The Nutella Rule



image via laurafreelance.com

The Nutella Rule is simple.

You never, ever throw out the jar until someone scrapes down the inside.

Someone always puts the jar in the pantry with about two licks left, but they won't recycle the container. No, no! Someone has to get the last bit of chocolate goodness out. It just wasn't destined to be the person who put it in the pantry last. (Sometimes that person is me)

It's hard work making sure every ounce, or gram, is extracted. You have to get in the spot just under the rim and down in the bottom grooves. You can get a whole nother sandwich out of just those two places. You have to be patient and get some chocolate on your knuckles. Somebody has to do it. (Sometimes that person is me)

Everyone in the house has an eyeball on the last Nutella sandwich. But I'm the Little Red Hen. Paws off my sandwich! (Sometimes I'll give you half)

My manuscript is kind of like the Nutella jar. I put it in the drawer over the summer so I could "see it more clearly". Read: I wanted someone else (agent/editor) to help polish it. Except it needs me to get in there and find that extra bit of goodness. Maybe then agents will want more. (Maybe I'll give them 15%)

PS:
(You know most of the world's hazelnuts come from Turkey, right? This year the harvest was horrible. Expect the prices to go up. Pretend you're a squirrel and GO HOARD SOME NUTELLA!)

Hazelnut = Heaven

Image via Wikipedia

All this research on pirates and paganism is making me hungry... What's a writer to do? I can't step away from the keyboard more than a few minutes, the thread is like an anchor, but other people are howling for nourishment around here. (It's 3 pm on Friday, as I'm writing this. I didn't have lunch.)

A quick piece of chocolate is my favorite pick-me-up snack, but chocolate and hazelnuts... well, that's heaven for me. I first tried Nutella as a teen on vacation in Canada. We couldn't even get the stuff here yet, unless a specialty grocer carried it. Now I can pick up a double pack at Costco. :D

My standby is a quick Nutella sandwich, but Giada de Laurentis goes crazy and makes all sorts of yummy stuff with it. Heck, everybody's doing it now! (There's a link to some rather yummy looking Nutella Cheesecake bars below.) Unfortunately, even a double pack doesn't go very far in this house - so not much is left for recipes. World Nutella Day is February 5th, btw, in case you have an awesome recipe and want to commemorate the day. (Please share it with us!)

Here's the did-you-know part:

The Turkish Black Sea coast is the largest source of hazelnuts in the world.

Yup! I did not know that, until I started paying attention to ingredients after I had kids. The label on the Milka chocolate bar I picked up at World Market mentioned Turkey. (If you like Nutella, you must try a Milka bar!)

So since Turkey is the largest producer of hazelnuts, it's reasonable that there's a national brand like Nutella. Çokokrem is probably the most widely known. Sometimes I'll find other brands, but the best indicator for quality is the amount of hazelnuts in the mix. The ones with high nut content brag about it on the label.

Turkish kids start the addiction at a young age:

Ülker Çokokrem by blognotte

There are lots of other hazelnutty things to like, if Nutella isn't for you. For example, Frangelico liquor (monk-shaped bottle in ref to the great painter/friar), or toasted hazelnut crusted anything...

Here in North Carolina, farmers are planting hazelnuts so they can grow truffles. I can't wait for Turkey to catch on to this one!  I should go buy some land on the Black Sea coast... maybe start a writers' retreat with some cute cottages tucked into the orchard for the off season. :)

Related articles

• nutella cheesecake layer bars recipe (thecookingchannel.wordpress.com)
• World Nutella Day, Feb 5th...Say Whaaaaat??? (theonyxplate.com)