Hot Chocolate

Happy Sunday! I made sugar cookies tonight. Someone please remind me next time I want to make them to just wait until my kids are old enough to enjoy it. The millions of steps with a clingy, grabby toddler is just not worth it! I was amazed at how many cookies that kid managed to stick his hands in, even when I thought they were out of reach! (He also somehow grabbed my cell phone and threw it squarely into a freshly frosted cookie...but hey, that's just life with a toddler!)

So, as chilly weather is slowly but surely coming my way, I am elated the hot chocolate season is beginning! My new obsession is perfecting the art of GREAT hot chocolate. We used to frequent Hatch's Family Chocolates in Salt Lake City and the South Bend Chocolate Cafe when we lived in South Bend, Indiana. Their hot chocolates taste like straight-up melted European chocolate. (None of this Hershey's stuff.) Mmmmmm!

Thank you, Google Images, for the photo. It was too dark to take a photo of my concoction last night.

So far, this is what I've learned about making fabulous homemade hot cocoa.

1. Start with a chunk of GREAT chocolate. We just bought a few ounces of Gittuird __ at our beloved Milk Pail in Palo Alto. (Amazingly, the chocolate cost $1.45) Cut the chocolate into small pieces.
   
2. Put milk and chocolate slivers in a small saucepan—about 1 ounce of chocolate per cup of milk. Add a couple of T. sugar, depending on your sweetness preference.
   
3. Heat milk until it is hot but not bubbling. Stir frequently.
   
4. Toward the end, add a bunch of mini marshmallows and allow them to melt partially so the cocoa gets good and frothy!
   
5. Serve with a cinnamon stick for stirring. Enjoy!
   

And as a side note... It's a boy!