Chocolate Club

I belong to a Chocolate Club and have for years. It is a very loosely organized group of four friends who began with a friendship and a common thread of enjoying chocolate. We called ourselves the Chocolate Club and used to get together regularly. Every gathering included chocolate. Every gathering built camaraderie. Every gathering brought laughter.

I should reveal that one of our members wasn't the chocolate fan we were. We called her our token vanilla member. She didn't hate chocolate, but she didn't live for it like the rest of us did. We loved her and let her belong anyway.

One of the members loved chocolate with orange flavor in it. I never understood that. A local ice cream parlor made some kind of chocolate ice cream with orange flavoring and she would just go nuts for it. My opinion was "Ehhh." Give me a chocolate chocolate chunk any day. But the good thing about our club was we accepted each other's quirks....with the understanding that my own choices were the correct ones of course.

Several years ago one of our members moved out of state. We were sad. Then later on our vanilla member died of leukemia. We were very, very sad. I planted a white flowering crabapple in my back yard to remind me of her. But even now, although we don't see one another as often as we used to, the remaining members of the chocolate club are the dearest of friends. Every time I see a photograph of four women friends, I think of the four of us. It was a very special group. It wasn't chocolate that brought us together, but it helped make our time together special.

I have a favorite chocolate treat for cold nights. I love hot chocolate and have since I was a kid. When I was little, I used to have "cocoa and toast" for breakfast which is hot chocolate and buttered toast that is dunked in the mug. My favorite brand has always been Nestle's instant (used only with milk) and now I use Nestle's sugar free. Now that I don't have cocoa and toast for breakfast (bran muffins are my breakfast of choice now.....sigh) I have only the occasional cup of hot chocolate in the evenings when I'm chilly. Know how to make it even better? Substitute a good dose of Bailey's Irish Cream for a quarter to a third of the milk. Then make it like you normally would. It is the best way to: (a) warm up, (b) wind down, (c) relax.

Marshmallows are optional.