A Most Delicious Cup of Hot Cocoa

Since I tantalized you last time with a post about the best hot cocoa ever, I thought I'd post about how I make this wondrous concoction.

I will call it "Brainless, Knock-the-Socks-Off-the-Neighbor-Kids Homemade Hot Cocoa".

Pour the following ingredients into a blender. (I use a Vita-Mix that is super-powerful and blends contents within an inch of their lives.)

4 cups of whole milk (sorry, but if you want the full, decadent flavor, you've gotta use whole!)

1/2 cup of sugar

3 teaspoons of vanilla

5 tablespoons of cocoa (I used Hershey's)

Blend away on highest speed. The frothiness this creates makes the beverage even more delectable!

Pour into a pan, heat to desired heat, serve to adoring children and/or adults . . . or yourself!

But make it soon. Spring is on its way, and you REALLY need a nippy winter day or night to enjoy it to its full!

Snow Day!!

Could there be any two more delightful and rare words to a Southern kid? SNOW! DAY! And I don't just mean any typical Southern snow . . . that icy light dusting that we scoop up and try and make into pathetic little crusty snowballs that fall apart in your mittened hands. Oh, no, this was a good snow, a great big white globs in the trees kind of snow. A fly down the hill on a sled and tumble into a whole bank of powdery, crunchy wetness kind of snow. Four whole inches of frigid fun laying thick on the ground, just waiting for a kid to:

Try out a snowboard,

Careen down a hill, fly up over your brother's skateboard

ramp and narrowly miss a dousing in the small creek,

Join the neighborhood snowball fight,

Feel the freedom of cold wind rushing against your face and frozen

earth skimming under your knees

Taste clumps of mud, ice, and ornamental grasses

on your way facefirst downhill,

Become inexplicably petulant and refuse to sled,

walk in, touch or look at snow

And what's a snow day without snow day treats:

Turtle brownies

And homemade hot chocolate.

The neighborhood boys were amazed that hot chocolate could be made from scratch. They couldn't believe how yummy it was. They drank it down and then made requests 3 more times in the subsequent days for homemade hot chocolate.

And what do you do on a Snow Day if you're 16, just got over the stomach flu, and are way too grown up to ride your cousin's borrowed snow board down a steep hill and up over your brother's skateboard ramp? You offer to play Stardoll on the computer with your petulant little sister. (Thanks, Sweetie!)

Well, we won't see a Snow Day THIS great for another decade! Happy Snow Day Everyone!

It's a Whipped Cream, Powdered Sugar, Marshmallow World!

It's a marshmallow world in the winter,

When the snow comes to cover the ground.

It's the time for play,

it's a whipped cream day,

I wait for it the whole year round!



The world is your snowball, see how it grows,

That's how it goes, whenever it snows.

The world is your snowball just for a song,

Get out and roll it along!

It's a yum-yummy world made for sweethearts,

Take a walk with your favorite girl.

It's a sugary date, so what if spring is late,

(no, no, no, don't say that---this is all that's left of my daffodils!)

In winter, it's a marshmallow world.

"Marshmallow World" by Carl Sigman

Fun Finds (And Cheap Too!)

I don't know if it was 2 solid weeks of grey, heavy, wet weather; a husband recovering from back surgery; or take-out pizza for the 3rd time this month, but somehow I knew I needed a punch of "cheerful" in my kitchen or risk going totally loopy. Rules: #1 - Can't spend much and #2 -Must make me smile.

First find:

Look at this adorable little bowl from Pier One. I keep it next to the stove and fill it with kosher salt for cooking. Just a couple of bucks.

Across the aisle at Pier One:

How beautiful is this thick, green glass with all the little bubbles running through it? Would love a whole set but must stick to Rule #1.

Perfect for holding straws for the kiddos.

These were squashed in a dusty back corner of a Five and Dime Store. Glass bowls. Definitely meeting criteria for Rule #2. I'm thinking pudding with whipped cream for dessert . . . side salad . . . applesauce.

And last:

Some placemats from Target. Does not match my kitchen's decor but should spice up mealtime conversation.

Okay, the sun is shining again in my kitchen.

Late-breaking Imperfection Update: Those beautiful, brightly colored glass bowls found in a dusty corner of the five and dime?? They are clear glass with a SPRAYED-ON coating of color on the outside!!! No, I could NOT tell this when I purchased them. Of course after 2 trips through the wash cycle the spray is beginning to FLAKE OFF!! Reminder to self: Purchased kitchen cheeerfulness is subject to the whims of cheap manufacturers!

Clothes, Clothes Everywhere

It's that time of the year at our house . . . time for the huge semi-annual consignment sale at which we both buy and sell clothing. Over the years, it's been a huge blessing for our family and at one point we would get our entire season's worth of clothes for 5 children on the first night of the sale. Those days are now a distant memory with 3 teenagers who are either too picky, too tall, or too impatient to participate in this sale any longer.

The prep for the sale is laborious, which probably explains why I put off prepping for it until at least midnight the night before the clothes are due at the sale.

There are bags and bags and bins and bins of clothes to be gone through . . . clothes put away for the current season that now must be tried on and determined whether or not they'll be wearable for this season or sellable at the sale.

Once the clothes are gone through, it's on to piling up what's sellable:

And running it all through the washer and dryer.

The Management of the Sale is picky, picky, picky, and if things aren't current, pressed, clean, high quality, and only lightly worn, they just aren't going to take them.

So, we must sort by gender and size:

(a pile of 24 pairs of boys' shorts to be tagged)

Iron:

(whose dirty iron is that, and why don't they get to cleaning it??!!)

Label:

And pause just a wistful moment to remember last summer:

If I'm lucky, I'm ready at exactly 30 minutes before my appointment and I arrive without incurring a traffic violation on the way.

Prep for this season's sale in summary: 52 pieces of clothing, 30 safety pins, 48 hangers, 3 loads of laundry, 1 roll of masking tape, 8 hours of labor.

Someone please tell me it's worth it!

A 5 Year-Old, A Piano, and Post-It Notes

I was greeted this afternoon by a strange sight in the living room. Excuse me, what is all over my piano?

Closer inspection allowed me to discover Post-It notes---many, many Post-It notes---covering the front of the piano.

Equally strange were all the mysterious "writings" on the Post-Its. A new language, perhaps? A secret code? I asked Youngest Daughter the meaning of this, and she said (with slight condescension), "It's the music for the piano, Mom, I'm learning to play."

If genius is budding, why should I complain if this is all I have to show for an entire stack of lime green Post-Its?

A New Hobby

It all began when I picked up this book at my nearby library. I have no idea why I would have picked up a book on knitting. I mean, I took a class on knitting 20 years ago. I got about 12 inches of bright yellow and white stripes knitted on circular needles, and then shoved it into the closet, where it remained until I got tired of my husband teasing me about my knitted "tube top." Well, it didn't take long until reading about yarn, needles, and knitting again piqued my interest. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee with her humor and love affair with her art totally hooked me. So, I'm learning on dishcloths . . . humble, forgiving, cheap dishcloths. A good place for someone with a tendency to imperfection to start.

This was my first. I got the pattern here, and it's now one of my favorite blogs to visit. That got me started on my knits and purls, moving the yarn back and forth, the lovely calming effect of yarn slipping on and off needles.

Next I moved to increases and decreases and tried this one.

Meanwhile, I totally fell in love with lace knitting, tried to knit lace patterned scarf, ripped it out 6 times, and then humbly came back to my dishcloths and knitted this:

It's official. I'm addicted.