To me, hot chocolate is just a nice treat for cold winter days to warm your soul.  I found a recipe for “Best Hot Chocolate” that would be perfect for a winter day in Vermont.  To make it easy and quick, you just bring 3/4 cup of water to a simmer in a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat.  Then whisk in 3 Tbsp of cocoa powder until no lumps remain, then add 3 cups of whole milk and return to a simmer.  Whisk in 6 ounces of semisweet chocolate finely chopped and 3 tablespoons of sugar and cook, whisking frequently until mixture is smooth and creamy and chocolate melted, about 5 minutes.    Divide hot chocolate among mugs.  Top with whipped cream and dust with cocoa powder.

And because it is cold weather, it’s a good time to make some chicken stock on the stove to just simmer all day.  I like Barefoot Contessa’s recipe that is on the food network.  She uses the stock in all her soups and a lot of her recipes.  She freezes her stock in plastic containers and puts it in the freezer to use when she wants to.  She puts all kinds of veggies and herbs in the water, along with whole chicken.  A lot of people use the remains of a chicken roast bones and use that.  Then everything is strained with all the flavor in the stock.  I want to try making my own chicken stock as it is supposed to be very flavorful and that is what making a good soup is all about.

I watched the Republican debate last night.  I think that they are all very wonderful candidates for the leader of our country.  I have my choice for who I am voting for.  But in my humble opinion, the people that are in charge of running important agencies in our government have to be scrutinized.  The stuff that passes through food and medical agencies is just like everything is run.  Friends and family get in for the high paying jobs, don’t have to do their job and are mostly slackers.    Just has to change.  Also because of “political correctness”  minorities have to take positions that there are intended for more qualified people that should be in the position.  Qualified people are out of luck and have not a chance of really good jobs.  For an example, the person from California that was a terrorist and killed 14 people had a government job inspecting restaurants that paid $70,000.00 a year.  He wanted to kill us all and he inspected a food place?????  Kind of makes a person cringe.  Then my son, who worked his way through college and got a BA in education could not get a teaching job.  He was on the deans list all through college.  They said he had to have masters degree to get in.  Then he goes into accounting and 2 more years of school, working and paying for it himself along the way.  So what does he earn??? He earns $30,000.00 a year.  Go figure.

And that is my rant for the day.

A really nice place in Vermont is the beautiful town of Woodstock.  It is so scenic and just plain fun to visit.  I like Gillinghams store.  The people that own the store have been in Woodstock since way before I was born.  The store has really nice and quality stuff to buy.  It’s like a country store with wine, cheese, coffee and all kinds of kitchen stuff.

I also love the food co-ops all over the state that have organic food.

This peanut butter sounds kind of good.

I think that I would like to have the following photo made into a picture to frame and put on a wall somewhere in my home.  So pretty.