Photo by kevinmarsh
Tonight is the first genuinely cold night of the season. I’ve spent the evening bundled up in multiple layers under a big comforter on the couch. And you know what goes best with a cold night? Hot cocoa.
When I told Tony I was craving it, he offered to run up to Starbucks with the gift card we’ve had since the wedding. I didn’t want to go out in the cold, though, and I knew he didn’t either. No, I said. We’ll make it at home.
A quick look in the refrigerator, and I realized we were running low on milk. If we made hot cocoa tonight, we might not have enough for cereal in the morning, which would mean a trip to the grocery store tonight.
I started rummaging around in the cupboards to see if I could find something else to satisfy my sweet tooth. Nothing. But I did find some powdered milk that I bought a little while back for homemade bread.
Tony found this recipe for homemade hot cocoa mix. Amazingly, we had everything on hand — just barely. The recipe pretty much tapped out our supply of cocoa, powdered sugar, and powdered milk. (Note: We didn’t have any cayenne pepper, so we left it out. Instead, we used cinnamon. Ours turned out delicious, but if we had cayenne we definitely would have used it!)
We filled a huge Mason jar with the homemade mix, so we’ll have hot cocoa to last us all through winter. Just add water! Every bit as delicious as any hot cocoa I’ve ever had, but so much cheaper than regular milk (and definitely cheaper than Starbucks)!
Sounds yummy. I am going to make some for Christmas gifts this year. Thanks.
YUM!! Last year my hubby got me a Cocomotion (http://snipurl.com/6qwj3 [www_amazon_com] ) for Christmas. It was money well spent!! Better than Starbucks or Dunkin, any day :)