He's #1

 I like that I can buy my dad a Van Otis Chocolate Trout for Father’s Day and don’t have to sit for six hours hoping to catch a real one.

I love the imagery of dad and daughter dipping a line while enjoying the serenity of a pond, surrounded by the music of spring peepers. However, my need for immediate gratification, fear of slimy things, and aversion to heat, humidity, and mosquitoes destroyed my angler aspirations.

I’m grateful that my sister filled the shoes (waders) of Dad’s fishing buddy. Dressed in her pink L.L. Bean fly fishing vest and carrying her matching tackle box, she’s spent many hours with our father in his favorite habitat.

This Father’s Day, I won’t be expressing my love by sitting in a canoe, smelling of bug dope. My dad will know how much he means to me when he opens a box of hazelnut truffles, Bacca Z Wine cordials, or a Number One Dad Pop. These pops come in delicious dark, milk, and white chocolate.

Check out the full line of Van Otis’s seasonal and holiday chocolates at www.vanotischocolates.com.

Fa La Stinkin' La

Years ago we invested in an artificial Christmas tree. Yes, we’re those people. We did it as a matter of principle. One year Christmas trees cost an average of $16, and the following year they were $40. Maybe it didn’t happen that quickly, but that’s what it felt like.

Last year we were digging out the Christmas decorations and could not find the base for our tree. How does something like that go missing? It’s not like we said, hey, we don’t really need this anymore, or, gee, this is taking up too much space. But, poof, it’s gone.

Ironically, we still had a stand for live trees - $16 ones – so my husband rigged up a solution that involved wooden blocks, several people, and a lot of patience.

This year I decided that I’d surprise the family by getting the tree up, lit, and ready for decorating. I had forgotten about needing several people and patience, and so the unspeakable happened – I swore at our Christmas tree.

I didn’t just swear near the Christmas tree. I swore right at it.

This clearly had to be bad ju ju. So I took a moment and grabbed a Van Otis Gingerbread truffle. This was exactly the burst of holiday that I needed. I love the spiced crunchy coating on the outside of its dark chocolate shell. The center is so creamy and tastes just like a gingersnap cookie. Yum, yum, yum.

I quickly got back into the holiday spirit, apologized to my plastic tree, and successfully finished the task at hand. No one is allowed to walk too closely or briskly by the tree – just in case.

Find other holiday-ins truffles and candies such as Gingerbread, Eggnog, Dulce de Leche, Hazelnut Praline, Candy Cane, Champagne, and my kids’ favorite, Pomegranate truffles, at Van Otis’ Manchester retail store on Elm Street in Manchester or online at www.vanotis.com.

Oh, You Shouldn't Have

We’ve accepted a New Year’s Eve party invitation from our creative hosts, mentioned previously in the blog “Warning: This Article May Contain Traces of Nuts.” I politely responded to the invitation with, “Yes, and what can we bring?” At this phase of the holiday celebration marathon, what I really mean is, “Would you like me to bring paper plates?” Instead I elicited the response, “A dessert.”

I’m stumped. Over the past two months, I’ve already frosted, dipped, whipped, baked, and sprinkled every confection in my recipe box. I need to find something that impresses the crowd and de-stresses the cook.

Scanning the Van Otis Chocolates website (http://www.vanotis.com/), I found Mini Desserts. They come in a variety of flavors including, Banana Split, Hazelnut, Cherry Dream, Latte Macchiatto, Pistachio Passion, Orange Spice, and Christmas Spice.

Each handmade dessert looks like an individual work of art. All I need to do is find a festive platter, arrange, throw some flour on my lapel, and look tired and accomplished.