Hot Chocolate

For years I was convinced that the only way you could make hot chocolate was by purchasing mix and microwaving a cup of milk and then adding the powder to the milk once it was hot. Last year, for some reason I ran out of the mix and I just had to have hot chocolate! It had been a hard cold morning of shoveling snow and I deserved my payment! Imagine my surprise and admitted embarrassment when I realized how quick, painless and inexpensive it is to make a nice cuppa Hot Chocolate, from scratch!

Naturally I can't leave you in the same situation I was, so here is how Betty Canuck makes her Hot Chocolate!

Betty Canuck's Hot Chocolate:
~serves 1 adult & 3 children~

4 cups milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cocoa powder (or more!)
1 tsp vanilla extract (inexpensive kind is just fine!)

First, measure the sugar and cocoa powder into your sauce pan. If you are particular about lumps, pass the cocoa powder through a mesh sieve first. I'm not particularly worried! Once you have done that, stir the two ingredients together.

Then add the milk and place on medium high to high heat. IF you have 3 impatient children, place on high heat and stir frequently to prevent burning. This will cause frothing!

The frothing will eventually stop once the milk gets hot enough. Try not to let your milk boil!

Place into warmed cups, top with liberal amounts of whipping cream and enjoy!

Light and Fluffy Pancakes

Everyone needs a nice quick staple recipe. One you know you can make because you can just reach into your cupboards pull out the ingredients and within 20 minutes start placing food on your plate!

While the original recipe is one that I can always make, my modified version pictured in this post, is one for which I often have the entire list of ingredients.

Betty Canuck's Light & Fluffy Pancakes

Dry ingredients:
3 cups flour
4 tbsp sugar (optional)
1 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder

Wet ingredients:
4 eggs
1/2 cup applesauce (is actually home-made)
2 1/2 cups milk

Yield: 21 pancakes made with 1/3 cup of batter each

Mix the dry and the wet ingredients separately. Then combine together, pea sized lumps are fine! [note in picture applesauce and milk still to be added to wet]

On my skillet that has 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 on its heat settings, I put it at about 3.5. I found it took approximately 3 minutes for the first side and 2.5 minutes for the second side! In the several hundred times that I've made them, this was the first time I've ever timed cooking. Rather, I watch for the bubbles and turn them over when they are nice and bubbled.

As you can see, I have definite hot spots on my inexpensive Walmart brand skillet, but that's okay! We love the pancakes anyways!