Chocolate Bark Crunch

Now this one here, this is my most favorite holiday time treat.  To me there is not too much that I can rank up any higher than some smooth semi-sweet chocolate that is peppered throughout with little bits of roasted peanuts and specks of salty pretzels.  Paired up with anyone of my personal favorite wines and I am somewhere past cloud 9, out further floating between 10 and 11 I think.

14- 1oz. squares of semi-sweet baking chocolate
1/3 cup of roasted peanuts
1/2 cup of pretzel sticks

First and foremost, line a large baking sheet with waxed paper (the larger the pan-the thinner the bark); set aside. Technically you can use a double-boiler for this recipe, but since I have never owned or used one, this recipe will be wrote for those of us without one. Place a medium sauce pan, that is filled 1/3 of the way with water, over a medium-high flame on your stove top. Place a small sauce pan inside of it so that it floats in the water-not touching the bottom and has no water inside of it-the little saucepan. Place the chocolate squares into the dry, floating little saucepan. Using a wooden spoon, continue to constantly stir the chocolate as it begins to melt (you cannot save melted chocolate once it has begun to burn-it ruins all of it). Meanwhile, place a large handful of peanuts inside of a ziploc sandwich baggy; seal well. Making sure to work over a wooden cutting board, smash up the peanuts into small shards with a rubber mallet, meat tenderizer, un-opened canned good, rolling pin or like me with a toy wooden hammer from your kids room ;)  Repeat this process for the pretzels as well.  Once the chocolate has completely melted through, stir in the peanuts and pretzels. Quickly pour the mixture onto the center of your wax paper-lined baking sheet and spread it out evenly across the bottom of the pan. Place the entire pan into your fridge to set up and chill for about an hour. Once it is completely hard, you can remove it by lifting up on each side of the waxed paper. Using your hands, break it apart into palm-sized hunks and store in an air tight container. Serves 10. Enjoy!