Food, Glorious Food

My dinner group recently met for a Not-Valentine's Day meal where we gorged our senses on delectable food, fine wine, sidesplitting conversation and all-around splendid company.
The theme for the dinner menu was "Iron Chef Chocolate" so
each dish had to include chocolate as an ingredient.

My mouth-watering entree:
[photo & recipe source: epicurious.com]

Cocoa and Spice Slow-Roasted Pork with Onions

This succulent pork roast was unbelieveably (even sinfully) delicious. As it states in the recipe, the dish needs a long, lazy roasting. But words just don't do justice to the luscious aroma that filled my home. It was an olfactory orgy of sweet and spice; a sumptuous feast in and of itself.

And here is one of the savory vegetable dishes we devoured:
[photo & recipe source: hersheys.com]

Tex-Mex Spiced Cocoa Vegetable Rub

Now, I'm veggie hater -- especially squash and green veggies -- but I'll be the first one to exalt the praises of this dish. Plenty of flavor, and just the right amount of heat from the spices. It tasted like kicked-up kabobs without the skewers. ¡Es tan sabroso!

I could go on about the wonderful dishes that we polished off -- like the killer double-layer chocolate cake, the fried wonton appetizers with a creamy Nutella filling or the chocolate covered bacon (served very much tongue-in-cheek!) but I run the risk of drooling all over the keyboard.

It was a fantastic evening spent catching up with friends. As Miriam would say, "Oh, sweet mercy! It was soooooo good!"