The Dooryard

Hot Chocolate

I love hot chocolate. Heck, I love chocolate; But hot chocolate brings with it so many wonderful feelings and memories of sledding on a snow day and getting out from the cold at my parents' cabin in Maine. As a kid, we always had pretty crappy hot chocolate made from a powdery sugary mix from Swiss Miss. In the last year, however, I have discovered hot chocolate made in a way that has renewed my love affair with it.

It came last winter when I was watching Martha Stewart make hot chocolate with real chocolate (recipe). I tried it out on our trip to Aspen last January and it was divine. I haven't made it yet this year, but I rediscovered The City Bakery's hot chocolate (above) that, at $5 (with an extra marshmallow), is the best I've ever had from a store. And I just discovered that in February of last year, The City Bakery had a hot chocolate festival, with a different flavor every day (pray it returns this year!).

A side note: Avoid Starbucks' hot chocolate. While their coffee is strong in flavor, their hot chocolate is little more than a chocolate syrup warmed up with hot milk.

New York magazine did a review of the city's best hot chocolate, which you can find here.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies

One of the things I like most about autumn is baking. I have a sweet tooth to rival any, and it's one of the big challenges I have in the battle of the bulge. It comes from my mother and my grandmother, this love of making breads and pies and cakes and cookies.

I have two big faves to bake in the autumn, and chocolate chip pumpkin cookies are one of them. I baked a huge batch tonight (about five dozen cookies) that I'll be getting to friends in the coming days. It's probably the best part of baking: sharing the baked goods with friends and family.

Recipe after the jump >>

Autumn has arrived in New York

I fell in love with New York in the autumn. It was six or seven years ago, and I was making my first return trip to the Big Apple. The air was cool and crisp. I was on my own in the city, knowing only a couple of people, wandering the streets and visiting the coffee houses. Despite the rain, I'm brought back to that week today.

I'm headed up to New Paltz for a one-night camping trip. While the leaves will not be changing yet, I'm hoping for more of autumn while I'm there.