Dangerous.

You see that stuff? That is a 13-oz bottle of danger. A jar of diet disaster. It's food of the gods. And how have I made it nearly 30 years without ever tasting the stuff?! The first time I ever heard about Nutella was from a college roommate, Emily. She used to keep a jar in the suite, but I never tasted it. Then, I saw Giada de Laurentiis using it on her show in several recipes. Most recently, I've noticed bloggers using it in a number of recipes. The common denominator in all of those people is that they all talk about how wonderful it is. How have I held out this long?!

Yesterday, I broke down and bought a jar. I bought it on a whim. I had to go to Kroger to buy 2 dozen eggs for David to take to the church men's breakfast this morning. On my way back to the dairy case, I made my way through the produce section, past the bread, and by the peanut butter/jam/honey aisle. And there it was. It was calling my name. It was on sale. I bought it. I just had to see what all the fuss is about.

Well...the fuss is well-founded! Oh my word, I thought I was in chocolate heaven. I expected a texture like peanut butter, but it's actually more like slightly melted frosting. And the taste? It tastes JUST LIKE those Ferrero Rocher chocolates that I adore. I ate 2 teaspoons full just standing at the pantry door. Then I had to put it away. Then David came home and I made him taste it (and I had a couple more teaspoons full). And ever since then, this daggum jar of Nutella has been on my mind. Seriously...it has a little voice, and I can hear it constantly, calling me from the pantry. "Erin...get a spoon...get some Nutella!" I'm trying to resist, but I swear ya'll, it's like those Sirens from Greek mythology. It's gonna be the death of me.

As I've been trying to resist the call of the Nutella, I've been thinking about ways to use it in baking. First and foremost, Nutella and peanut butter will be used as fillings in my Cottage Cheese Pufflets that you'll be seeing on Tuesday. I thought it would make a nice swirl in some homemade ice cream. And I thought you could maybe marble a cake with it. Pound cake, even. And then I Googled Nutella, and there are pages devoted to Nutella recipes. Oh, my. Someone's going to have to stage an intervention. Help.