Hurrah! Hurrah!

Today is the 22nd Annual Ra’anana Marathon, which was meant to be two weeks ago but was canceled due to rain.  Lots of rain.  In the last week the weather has warmed up considerably.  Granted, winters in Ra’anana are not exactly Siberian, but you can get cold, especially indoors.  In fact, sometimes I walk the dog just to get outside and warm up a bit.

While I hate the hot and muggy sauna that Ra’anana becomes in the summer months, the springtime can be quite enjoyable.

One of the things I love to do most when the warm weather hits is make a seasonal snack that has been part of our family for yonks and yonks.  I don’t remember if it comes from the Lithuanian side or the Hungarian side of the family, but my little band of hybrid girlies just love it when I finally make the first batch of the year of…

Chocolate Covered Ants

These light snacks go wonderfully with a fruity Muscat or a zippy Chardonnay -- and they're full of protein too!

• 1,742 large ants (if they are small, use 2,044)
• 3 cups melted chocolate (at least 60% cacao, but 70% is even better)

1. Catch ants at a picnic site and keep them in a glass jar to which you have added a teaspoon of sugar to keep them happy (unhappy ants are liable to go sour before processing).
2. At home, pick up each ant with tweezers and remove entrails with a small, very sharp knife edge.  This will take about 400 hours.  If you are in a hurry, eliminate this step; you’ll never know the difference.
3. Dip each ant into melted chocolate and place to drain on waxed paper.
4. If any of them are still able to crawl off the paper, let them go — be a good sport!

(As originally posted on Recipezaar)

And as Ju-Boy likes to say, “Pinch, punch, first of the month, no returns!”