Chocolate and Wine!

This weekend, M. Pants and I were gifted with tickets to the Santa Barbara Rape Crisis Center's Chocolate Divine Fundraiser by our mentor and her partner. We graciously accepted and spent Saturday evening eating more chocolate than I thought possible and sipping mostly local(-ish) wines. We had a fantastic time and while it was for a good cause, my favorite part was being able to get all gussied up for the event (I couldn't help myself from including the picture, we brought our camera but forgot to take any actual pictures of the event).

My favorite tastes came from Cindy Black, the pastry chef at the Wine Cask who helped me in my hour of need. She made a jaw-dropping chocolate macaroon with a rosemary-chocolate cookie and a cassis ganache filling. Totally unexpected flavors that melded really well together. She also had a chocolate covered foie gras bite over a cinnamon-dusted croissant. When I first read the sign, I thought, "Oh, how clever, "foie gras"." But it was the real deal, and I didn't catch on that it wasn't a gimmick until my second bite.

Some of the other bites we had:
-chocolate-lime cheesecake
-a waxy mole chocolate bite (not my favorite)
-but from the same chocolatier, a very tasty meyer lemon truffle
-some decadent chocolate cupcakes, black and tan, giandulia, and peanut butter ganache
-a lemon-thyme dark chocolate truffle. The thyme was overpowering to me and it was my least favorite of the evening but the booth won the "most creative" award.