12 pounds of chocolate

Last week, I celebrated my 12th anniversary at Microsoft. The tradition (I heard about this tradition when I was a contractor) is to bring 1 pound of M&Ms for each year as a full-time-employee. 12 pounds of M&Ms wasn’t a thrilling prospect (have you priced bulk M&Ms recently?), but what could I bring, especially if I found myself wanting to help reduce the cache? So, off shopping I went. While perusing the candy rows at a local drugstore, I saw some bags of saltwater taffy, and the red and black licorice flavor sounded like a good choice. With 2 pounds of saltwater taffy purchased, I was now down to needing 10 more pounds of chocolate. Next stop was at Costco, where I found a great nearly 6-pound bag of various individually wrapped bite-sized chocolates (which included the obligatory M&Ms, both plain and peanut varieties). Now, almost 8 pounds of candy was ready for work. But what about the last 4 pounds? What to do, what to do….. Then I remembered that one of my favorite goodies to share at work is my apple cake. Now, this recipe originally called for walnuts or pecans, but with a grandson who is allergic to tree nuts, I’ve had to modify many of me recipes, including this one. My favorite substitution (and, apparently, others feel the same way) is chocolate chips. So that is what I made for my last 4+ pounds of anniversary. I was a bit worried about the cake, though, when I realized I had forgotten to put the baking soda in when mixing it. And how long did close to 6 pounds of assorted chocolate, 2 pounds of licorice-flavored saltwater taffy, and more than 4 pounds of chocolate chip apple cake (even missing the baking soda) last? All of those goodies lasted a grand total of 4 days, with the apple cake gone before I left the office the first day. Wow!