Rain Days and Hot Chocolate Peppermint Affogato

Our second day off school/work this year for the weather.  It was 37 above in Fairbanks and it rained!  It rained and rained and left a thick cover of ice on all the roads.  The roads were terrible, busses were late, cars lined the ditches along the roads, people fell on the sidewalks, and school was called off.

The problem now is that it is going to drop below zero again and we will have this thick layer of ice on the roads and it is too cold for any salt or de-icing chemicals to work.  What we do is have street graters rough up the ice and then gravel the hell out of the roads (yes, I go through a windshield a winter) and hope some of the ice evaporates as the winter progresses.  Oh the joys of Fairbanks!

So, I stayed home, watched the first season of Downton Abbey (thank you Michelle for lending me season one and two), drank Hot Chocolate Affogato and had a wonderful day.

Hot Chocolate Peppermint Affogato
For Hot Chocolate
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
dash salt
1/3 cup hot water
4 cups whole milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Mix sugar, cocoa and slat in a saucepan.  Stir in water until smooth.  Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture boils, boil and stir 2 minutes.  Whisk in milk and heat.  Do not bring to a boil.

Other ingredients
Peppermint ice cream
whipped cream
crushed peppermint stick

Scoop ice cream into mugs, pour in hot chocolate, top with whipped cream and crushed peppermint.  Enjoy.
(If you are home because work was called off you can add a little peppermint schnapps to your hot chocolate.)

Start with big scoops of peppermint ice-cream and a hot pot of good hot chocolate.

Top with whipped cream and crushed candy canes.

January 25, 2013   Daylight 6 hours, 13 minutes, 20 seconds  Temp. H -24/ L -39 °F