When it comes to mixology, you can't go wrong following the advice of Cousin Jim. The guy hangs at a veterans' post in New Jersey -- enough said.

One of his recent discoveries is chocolate vodka. Normally I'd roll my eyes at such a concept, but if James is a believer, I'm there. Our neighborhood liquor store didn't have it, but we found another store across town that did, and last week, amid major holiday chaos, we brought a bottle home. Tonight we cracked it open and gave it a try.

We followed a recipe on a little card that came with the stuff -- 3 parts chocolate vodka, 1 part raspberry licquer. (Finally some use for the Chambord that's been sitting in the back of the hootch cabinet for ages.) Mighty tasty -- like a naughty chocolate raspberry truffle -- although next time we'd cut the licquer in half. Shaken by itself over ice, the chocolate vodka is wonderful; can't wait to mix it with Stoli Vanil, or use it in place of the vanilla stuff in a "butterfly kiss" (with Frangelico).

But not tonight. Gotta save room for Christmas.