A day without chocolate is like... there are no words bad enough!

Oh nooooooooooooooo! If you're anything like me and instinctively reach for chocolate when life gets a little stressful (or when it's not stressful in the least, for that matter), then you know full well what this photo says: It says, "Danger, Will Robinson! You are thisclose to being completely out of chocolate. So put on your shoes, grab your purse (Will didn't really carry one) and your keys, get in the car and go to the chocolate store before it's too late." Or something like that.

How important is the dark, velvety smooth food-group-unto-itself to me? Well, I eat it for breakfast. Seriously. And I have a midmorning bump. And another around noon. In fact, if I were banished to a desert island and could take only one food with me, it would be chocolate. So you could say it's worth its weight in gold around my house.

Here are a few little known but interesting facts about chocolate and cocoa, or cacao, as they say in other countries: The ancient Mayans in what is today southeast Mexico used cacao beans as currency. So did the Aztecs who came later. The Spaniards who came along even later still used chocolate as medicine (as do I; as do I...)

In the 17th century Europe had "chocolate houses." Think Amsterdam without the haze. And the first chocolate candy came along in the 1800s.

All that's food for thought. But food for the chocoholic? I'm getting my purse and keys and heading out the door...