Recipes Are Fun...

My sister has recently lost all her recipes, and put out a cry for help in re-collecting them. I knew that i had a LOT of the recipes she'd lost, since most of them came from our mom, but wasn't really looking forward to typing them ALL up again! But, being a good sister, i was ready to do it!
Then i remembered all those hours i'd spent on Tastebook...
Here's a word on Tastebook... I think it's AWESOME! And i only wish shipping to canada wasn't just as expensive as the book itself! But that's beside the point (i'm going to the States this summer anyway - haha!). Tastebook is a personalized cookbook! You pick a cover, title, colors, etc. and then start adding recipes. They have pre-made dividers for all the different food categories. You can add pictures, notes, any details for the recipe you can think of, and best of all, it looks so spiffy! The book is actually a multi-ring binder, and if you don't have enough recipes to completely fill the book, you can order more pages as your collection expands, get them shipped to you and just snap them into your book!
And i was able to send my sister the link so SHE could see my book, and get the recipes she needs! Check it out! And if you want to join, E-MAIL ME FIRST! because if i refer 10 friends that join, i get a free book. heehee!
And just for fun, here's a recipe i tried out tonight!
I needed another recipe for the "Drinks and appetizers" section, because i wanted to make sure all my recipe pages were double sided. Then i remembered about this one i'd found, again on Sherbet Blossom. I'd never made hot chocolate from scratch before, so this was actually pretty fun (but definitely not in the "health food" category).

CREAMY HOT CHOCOLATE

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup white sugar
1 pinch salt
1/3 cup boiling water
3 1/2 cups milk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup half-and-half cream

Combine the cocoa, sugar and pinch of salt in a saucepan. Blend in the boiling water. Bring this mixture to an easy boil while you stir. Simmer and stir for about 2 minutes. Watch that it doesn't scorch. Stir in 3 1/2 cups of milk and heat until very hot, but do not boil! Remove from heat and add vanilla. Divide between 4 mugs. Add the cream to the mugs of cocoa to cool it to drinking temperature.

Enjoy!!