

If you're going to be in one of these places this weekend, or plan on it in the future, maybe looking into a chocolate tour would be something to think about. I'm going to be in San Francisco this summer, and I'll definitely be on that tour.

Wow, I love these.

I'm a big fan of chocolate-covered nuts: peanuts, cashews, almonds. But not only can they be a big impact on the waistline, the chocolate taste can often overpower the nut taste. But Emerald's new Cocoa Roast Almonds take care of that. It actually has just a dusting of dark chocolate on the almonds, so you can actually taste both the nut and the chocolate at the same time. And because it's dark chocolate, it's better for you (don't go crazy - nuts and chocolate can be good for you in small doses, but you still have to watch the fat and calories).

This is a great addition to the Emerald line, which has come out with a lot of new flavors recently, including Salt & Pepper Cashews (pretty good but way too heavy on the pepper, as many salt & pepper products are), Wasabi Oven-Roasted Peanuts, and Honey Dijon-Glazed Walnuts 'n Cashews.

Let it be known that I am a die hard Limited Edition Foods fan. I lived and died by Pepsi Kona, and I essentially redefine myself with each new incarnation of Kit Kat. That said, imagine my excitement when a friend of mine presented me with New Indiana Jones Mint Crisp M&Ms. (While they do not specifically say "Limited Edition", they do imply as much with "Get 'M' Before They're Lost!") One look at these puppies and you know you're in for an epicurean adventure of chilled-monkey-brains-buffet proportions, 'cause these M&Ms are all kinds of divergent from the original.

To wit:

• They are shades of green and white
• In place of the simple "M", some of the candies have mystical graphics (including a skull, a compass, a temple, and Indy's hat)
• They are chocolate-mint flavored
• Their core is a rice crisp

Now this is what a chocolate chip cookie should look like. Thick, chewy, moist at the center, with a toothsome density that makes it feel like you're really eating something. And so full of melty chocolate chips that when you break the cookie in half chocolate drips from the edges. Thank Vanilla Sugar for the recipe, which attempts to replicate the cookies sold at Levain bakery in New York. Full of brown sugar, walnuts and a healthy dose of salt, these make for the kind of 4 p.m. snack that satisfies you in a way that a Snickers bar never could.

I used to drink Kahlua a lot many many years ago, but as I've gotten older I've gotten away from Kahula/chocolate/mocha/whatever flavored drinks and more towards gin and wine. However, that doesn't mean that I'm against using Kahlua in dessert recipes.

This delicious-sounding recipe for Kahlua Brownies comes from Garrett McCord over at Simply Recipes. It uses 1 1/2 pounds of 60% cacao chocolate, though I wonder how the brownies would taste if you used something even higher (say, 70%) or another type of chocolate?

I think that a lot of people have at least had a passing thought of how to get back at our enemies. However, most of us just shrug it off and find healthier ways to deal with our problems. An Austrian man, however, took things to the extreme and poisoned, of all things, some chocolate truffles in an attempt to get his way.

Helmutt O decided that the best way to resolve his dispute with the mayor of his town was to bump him off. Helmutt put the deadly confections on the mayor's windshield with a note saying "you are someone very special to me." Of course the mayor ate the chocolates, suffered a stroke and, while he lived, now has to be cared for for the rest of his life. At the heart of the dispute was a rezoning issue. The mayor even agreed with Helmutt, but asked for a business plan that Helmutt never delivered. Blaming something on someone else when it's your own fault is sure definitely not the rational thing to do.

Two questions: Would you eat something someone left on your windshield? How could someone ruin something as wonderful as chocolate for their own selfish ends?

I'd heard the rumors that bacon and chocolate where getting together. But now we have gorgeous, photographic post that the rumors are true. And really, how could something that looks so, so right be wrong? Have any of you tried this devilish combination? I admit that I haven't had a chance to check it out yet (although I have gotten to try both bacon vodka and a particularly good Blood Mary made with the stuff).

Thanks to The Bleeding Heart Bakery for adding this picture to the Slashfood Flickr pool.

Notice that it isn't National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day. There are other things you can do with them besides the cookie route.

You can put them in pancakes, put them in bundt cake, and even in mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Of course, if you want to make chocolate chip cookies, here's the original Toll House Cookie recipe. I keep a bag of the Toll House semi-sweet pieces in my fridge and snack on them constantly.

Wonder what foods those amazing, incredible, ever-so-unreachable celebs crave during their pregnancies?

The same things everyone else does, duh.

Apparently, Angelina Jolie, who is rumoured to be pregnant with twins, has been eating, well, like a pregnant woman. At a recent dinner outing with Baby-Daddy Brad Pitt, she ate: penne arrabiata, two starters, several rolls, profiteroles for dessert, and took an apple pie to go. Earlier during her pregnancy, she Angelina craved mustard-smothered onion rings and cinnamon chilli chocolates, and has since been eating cupcakes made by her kids.

I bet I could eat all of that - onions rings included - and I'm not even pregnant!

I don't believe that I could ever make a chocolate portrait that looks as good as the ones made by Emily W. Jones featured on Flickr. However, thanks to a step by step guide on WikiHow, I now know how to make a basic one if I ever get inspired.

The instructions don't look that hard. They involve tracing a photograph onto waxed paper and then piping milk, dark, and white chocolate onto the traced image.

If you are artistically inclined, you should give this a shot! It would be an amazing gift for a chocoholic!

[via Slender Octopus]

Last Saturday night, some folks in Philly got together to throw a Battlestar Galactica party. When it came to the dessert, they knew that they didn't need to look any further than local baker Zoë Lukas (she's the one who created those those really cool Robert Indiana cookies that I posted about a few months ago).

She didn't let them down, creating a work of art out of chocolate devil's food cake. It is filled with raspberry jam and ganache, iced with chocolate buttercream and ganache, decorated with chocolate ships and explosions, silver dragees and silver and gold space dust. Lukas is in the process of opening her own bakery in Philadelphia and I think I speak for the entire when I say, we can't wait.