Homemade Hot Chocolate...mmm!

Listening to: "Baby, It's Cold Outside" by Leon Redbone & Zooey Deschanel

Ok, ok...I know the music's a little cliche for this time of year, but it just seems right! Judge.

Speaking of judging...you might feel like doing just that after this recipe...but you have to trust me. It's good. Realllll good.

So I was just sittin' in my apartment thinking about how much I wanted chocolate [as usual] and how I wanted a tasty drink, something of the Starbucks variety...THEN I remembered that I'm broke, and it doesn't make sense to go to Starbucks for a hot chocolate.

So I did what I always do...consult Pioneer Woman. Duh. I remembered seeing this recipe and thought, why not?

Instead of saving the chocolate goodness for later like she does, I just dove straight in. I'm a risk-taker, what can I say. And it. Was. Perfection. Really rich, but so great.

Make this for your next wintry day, and you won't be disappointed.

Homemade Hot Chocolate

(adapted from Pioneer Woman)

Makes enough for one if you like really rich hot chocolate. It could make two if you're a weirdy.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup heavy cream (just trust me)
• 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate (I just used Hershey's chocolate chips, but you can use the nice stuff if you so desire and just chop it up)

Heat cream in a sauce pan until it bubbles a little bit but isn't completely boiling. Remove it from heat and stir in the chocolate. Here's where you can get creative! Add some mint extract for a nice little peppermint treat, a little bit of vanilla extract to add a little somethin' somethin', or a dash of cinnamon to spice stuff up. Whatever frosts your cake, sweetheart.

Whisk the chocolate and cream together for a while. You want to make sure that they don't separate later. I'm all about unity.

Then, heat up some milk in a mug. The chocolate mixture is pretty rich, so just kind of guesstimate how much you'll want to add to your milk. Stir in your chocolate mixture and ta-da! Homemade chocolate milk. Finish with whipped cream, marshmallows, or whatever you want.

See? Not hard at all. And DEFINITELY not as expensive as Starbucks. Just lookin' out for you.

Enjoy!