BellaOnline Forums Family Special Needs Children New Years Blues and Winter Wearies

For those who are past the limits of their stamina, just plain worn out from holidays, travel, and/or weather adventures, I'm sending virtual mugs of hot cocoa, tea or great coffee (even decaf) and a basketful of virtual two hour naps.

What helps get you back on track in the first weeks of the new year and on through the winter?

Pam W
SE of Seattle

New Year Blues and Winter Doldrums
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Hmm, well we don't really experience "winter" here--still hitting daytime highs of 70, even though mornings are cold. Now that we're in the rainy season (the south Texas version of monsoon), a cozy fire and a hot mug of Mayan cocoa really beat away the "winter" blahs. The recipe I have is from andreas.com:

Mayan Hot Cocoa
This is Mexican-style hot chocolate, as you saw in the movie Chocolat. After I saw the movie, I experimented for several weeks and came up with the recipe.

Cocoa was used by the Aztec and Mayan as a sacred drink. Xocolatl or chocolatl was brewed with various spices and drank unsweetened as part of ceremonies. This recipe uses pure cocoa and several spices, including chili peppers. The flavor is very rich and aromatic, like a dark perfume. It's also unsweetened. Some may prefer it sweeter; just add more sugar. Makes four mugs of hot cocoa.

Heat 4 cups of milk in a doubleboiler at medium-low. If you don't have a double boiler, then put a small pot inside a larger pot. If you don't have two pots, then stir it constantly.

While the milk is warming up, mix the following in a new bowl.

� cup cocoa (use Peets, Scharffenberger, Valhrona, Starbucks, or similar.)
1 tsp unbleached flour
� cup dark brown sugar
� tsp freshly grated nutmeg
3 crushed cloves (put the cloves on your cutting board and crush them with the flat of your kitchen knife)
� tsp chili peppers (crushed, the same way as the cloves)
1 cinnamon stick (loosely crumbled)
To mix all this: Sift the cocoa powder and flour. Add a bit of milk and stir the cocoa/flour mix until it becomes a paste. Slowly add milk and continue to stir. It should turn into a paste. If you add milk too fast, you get clumpy cocoa. If that happens, use a hand blender to smoothen it. Finally, when all the cocoa and flour are a paste (no more dry flour,) add the remaining spices (sugar, nutmeg, cloves, peppers, and cinnamon.)

Add the cocoa/flour/spices mix to the hot milk in the doubleboiler. Stir constantly to keep it from burning. If you want it thicker, add some corn starch. Add as much corn starch as you like.

When the cocoa is ready (it takes only fifteen minutes until it's nice and hot,) use a slotted spoon to scoop the cloves and cinnamon off the top and add:

2 tsp powered sugar. If you want it sweeter, add more powdered sugar.
1� tsp vanilla
Serve in heavy mugs. If you like, you can put whipped cream on top, add small marshmallows, or add a stick of cinnamon (for stirring.)

I've discovered drinking chocolate lately too-not to be confused with hot chocolate. Your recipe sounds wonderful.

On cold days I like to stay inside, take a warm bath, read a good book and sip a glass of good wine. I live near Dallas and we don't have much winter either but right now we're having an ice storm!

I used to live in Oregon and January was a very dreary month! You have to learn to enjoy the slower pace of the days and the chance to be cozy indoors.

Omigosh! I felt better just reading the recipe!

A few years ago I had a sliver of fudge pie that had ancho chili and cinnamon in the recipe. It was quite wonderful.

My daughter and son both inherited their grandmother's and great grandmother's gene for making instant packets of cocoa taste great. We have each added our own assortment of ingredients to the mug at one time or another - a neighbor once told me that we may as well make it from scratch and I was surprised that she thought we usually didn't. I think I told her we loved the little instant mix packets because sometimes we just had a craving for melty mini marshmallows.

Oooooh - do you ever make marshmallows from scratch? Amazing and wonderful. The world is so full of fabulous things!

We had a bit more snow on Saturday here, a light dusting that put down a new layer of ice on the sidewalks but made everything look beautiful. They say we'll see the effects of El Nino in February, but I don't see how we can ever forget the storms we've had in the past month or two.

If I decide to 'drink to forget' I will try your wonderful Mayan Hot Cocoa recipe. Thanks a bunch!

Pam W
SE of Seattle

Teaching Your Child to Plan Meals and Cook
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I have family in Missouri and they are recovering from and preparing for another ice storm out there. We had one ten years ago the day after Christmas and I'll never forget the sounds of branches breaking off under the weight of the ice, crashing down onto the icy ground through the night.

I don't know if it really helps but I used special full spectrum light bulbs in all our lamps and recessed lighting during winter time. Up here dawn can come late and dusk starts about 4pm so we don't have much time to soak in any sunlight during the day. In the middle of summer dusk can happen around 9:30pm so I suppose it all balances out, but that is hard to believe in December and January.

I hope the storm was mild when it passed through your area - not that ice storms usually arrive in a mild version.

Take care,

Pam W
SE of Seattle

Severe Weather Events and Children with Special Needs
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I think chocolate's a very popular "winter" item, especially for women, because of its association with endorphins. I think we've all heard the expression that "chocolate's a substitute for..." (you can fill this one in, I'm sure). I think the fact that chocolate raises the "feel good" endorphins makes it very attractive in the season of darkness.

Some families play board games together, let the kids plan and help prepare meals, take walks, or plan some other form of exercise to get through the long weeks of shorter daylight hours and unpleasant weather. All those 'remedies' take time and patience, where popping a nice piece of chocolate to get us through an afternoon or just the next ten minutes can be more than a welcome relief.

We do teach our children whatever strategies we use to get us through times of stress, boredom, emotional lows and physical exhaustion. Making an exceptional cup of hot cocoa together seems like it would release endorphins for all sorts of reasons.

Of course, there's always 'helping with the housework' - my mom always insisted we'd feel better getting a couple of chores finished than 'sitting around brooding' - of course the reward of a clean kitchen meant she could fix us a nice snack afterward, too.

Pam W
SE of Seattle

Teaching Your Child to Plan Meals and Cook
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