Chocolate in its various incarnations

[mrissa]

I'm drinking the very last cup of the Really Good Hot Chocolate. I have drunk it. It is gone. If I'm aware that there is No More, Ever, of something like a kind of hot chocolate, I find I'm more likely to enjoy it if I treat it like something ordinary, if I drink it when I want it rather than fussing over whether this is the perfect time. Life has no perfect times, other than the ones we make for ourselves. Drink your cocoa.

I really ought to make candy today, as it is Mikulas. I think if the book goes very well or very poorly there will be layered fudge, and if the book goes very very well or very very poorly there will be matastas's rum balls as well.

I'm hoping it snows some more, not just because I have a general pro-snow agenda (although all of you know by now that I do) but also because there's enough snow on the driveway that I will have to clear it if we don't get enough more snow that the driveway service will do it. So laziness and aesthetics once again coincide; how convenient.

Right. Book now.

Comments

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry it's the end of VGHC.

I've decided to try to buy Mexican chocolate online. I brought some back from Oaxaca that was to me the perfect of hot chocolate. Maybe I'll chance on it again, and if I do, I'll post.

[mamapduck.livejournal.com]

You mean like this?

http://chocoibarra.com.mx/espanol/productos/index.html

http://www.mexgrocer.com/2544.html

We drank this growing up. It's readily available here, but I'm not sure where you're located.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Is Ibarra the brand they sell in Oaxaca? I found it online in quite a few places, and there are some local stores that probably carry it, but wasn't sure it was the one. If you know, many thanks!

[mamapduck.livejournal.com]

I don't know about Oaxaca, but that's what Grandma Rodriguez always used, so it's what we bought here in California. It's certainly worth a shot to see if it's what you remember. Mexgrocer also carries molinillos for proper frothing.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Sounds wonderful! Thanks!

[mamapduck.livejournal.com]

So why is it the end of the VGHC? Is it just hard to obtain or absolutely impossible? What is the VGHC, specifically?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It was a Joseph Schmidt hot chocolate mini-pellet sort of thing, and they stopped making it two years ago. So it might technically be possible to find an unopened tin somewhere at this point, but the odds are pretty strongly against it.

[one-undone.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm rum balls. Now you've got me itching to make some. The first batch of fudge for the season has already been made (and eaten) but no rum balls yet. I'm sure brithistorian will be grateful for your having mentioned it since it planted the Rum Ball Bunny gnawing at my brain.

It may be fudge-making time again, if I can trick him into beating it again, but I'm not sure he's managed to reattach his arms. Fudge is so good but it's so fussy that way, making you beat it until your arms fall off and whatnot. :P

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I haven't made the fudge yet -- book not going that well or that poorly -- not even the first layer of fudge. But the beating of it feels to me like preparation for the kneading of the lussekatter, which is a beast and a half.

[one-undone.livejournal.com]

Is that the stuff you talked about kneading and kneading until you wonder if there would EVER be a time when you'd be finished with the kneading of it, and nearly wanted to cry, and then magically you'd pass the "stop kneading" mark and it would be like the world was a fresh and joyous place again? Or is that some other food I've never dared make?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

That was the lussekatter, yes. It is in my near future. Next Wednesday, probably. Thursday at the latest.

[matastas.livejournal.com]

You spoil me so, remembering my balls every year.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

What can I say? They're the sort of thing I find memorable.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Did you have the hot chocolate in Suite 88?

[timprov.livejournal.com]

I have been craving the death-to-Jo cocoa ever since.