Nutella

I love Nutella. I love Nutella so much that when I eat it, I tend to close my eyes and eat slowly.

The first time I had Nutella was around 5th or 6th grade when my sister came back from France during an exchange trip. She brought a jar back and told us all we had to try it. It was amazing. If you've never had Nutella before, it's slightly creamier than frosting and has a rich chocolate and hazelnut flavor. You may have eaten a Ferrero Rocher; those little gold covered chocolate balls with the hazelnut in the middle surrounded by creamy chocolate and covered in a wafer? That creamy chocolate is Nutella and they're made by the same company. Erin, my sister, told us to put it on toast. Are you crazy?! Chocolate spread for breakfast?! But we did, and that was the beginning of my love affair.

Back then, it was difficult to find Nutella anywhere. Luckily, we had a store in our little town that sold foreign candy, jams, and other items and they sold Nutella. Now, you can go to any grocery store and find it sitting next to the peanut butter and jellies.

Here are a few suggestions for eating Nutella besides spreading it on toast:
- filling wonton wrappers with Nutella and strawberries. After deep frying the wontons, dust with powdered sugar.
- Nutella and fruit (bananas, raspberries, strawberries) empanadas
- Nutella and frut chimichangas
- Nutella as frosting on cookies or cupcakes or doughnuts
- Nutella and cherry pie filling in a hobo pie
- Nutella drizzled on ice cream
- Nutella in a crepe, on waffles or pancakes
- Nutella on a spoon... this is how I usually eat it...

Another really tasty treat is substituting chocolate in a smores for Nutella. I like the fact that the Nutella is already creamy and melty. I once took a brand new jar with me camping and was able to eat one smore and one hobo pie before a Raccoon stole my ENTIRE jar of Nutella that night. This was a very upsetting moment to know that a Raccoon had taken and probably decimated my delicious Nutella...

I hope you go out and try this amazing treat, and I hope you fall in love with it as I have. And if you already love Nutella, I hope you get some good ideas on new ways to use it! Please share any ideas you might have with this post as I would love to hear them!