And the winners are….

1) Chubbymommyme and

2) czaroma

Congratulations to both of you! Please email me using the same email you used when you left a comment here. Use the subject “Real Leaf Contest Winner” in the heading of your email and include your full name, contact numbers and address. I will respond to you about claiming your prizes.

By the way, the Real Leaf Word Master Challenge is still ongoing on Facebook so you can still grab that date with Enchong or Erich!

Kubiertos, together with several other blogs (Yugatech, FlairCandy, Pinoy Travel Blog, Starmometer, and GMTristan), has joined Real Leaf in this contest.

Each day, a new question will be posted on the Facebook App (here). The answers to the questions are found in the participating blogs (all you have to do is search for it). Once a question is correctly answered, you earn a letter which you use to solve the puzzle. There are a total of 23 letters but you only need the missing 20.

For the complete mechanics, go to the Facebook App and click on the Contest Mechanics button on the top right corner.

Once you compete the puzzle, you’re qualified to win the top prizes: 1 male winner and 1 female winner with a Sony Bloggie HD each plus 6 months supply of Real Leaf Green Tea. And you also win a date with Erich Gonzales or Enchong Dee!

There’s more! Kubiertos is giving away 2 cases of your favorite Real Leaf Green Tea! To get this shot at this, all you have to do is…

1) Share this contest info and link via Twitter. You must include my twitter name (@ApplesH) and a link to this blog post in your tweet.

OR

2) Share this contest info and link via Facebook. You must include a link to this blog post in your Facebook announcement.

Once you have completed either of these, all you have to do is leave a comment here that includes your Twitter ID or Facebook page where the you have shared the contest info and a valid email address so that I can contact you in case you are picked.

While the Word Master Challenge on Facebook will last for 4 weeks, I’ll be picking the winners of the 2 cases of Real Leaf by end of September 3, 2010 (next Friday). Note that this contest is open only to residents of Metro Manila.

Don’t you just love cookies? I do. I especially love those big crisp ones or those moist crinkles that are simply to die for. I love cookies so much that I always ensure there are store-bought ones available at home for anytime my kids and I feel like munching on one.

You would think that for someone like myself who loves cookies like I love cake would be constantly making them. Unfortunately, I am intimidated by the thought of baking cookies. I tried several times before and have only been slightly successful. My cookies would turn out ok. Not awesome, just ok. Most of the time not even ok. More like burnt. There were other times my dough would even turn out runny that you can imagine what the end result was.

When I first tried my friend’s oatmeal cookies (burnt ones, hehe), I couldn’t stop munching on them. Because my pregnancy made me crave for favorites much more than usual, I figured I must learn how to make them in order to satisfy my constant yearning to sink my teeth into one. I had to conquer my hesitation and frustration on baking cookies. So I decided to go ahead and beat my record of failed burnt cookies. I got myself a copy of 3 oatmeal cookie recipes and did a mix and match of all 3 to come up with my own mix. And voila, the result were cookies even my husband actually appreciated.

Watch how these beautiful batch of cookie batter come out as crisp and tasty oatmeal raisin cookies. Try them using the very simple recipe I would like to share, and feel like a success as I myself did after smelling the first batch come out of the oven. Hmmm. Yum.

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup raisins

Procedures:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 cookie sheets or line with waxed paper.

Beat butter until creamy. Add in sugars and beat until fluffy, for about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs. Add in the vanilla and set aside.

In a separate bowl, mix flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon. Stir in dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix well. Stir in raisins then mix in oats.

Spoon out the dough into the cookie sheet leaving enough space for them to spread out. Bake for about 12-15 minutes or until the edges turn brown.

I love to eat it slightly warm but the crisp will come after the cookies have been cooled and stored. Enjoy!

I know very few people who don’t like chocolate. In fact I am fortunate to be surrounded by friends and family who mostly love chocolate. You will actually notice a lot of what I have in this blog talk about some form of chocolate candy, drink or dessert. And my ultimate dream is to be able to perfect my own version of a moist chocolate cake.

I think I have achieved perfection in terms of taste and texture but inconsistent throughout the whole cake. There’s always some part that is either crusty or collapsing especially when I try to put frosting on it.

A while back, I became ambitious and tried my hand at upgrading my usual plain chocolate cake into a layered cake with a creamy chocolate filling. Since I already had a recipe for a chocolate cake, all I needed was a recipe for a great filling. Mind you I am talking about taste here and not much else. I figured if the cake tasted deliciously out of this world, no one would really mind what it looked like (who am I kidding?).

I actually modified this recipe that my boss gave me. It was supposedly a recipe to create chocolate mousse but I loved it so much I matched it with my moist chocolate cake. What do you know, the result was a success! Oh yeah, successful in taste not in presentation. I still have not improved much on my frosting skills and it was obvious by the way the frosting was thin in some places and thick on others. But the chocolatey-ness, the moistness, the yummy-ness was definitely something I could be proud of. So to share my experiment into the world of layered cakes, here is the chocolate mousse filling recipe that I used with my moist chocolate cake.

Ingredients:

8 oz semisweet chocolate
2 tsp honey
2 large eggs
1 cup cream (I used all purpose)
2 tbsp butter

Procedures:

Melt the semisweet in a double broiler. For this recipe though, I used half unsweetened and half milk chocolate as that was what was left in my pantry at the time. Once the chocolate melts, add butter and mix well and set aside. In another bowl, beat cream until bubbly. Set aside. In a separate bowl, beat eggs and honey together. Combine the egg mixture with the cream and fold. Add in the chocolate mixture and fold. Pour into individual ramekins if you want or just keep in a bowl if to be used for filling. Chill for at least an hour or overnight for best results.

Here is what was left after everyone else devoured a slice:

On one such day, I had such a craving for Panda Express’ orange chicken that I went crazy online trying to find myself a recipe. I chanced upon Rasa Malaysia’s famous recipe that uses actual orange juice and orange peel instead of those sticky sweet ones that actually do not use orange in any of its ingredients. However, her recipe was not at all spicy so I decided to change it a bit as I wanted something that was a mixture of sticky sweet and spicy to satisfy my craving. Served with steamed white rice makes this dish doubly awesome. My hubby actually scraped the sauce off the plate so he could mix it with his rice. Hmm yummy!

Ingredients:

1/2 kilo chicken breast fillet
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup flour
1/8 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1 tsp cooking oil
pinch of salt

Spicy Orange Sauce:

1/4 cup orange juice
3 tbsp chicken broth
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp Chinese rice wine
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp rice vinegar
5 tsp sugar
2 tbsp chili sauce
1 tsp cornstarch
salt and pepper to taste

Procedures:

In a bowl, mix together flour, cornstarch, baking soda, oil and salt. Beat in egg. Cover chicken fillets with the batter. Heat oil in a pan or wok and deep fry the chicken until crispy and golden brown. Set aside on a plate covered with paper towels to drain off the excess oil.

In another bowl, mix together all ingredients for spicy orange sauce.

Heat the sesame oil in another pan. Stir fry some minced garlic until they become translucent. Pour in the spicy orange sauce mixture and continue to stir until the sauce has becomes thick. Mix in chicken fillets until completely covered in sauce. Serve hot with rice. Yum!

Ingredients:

1 package lasagna noodles (cooked to directions)
cheddar cheese

Meat sauce
1/2 kilo ground lean pork
1 can of diced tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 medium onion diced
3 cloves garlic minced
dried basil
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp olive oil

Cheese sauce
8 oz cream cheese (cut into small cubes)
1 cup milk

Procedures:

Heat olive oil in pan over medium heat. Saute garlic and onions until translucent. Put in ground pork and stir until everything is cooked. At this point, the pork would have produced a lot of oil. Scoop out some of the excess oil then put in the tomatoes and tomato paste. Stir until the paste dissolves into a sauce. Let it simmer for about 10-15 minutes so that the meat absorbs the flavor of the tomatoes. Season with salt, pepper, and basil. Set aside.

In a saucepan, put in 1 cup milk over medium heat. Add in cream cheese and melt to make the cheese sauce.

To assemble, line the bottom of a baking pan with meat sauce. place the lasagna noodles over it. Top with meat sauce, cheese sauce then noodles. Continue this combination until the baking pan is filled to the top. Cover the top with the cheddar cheese. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in 350 degrees F. Cut into 2 inch squares and serve.

Here are some photos from his winning entry:

Daddy Joey pls. dont forget to send me your complete name, address and contact number. You will be contacted within the week to let you know how you can claim your prize. Congratulations and keep drinking Real Leaf!

UPDATE: Coca-cola has chosen the grand winner out of all of the bloggers’ pick as the Real Leaf Contest winner. And… its my pick! Daddy Joey congratulations! In addition to an IPOD Nano, you also win Php 10,000 cash and a 1-year supply of Real Leaf. Again, congratulations!!

You all know how much I love cheesecake. I made a simple cheesecake, a chocolate cheesecake and now I have successfully whipped up a mocha cheesecake. This was inspired by the most perfect coffee cheesecake that my friends and I had while enjoying coffee and great conversation at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. Surprisingly, my cheesecake proved to be the most perfect among all those that I have baked. No cracks, intense taste. So I am sharing with you my tried and tested recipe. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Crust

1 cups crushed graham crackers
1 stick of butter

Filling

16 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup all purpose cream
2 tbsp instant coffee granules
1 tbsp hot water
1 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Procedures:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine all the ingredients for the crust in a bowl and mix with a fork until evenly moistened. Coat the bottom of an 8-inch springform pan with this mixture and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Mix the coffee with the hot water to make a coffee paste.

Beat the cream cheese on low speed for 1 minute. Add in the eggs one at a time. Gradually add the sugar. Continue beating while you add the cream, vanilla extract, coffee paste and flour.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake in a water bath for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Leave inside the over for another hour. Cool overnight for best results.

Winners:
1. kahodin
2. bachuchay
3.Alvin
4. torque15
5. Gayz MB
6. Marizen Villamora
7. rem
8. Lei
9. Ann
10. Mae
11. Kim
12. Joanne Gonzales
13. Allan Reyes
14. gail
15. Pam

I will be sending emails to all the winners regarding details of their prizes so please watch out for those. Congratulations and thank you for making this contest successful!

** Special thanks to Discovery Travel and Living

The following recipe is inspired by one of my husband’s favorite fast food dishes, the Mongolian Barbecue. It is called Mongolian Barbecue but all it really is, is stir fried meat, seafood and rice mixed all together. Typically when you go to a restaurant here that offers Mongolian Barbecue, you are given a bowl for you to fill with tons of ingredients to choose from. There would be different meats, seafood, vegetables, rice and of course the create-your-own Mongolian sauce or you can choose from the restaurant’s default blend. The chef would then stir fry everything in a big grill or wok or whatever they use to cook your order. The result would be hot, steaming and delicious Mongolian barbecue. Because of all the ingredients they offer, eating out at Mongolian Barbecue places can be pricey. So I decided to recreate the same, if not similar experience at home.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of chicken thigh fillets
1/2 cup of pork tenderloin chopped into small pieces
1/2 cup of squid rings
1/2 cup of shrimp
1/2 cup of carrots sliced into thin strips
1/2 cup of chopped cabbage
1 cup of bean sprouts
1 cup of cooked white rice
1 large onion chopped
1 clove garlic minced
2 tbsp sambal oelek (optional, you can omit if you don’t want the heat)
2 tbsp sesame oil
3 tbsp teriyaki sauce
3 tbsp kikkoman soy sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
salt and pepper
spring onions chopped (for garnish)

Procedures:

Combine meat, seafood, vegetables, rice in a bowl. Set aside. Combine teriyaki sauce, kikkoman soy sauce and sugar in another bowl. Set aside.

Place wok or frying pan over high heat. When wok starts to smoke put in sesame oil. Then stir fry sambal oelek until the oil absorbs the spice (or until your eyes tear up). Then stir fry garlic and onion. Be careful not to let the garlic burn so keep stirring! Stir fry the meat until they are slightly cooked. Add the seafood and the rest of the ingredients including the condiments and keep stirring until everything is cooked.

Pour into a bowl and sprinkle with spring onions. Enjoy!

You can submit as many photos as you can as long as you leave a comment here in this blog about your entry with a link to your photo. This contest will run from December 28 to January 30. The winners will be chosen on January 31, 2010.

Contest Mechanics:

• This contest is open to all readers of Kubiertos.com from the Philippines.
• Take a photo of any person drinking Real Leaf Green Tea or with a Real Leaf Green Tea. Upload this photo at any photo sharing site, blog, Facebook, Tumblr or multiply account together with a short (or long) write-up about the photo (why, where, who or anything you want to write about the photo).
• Leave a comment on this blog post with a link to your entry.
• You can submit multiple entries but a participant can only win once.
• The contest will end on January 30, 2010  11:59PM Manila time.
• The most creative, funny, cute, heartwarming or interesting photo (and story) will be chosen as the winner. A similar contest will be run on About My Recovery, Starmometer, Our Awesome Planet and Yugatech producing one winner each. Coca-cola will then choose an overall winner from the 5 winning entries who will win a grand prize of Php10,000 and 1 year’s supply of Real Leaf Green Tea!
• Me, my family including my relatives up to the second degree of consanguinity or affinity are disqualified from joining the contest.

Go out with your DSLRs, point and shoots, camera phones, or disposables and capture those winning moments to get a chance to win an Ipod Nano and Php 10,000 cash! Merry Christmas!

Real Leaf Honey Lychee, Honey Apple and Honey Lemon, are all packed with the natural benefits brought by the blend of green tea and honey to help you stay alert, alive and deliciously revived to make the best of every moment in your life.

Only Real Leaf Green Tea has the deliciously refreshing qualities of green tea and the natural goodness of honey.

The atmosphere is charged with Christmas spirit and all around everyone is doing their best to make this Christmas extra special. With all the difficulties the world has had to go through, what with the economic crisis that hit everyone across the globe, the natural disasters that claimed thousands of lives, the cruelty and injustice that many people have had to live with (or die for), it is admittedly difficult to keep our spirits high and happy. But I truly believe that no matter what happens in your life, you should find a way to make things better for you and your family.  This Christmas, let the world know what you plan to do to make this Christmas extraordinary. It may be a small thing or a big thing, but if it makes you or others forget all the problems in the world then that is truly great.

This year Discovery Travel and Living (DTL) is featuring 4 different shows as part of its Christmas programs to somehow make our Holiday season a little bit more special – Nigella’s Christmas Kitchen (on December 14), Willy’s Perfect Chocolate Christmas (December 23), Fun Taiwan (January 1) and The Relic Hunter with Ian Grant (January 2).

Kubiertos.com in partnership with Discovery Travel and Living is giving away 10 cookbooks 15 cookbooks by DTL’s famous chefs, Willie Harcourt-Cooze, Kylie Kwong, and David Rocco to 10 lucky readers 15 lucky readers of this blog. All you have to do is post a comment here about what you plan to do this year to make Christmas extra special. You can post as many ideas as you want as long as they’re unique. It would be understandable if the basic idea will become similar to others but the details should be uniquely your own. (Ex. Special Christmas dinner can be an idea of many people but you can make it unique by how you plan to do it or what dishes you plan to cook to make it special). The contest will run from December 13 to December 27.

Contest Mechanics:

• This contest is open to all readers who have valid Philippine mailing addresses. DTL will take care of delivering the prizes to the mailing address of all the winners
• Each comment will be considered as one entry to the contest. You can post multiple comments but each one needs to be of a different idea to be counted as separate entries. However, a reader can only win once.
• The contest will end on December 27, 11:59PM Manila time.
• The winners will be drawn by a third party web application – random.org.
• Winners will be announced on December 31, 2009.
• Me, my family including my relatives up to the second degree of consanguinity or affinity are disqualified from joining the contest.

Comment now and get a chance to win one of these prized cookbooks courtesy of Discovery Travel and Living!

Just past the commercial center where all the famous dining places are, and past the tall condominium (that I still think is an eye sore) is a place that offers coffee and the best cinnamon loaf I have ever tried. It used to be a small place with several tables under the trees and an enclosed dining area that will make you feel totally at home.

A couple of weeks ago, my hubby and I decided to have brunch over at Bag of Beans. We arrived there just before 9 am and we were met by a nice surprise. Instead of being led to a table in the gardens, we were led to a covered dining area that was new to me and seemed much larger than the old one. Although covered it was wide open and faced a courtyard where you will find some picnic tables. It was awesome. The place can now accommodate more people but it still did not lose the coziness and homey feeling that I know it for.

Breakfast was as expected, I mean who can go wrong with bacon and eggs and omelette? The one memorable dish though was the Daing na Bangus (aka milk fish marinated in vinegar and spices) with fried rice. It was cooked to perfection, somewhat crispy on the outside but white, hot and soft on the inside. The flavors too were intense like it had been soaked in vinegar for months before being served to you. I wonder how they did that or where they bought the fish. Hmm.

All in all, my family and I had the perfect brunch. Good food, great coffee and even greater place. Delicioso!

Bag of Beans
115 Aguinaldo Highway,
Mendez Crossing West,
Tagaytay City
Philippines

Ingredients:
1/4 kilo very thin strips of beef
1 cup of corn kernels
2 cups cooked white rice
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp teriyaki sauce
sesame oil
a LOT of black pepper powder

Procedures:

Put wok over high heat. Once the wok starts to smoke, put in the sesame oil. Stir fry the beef strips for about 1-2 minutes or until slightly cooked. Don’t forget to keep stirring or the beef will stick to the wok or worse get burned. Remove the beef from the wok. Add a bit more sesame oil to the wok and put in the rice, soy sauce and teriyaki sauce. Stir fry like there’s no tomorrow. Add in lots of pepper – depending on how much pepper taste you want out of the dish. Put back the beef and corn and stir until everything is cooked. Serve while piping hot.

Being so close to where I worked, many were surprised that I hadn’t even tried Charlie’s famous Philly Cheesesteak or their Buffalo Chicken Wings. I have long since resigned to the fact that there are certain expectations when people know you write about food. So my friends were supportive when I suggested we eat at Charlie’s and off we went and waited for a few minutes for a table.

About Php 175.00++

I, of course, ordered the house specialty, The Black Angus Burger with cheese, bacon and fries on the side.  We also ordered a half dozen Buffalo Wings, mild. We were able to sit at a table inside their air conditioned section with flat screen TVs and a remote control for every table. I could imagine trying to wrestle channels with another table. It would have been a funny sight.

The food came without too much fanfare. Instead, trying to fit everything into the tiny round metal tables caused so much ruckus as we had to put our food almost on top of each other’s so we could fit in everything we ordered on our table. 

I was so excited when I looked at my burger. The bacon strips were long and curly that I was literally dancing with joy as I went to bite into one. To my dismay, the bacon turned out cold and chewy. I had to pull with my hand and teeth just to get a piece of the bacon. Plus the bacon wasn’t the slightest bit salty. It was actually devoid of any kind of taste. I could not even sense the remains of the grease that I assumed was used to fry it.

So I turned to the burger for my order’s resurrection. Surely with so many people raving about it, I had made a wise choice. I chewed on a large piece of burger and bread and was silent for a few minutes as I pondered on what it was I felt about the house specialty. I could my friend’s eyes watching my expression. He was hesitant to blurt out what he wanted to say about his own burger, probably giving me first dibs on providing my feedback. When I uttered, “The burger is very salty.”, a sigh escaped and he immediately agreed and confessed that he first thought it was just him so he wanted to wait for someone else to confirm what he tasted. Funny, I used to be like that, as if the taste would change if someone else said sweet instead of salty. Taste buds vary so I try not to be swayed by how another person perceives the taste of a dish is.. and I am still trying.

Buffalo Wings Half Dozen Php 150.00

Disappointed with my burger, I turned to the Buffalo Chicken Wings in the hopes of getting a more delightful experience from them. And I did. The appearance of the chicken wings brought back memories of take out chicken wings in styrofoam containers that my friends and I order from the local bar in Phoenix. They were greasy and saucy and oh so spicy. We ordered mild but my mouth felt on fire with just 1 piece of buffalo wing. I knew I could finish more if only I drank soda at every bite but my stomach could no longer take the assault of tough bacon, salty burger and hot wings.

Without the hype and only the food, I must say that Charlie’s did not quite live up to the hype it initially came with. But you should take it as it is, a carwash cafe that offers something better than cheap pork burgers seasoned with a combination of mayonnaise and ketchup. I would still go back to Charlie’s if only to get myself through a half dozen wings. Maybe next time. Cheers!

Charlie’s Grind and Grills
16 East Kapitolyo Drive
Pasig City, Metro Manila
Tel No: 501-0137

I am never disheartened, so this time, I did my best to come up with something different to please my family’s ever changing taste buds. Looking for some pork or beef for stir frying, I wanted to do something like soy sauce based but creamy at the same time. Armed with an inspiration from one of my many Yummy magazines, I set off to cook something I was sure my family was going to love.

Creamy Pork Stew. For the photo above, I used thin slices of pork belly since at the time I cooked this, we ran out of tenderloin.

Ingredients:

1/2 kilo pork tenderloin or pork steak cut into strips
1 small can of button mushrooms
3 cloves of garlic
1 medium onion chopped
2 tbsp soy sauce or soy-based seasoning
2 cups of pork stock (melt 1 pork cube in warm water)
1 cup of cream
a dash of pepper
chopped or dried parsley

Procedures:

Heat oil in pan over medium heat. Saute the garlic and onions until slightly translucent. Put in pork strips and stir fry until cooked. Lower heat and put in soy sauce and stock. Let simmer for 5 minutes or until liquid is reduced and the meat has absorbed the flavors. Season with pepper. Pour in cream and let simmer for another 5 minutes or until sauce has reduced to desired consistency.

Remove from fire and sprinkle with parsley before serving. Perfect with steaming hot rice.

So here is my entry to Display Your Gadgets.

I naturally became a foodie because of my love affair with food. I love to eat, dine, and cook. It has also brought me to writing about my encounters with food and my experience cooking it. This is accompanied by a shelf full of Yummy magazines, a couple of cookbooks (I only started buying them), a collection of mixing bowls, wooden spoons, several baking pans, and a stock-filled pantry. I took this photo feeling sentimental about how far I have come in terms of my kitchen skills. I learned from the best, those who raised me – my dad (cooking) and my mom (baking).

Polvoron, is made with toasted flour, milk powder, sugar and butter, which is necessary to form everything into a candy. It is then wrapped in Japanese paper or cellophane wrapping paper. Here is a great post on the step by step in making this milky candy. My mom and siblings all loved polvoron. I don’t and I still don’t.

So it was quite a struggle for me to try out House of Polvoron’s (HOP) samples which is mostly why it took a while for me to come up with this post. I had to settle with what I do best considering my aversion to milk.

HOP’s polvoron is totally different from what I expected. I always thought it was supposed to be this powdery candy that literally crumbled once the packaging has been opened. This crumbliness is the reason why polvoron is perfect for that party game where you have to eat several polvoron candies and then try to whistle with all your might. LOL.

HOP’s candy surprisingly, stayed firm and solid. It was interesting how it doesn’t look milky at all. I pinched it a bit to see if it would crumble into powder as I had imagined it. It didn’t.  The polvoron came on moist and actually stuck to my fingers. It did not cause a mess and I can imagine it will not do for that party game I just mentioned as it does melt in your mouth when eat it. Maybe when you eat ten of these all at once, it will do but I doubt powder will spew out of your mouth.

House of polvoron is exclusively distributed by Motz Food Products, a specialty shop started by husband and wife Medardo and Rosalinda Caliwara. These candies can be bought in at leading supermarkets nationwide. To find them, just go into the local delicacies section or the local snacks section of your neighborhood supermarket. Available flavors are: Classic, Pinipig, Pili, Cashew, and Cookies and Cream.

Now, the last time I remember preparing hot chocolate, I used those instant powder types that have directions at the back of the labels. I really have not made one from scratch. And by scratch I simply mean something other than opening a bottle and mixing powder with hot water. Inspired by memories of Max Brenner and by one of my favorite foodies, I set out to the pantry to see if I had the items I needed to make myself some hot chocolate. The result was a thick, rich cup of creamy hot chocolate that soothed and warmed the throat and body. It is really easy to make. This recipe makes 4 servings (4 mugs of hot chocolate).

Ingredients:

600ml milk (I used carnation evaporated milk)
2 ounces milk chocolate
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate

Procedures:

Combine milk and chocolate in a saucepan and place over low heat. Stir the mixture until the chocolate is completely melted. If you have a handheld blender, you can use that to further smoothen out the chocolate. I used a whisk which works as well.