Tell the Wolves I'm Home and Frozen Hot Chocolate

While frozen hot chocolate does not sound like the right kind of thing for December, it is a great nostalgic and refreshing treat even in winter.  This version is inspired by that classic New York City institution Serendipity who is famous for one thing - its decadent frozen hot chocolate that little tourists and NY princesses have been enjoying for decades.  The restaurant (and frozen hot chocolate) make a brief cameo in Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rivka Brunt which was a real sleeper hit for me.  I had not heard anything about the book before I picked it up and about 10 pages in I was deeply in love with the book.  It is an emotional coming of age story of an awkward girl  - June Elbus - living in suburban New York in the eighties.   I immediately connected with the character.  June, at 14, is a little weird, a little overweight, she likes to wear lace up boots and medieval style dresses and hang out alone in the local woods and pretend she lives in medieval times.  June is lonely and isolated and the only person in her life that gets her is her gay uncle Finn, who is a painter that lives in New York and is dying of AIDS.  This is the eighties so the disease is new and something to be kept under wraps.  In stark contrast with June's positive relationship with her uncle is the fractured relationship she has with her older sister Greta - the two of them used to be thick as thieves and then Greta became mean and is cruel and mocking to her younger sister.  The book is about these two relationships and June's rough passage into young adulthood.

I think I formed such a connection with this book because like June Elbus, I was an dorky nerdy kid in the eighties (though the book takes place in the early eighties when I was not a teenager yet).  In June Rivka Brunt has created a character that the reader will instantly emphasize with.  She doesn't have many friends and her older sister, who used to be her best friends, treats her with the kind of contempt uniquely mastered by pretty teenage girls.  The only person that makes June feel special is her uncle Finn - her mother's brother.  Finn is a painter and when the novel starts he is in the final stages of painting a portrait of June and her sister Greta.  June's attachment to her uncle mimics a teenage crush, which her sister taunts her with and makes her question herself.  The fact that Finn is sick is not spoken of, and when June learns the truth she is devastated.  Eventually June warily gets to know and form a relationship with Finn's boyfriend Toby.  He is the person who June's mother blames for giving her uncle AIDS and so June must meet with him in secret.  He is a bit dangerous  - he smokes, he drinks, he is British and a little wild.  Through Toby, June learns things about her uncle she never knew and questions whether she knew him that well at all, and whether he really loved her as much as she thought.  She also questions her mother and her relationship with her uncle.  June's relationship with Toby forces her to grow up and realize that the world our parents paint for us is not always the truth.  Equally central to the story is June's complicated relationship with her sister Greta who is going through a bit of a crisis.  The emotional roller-coaster of these two sisters being at odds and then coming back together is incredibly moving.   While the novel deals with difficult subjects like AIDS, loss, family lies, at its core it is about love and it treats its main subject - June - with great affection.  I devoured this novel and absolutely loved it.  Highly recommend.


Frozen Hot Chocolate
(printable recipe)

June's Uncle Finn is the person that introduced to her to all the cool places in New York - the Cloisters, museums, Central Park and Serendipity Frozen Hot Chocolate.  This Upper East Side institution with it's carnival decorated interior is famous for one thing - this rich frozen treat.  I have no idea what else the restaurant serves, if anything.  For me it seems perfect that this place was somehwere June visited with her Uncle  - I remember going on a trip to NY with my Mom in the 80's and I thought it was the coolest place I had ever been and this Frozen Hot Chocolate was the most delicious thing I had ever tasted.  It is basically a milk shake, but it is fabulous.

Ingredients
3 ounces chocolate of your choice, chopped
2 teaspoons hot cocoa mix
1 tablespoon sugar
1 and 1/2 cups milk
whipped cream and chocolate shavings to serve

Directions:

1. Melt the chocolate in a bowl set over simmering water.
2. Remove the bowl from stove and stir in the cocoa mix and the sugar until smooth.
3. Slowly stir in 1/2 cup of the milk until incorporated.
4. Combine the chocolate mixture, rest of the milk and ice in blender and blend until it is a slushy consistency.
5. Serve with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.