I spent my snow day on Cocoa (pt 3)

Candy Cane Cocoa

combine:

• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1/2 cup superfine sugar
• 2 Tbsp finely crushed (almost to powder) peppermint candy

in a mixing bowl.

To enjoy, mix 2-3 Tablespoons into 1 cup of hot water or milk.

Crush your candy canes or starlight mints in a coffee grinder, or food processor to get to a powder quickly. I did mine with a mortar and pestle and it took forever. (My coffee grinder make everything taste like cloves from using it to grind spices a few too many times.)

I spent my snow day on Cocoa (pt. 2)

Gingerbread Cocoa

combine:

• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1/2 cup superfine sugar
• 1/4 cup Sugar in the Raw (crushed to powder)
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp powdered vanilla

in a mixing bowl.

To enjoy, mix 2-3 Tablespoons into 1 cup of hot water or milk.

Sugar in the Raw comes as rather large crystals and will need to be crushed down somewhat for this recipe to make sure it dissolves completely. It's added for it's molasses content and could be replaced with superfine sugar without sacrificing much taste.

I get my powdered vanilla at Kitchen Krafts in Quakertown.

I spent my snow day on Cocoa

First off, any day spent creating and sampling homemade gourmet hot cocoa recipes, automatically qualifies as awesome. Plus the snow was gorgeous and hubby was home to share it all with me. Or I should say, I was home to share it with him. It's unusual for me to have a Saturday off.

Anyway, here's the cocoa recipes.

Deep Dark Cocoa


Combine

• 1/2 cup dark cocoa
• 3/4 cup superfine sugar
• 1 Tbsp powdered vanilla
• 2 Tbsp grated dark chocolate (70% or so cacao)

in a mixing bowl.

To enjoy your cocoa, mix 2-3 Tablespoons in 1 cup of hot water or milk.

I like to use the side of the grater normally used for cheese to grate my chocolate. Something like Ghirardelli's Twilight Delight (72% cacao) works great for this.

If you're local to the Allentown area, I got my powdered vanilla that Kitchen Krafts down in the Quakertown Farmer's Market (Q-Mart) I haven't seen it anywhere else.

A very tasty fix, and a not quite so tasty one.

So, since the doctor has nothing helpful to say about my allergies at this point other than "if you find something that works, stick with it," I'm pretty much willing to try anything. Yesterday, I saw an article in Woman's World that recommended Stinging Nettle as an alternative to things like Claritin and Zyrtec. So, I stopped at Sign of the Bear today to pick some up and we'll see how it goes.

This is where I'm at for allergy fixes.

Claritin - useless unless I take 3, then I can't function
Zyrtec - useless if I take if more than 2 days in a row
Allegra - works, but makes me unconscious
Benedryl - makes me groggy AND gives me night terrors (that's an awesome combination)
Clarinex - way too expensive for what little relief it provides
Xyzal - helped a bit, but nothing significant enough to be bothered with the Rx.
Flonase - useless except for when I'm severely congested
Alavert - see Claritin
Astelin - doesn't stay in my sinuses no matter what I do, therefore not helpful

Sinus rinses have helped a lot so far, but not enough. So the new plan is all natural - Stinging nettle once a day and sinus rinses as needed.

Now, the tasty fix - in order to keep exercising the way I need to, I need to keep my asthma and knee pain under control. My asthma's basically under control, that is, I rarely if ever need my rescue inhaler and we decided to take me off of the maintenance meds (Singulair) because I didn't seem to need them since I lost a little bit of weight.

My knee on the other hand, goes in spells, related to both the weather and my level of activity. Here's where the tasty fix comes in. Chocolate is a natural anti-inflammatory! The darker the better, it needs to be at least 70% cacao to work. Dagoba Chocolate makes a bar called Eclipse - 87% cacao - which I love! So, I'm going to be adding Extra Dark chocolate to my daily routine. (don't twist my arm!)

Wish me luck.