If you are a chocolate lover, you simply will feel like you've come home. If you are not yet a chocolate lover, Wen Chocolates will help you fall in love. Chef Will Poole has set up an exquisite shop that showcases his artisanal chocolates and delectable pastries. He uses chocolate from all over the world in his creations (hailing as far away as Madagascar), combining them with a variety of spices and herbs.

Ask Poole a question about his chocolates, and you'll get a story. Whether it's an inspiration based on an antique chocolate mold or a cocktail inspired chocolate, Poole's descriptions make you want to sample every chocolate in the shop.

In the top left corner is the Molotov Pineapple, described by Poole as "pineapple and a complex mix of peppers, with hints of rum and brown sugar." In the top right corner is Prazen Sladkor, "William's Wicked Caramel housed in dark chocolate and covered in edible gold dust." Directly below this sits Pandora, a marcipan creation "infusd with nugmet, cinnamon, and juniper berries resting on a bed of dark chocolate."

In the middle sit the sexy Savannah, a beautiful mix of "Ukrainian honey pepper, vodka, cayenne pepper, Aleppo chili, white papper, and hot Hungarian paprika, topped with a chili mango." And finishing off the set, in the bottom left,  sit Citrona, a rich delight of "champagne, citrus, and pomegranate capped with candied citrus." 

Situated on Platte Street in Denver, next door to the Savory Spice Shop, Wen Chocolate often has lines when it opens in the morning. Chef Poole creates just enough fresh pastries and cakes to satisfy the early customers, but does not believe in having leftovers that run the risk of being sold as day old stale.

Oh, and most importantly, all of the above chocolates are dark chocolate.

With Valentine's Day coming up, a visit to Wen Chocolates is simply a way to say I love you to your inner chocolate.

With all semesters, I start inspired, desiring to keep the energy throughout the semester. And with a new semester of a creative writing class, I am determined to write (for the most part) along with the class, keeping my own creative juices flowing.

So, at the end of last class, I had each person in the class throw out a fave poetic word out to the class. They were then instructed to create a poem from the list of words, using at least 8 words, and placing them in a minimum of 12 lines.

Here are the words followed by my attempt. Feel free to play along.

gargantuan, senile, shrill, against, dislike, movement, eviscerate, effervesce, ecstasy, righteous, solitude, beautiful, unerring, gnarly, lackadaisical, quixotic, rancourous, overwhelmed, exotic, crossroad, fleck

Against the Odds
She said to write a poem, using 8 words
in 12 lines,
minimum
no gargantuan task for the initiated.
Yet some might say it’s downright gnarly
to demand the beautiful from the overwhelmed,
hardly righteous to expect
from a congregation of writers
at a crossroad
between the known and the unknowing,
an unerring pattern of words
floating from the solitude of a lone mind
to a quixotic array of words on a page
containing more than eight words
more than 12 lines.

Once again, thanks to the CSA, I have been inspired to play with more squash. Tonight I hit upon a winner recipe, if I might say so myself.

Ingredients (serves approximately 4)
1 medium-large spaghetti squash
4 cloves finely chopped garlic
3 oz. kalamata olives, cut into small rings
4 oz. sundried tomatoes, cut into 1 inch strips
2 oz. ricotta salata, cut into small cubes
handful of fresh parsley

Directions
Prick the spaghetti squash with a fork several times, and place in a 400 degree oven. Cook for an hour (should be soft and have spots of light brown). Let squash cool. Then, cut in half, scrape out seeds, and scoop out strands of squash into a bowl; the squash should look like spaghetti strands.

Saute garlic, olives, sundried tomatoes until garlic softens and flavors blend together. Pour into the bowl of squash and stir so the squash is fully coated. Mix in the ricotta salata and fresh parsley. Stir together so everything is fully mixed.

Can be eaten hot or cool.

Big River Man is a brilliant documentary and deserving of all the awards it's received at film festivals. The film chronicles the journey of crazed Martin Strel, a Slovenian endurance swimmer who prides himself on drinking two bottles of wine a day. After successfully swimming the Mississippi, Danube, and Yangtze rivers, Strel decides his next venture is to swim the entire Amazon river.

The film begins highlighting Strel's prowess as a jovial overweight man who has successfully conquered rivers. When the time begins for him to venture on the river, Strel suits up in a wet suit and begins to navigate a river filled with garbage and toxins, logs big enough to kill him, crocodiles, and potentially hostile natives. None of this phases Strel as he pushes through, day by day, determined to achieve his goal and world record. As the days pass, Strel grows more and more weary, hobbling at the end of the day. The sun has given him second degree burns on his face, posing such a danger that Strel swims with a hat and ghostlike white cover on his face, an odd figure in the water.

Eventually Strel enters the fourth dimension, oblivious to any reality. The film captures his journey into insanity on the river, an Amazonian Kurtz who forgets any notion of reality, driven by his own blindness to conquer the wild. The filmmakers capture this insanity as they wind along the river to the finish line.

Manny has a crappy life. He works in a strip club, cleaning up after other people's shit. Diego, in between continuous tokes of a joint, fancies himself as a nature cinematographer, showing off his footage of ants on the march to fornication. Michael Ray Escamilla (Manuel) and Mando Alvarado (Diego) are not only the stars, but also the directors and writers of Cruzando, part road-trip buddy movie and part journey of self discovery. Manny is about to become a father, but before he can begin that journey, he needs to close the narrative of his own journey with his father.

Left when he was a young child, Manny's father crossed the border from Mexico into Texas, searching for a better life on the other side of the border. That's the last Manny knows of his father until he receives a letter from his father with a newspaper clipping detailing his father's soon to be execution in Huntsville, Texas. Before Manny can fathom becoming a father, he decides he needs to make it to Huntsville before his father is executed. And so begins his journey across the border.

With Diego by his side, filming everything for perhaps an award winning documentary, the two attempt to navigate a crossing of the border with The Matador, a former wrestling star who they mistake for a coyote. General ineptitude characterizes their crossing, but with a bit of luck and the kindness of strangers, Manny finds his way to Huntsville and eventually finds his way back home to embrace his own new life as a father.

The film is beautifully paced, capturing the rhythms of life on both sides of the border. Let's hope the filmmakers find a distributor so the film plays beyond the film festival circuit.