The queen of all comfort foods is, in fact, a beverage! And the queen does not come from a box, she’s made from scratch. Okay, I’ll admit it, when my kids were little, I bought the boxed stuff, too. Store brand, even. But no more. It’s really incredibly easy, and takes less than 2 minutes longer than using a mix!

I so needed comfort food when I got home tonight. Today, I was supposed to make this delicious dinner: Provençal Soupe au Pistou, with Savory Fougasse. But events intervened, and a cozy, quiet day at home during a big snowstorm turned into a long day of driving on terrible roads & sitting for hours in an uncomfortable chair. Mind you, I grew up driving on terrible roads in snowstorms. One of my very first driving lessons was at rush hour, in a heavy lake effect snowstorm, on the Can of Worms. If you’re from the Rochester, NY area & are of a certain age, you probably just cringed. And I also lived in Buffalo for 4 years. So I’m no lightweight when it comes to driving in the snow, and Candi (that’s my car) has 4-wheel drive. I know, it’s a silly name for a car, even sillier when I write it out by hand with a little daisy dotting the “i.” She’s candy-apple red, & the first non-Subaru I ever bought. I figured if I’m gonna buy a car that’s completely out of character, I might as well name her that way too. But I digress.

Did I mention that it was a long day? By the time I got home tonight, it was way too late to bake, and I was way too bushed to have any interest in cooking anyway. So, grilled cheese & hot cocoa became the new menu. Since I had to stop for gas on the way home anyway, I popped into the convenience store for a quart of whole milk & a bag of marshmallows. If you’re going to make hot cocoa, you might as well use the good stuff, right?

You’ll find a printer-friendly version of the recipe at the bottom of this page.

Ingredients:

4 cups whole milk

½ cup sugar

¼ cup unsweetened cocoa

1 tsp vanilla

⅛ tsp salt

Preparation:

1.) Place the sugar, cocoa, vanilla, & salt in a large, microwave-safe container. Pour in about ¾ of the milk. I held back about a cup or so to leave room for the mixing, but you don’t have to. If your cup or bowl is big enough, just pour it all in. Don’t bother to stir yet, it won’t work. The cocoa just floats to the top & sits there, no matter how hard you stir. Of course, you can also do this in a pan on the stovetop, if you’d prefer.

2.) Microwave on high for about 4 to 5 minutes. Every microwave is different, though, so keep a close eye on it.

3.) Once it’s as hot as you like, it’s a breeze to whisk it smooth, add any milk you left out, & serve with marshmallows. I finally feel warm!