There isn't much left of The Sixty Second Writer now. Just the few pages saved at the Internet Archives. It was a site I liked for writing inspiration. She was also on the old Alltop site (in the writing category) when I was with WordGrrls. Maybe she also got burnt out and felt disappointed about writing online. I was sorry to see Alltop taken over and all the categories turned into big, popular, news sites everyone who cared already knew about. All the less known sites, like mine, were dropped. It was sad because I had actually been invited, chosen, to be linked (RSS feed) by Alltop. Anyway, as you know, nothing lasts forever.

I tried to find the Sixty Second Writer online now. I think it is Sarah Bragg. The Sixty Second Writer blog was written by S.P Bragg. So, its possible. I didn't find anything else that seemed likely. The original site on Blogspot was taken down. So, there isn't anything for the Internet Archive to archive now, just the bits it had before the site was gone.

This is one of the posts I could still find. Not the original post I had linked to, that one was unfound.

You are a chocolate buyer for a high end department store and it is your job to taste every one and then choose which chocolates would be perfect for your store. Focus on flavor and appearance...

Wouldn't this be an awesome job!!

Writing about chocolate is not easy for me to do without thinking about how much I'd like some chocolate. I think I would like plain, but very good, milk chocolate as much as any other. A gooey caramel centre would be good. Maybe a few toasted pecans, like a Turtle. (Not an actual turtle).

Chocolate in a colourful candy shell - not to be confused with M&Ms, Smarties are a Canadian candy, often available in the chocolate bar section. I could not find Smarties in the US when I lived there. They were sadly missed. Not just Smarties of course, but Smarties were on my top ten list of missed things at the time.

This picture is Smartie wallpaper. No matter how far technology has come you still can not email Smarties to family and friends. I would have done it if there was a chance it would have worked.

I grew up as the oldest in a family of four children. My Mother was very popular the day she came up with the idea of a Smartie Party. She brought home a huge (we were kids, it likely seemed a lot bigger then) bag of Smarties from the bulk food store. (It was the first bulk food store we had in our area so it was already a place of great wonders and wonderful things). My Mom thought up games where we guessed how many red Smarties she had under a cup. Or, which colour of Smartie there were four of when she poured a bunch of them out of the bag. Of course, the prize for all the games were.... Smarties! So everyone won and we shared with my littlest sister who wasn't so great at math yet.

Unlike the US M&Ms, Smarties will leave colour on your hands. But, that was not a problem for a pack of kids. We liked to see how many colours we could wear and who could have the best stain before the Smarties melted. Another great Smartie thing was to keep them in your mouth until the candy softened and the chocolate centre was mushy, it was like liquid, gooey chocolate goodness.

Now, when I think of Smarties, I mostly remember them in a big puddle of colours from the days of those Smarties Parties.

When you eat your Smarties do you eat the red ones last?

I'm having a chocolate night. I just want something delicious and sweet, not yucky sweet but really good, mouth watering, mind numbing chocolateness. Chocolate chip cheesecake, chocolate ice cream with nuts and caramel ribbons, huge three tier choclate cake with choclate icing and roses. Mmmm. Pile all of that on a big piece of hot lasagna oozing mozarella cheese... Yeah, that's what I want. Don't forget a really good, smooth, rich coffee.

Whoever said food is better than sex... at least it's a good alternative. If you aren't getting one you can surely find the other.

What is better than a mug full of hot chocolate on a cold day? When I get in from work at night one of the first things I do is put on the kettle. The first thing I do is turn on the heat! But with electric heat it seems to take forever for the room to warm up. But, that mug of warmth helps, or at least I imagine it does.

Someone once told me that you should actually drink something cold to warm up and drink something hot to cool down. It doesn't make sense to me and so far I haven't seen any signs of it actually working.

What's your hot beverage of choice? Have you tried that new idea of adding hot chocolate and coffee together? I think it's a poor man's mocha. It is good but I've only made it myself at home. The best was when I used both fresh coffee and fresh hot chocolate. I tried just adding a bit of hot chocolate powder to my coffee and that was not so good.

Hot milk, tea and coffee are the traditional drinks besides hot chocolate. My Mother likes hot water with whiskey and lemon. My brother has his personal favourite mug, it's huge, he likes it full of tea with honey and lemon. I'm sure there are some great family recipes out there. When you're coming in from the cold it's a case of whatever works to warm you up.

Keep warm and Seasons Greetings,

Laura

I'm hungry. Sometimes I get a headache when I haven't eaten, tonight I'm just that growly hungry. I'll probably go downstairs and pour a bowl of Shreddies so I don't lie awake thinking about being hungry when I finally go to bed.

But, if I had my choice, I would have something decadent, soft, warm and chocolate. With nuts, with caramel centres or with a sidecar of vanilla ice cream, chocolate, real chocolate is still my favourite.

You don't get real chocolate often. Chocolate bars aren't real chocolate. I'm not sure what the process is and how much actual chocolate they have to contain to be able to label those things chocolate. But, I know real chocolate when I feel it, smell it and taste it; that's not it.

So, here for your sensory pleasure (unless you are one of those pesky vanilla only types) are chocolate recipes from BackWash. Makes you want to just dive right in to a vat of melted, warm luscious chocolate. Well... maybe not quite that far, but I'd love to smell a vat of warm, melted chocolate.