Sheila Roberts fesses up: My love affair with chocolate

Sheila Roberts, author of Better than Chocolate, has a history with confections of the chocolate variety. Here she shares where it all began.

Sheila: It began innocently enough. I was a child, hunting for Easter eggs. Low and behold, nestled among the colored jellybeans, I found a white speckled egg. When I bit into it my taste buds met malted milk and chocolate. Oh, my! From Robin Eggs I rapidly progressed to M&M's, candy bars and chocolate-chip cookies. There was no end to my chocolate fixation. I loved it all: chocolate cake, hot-fudge sundaes and chocolate milkshakes. And I was especially fond of what my mother called grownup candy.

Grownup candy was something that always came along when my family went to our funky old summer cabin for vacations. It never came to the party, though, until after the children were put to bed and the grownups got ready to play cards. Grownup candy was either bridge mix or a box of chocolates, and we kids would peek longingly through the knotholes in the old, wood walls and watch while the fun continued without us and the chocolate got consumed.

Once in a while I was allowed a piece of grownup candy, which was always a treat. And when I got to be a grownup myself I sure looked forward to that day of all days where love and chocolate reign: Valentine's Day. Oh, how I love Valentine's Day! My husband didn't quite get the box-of-chocolates thing, but he did always remember to do something sweet on Feb. 14. One year he bought me a huge bag of M&M's. Over the course of the afternoon I ate the entire bag. (And my stomach quickly let me know that my affair with chocolate was becoming slightly dysfunctional.)

Over the years, bags of chocolate candy evolved into foil-wrapped chocolate roses, which were lovely. But still I longed for more. I craved my very own frilly, heart-shaped box of grownup candy. One year I dropped major hints about this. My darling husband didn't pick them up. I was trying to diet at the time and I suppose he was trying to save me from myself. But, hey, who wants to be saved from herself on Valentine's Day? I did get something properly romantic, but my heart yearned for more. So the next day, when all the Valentine candy went on sale, I hopped on down to the local drugstore and got my frilly pink box of grownup candy. For 50% off! Ah, true love.

I still love chocolate, but I have learned to control the relationship. I sample, I taste, and I enjoy my shot of serotonin and smile. I no longer consume an entire bag or box of anything. I make my frilly, heart-shaped box last. (Yes, I'm still buying them the day after Valentine's Day.) And I experiment with recipes, sharing my chocolate creations with my friends. Because, after all, it's important to share the love.

To find out more about Sheila and her books, you can visit her website.