Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix

Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix

Every year, I try to make food gifts for my friends. Last year I made Cheese and Bacon Crackers and Beef Jerky. Both very well received. In fact, someone stole my friend’s Beef Jerky from his job!

This year has been very busy, and I wanted to do something thoughtful, but easy. Hot Cocoa mix is always popular and how hard can that be? Right? Wrong! I have mixed and remixed and mixed again. Getting a mix that is creamy, chocolatey, sweet (but not too sweet) and that also dissolves was no easy task.

You are lucky I have taken all the work out of making this great gift. I purchased ½ pint mason jars for gifting. This is inexpensive and very easy.

Servings: 9 (ish) cups (That is actual measuring cups. It makes almost 70 cups of chocolate)

Hardware:  Measuring cups and spoons, a gallon storage bag, a food processor, a funnel (optional) 9-½ pint mason jars

Time: Active time 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups Dutch processed Cocoa
• 3 cups powdered milk
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1.5 cups granulated sugar
• 1-5.9-ounce box of instant chocolate pudding
• 6 ounces of chocolate chips
• ½ tablespoon corn starch
• 1.5 teaspoons salt

1. Using the food processor, grind the chocolate chips as small as you can get them.
2. Mix the ground chips and all the other ingredients together in the bag.
3. Shake like crazy to mix.
4. Place ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons into each mason jar. Each jar makes about 5 cups of cocoa.

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You can personalize each jar by mixing in ONE of these:

• 2 tablespoons instant coffee
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 pinch of cayenne pepper 

You can include a gift bag with each jar that includes any or all of these: a tiny bag of mini marshmallows, a mini bottle of peppermint schnapps or Kahlua, miniature candy canes, a tiny bag of crushed butterscotch or a tiny bag of crushed peppermints. Go all out and add in a mug and you have a great gift for anyone on your list.

To make the hot cocoa, shake the jar like crazy before each use. Add 2-3 tablespoons of boiling water to a mug. Then stir in 2 heaping tablespoons  of Hot Cocoa Mix. Stir until all the mix is dissolved. Top the dissolved mix with 6 ounces of hot water or steaming milk. Stir again. Then add in any of the mix-ins or top with mini marshmallows or whipped cream. Then relax and enjoy

Garlic and Herb Rice

Garlic Herb Rice

Rice makes a tasty and simple side dish. Some people have trouble making rice. I was one of those people for a long time. My husband taught me the easiest method. He showed me to just make sure I had three times as much water as I did rice, bring the water to a boil, add the rice and boil for 20 minutes and then drain. This works, but you cannot really flavor the rice. And sometimes you want flavor.

So, I practiced and practiced and threw away or choked down as much rice as I happily ate. I can now make a pot of wonderful, fluffy, tender separate grains of joy every time. Follow these instructions exactly and you will have success, too. 

If you want to change this up a bit, I have a few suggestions. You can substitute any herb for the chives. If you use thyme or basil use ½ tablespoon. If you are using rosemary, just throw in a whole sprig with the garlic and remove before serving. You could also toss in a tablespoon of toasted, chopped pecans or slivered almonds with the herbs.

Servings: 3 cups of rice, serves 4-6

Hardware:  A cutting board and knives, measuring spoons and cups, a strainer (sieve,) a pot with a lid, a sauce pot, a paper towel covered plate, a slotted spoon and a fork

Time:  Active time 20 minutes; Cook: 30 minutes, rice in about 45 minutes

Ingredients

• 4+1 tablespoons butter
• 6 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon chicken base (I use Better than Bullion)
• 1 ¾ cups water
• 1 cup long-grain white rice
• 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh chives
• Salt

1. Rinse the rice in the sieve until the water runs clear. Slice the garlic into thin slivers. Dice the chives, the smaller the better. Set aside
2. Put the water onto boil in the sauce pan.
3. In the pot with the lid, melt 4 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Add the garlic slices and sauté until they just begin to turn golden. Watch them and stir often because they can easily burn. Use the slotted spoon to place them on the paper towel covered plate. Make sure you have removed them all. Set the garlic aside.
4. Add the rice to butter and stir until the rice begins to toast (about two minutes.) Add the boiling water and chicken base and stir until the base dissolves.
5. Turn the rice down to simmer and cover with the lid. Simmer for exactly 18 minutes. Remove from the heat, but do not remove the lid. Allow the rice to rest for 10 minutes. It is still cooking so it is important to leave it alone.
6. Using a fork, stir in the herbs, toasted garlic and extra butter. Taste and adjust the salt. Serve warm.

Apple Rolls

Thanksgiving is coming up and I wanted to make a few new recipes to celebrate. Apples are so beautiful and sweet this year. And apples are so perfect for autumn. I wanted to try something different, so I decided to make apple turnovers. That turned out to be harder than I expected.

Apple Rolls

I have tried to make these three times. I used puff pastry the first time. The pastry didn’t puff, and they were soggy. The second time I used pie crust. Too much crust. The third time I used empanada wrappers. Those were chewy and weird. You are probably thinking, “Why didn’t she give up?” Because that is NOT who I am!

Really, part of the fun of creating this blog is challenging myself. I was almost desperate enough to use phyllo dough. I say desperate because while phyllo is beautiful and delicious, it is a bear. Then I thought about egg roll wrappers. I had some in the freezer. Why not?  Why not indeed? These were wonderful.

I know these seem like a long list of instructions, but read over them. They are really easy to follow and quite simple.

Servings: 10 Apple Rolls

Time: Active time 25 minutes; Cook: 15 minutes, eggrolls in about 45 minutes

Hardware:  Measuring cups and spoons, peeler, knife and cutting board, wooden spoon, a large mixing bowl, 2 small bowls, sauce pot, a clean tea towel, a flat surface, a slotted spoon, a deep skillet, oil thermometer, tongs and a paper towel lined plate

Ingredients

• 3-4 large tart apples~ about 1.5 pounds (I like Granny Smiths)
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons cold water
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• ¼ cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• Pinch salt
• Eggroll wrappers
• Oil for skillet
• Eggroll wraps (I like Nasoya)
• Water
• Optional: Glaze or powdered sugar.

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Glaze

• ½ cup powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon milk (maybe more)
• ½ teaspoon vanilla

Place all the ingredients into a quart Ziploc and massage until thoroughly mixed. You can add a tiny bit more milk if needed. Snip off a corner of the bag and drizzle the finished Apple Rolls with glaze

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1. Peel, core and slice the apples. Try to make them the same thickness, so they will cook evenly. Toss them in the mixing bowl with the lemon juice. Add the brown sugar, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and salt.  Lightly fold until the apples are covered.
2. Dissolve the cornstarch in one of the small bowls with 2 tablespoons of very cold water.
3. Place the apples and cornstarch-y water into the sauce pot. Cook over low heat until the apples are desired tenderness. I cook them for about 20 minutes. You can add another tablespoon of water if need, but you don’t want the apples to have too much liquid. Mix just enough to keep from sticking. When they are soft enough, remove the apples from the heat and allow them to cool.
4. Place the oil into the skillet and heat over medium. Use the thermometer to keep the oil around 370˚. While the oil is heating make the Apple Rolls.
5. Place some water in the other small bowl. Have the clean tea towel handy. Work with 1 wrapper at a time. Keep the other wrappers in their container or they will dry out. Place the wrapper with one corner closest to you as if you were looking at a diamond.
6. Using the slotted spoon, place about 2-3 tablespoons of the apple mixture in the center of the wrapper. Use the slotted spoon to remove as much liquid as possible. Don’t overfill the wrapper. Spread the mixture out evenly, so that the filling isn’t a big lump in the middle.
7. Fold the bottom corner over the filling. Tuck the wrapper in around the filling tightly. Be careful not to tear it. (See below)
8. Using your finger, brush water around the three remaining corners of the wrapper. Water will act as a glue.
9. Fold the side corners over the filling as if you were making an envelope.
10. Snugly roll up until it is closed. Press the edges to make sure it is sealed. Continue until you have used all the apple filling.
11. You can use water to seal any open places. You can also use little pieces of wet wrapper as patches if needed. Use the dry tea towel to clean the flat surface between rolls. If the surface is wet, your wrapper will stick.
12. Use the tongs to place the rolls, flap down, into the oil. Fry until the roll is golden brown and then flip. Don’t crowd them. You may need to cook them in batches. When they are done, place them on the paper towel lined plate. You can keep them warm in the oven on the lowest setting.
13. Serve warm or at room temperature. Either drizzle them with glaze or sift powdered sugar over them. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for an extra decedent dessert. These are better fresh, so don’t plan on leftovers.