haha! i haven’t blogged ANYWHERE in months. i’ve been cooking some, and reading a lot, but just haven’t felt inspired to write. so, i thought i’d try writing about some of my cooking adventures. thus, as part of the mostly defunct CueBeeDesigns, i’m going to start a segment called “QBert’s Kitchen”. let’s see how this goes.
i love hot chocolate, and normally just buy the mix from the grocery store. but i ran out the other day and realized that i had all the ingredients to make my own dry mix. it was kind of a pain to find a recipe online that ONLY involved what i had on hand (what the HECK is up with adding non-dairy creamer to your cocoa mix? ugh!) AND was a dry mix i could store. as is my wont, i grabbed a couple of recipes, took what i liked from both, and made up my own. this is what i ended up with, and it was PRET-ty darned tasty, if i do say so myself.
Full disclosure: nothing in QBert’s Kitchen is an exact science. please adjust as your gut or tastebuds suggest. 
- 1 Cup dry non-fat milk (powdered milk)
- 1/4 Cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- scant 1/4 Cup sweetened ground chocolate & cocoa
- 1/2 cup vanilla sugar*
- 2 pinches sea salt**
- 1/3 Cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips***
mix all but your chocolate chips in a large mixing bowl and whisk until thoroughly blended. add your chips in and whisk in evenly. add about 3-4 rounded spoonfuls to a large mug and top with boiling water.
to quickly convert this into my trademark winter drink, “The Little White Girl” (so dubbed by an old bartender friend), simply leave a little room at the top and add a generous pour of Vanilla Vodka. mmmmm!
*to make vanilla sugar, take a whole vanilla bean and chop into small segments – abt 1/4 inch long or smaller. put 1/2 cup of sugar and your bean segments into a food processor and blend until your bean is completely dissolved into the sugar.
**you want to make sure your sea salt is the drier, finer variety, more like regular table salt. the coarser, damper kind, may not blend into the mix properly. regular table salt will work too, but i prefer the sea salt.
***if you don’t have minis, which i didn’t, put the regular sized chips into your food processor and pulse until they’re chopped up a bit. they will melt in the hot water and make your hot cocoa extra rich & creamy.
