Gartending: A New Year, Baby

Worldly Hot Chocolate Potato, Beer & MuBock Soup

Gartending: A New Year, Baby

I always look forwards to New Year’s Eve. This is my favorite time of the year for a few reasons. The first and most important reason is the Twilight Zone Marathon. I’ve always loved the television show and the strange stories told. Klaus is especially fond of the episode with Williams Shatner on the airplane. He sees a gnome out on the wing.. Sort of looks like Klaus’s uncle Franz. Did Franz come from the old country out on the wing of an aircraft? I hope not. William Shatner appeared to be very disturbed by the sight of Franz.

If you don’t believe me, watch the marathon and see. Franz! Stop being so bad!

Ah, that’s what gnomes do! They flash their wild eyes and swoon over the most mundane things. Like a pot of hot chocolate?

Perhaps yes. The most marvelous pot of hot chocolate I’ve had in recent memory was in Burgundy. It was served in a little teapot. Short and Stout.

It was all I wanted in France. Oh, certainly the wine and the food- yes there is always that. But what I wanted to relive, were my memories of my childhood.

Klaus was raised in Europe, that is for certain. And I was as well. One of my fondest memories as a boy was the time that I tasted real hot chocolate for the first time. The aroma of toasted cacao beans, the chocolate bitter and sweet all at once and hot, hot against my tongue, burning it for a second, then melting back into the present tense where all childhood memories lay.

Klaus is covered in swaddling cloths to signify his birth (a long time ago…) on the New Year. And in keeping with his boozy ways, his most favorite beverage is a frozen (because it’s darned cold outside) hot chocolate. And because Klaus has such good taste, the chocolate should be Valhrona Chocolate. Only the best for Klaus.

Klaus’s Frozen Hot Chocolate for New Year’s Eve

Ingredients:

Valhrona Chocolate (at least 75% bitter)

Hot milk to blend with the Valhrona Chocolate and dark brown sugar

Templeton Rye Whiskey

Freshly whipped cream sweetened with a few tablespoons of dark brown sugar and an ounce or two of the rye

Preparation:

Prepare a pot of the best hot chocolate you can make with milk

Let freeze overnight in your freezer

Cut chunks of the now frozen hot chocolate and crush it with your food processor or blender

Fill the mug to the top with the crushed hot chocolate

Pour 2 oz. of the Templeton Rye over the shaved frozen “hot chocolate” in your mug