Snow Day and Cocoa

Wow, this is a ton of snow.

For those of you who aren’t locals, it’s been snowing hard literally all day. At 6:30 am there was already more than we’ve gotten in most of or snowstorms this year, and it hasn’t stopped since. We’re hovering right near the freezing point, so it’s heavy, wet snow perfect for snow forts and snowmen. It’s a bit of a contradiction, because I really feel pretty done with snow by March, and we had a streak of unusually warm and beautiful weather right before this, so it’s tough. On the other hand, this is the first truly satisfying-in-its-snowiness snow day of the season. Which meant that this was the first snow day that really switched the girls into holiday/vacation mode. M decided that she wanted to roast chickpeas for breakfast, and then she asked J if she wanted to help. Later, for the first time all winter, the girls bundled up and went outside to play in the snow, and sure, they didn’t last as long as they used to, but it was still lovely to see them out the back window. One of my favorite things. Better still, when they came inside, all apple cheeks and soggy outerwear, M immediately asked J what they should do together next. Music to my ears!

On those special occasions when the girls are outside playing in the snow, I like to have some hot cocoa waiting when they come back inside. I realized that even though I’ve mentioned before that they are too spoiled to want to drink hot cocoa almost anywhere else, I’ve never shared my recipe. So here it is.

Super-Simple and Tasty Hot Chocolate

• Milk I measure how much milk I want by filling the mugs I want to fill and dumping it into a small pot.
• Ghiradelli Baker’s Cocoa
• Sugar I use a 1:1 ratio of cocoa to chocolate and adjust the amount up or down depending on how much I’m making. For two mugs of cocoa, I usually use 1/3 cup each of cocoa and sugar.
• Pinch of salt It really does make it taste better.
• Optional garnish whipped cream or marshmallows or marshmallow fluff Okay, actually, I never have marshmallow fluff in the house, but if I did, I bet it would be good. And if you do, I respect your life-choices.

Put the milk/cocoa/sugar/salt in a pot over low-to-medium heat (depending on the urgency of your cocoa-drinkers’ needs) and stir frequently. It looks for a minute like that cocoa’s never going to dissolve and meld, but it does.

If there’s any left over, make freezer pops. My kids might love the cocoa freezer pops more than the cocoa. Sometimes I double the batch so they can have both. #bestmomever

 

This is not my hot cocoa. This is a random photo of cocoa from Pixabay. Seriously, you guys, do you think that I’m the kind of person who coordinates their marshmallow to match their saucer?

I am more like the mother who doesn’t have any marshmallows. Or who searches and searches and finally finds marshmallows, but there are only four of them, and they’ve kind of gotten hard. And so then I take out some kitchen shears and try to cut them into mini-marshmallows, because maybe then the mini-marshmallows will absorb the cocoa more quickly and become hydrated and edible, and then I accidentally tell my daughters about my technique, and they become suspicious of the marshmallows and fish them out with their spoons and probably just, like, leave them on the coffee table on a damp paper towel. Or maybe one of them will remind me that marshmallows are made with gelatin and she can’t eat them in good conscience anymore, anyway. So, you know: screw the marshmallow.

The point is, this hot cocoa recipe is tasty, all on its own.