Snow Day Cocoa

How we make it.

4 cups milk 
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Splash of vanilla
Dash of cinnamon
2 heaping tablespoons of Nutella
**Optional: splash of your morning coffee

Gently heat milk in a medium saucepan over medium high heat until just simmering, never boiling. Whisk in sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla, cinnamon, Nutella and coffee, if you're crazy. Whisk until combined and serve warm with marshmallows.

Why we make it.

We make snow day cocoa because it snowed, that's why. As my children have gotten older my loathing of snow days has turned into a gentle, blissful acceptance. I no longer have to supervise their sledding. They down their pancakes, dress themselves and head out to the gully behind our house where dozens of similarly aged neighborhood children will gather and disband over and over all day to descend the snowy peaks. With each intermittent dispersal some door in my house, preferably the basement, will fling open to rosy cheeked yet sweating, snow covered, semi damp children who know to promptly remove their boots before coming upstairs and asking for cocoa. The floor will be stained with chalky white boot prints and wet piles of nylon in all shades of neon. Hopefully the dog doesn't get out in the process. They will sit at the counter and drink their cocoa before heading out again. It will all happen again in an hour, but the cocoa will stay ready. Simply devised from pantry staples this hot chocolate is homemade, frothy richness you didn't know could be so easy. Ditch the Swiss Miss and take five minutes to whisk from scratch. Your snow bunnies will love it. That's why we make it.