Her Sweet Hot Bark

The box of chipotle-almond chocolate bark I got from Expressions Fine Chocolate on Wilcrest may have been the best appreciated Christmas gift this year. I got it for my wife, but I am “helping” her eat it.

Judging by the front room at Expressions Fine Chocolate, it looks like the place is going out of business–there aren’t any candies in the glass display cases. The chocolatier and owner, Valerie, has got so many wholesale orders that she doesn’t bother trying to be a retailer anymore. But that doesn’t mean she won’t sell you some outstanding handmade chocolate at a great price. You just have to order them first, and then come and pick them up. Give her a call if you want to place an order.

We took a break from blogging over the holidays while our crackerjack IT staff worked on transferring our online operations to a new server after we got hacked. Christmas was spent on Greer’s Ferry Lake in the foothills of the Ozarks with the Klaasmeyer clan. We shipped in some Totten Inlet Virginica oysters since we couldn’t get any Texas bivalves and I smoke-roasted a beef loin roast on the Weber with some hickory wood.

The day after Christmas, O Rufus Lovett and I took off on another Zen BBQ jaunt through Georgia and Carolinas. Check the twitter hashtag #zenbbq for a list of stops. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I’m working on some recipes for barbecued pork shoulders and hams using the techniques I learned on the road.