Dark Chocolate Baileys Mud Cake

It seemed those seasons swirled
into each other, as if icicles dripped
an April rain, or a blown dandelion
became the snow. In unsown, dew-sharpened fields
I'd blink and be -- a glittering instant -- stilled
in the smells and shimmery whispers of the ripe
and only crop of wheat we ever grew.
In nights so cold our breaths plumed the hard dark
above our bed, I thought of white, taut,
rain-laden clouds and felt, as we grew warm
together under quilts, the long shudders
of summer thunder.

~ Christian Wiman, from section III of "The Long Home," in The Long Home Poems

I spent several hours night-dreaming of summer during last week's "polar vortex." Cold weather does not agree with me, it's a callous lump of black licorice I'd rather swallow than bite into. Needless to say, subzero temperatures shut me down completely. During the coldest of the cold, I huddled under a not-warm-enough electric blanket for hours on end - only breaking out of my cocoon long enough to make coffee, tea and soup, or to toss chopped apples and carrots out to the three rabbits who sheltered inside my garage for a few days.

As soon as the weather reached 20 F, my body had an insatiable craving for something shamelessly chocolate.

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