A Little Something

Cocoa Supreme

As a treat to accompany the Saturday night Scrabble game I made some special cocoa. I used one of my favorite little kitchen toys, the aerolatte frother. This handy little gadget froths milk without the use of steam, so it is perfect for cappuccino lovers. But it is also great to add a special touch to lots of other drinks. In the summer you can whip up chocolaty drinks all frothy cold and refreshing. When it's hot drink season it's great for making homemade cocoa.

Tonight I made cocoa based on the cocoa recipe off the Hershey's box and a recipe idea from the aerolatte site. It's like cappuccino only with cocoa on the bottom instead of coffee. I made a large batch which provided seven generous mugs full.

Heat 3 cups of whole milk together with 1/4 cup sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla in a small saucepan. This will be the hot milk that you froth.

While that is heating, prepare cocoa in a separate large pan. Mix a scant half cup cocoa and 3/4 cups sugar in the pan. Whisk in 2/3 cup hot water. Bring to a boil; stir continuously and boil for two minutes. Add six cups whole milk and heat thoroughly. Stir in two teaspoons of vanilla.

To serve, divide the hot milk into your mugs. Each mug should only be about a quarter to a third full. Froth each portion of milk until thick and foamy. By the time you are finished frothing the last cup, the milk should have set a bit and thickened further. Then pour the cocoa through the froth into each cup, filling until the froth has risen up over the top of the mug. Sprinkle with a bit of cocoa for garnish. Serve at once.

Very rich and delicious all natural treat. You don't even need any marshmallows, though it might be hard to convince the children. They may still want to playfully toss them at each other eat some on the side.

By the way, outfielder was worth 42 points but zany topped it with 45.

Thanks for stopping by!

When Your Children Bake

Do they paint their noses brown with vanilla so they can smell its vanilla-y goodness all day?

Mine do.

Cranberry Orange Gelatin Salad

I created this recipe some years ago as I wanted a cranberry gelatin that didn't rely on artificially flavored and colored jello. It has a nice natural spicy, fruity flavor.

Gelatin always calls to mind an area of Marital Discord from our newlywed days. I distressed my dear husband by making a fruited jello with Random Fruit. I just mixed some fruit into the bowl of jello and just let it set in all of its Disorganized Fruity Chaos. He gasped audibly upon seeing this disarray.

But my husband is a kind and patient man. He forgave this travesty and instructed me in proper Organized Fruit technique as made by his father before him, in which you pour a thin layer of jello, let it set, and then artfully arrange your layer of fruit. Add a bit more jello, let chill and repeat as many times as you like. Very Organized.

3 cups fresh Cranberries (1 bag)

1 cup water

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 can Mandarin oranges

Orange Juice

2 envelopes unflavored gelatin (Knox)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon cloves

Mix the sugar and water together in a saucepan. Add cranberries and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for a few minutes until berries are puffy looking. Allow to cool. Meanwhile drain oranges, reserving the juice. Pour the juice into a measuring cup and add orange juice if needed to make one cup liquid. Follow the directions on the Knox box for sprinkling gelatin over the juice and letting it set a few minutes. Then combine gelatin mixture with berries and spice. If you don't need Organized Fruit you can jut mix it all together and chill. Otherwise pour your gelatin mixture into your serving bowl and neatly arrange the oranges on top in a pretty pattern. Chill thoroughly until set.

Walnut Crumb Pumpkin Pie

This version of pumpkin pie features a walnut crumb topping that is a delicious complement to the pumpkin. It also uses a very untraditional graham cracker crust (gasp!) which makes it very easy to prepare, which means there are a lot more pumpkin pies made in this house throughout the fall. Which is a very nice thing.

I always double the recipe and make two.

Graham Cracker Pie Crust (purchased)

1 can pumpkin (15 oz)

1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz)

1 egg

1 1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp nutmeg

pinch salt

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 Tbsp flour

2 Tbsp butter

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 425 degrees. In mixing bowl, combine pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, egg, 3/4 tsp cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt. Mix well. Pour into pie crust. Bake 15 minutes.

Meanwhile prepare crumb topping. I am quite generous with the topping ingredients ;-). Combine sugar, flour and remaining 1/2 tsp cinnamon; cut in butter until crumbly. Stir in walnuts.

Remove pie from oven. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees. Sprinkle walnut mixture evenly over pie. Bake for additional 40 minutes or until knife inserted 1 inch from edge comes out clean. Cool. Serve with whipped cream, of course.

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