Chocolate

Mitt Romney is on a charm offensive. He took reporters' questions after a campaign rally Thursday instead of keeping them at bay. He brought them warm chocolate chip cookies for the flight from Jacksonville to Palm Beach, Fla. After he got off the plane, he walked over to show reporters a picture of his 5-year-old grandson, Parker. It was "wild hair day" at school and the grandfather of 18 had to share what had just come into his iPad. "You know how he did that? With Elmer's Glue and egg whites.

"Fifty Shades of Grey" author E.L. James, who was in town for a reading at the Burlington Barnes & Noble on Tuesday night, was surprised during her stay at the Four Seasons in Boston by a chocolate re-creation of her novel made by the hotel's pastry chef Rob Differ. Differ sculpted dark and white chocolate into the shape of James's paperback, with truffles and fruit spilling out of open, sugary pages. Kristan Fletcher of the Four Seasons tells us that the entire pastry staff is in the thick of reading the steamy book, which is now a staple on just about every bestseller list.

Globe Staff File Photo/Mark Wilson Olives has been unofficially feeding people for a few days now, getting back in gear and using guests as guinea pigs to try out dishes new and old. (The food was free, but they paid for their own drinks.) Thursday, the reopening is official. "So many people have come up and said, 'We're so happy to have you back,'" says chef Todd English. But don't expect English and crew to be serving the kind of Big Food pictured above, the way Olives served customers circa 1996.

You have to love the pomegranate because of its moist, succulent seeds. The challenge is navigating through the intricate maze to access the edible bits. Brookside Foods has developed a method of extracting the sweet, juicy fruit and bathing it in rich, dark chocolate, marrying two beloved, complementary flavors in one sensational bite. Dark Chocolate Pomegranates are packaged in resealable bags, perfect for on-the-go snacking. Available at Market Basket, Costco, and Walmart locations.TERRY HOLDEN

It's called "Chocolate," but "Cheese" would have been just as good. Soaked with tears, full of schmaltz, and yet strewn with bodies, Prachya Pinkaew's new kick-'em-up is extreme action, extreme melodrama, and extremely hard to resist. Were I to make a movie about a young autistic Thai woman who goes on a martial arts rampage to collect outstanding debts owed to her ill ex-gangster mother who needs the money for chemotherapy, I hope I'd end up with something like "Chocolate. " It's part karaoke video, part "Kill Bill.

Serves 2 1/2 cup chocolate pudding mix (see recipe) 1 cup cold water 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract 8 bittersweet chocolate chips (optional) 1. Have on hand 2 ramekins or small bowls ( 1/2-cup capacity each). 2. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the pudding mix and water. Cook the mixture, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until it comes to a boil.

When I mentioned jimmies , the long-established localism for chocolate sprinkles, in a recent column, it was just as a passing example; I didn’t mean to reopen an etymological can of worms. But a few days later, along came an e-mail from Ron Slate of Milton, repeating the rumor that has dogged our candy terminology. “My mother told us never to use the word ‘jimmies’ because it is an epithet for African-Americans,” he wrote. “So we always said ‘sprinkles.’ ” Even before that tale got abroad, jimmies was trailing clouds of factoid and fancy.

2 ounces sweet chocolate, chopped 1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, chopped 1. In a double boiler or bowl set over a pan of 2 or 3 inches ofwater, add the chocolate. Bringthe water to a simmer, cover,and let chocolate melt, stirringuntil smooth. Turn off theheat. 2. Spread a 1/16-inch layer on a piece of plastic wrap or wax paper; chill until set.

Serves 4 4 bananas 4 ounces semisweet chocolate, cut into 8 pieces 1. Set the oven at 450 degrees. 2. Peel and split the bananas lengthwise, but not all the way through. Tuck chocolate into each banana. Wrap them together in a sheet of foil. Bake the bananas for 15 minutes or until the chocolate has melted.

MAX BRENNER 745 Boylston St., Boston. 617-274-1741. www.max brenner.com. All major credit cards accepted. Wheelchair accessible. Prices Appetizers $7.25-$14.50. Entrees $12.25-$28.95. Desserts $6.50-$24.95. Hours Mon-Fri 11 a.m.-11 p.m. (bar menu until 2 a.m.). Sat-Sun brunch 10 a.m.-4 p.m., dinner 4-11 p.m. (bar menu until 2 a.m.). Noise level Very loud. May we suggest Chicken, bacon, and cheddar rolls, “The Sloppy Max’’ sliders, urban s’mores, pure chocolate truffle granita.

Folks who celebrate Easter should expect to see a bumper crop of chocolate and toy bunnies this weekend, according to a new report from Panjiva Inc. Maybe tough times had penny-pinchers cutting back, but after several down years, bunnies (including chocolate bunnies) seem to be back big time --- shipments of bunnies to the US were up 22 percent in early 2012, Panjiva said. With offices in New York and Cambridge, Panjiva uses technologies developed under the leadership of company cofounder James Psota, a computer scientist from the Massachusetts Institute of...

Odwalla Inc. says it is voluntarily recalling its Odwalla Chocolate Protein Monster beverage because four customers who have peanut allergies experienced severe allergic reactions after drinking it. A news release Thursday from the Coca-Cola-owned company says it is recalling 12-ounce and 32-ounce bottles, with "enjoy by" dates prior to and including May 23, 2012. They were distributed nationwide. The 12-ounce bottles are also available in variety packs sold at Costco stores.

Serves 12 13tablespoons sugar¼cup steaming hot water1cup olive oil12ounces dark chocolate (60 to 70 percent), chopped5eggs1pint fresh strawberries (for garnish)1bunch fresh mint (for garnish) 1. Have on hand a 9-inch springform pan and a roasting pan. Cut a sheet of foil and cover the bottom and sides of the pan outside. 2. In a bowl, combine 6 tablespoons of the sugar and the hot water. Stir well. 3. In a saucepan, combine the olive oil and chocolate. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate melts.

The Easter Bunny has arrived early at the Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI was presented Wednesday with an enormous, 250-kilogram (550-pound), 2.2-meter (7.2-foot) tall chocolate Easter egg by Italian chocolatier Tosca, which specializes in oversized cocoa confections. The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano said Benedict plans to donate the egg, which features the papal coat of arms, to a juvenile detention center in Rome. In Italy, children traditionally receive a big chocolate egg with a prize inside on Easter Sunday.

I love studies telling me that chocolate will help me live longer, improve my blood pressure, or boost my mood, and I'm especially delighted to hear about a new finding published last week, which found that frequent chocolate eaters tend to weigh less than those who don't indulge. But I take all these with a grain of salt because they're population studies that make associations and don't prove a cause and effect. In the study, which involved more than 1,000 volunteers, researchers compared chocolate consumption with body mass index - a measure of height and weight - and found that...

Q. What is the best method for cleaning chocolate stains? A. Chocolate stains are tricky. They're a mix of oily, waxy substances and pigment, which means they're best tackled in stages. If there is a lot of chocolate, freeze it before trying to remove it: Put several ice cubes in a resealable plastic sandwich bag, and place it on the chocolate. Once the chocolate hardens, gently scrape off as much as you can with the top edge of a dinner knife blade or a credit card. If there's just a little, brush away what you can with a clean, dry soft toothbrush.

I love studies telling me that chocolate will help me live longer, improve my blood pressure, or boost my mood, and I'm especially delighted to hear about a new finding published Monday, which found that frequent chocolate eaters tend to weigh less than those who don't indulge. I take all these with a grain of salt since they're population studies that make associations but don't prove a cause and effect. In the study which involved more than 1,000 volunteers, researchers compared chocolate consumption with body mass index -- a measure of height and weight...

With chocolate milk getting banned from school lunchrooms, the milk industry found a new and clever way to boost lagging sales: Get Olympic medalist Dara Torres and other swim medalists to pitch the sugary beverage chocolate milk as a great way to refuel after a workout. USA Swimming, a membership group that selects the Olympic team, is getting paid by the milk industry for the Get Chocolate Milk! campaign, but in a statement it said it decided to team up due to "a growing body of published research" that supports chocolate milk's recovery benefits after...