Snow Day

The Grand Rapids area got anywhere between 4 and 10 inches of snow overnight and most every school is closed today. When you are an adult, you don't really get those snow days, and I think that's one of the biggest rip-offs about growing up. A snow day is like a surprise vacation day. The neighbor kids are sledding down the hill next to our driveway (I kinda wish they would stop by, say hello, and ask first...) and soon they'll head back inside for Hot Chocolate!

Hot Cocoa is possibly one of the greatest inventions for a warm beverage ever, and one of the few things that doesn't suffer from microwave preparation. What I mean by that is - you can warm up the milk in the microwave. Here's a way to make a nice batch of it - about 4-6 cups worth. There are some people who would add powdered milk to this, but they can get their own blogs and talk about the food they like. Here, they are just plain wrong. And it turns out that Hot Cocoa is really very good for you!

2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup cocoa (unsweetened)
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cornstarch (mmm... thicker...)
1 pinch cayenne pepper (adjust for your taste)

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and incorporate evenly.
Whatever you don't use right away, seal in an airtight container, keeps indefinitely in the pantry.

The trick to making it is to add 3-4 tablespoons of the mix to a mug, add just a little cold milk (less that 1/4 cup) and mix that into kind of a syrup. Then add hot milk to fill your mug. That makes sure the cocoa mixes evenly and doesn't leave any lumps - it also stays mixed longer after the cocoa stands.

If you don't like chocolate or cocoa, but like the hot milk - try adding a few drops of vanilla or another flavoring to some powdered sugar or artificial sweetener, and mix with hot milk just like the above.

Something wacky for you!
Those goofy Canadians have come up with a new ad campaign for drinking milk. The intro is worth seeing the first time so you get the caveman premise, but after that, you can skip the intro to get to the short commercials. Brilliant! Thanks to my friend Rachel for that Wacky submission.

Meanwhile, if you do decide to make the cocoa on the stove top, and that skin forms on top of it... save some for me, I love that.

...maybe it's just me.