hot chocolate and nog

First I want to publicly celebrate my discovery of Soy Nog at my local grocery store. I love Soy Nog. And I'm not a big fan of Soy Milk. Soy Nog is the one store bought eggnog that tastes remotely like my Dad's eggnog. And not at all like bubblegum, which is what I think of when I drink other store bought eggnogs.

My Dad's eggnog however, is, and always will be, the best.

Anyway, finding Soy Nog is a yuletide victory for me. Last year I went to every grocery store in our neighborhood looking for it. And nothing. This year, early success!

And now about hot chocolate:

Back in May I received a package from a friend that included a book about hot chocolate. I got the book in the summer, when, oddly, I don't drink a lot of hot chocolate. I would read the book and feel intimidated about the way the pros make it and wonder where I could get the fancy chocolate for such an endeavor.

Then the weather got cooler.

One day I decided to try a recipe. An easy one. I had some semisweet chocolate left over from a baking project and I decided to try to use it for hot chocolate. It was great. And more impressive? It was easy.

This is how it's done:


Pour some milk into your mug.


Pour that into a saucepan.


Get a handful (or two!) of chocolate. You could use chocolate chips. You could use your son's leftover Hershey bars from his Halloween loot. You could use whatever chocolate you like.


Decide if you want some other flavor action. Today I went with vanilla.


Add your chocolate and your flavors in with the milk.


Stir.


and there you have it.


See? So, so easy.

But, you might have already known...I can just never tell with you guys.