Flamencos! Tapas! Dinner at 11!

"Made in Spain" by Jose Andres with Richard Wolffe. Clarkson/Potter Publishers 256 pages $35

Since the Spanish diet contains a lot of things that I won't eat - salt cod, dried or fresh; tuna barely seared; octopus, moules ... which is not to say I would like the olives, the fantastic ham ... Anyhow with these givens I thought drink recipes might be a welcome change.

This first one surprised me as I'd been making "sangria" all through the poverty years in Beverly Hills. Poor Person's Sangria: get a cheap gallon of red wine. Peel an orange and a lemon and force the skins down the neck of the wine bottle. Let sit overnight (at least) and drink. This is considerably more elegant!

WHITE WINE SANGRIA
1 cup chopped fruit, such as strawberries, peaches, white grapes
1 bottle Cava, a Spanish sparkling wine
1/4 cup brandy
1/4 cup Licor 43 or a vanilla-flavored liqueur
1/4 cup white grape juice
1 teas. sugar
1 small, fresh mint sprig

Fill a glass pitcher half full of ice. Add the fruit. Tilt the pitcher and pour the Cava gently in.
In another container, combine the brandy, vanilla liqueur, grape juice and sugar. Stir and pour it into the big pitcher. Give it a quick stir and add the mint sprig.

SPANISH HOT CHOCOLATE
4 1/2 cups whole milk
10.5 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped or broken into small pieces.
1 T sugar
1 teas. ground cinnamon

Combine the milk, chocolate and sugar in a sauce pan and heat, whisking briskly until the chocolate melts - don't let it boil! Pour into mugs and garnish with a pinch of the cinnamon.