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Last week, I celebrated a double-digit birthday. I'm not going to say which one, but you can take your best guesses. To honor the occasion, my longtime friend Elizabeth Rible gave me a gift bag filled with chocolate. The woman knows me well!

Every item was fun and decadent, so now I know what to pick out the next time I'm at World Market. I started with a box of Chocorooms, which are little mushroom caps of melty good milk chocolate with stems of crispy cracker. They're just about a bite each, and I loved every one.

Then I moved on to the Vosges chocolate bar. This will make your mouth yodel. This particular flavor was Mo's Dark Bar made from 62 percent dark chocolate with hickory-smoked bacon and alderwood-smoked salt. Don't let that bacon turn you off. It's just a hint, and the salt enhances the chocolate flavor. A nibble at bedtime was enough to reward myself.

The McIlhenny Tabasco-spiced dark chocolate wedges are meant for people who really like heat. I'm one of them. In fact, I add chili powder to most of my chocolate baked goods. It makes the flavor pop. The Tabasco in this chocolate really takes it home. Only half a bite-size wedge satisfies my craving for sweet heat.

Liz also included a box of Ferrero's Pocket Coffee. These are dark chocolate pillows with a liquid espresso filling made from Arabica coffee. What a way to get your morning jolt! And finally, she gave me a jar of World Market's house brand Banana Chocolate Spread. Think of it
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as a kind of Nutella, except it's a swirl of banana and chocolate. They were divine on the Marie biscuits that also were in the bag. But be careful with this. Each tablespoon has 100 calories! I thought the banana flavor was better than the chocolate, but together they worked well.

How to boil eggs

You'd think this would be as easy as boiling water, wouldn't you? But there's a right way to do it so your eggs have tender whites, bright yellow yolks, and shells that are easy to peel. Done wrong, the whites will be rubbery, the yolks will have a gray-green film and a sulfur odor, and shells that won't let go.

For hard-cooked eggs, first, place eggs in a single layer in a pot of cold water that comes about two inches over the level of the eggs. Do not put cold eggs into boiling water or the shells will crack. Next, bring the water to a full rolling boil over high heat. Then immediately remove the pan from the heat, cover, and let it sit 12 minutes. Do not keep them boiling. This is what makes tough whites.

Drain the eggs and place them immediately into a bowl of cold water. Better yet, use water from the refrigerator. And better than that, add ice cubes to the water. You want to cool those suckers as quickly as possible. That's what prevents the film from forming on the yolk. If the water warms up before the eggs are chilled, drain and add fresh cold water.

For easier peeling, hold the egg under cold running water as you peel. Or you can just store them unpeeled in the refrigerator until needed. By the way, really fresh eggs are harder to peel than those that are about a week old.

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