The Post Where I Talk About Chocolate & Mitch Hedberg

I saw this wino, he was eating grapes. I was like, "Dude, you have to wait."

~ Mitch Hedberg (1968-2005)

Remember that post where I told you that I truly believed that coffee and wine made everything better? Well, I clearly had a momentary lapse of insanity, because chocolate should have most definitely made it to the same list!

I think if I was to throw a dinner party, I would play Iron Chef (against myself and with more than an hour to spare) and select one item on which I'd base my entire menu. Regardless of the 'mystery item', I would most definitely include coffee, chocolate and wine in the event. That is just a given...and a heads up if I ever do host a dinner party in the near future.

Grapes were on sale this week at the local grocers....and I was curious as to how many grape 'recipes' exist out there. There were quite a few, but as soon as I saw Michel Richard's White Chocolate Grapes, I was hooked. Chocolate AND grapes. I'm in!



The first time I made these, I scoured the house for a bag of white Chippits. Ummm..yeah, have you ever seen a bloom on white chocolate before? They were SO far gone, that I improvised.

My Definition of Improvise:: A subtle and acceptable form of cheating

I pulled the bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips from the cupboard and used those instead.

Who would ever know that they were 'supposed' to be covered in white chocolate according to the recipe? To tell you the truth, I liked both the white chocolate and the semi-sweet version...so I say, make them both and see which you prefer. (Consensus in the house was that the white chocolate was better.)

There are a few ways to enjoy these, but the most entertaining way to be honest was listening to comedian Mitch Hedberg on my iPod and lounging on the couch. Mitch Hedberg just had this way of delivering a joke (generally all one-liners) that was dry, witty and made you think. He was certainly not on this earth long enough. Check him out on YouTube and have a giggle.

Now onto the recipe....

Michel Richard's White Chocolate Grapes

(Adapted from Food & Wine.com)

• 4 ounces white chocolate, chopped (2 large Lindt white chocolate bars)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 pound red or green grapes, cleaned & off the stem (dry well)
• 2 tbsp of icing sugar (confectioners sugar)
  

1. Wash and dry the grapes and remove from the stem and put them in a bowl
2. In a separate microwave-safe bowl, add the oil and the chopped up chocolate (in the image above I only used 1 bar of Lindt white chocolate, but I should have used 2 or even 3 for a more even coverage.
3. Meanwhile, line a baking sheet with parchment.
4. Put the bowl in the microwave and check on it every 20-30 seconds until the chocolate is melted.
5. Stir until smooth and let cool briefly.
6. Pour the chocolate over the grapes in the first bowl and fold (a spatula works best) so that every grape is coated.
7. You can sift the icing sugar over the grapes until they are separated (I skipped this altogether, but would have done so if it was a for a fancy party)
8. Spread the grapes out on the baking sheet and refrigerate.

(If you click on the link under the recipe title, it will take you directly to this recipe on the Food & Wine website, which will also provide you with an orange curd meant for dipping your grapes into. I was all about chocolate and sugar and how quick I could enjoy them rather than thinking about curd on this day...but maybe one of these days I'll try it!)