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Okay who is Claire Robinson and why is she stealing all my best ideas? It is particularly annoying because somehow she has figured out a way to steal all my best ideas before I even have them. Now that’s nefarious!

Last year I made Chili Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies. They were an excellent inspiration I’d had while nibbling on a candy bar from Lindt. It was a chili chocolate candy bar made from very dark chocolate and a hint of heat in the form of chili powder.

It was a sumptuously interesting bite of chocolate too, and I immediately knew it would find its way into a cookie from my kitchen. Though I had enjoyed chili-infused chocolate before during my travels in Mexico, this Lindt version was the first time I had seen this combination of flavors north of the border– in a nationally available brand.

I was very pleased with those cookies and I recently had the hankering to make them again. But, you know what? I nailed those cookies the first time I made them. They were no challenge to me at all. I craved a chocolaty, chili-induced challenge. And then, at that precise moment it hit me… just like the Chili Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe the idea for another chili chocolate recipe popped into my head fully formed. Chocolate Chili Dipped Strawberries!

Man-oh-man, you should have seen me strutting around the kitchen, high-fivin’ myself. I was convinced I had stumbled upon a groundbreaking concept. Do you know how many times I said to the dog “who da man??”

I mean think about it? It’s perfect. More importantly it was the concrete evidence I have been looking for all of my life to prove once and for all that yes– YES I am a genius.

So off to the Internet I went where I smugly typed in “Chili Chocolate Strawberries”. Imagine my shock– because right there in Google’s #1 position was the grotesque evidence that this Claire woman had ripped me off. She didn't even try to hide it. She didn't even have the decency to say that she "adapted it from a recipe that Sippity Sup would one day come up with himself".

I had such big plans for my Chocolate Chili Dipped Strawberries too. I had already planned their debut on a group of my friends. Imagine me squealing with glee as I watched them curiously examine each chocolate chili strawberry. Of course, I would have boasted about these berries secret ingredient already. Genius cannot be held back! So they would know full and well there was chili in them thar berries.

But now thanks to Claire, I can only imagine them popping one into their mouths, knowing how completely harmless those berries would look to them. I can see in my mind too the relief that might have crossed their faces, because the first taste would be nothing but intensely flavorful chocolate, and wet-sweet strawberry.

And then, as they began to swallow, I could see them forming the words, preparing to ask me, “where did the chili go?”­ That’s when the miniature heat wave would begin its advance on their taste buds. As their palates began to tingle, I’d just have to laugh at the spicy little trick I’d just played on them.

How could Claire do this to me?

Chocolate Chili Dipped Strawberries makes 12 CLICK here for a printable recipe

Adapted (grudgingly) from a recipe by Claire Robinson