Better Homemade: Chocolate Syrup

Chocolate milk is one of life's most wonderfully extravagant pleasures. 

If you are already convinced, and want to skip straight to the recipe, click here.

My mom never bought chocolate syrup. "It's full of nothing but junk!" she said. We did make hot cocoa on snow days, mixing cocoa and sugar and milk and vanilla in a saucepan on the stove. As we got older, she started buying the cocoa packets, and they were nice (and a lot faster, especially because we now had a microwave), but the flavor didn't compare.

My kids also prefer stovetop cocoa to anything out of a packet. On a really cold day, I'll add a tiny dash of cayenne...so pleasantly warming with the chocolate. Cinnamon is nice too!

Chocolate milk made a regular appearance in our lives when my kids started school five years ago. My son remarked early on that he generally preferred the "regular" milk, but the chocolate and strawberry-flavored milks had all the fun cartoon characters on the containers, which he thought wasn't right (and I agreed). He bought his lunch occasionally, and my daughter did the same when she started school, but she made an argument that a weekly chocolate milk was a good "sometimes treat." I thought this was a fair argument, and my son by this time had developed an appreciation for it, so we agreed they could do it once a week, whether they brought or bought their lunch.

Shortly after this, I went to school and bought my own school lunch with the kids, and I looked at the carton of chocolate milk. High fructose corn syrup was the second ingredient in a long list of unpronounceable items, and it had 26 grams of sugar! What?? That's almost as much as a bowl of chocolate ice cream!

"I can do better than this," I said, and the tinkering commenced.

First, most recipes called for a mix of granulated white and brown sugars. I quit storing brown sugar a few years ago, since I already stock both molasses and sugar, and it's easy to mix up brown sugar on the few occasions I need it. 

Interestingly, a teaspoon of molasses contains more sugar than a teaspoon of granulated sugar (4 g to about 4.6 g). However, the molasses has a little magnesium, iron, calcium, and potassium, and its rich, deep flavor really complements the cocoa. I mixed up brown sugar once for this, then decided to just substitute straight molasses for it, which is easier and tastier!

My recipe makes the most deliciously-rich, intensely-chocolaty hot cocoa, chocolate milk (and occasional an iced mocha) I've ever had. It uses only six common pantry ingredients, though I could make a good case for adding a dash of cinnamon!  

My "Deliciously Rich Chocolate Syrup" has about 4 grams of sugar per Tablespoon versus Hershey's Chocolate Syrup, which has 10 grams of sugar per Tablespoon. Cocoa is the fourth ingredient on the Hershey's label (the first is HFCS, then corn syrup, then water...finally some cocoa). Besides water, my recipe has more cocoa than anything else (and some of that water disappears when you reduce it, so we could argue it comes out as the top ingredient).

A printable recipe is below.

Better Homemade: Bloody Mary Mix

A few years ago, I discovered that "The Best Bloody Mary Grows in the Garden," and I think you should give it a try! I still don't have an exact recipe, but what you see above should give you an idea of proportions. I did end up adding another hot pepper because my flaming-hot serrano lost almost all of its heat when I seeded it.

If you can make a smoothie, you can make the most delicious tomato juice and/or Bloody Mary mix you've ever tasted. You can blanch and peel the tomatoes, but I put everything in a blender and strain it through a sieve, which I think is superior because (1) it requires no heat, (2) less mess, and (3) it's actually faster overall.

You can click the link above for the recipe, or just look at the picture. I use tomatoes, sweet onion, cucumber, hot pepper, juice from 1-2 limes, fresh horseradish, worcestershire, salt, and pepper. Throw it all in the blender and let it rip, then strain through a sieve. Fresh and delicious!

#MakeYourOwn

Inside My Fridge

Inside my fridge: two kinds of fresh cucumber salad, two kinds of water kefir (peach and ginger), and homemade fermented pickles....so many probiotics! The watermelon and cabbage are wrapped in wax paper and freezer paper vs. plastic wrap -- both are wonderful alternatives!

Sunrise Sink

Glory of the June Garden

Instead of watering daily, I've switched over to watering only every 2-3 days, but watering very deeply, which encourages deeper root growth, requiring overall less time and less water!

This morning as I watered and observed, I was overwhelmed by the amazing beauty and life in my garden. My hard work of the last few years is beginning to pay off in food, and knowledge, and a wonderful appreciation for the interconnected web of life.

Narrowleaf Plantain

Bean Blooms

Magnolia

Lovely Gladiolas

Serrano and Thai Chile

Super Sioux

I netted the berries this year! 

Zucchini

Beet Harvest

Morning Shot: Sláinte!

To Good Health!

Fire Cider is an herbal tincture. You can find any number of recipes online that will yield a pleasantly fiery vinegar with a well-balanced blend of spicy, pungent, and citrus flavors infused into raw apple cider vinegar, and finished with a little sweet local honey.

Fire Cider is warmly delicious, whether as a shot or in a salad dressing. It's also a wonderful blend of medicinal herbs! The Fire Cider recipe was developed in early 1980s by Rosemary Gladstar "as part of her effort to bring medicinal herbalism back into people’s kitchens, as part of their food and as a way of being, not just for medicinal purposes." Her original recipe contained garlic, onions, horseradish root, ginger root, hot peppers, sometimes turmeric, and often echinacea; all powerful immune enhancers that help ward off infections, colds, flus, and bronchial congestion.

I have been using Fire Cider this winter, a shot a day (when I remember), to help keep the immune system healthy and to ward off infections, and all told, I've suffered significantly less illness thus far (knock on wood).

This recipe is very close to my own, though I used fresh (chopped) turmeric, and I added a whole chopped orange and some fresh oregano. Use what you have!

I Am Become Spring

Last year's poinsettia is blooming now.

I like to say that there is magic in a seed. Plant it, and it will yield any combination of flowers, fruit, root, leaf, and seed that we can enjoy and consume, and it will nourish us. But also, we can save just one seed from that magical plant, and grow another. One plant can make hundreds, or even thousands of itself.

And this is why I grow: it's an act of faith. One gift I've received from growing is a real appreciation for the bleakness of winter. Under cold and snow and mud and stark winter skies, seeds and plants take nourishment from the earth. Dormant is still active; it's just a different pace, a different exchange of energy and nutrients.

Today, it is spring.

Winter is all about growth. 
Having finally connected with this truth, I find myself growing now all year long. Outside, winter vegetables grow (albeit slowly) in their low tunnels. Little carrots, radishes, and beets are all nestling under earth and straw, and the cold does not scare them. Inside, I watch hundreds of tiny seedlings start their journey. They will become nourish us, literally becoming part of me, part of my children, part of my friends. Talk about a Holy Communion.

I am a priestess of husbandry. I hold a seed from last summer's tomato in my hand, and I conjure July.

That ain't jaundice: Turmeric Facial Mask

The skin on our faces is exposed to more of the harsh winter weather than everything that gets covered with mittens and scarves, so I decided to give mine a little extra nourishment this January.

Your skin is your largest organ, so know what you put on it....just like what you eat becomes part of you (literally), what you put on your skin is absorbed by your body. My mask is actually edible, so you could actually have a healthy snack if you make enough (I did not actually try this yet).

Turmeric is a powerful antioxidant, and also has anti-inflammatory properties. Yogurt provides zinc, B vitamins, lactic acid, and calcium. Honey is full of antioxidants, and is natural moisturizer for skin. I added a little oil because my skin tends to be dry. If you don't have yogurt, whole milk is a good substitute.

TURMERIC FACIAL MASK

Mix 1 tsp ground turmeric with +1 tsp plain yogurt + 1 tsp raw honey + 1 tsp nourishing oil. I used avocado oil, but coconut oil, sweet almond oil, and olive oil are all good options. Apply to face and let dry (about 15-20 minutes). Rinse well with warm water and a *washcloth.

*Remember that, while turmeric is a powerful antioxidant, it is sometimes used as a natural food-coloring agent (I sometimes add it to mac&cheese, for example, just for color). I recommend a dark or orange washcloth.