A Chocolate Chronicle is written by Christine Blankenship, Publisher of Vibrant Senior Options Resource Guide. This article is published in the Fall/Winter 2025 Edition of Vibrant Senior Options Resource Guide.
For many of us, chocolate treats are reserved for special occasions. For some of us, they make a regular appearance on non-occasions.
Nestle’s Quik
My first memory of my early “cooking” skills was chocolate Quik. Just stir a scoop (or two) of mix into a glass of milk and drink it down. “It’s so thick and rich and chocolich, but you can’t drink it slow – if it’s Quik!” (Nesquik Bunny) Alternatively, there was Strawberry Quik, but the chocolate was better!
Oreos
I think our family farm survived because of Oreo Cookies! I can still see the chocolate wafers glued together by creamy, rich frosting. An Oreo package always sat at the top of the refrigerator, conveniently located en route to the doorway outside. Dad rarely left the house without grabbing a handful “for the road.” However, my brother grabbed a handful of Oreos for bedtime. I am still unsure how this helped his sleep. We only know about this nighttime consumption because Mother often found plenty of crumbs under his pillow on laundry days. Those chocolate discs partially fueled our farm work and family survival!
Rocky Road Squares
Important farm and finance documents lived in the old grey chest, along with Mom’s homemade Rocky Road Squares. These were chocolate brownies topped with a stormy sea of melted marshmallows, caramel, and chocolate chips. Mom made the best…and she knew it! Thus, the reason for the lock-up of this 9 x 13 hunk of dessert. The key was safety-pinned on her blouse like an antique brooch. Not that any of our family were greedy thieves, we just worked and played ourselves into hungry teenagers!
My Favorite Chocolate Cake
The first real baking I did was with the “My Favorite Chocolate Cake” recipe, which I found in an old school fundraiser cookbook. Because the recipe was contributed by my grandmother, I was proud to bake this moist and fluffy chocolate creation! It was an easy recipe with simple ingredients. Years later, I searched the “new” internet technology, just in case the recipe was there. To my disappointment, I found it under multiple names and differing recipe authors. One recipe blogger says, “Wacky cake, also known as crazy cake, war cake, depression cake, and three-hole cake, is a simple chocolate cake recipe that has been used in kitchens for nearly a century. This cake was created when many common ingredients were hard to acquire, or food items were being rationed, so the recipe doesn’t include any butter, eggs, or milk.” (www.southernliving.com/recipes/wacky-cake)
For our family’s past and current generations, this recipe has contributed to countless special and sweet occasions. As for me, the recipe is rich, it comes from my grandmother, and it is “My Favorite Chocolate Cake.”
Finances for Chocolate
Throughout Junior High and High School, my summer job was to milk cows twice a day. I am not here to tell you that cows produced chocolate milk on our farm. However, my parents compensated me with finances for school clothes, school supplies, and snack purchases from the Associated Student Body (ASB) club. I have fond memories of my friends and me consuming ice cream cones, Reese’s Pieces peanut butter cups, Milky Way bars, and Kit Kats! Somehow, those cows did finance many chocolate fixes.
Chocolate Runs in the Family
On one of our first dates at Dairy Queen, Kirk and I shared a Banana Boat, with mounds of ice cream, streams of chocolate syrup, peaks of whipped topping, and three cherries on top. Through the years, our chocolate tastes have matured. Our quest turned to finding “healthy” chocolate alternatives for the family. We have settled on Dark Chocolate, the kind with less sugar and more chocolate. Even Harvard approves of this:
“Cocoa is rich in flavonoids, which appear to have beneficial effects on blood pressure, cholesterol, blood flow, and other heart risks…. The higher the cocoa content of the bar, the better it is for your health (look for bars with 70% cocoa or more). Although a couple of chocolate squares may not do wonders for your heart and brain, they will please your taste buds without adding too many inches to your waist.” www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/chocolate-pros-and-cons-of-this-sweet-treat?
Unlike our coffee tradition, our adult children are all in! The challenge is eating just one piece. We have differing favorite flavors, including orange, mint, coconut, cherry, raspberry, almond, sea salt, and coffee. Well, not coffee for some of us.
Our family continues to indulge in dark chocolate on game nights and movie nights. It often appears for holidays, gift-giving occasions, and for no reason at all. The writing of this article has been fueled by a daily dose of about one square inch of dark chocolate. On this day, the flavor is orange. What would be your favorite?
Christine Blankenship, Publisher
Vibrant Senior Options
