Deborah's (La Brea Tar Pit) Vegetarian Chili
(from Real Simple magazine)
Hands-on Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: about 2 hours
Makes 6-8 servings
Chocolate added to chili may seem unusual, but it gives this dish a rich color and intensifies the flavor.
1 Tblsp. olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, cut into 1/4 inch dice 2 tomatoes, cut into 1/2 inch dice,
  OR one 16-oz can whole tomatoes, drained and chopped
2 15-oz cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 15-oz cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
5 cups vegetable broth
2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 oz. bittersweet chocolate
In a stockpot, over medium heat, cook the oil, garlic, onion and green pepper until slightly softened, stirring  occasionally, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, chickpeas, kidney beans, vegetable broth, cumin, and salt. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Before serving, stir in the chocolate until melted.
Keep it: Store in refrigerator up to 3 days or in the freezer up to 4 months. Freeze individual servings in heavy-duty zipper bags.

Patti's Chocolate Margaritas

After a good deal of experimenting with things that did either not trigger the chocolate detector or the margarita detector, I rejected the idea of using Crème de Cacao or Godiva chocolate liqueur and instead used a pretty standard margarita recipe, something like:

1.5 ounces tequila
3/4 ounce Triple Sec
1/2 to 1 ounce fresh squeezed lime juice
1 ounce good very dark chocolate, e.g., Valhrona, 60-70% cocoa solids

Prepare the glasses by rubbing the rims with the limes you used for the juice, then dipping into some shaved chocolate to give that Margarita look!  Melt the chocolate (on defrost setting on the microwave works well for me).  Stir in the lime juice.  Put everything in the blender (multiplying by the number of people you want to serve).  Either add plenty of ice cubes and  blend on high, or for 'on the rocks, pour over ice cubes in the glass.

Nancy's Sephardic farina (hella) cake From Marge Scallo, Aviva Hadassah, Maplewood/South Orange, N.J.
Serves 12-14
1/4 cup ( 1/2 stick) unsalted butter
2 cups water
1 quart milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup uncooked farina (a wheat cereal)
6 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
Grated zest of 1 lemon
2 cups ricotta cheese
1 to 3 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 13-by-9-inch baking pan.

Melt butter in large saucepan. Add 2 cups water, milk and salt, and bring to a boil. Gradually add farina, stirring constantly until mixture thickens, about 3 minutes.

Beat eggs with sugar and lemon zest until light. Add farina to egg mixture a little at a time, until all is combined. Stir in ricotta and vanilla extract to taste.

Pour into prepared pan. Bake 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Serve warm or at room temperature, accompanied by cut-up fruit of the season. This also makes a great breakfast.

Notes from Nancy: I created "Hella cake" by blending the basic three:
1. a good recipe
2. chocolate, and
3. the theme of this tasting
1. Recipe was featured in the Mercury News as "Sephardic farina cake" for Rosh Hashonah this year.
I adjusted it by swapping canned goat's milk (diluted as suggested on the can) for the quart of milk, substituting ginger for the lemon in the original recipe.
2. I added 1 large square (= 1/5 of the large bar) melted Scharfen Berger bittersweet baking chocolate
3. The "Hella" name was suggested by my daughter, whose experience as growing up in California has given her full native usage of hella. It's regional limits have been pointed out to her by her bunkmates at Shire Village Camp where she was the only Californian in her cohort for 4-5 years, surrounded by kids from Mass, CT, NYC, NJ.  The squib I shared about "hella" came from Jorge Hankamer's 60th birthday online Feschtschrift. You can also see that I've responded to Ask-a-Linguist questions about hella