conFESSion

I am so embarrassed. I have a confession to make. Something really has a hold on me. I just can’t stay away from it. It all started when I was an exchange student in Germany in 1988. I have tried many, many times to get this monkey off my back, but I just CAN’T! There are times when I just don’t know who to turn to or what to do about it. I thought at one point in my life, that I was finally able to kick this habit of mine. I had gotten married and had three babies in three years, who had time for addictions…..I know what you are thinking, 3 babies in 3 years sounds like I’d found myself another fix. THEN, I went back to Germany to attend my (exchange) sisters wedding, and it started all over again. And since then it has been completely and utterly out of control. What is it? Wow this is harder than I thought, some of you may not even know what this stuff is. But I do and so does my husband… all too well. Poor guy. Okay here goes….DEEP breath (through the nose) NUTELLA, yes, IT’S nutella…I said it! Nutella, nutella, nutella. I cant believe I am telling you this. It’s horrible.

All silliness aside, I really do have a serious love affair with this stuff, and as if that isn’t bad enough I have transferred my obsession with this creamy, yummy, perfectly heavenly chocolate hazelnut spread to my family. My husband eats it practically nightly on graham crackers, my sons eat it every morning on their waffles. The possibilities are truly endless, but that is a whole nother post.

My love affair with Nutella started 22 years ago and is still going strong today, thanks to Costco carrying it in a very economical 2 pack! I was doing the Costco dance the day I discovered it there! Prior to that it was something I would splurge on at Meijer, or Andrea (my German exchange-sister) would send me a jar of it. One time when I went to visit she had the worlds biggest jar of Nutella right next to my bed. Sweet Dreams! I woke up with chocolate everywhere…it was so embarrassing.

If you visit us, it is not uncommon for us to ask THE question at the door “do you like Nutella?”, and if you say, “what’s Nutella?”. Well, be sure sister that you WILL know by the time you leave our house and you probably (if we have a spare) will go home with a jar of it!

So last night I was watching one of my favorite channels FOOD NETWORK….and Giada de Laurentis was on the show “Best thing I ever ate”. I knew I loved this girl… she TOO has a serious addiction to Nutella! Yeah, I know, crazy isn’t it? She said sometimes she just eats it by the spoonfuls! Yowza you go girl! Well, the best thing she ever ate was this amazing looking dessert called the Chocolate Purse. SO now I am obsessed with figuring out how to make this thing. I have watched the video blurb on food network.com at least ten times,trying to hear what is in it, well of course Nutella is one of the ingredients! And I even googled the restaurant thinking maybe possibly they would give me the recipe, NEVER hurts to ask. BUT they shut down….STINK! So now I am on my own. I will let you know how my quest for reinventing the Chocolate Purse dessert turns out. Meanwhile, I have a problem……

My Nutella is almost gone!