Honest Hot Chocolate

I set up pages hoping to compartmentalize my blog posts, and just as in my life, compartmentalizing doesn't work.

Apparently Blogger offers only "static" pages. Although a few technical workarounds are available, they all seem iffy. Therefore I'm labeling posts with the page category names. All posts will appear on the Home page in an unbroken flow. A veritable waterfall of information and opinion. We'll see how it goes. If anyone knows an easier way, do tell.

The Unprocessed Project, Week 1

This may be cheating, but I'm starting our project by sharing a few foods we already make from scratch. Since it's a brisk winter day, and a couple of the kids have made a backyard quinzy (see happy child below), hot chocolate is in order.
One of the things I stopped buying long ago is pre-mixed cocoa powder with dessicated marshmallow pellets. It tastes horrible: a mess of watery brownness redolent of hockey arenas and church basements. You can see from the ingredients list of a popular brand just how much extra junk is in there, including corn syrup solids and hydrogenated vegetable oil: Nestle's Carnation Hot Cocoa Mix

My cocoa powder* is the unsweetened old-fashioned type--Fry's or a generic brand--suitable for baking, with only two ingredients: cocoa and potassium carbonate. The latter is a food additive approved for use in practically everything, according to Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization Food Standards found here: http://www.codexalimentarius.net/gsfaonline/additives/details.html?id=199. (Not that said approval makes it healthful . . . )

Try our simple recipe for traditional hot cocoa, which takes only a few minutes to make:

• In a saucepan, mix 3 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, and a pinch of salt. Add 1/2 c. water and heat, stirring until dissolved. Add 2 cups of milk and heat to taste (don't boil, obviously).  Yields 2 1/2 cups--double or triple the recipe as needed.

Today, we added the special holiday treat of REAL whipped cream. Yes, it's easier and kind of fun to squirt foam propellent Cool Whip (notice they don't use the word "cream"?) directly into your mouth, but again, it's full of stuff you shouldn't ingest. Homemade whipped cream is not a low-fat choice, but it's pure and flavourful--just use it sparingly. Nostalgia bonus: as a child, I watched my grandmother make this countless times.

•   Pour 2 c. cold whipping cream (with 35% milk fat, NOT Half and Half) into a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until the stiff peaks form. (Note: this takes only about a minute IF you use a pre-chilled metal bowl and beaters, so plan ahead--thanks to my mother-in-law for this bit of corrective advice, given in response to a past dessert failure.) Stir in 5-6 tbsp (to taste) icing sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla. That's it.

Total elapsed time: about 15 minutes for an easy recipe that anyone can make. Real food, guaranteed joy.

* About chocolate: one of this project's multiple goals is to use Fair Trade products when possible. Chocolate is notorious for being grown and harvested in unsafe conditions, often by children. Today I purchased fair trade-certified cocoa (minus the potassium carbonate, by the way) and chocolate chips. They cost more, for a good reason, but I struggle with limiting the food budget for six people. There are a lot of resources out there, and I'm learning on the fly. More on this in future posts. For now, you may want to read the Fair Labor Association's report on Nestle's (biggest food company in the world) recent agreement to audit its Ivory Coast supply chain all the way back and take mitigating actions to help families working in remote areas:  FLA Report.