Hot chocolate lobster?

So where do I start? I'm doggone tired, people! This is the shortest week of the year, as I rush to try to finalize everything before next week's season of excess sets in. At some point, I will have to find the time to make some chilli jam or cranberry sauce (courtesy of Nigella, of course) before we leave next Tuesday.

On Friday, I will be the glühwein dispenser extraordinaire at the school fete (never mind that I hate the stuff with a vengeance, preferring mulled cider instead). On a good note, the team also decided to serve hot chocolate. But who cares about the second-hand liquid that they are trying to pass off as hot and chocolatey when you can go to Quetzal Chocolate Bar in Antwerp instead?

After being subjected to Fresco's odes to their chocolate concoctions, I was actually on the verge of hopping into Greta (my car) and driving to Ghent last week. So imagine my glee, when dear Fres brightened up my prospects considerably last night and told me that the kind Quetzal people opened one in Antwerp?

So early this evening, I scooped up the munchkin, blackmailing her with a ride on the merry-go-round and we headed straight over to the Cathedral, to chocolate Cornucopia.
It was bliss, dear readers. Really. Worth every euro cent.


71% dark chocolate (or milk, or white as your basic ingredient), with various interpretations, including cinnamon, marshmallows and chilli. Needless to say I have a customer fidelity card now.

And then, after a brief visit to the dentist (thankfully no cavities), I came home to this:



Living with a New Englander does truly have its advantages. They tend to buy fresh lobsters, which they hide in the fridge and then cook them, with hot butter sauce and serve them with delicious potato salad and prosecco as a surprise.

All in all, a very delectable day and I didn't have to do a thing. Such a sloth I am. But I'm sure I'm worth it.

Because you should always have a must-have: hot cocoa

Some days you need the comforting unctuousness of a hot cocoa, gently oozing its way down your oesophagus to warm you up inside.

Here's a quick recipe:
milk
dark (and I mean really dark) chocolate*
honey or brown sugar
vanilla extract or vanilla syrup (in which case eliminate honey)
cinnamon

if so inclined, you may add dark rum (but since I associate rum with summer cocktails I don't).

Heat milk
Add all the ingredients in function of your liking, and the chocolate, which you should break up in chunks.
Keep stirring with a mini-whisk until the chocolate has melted.
Fiddle around a bit with the taste until you have what you are looking for.
Take out the cinnamon stick.
Pour into a large cup, while steaming.
Find some good mixed spice cookies and snuggle up in bed with a good book.

It will become a ritual. As it is in this household. So without further ado, off to the kitchen I go.

*I'm addicted to Green and Black's dark 85% but my next endeavour includes Marcolini chocolate bars to take it to an altogether new level. I have this hunch that Equateur or Fleur de Cacao will cinch it.