Happy Birthday to Me!

The doorbell rang on Friday and I was psyched to see two boxes on my step. One was really big, like the size of a box of copier paper, and the other was smaller, about 8"x8". What could they be?
I opened the giant box first. Inside was a big styrofoam cooler. Inside that was another box. And then, inside this Russian nesting doll box was: taadaa! A single Lindt chocolate bar with a tiny decorative glass bottle full of salt. Can you say Holy Packaging, Batman? But I was excited to try it. The flavor: Lindt Excellence A Touch of Sea Salt. The aroma is deliciously chocolatey, like walking into a candy store at Easter. I was nervous to sample it, though, because it had the possibility of going terribly wrong. If the salt crystals were too big, or the chocolate too bitter, this could be a bad thing. No worries, though. This is a mighty yummy bar. The salt is strong, but it goes well with the surprisingly creamy dark chocolate. You know what this would be ideal with? A croissant. Get a nice, flaky, buttery croissant, warm it up and melt one of these bad boys in the center-- heaven! With a cup of coffee, oh man. I'm thinking I need to do this a.s.a.p. On its own, a little square with a glass of red wine would be fantastic.
So what was in the second box? A red tin packed to the brim with "Pralines by Leon." Funny, I thought, I wasn't expecting any samples of pralines. Then I saw the gift card from Memaw and Grandpa David. A birthday present! Hooray! The pralines are an assortment of flavors: Bourbon, Jack Daniels, Amaretto and original. These little sweeties are chock full of nuts and are super sweet, not unlike fudge. They taste of cream and butter and sugar ... what could be better?
(Sidenote: the Sugar Baby was thrilled to see the tin of pralines, because they're one of the candies mentioned in the now-famous candy book. Later that afternoon he called me upstairs during his nap to say, "New Orleans-style Pralines are a kind of candy!")