Snow Blowing & Hot Cocoa

It has been snowing for most of the day today and our driveway really needed to be plowed by the time Ehric got home from school. So after Ehric got off the bus and made snow angels he and Daddy got to work plowing the driveway. Daddy taught Ehric how to use our Case tractor and for a six year old he did awesome!! Maybe in a few years he will be plowing the driveway by himself.

Since it was snowing and it was cold out I figured everyone would want some hot cocoa. I decided that instead of using the Swiss Miss I would make some from scratch. So I dug out my Hershey's cookbook and made some Hot Cocoa. It was so good with the gingerbread we have leftover from our gingerbread house from Christmas. Everyone had a mug and warmed up!

Hot Cocoa

(from Hershey's 1934 Cookbook (C) 1992)

3 tblsp sugar
2 tblsp Hershey's Cocoa (or any baking cocoa)
Dash salt
1/4 cup hot water
1 1/2 cups milk
Marshmallows or marshmallow creme

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, cocoa and salt; stir in water. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils. Boil and stir 2 minutes. Add milk. Heat to serving temperature, stirring occasionally. Do not boil. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla. Beat with rotary beater or wire whisk until foamy. Serve hot, topped with marshmallows.

Optional: before whisking add in a little bit of cinnamon.

Homemade Goodness

Despite the humidity, I felt like baking tonight. I seem to have a knack for timing oven cooking (which throws extra heat into the house) for the very hot, humid days...wonder why that is? Anyways, I decided to make artisan bread and the chocolate chip muffins the boys have been asking me to make for the last week or so. In between recipes I decided to make some lemonade (you know to cool down from the heat!). The warmth in my kitchen was actually a good thing, both my bread and muffins rose a lot higher than normal. Also, the lemonade seemed to make my family much more appreciative than usual. I got lots of compliments, especially when everyone was stuffing their faces with the chocolate chip muffins!













I thought I would share my resources for the recipes:

Artisan Bread-I use the basic boule recipe that was in the Five-Minutes a Day for Fresh Baked Bread article that was in Mother Earth News last year or so. I just mix up my ingredients in a large bowl, lightly cover it and let it sit for about 2 hours. I flip out the dough onto a lightly floured surface, fold in my edges to the middle, pop the dough onto a pizza stone and let it rise for about 20-40 minutes (have the over preheating while it is rising). Then I cook it for about 30 minutes. You can tell if the bread is done when you flip it over and gently tap the bottom and it sounds hollow. You could also use only half the dough and refrigerate the rest for another day. We often use the dough for pizza...so good!

Chocolate Chip Muffins- Ehric discovered this amazing recipe and other really good muffin recipes while playing Holly Hobbie "Hey Girls" Muffin Maker game on NickJr.com. To get the recipe you need to complete the game. Have your kids play the game or try it out yourself!

Lemonade- I used Real Lemon's recipe from the bottle and it was really good!
for a 2 quart container: 6 1/2 cups of water, 1 cup Real Lemon (or other bottled lemon juice), and 1 cup sugar.

Enjoy!