world's best hot chocolate

Just chocolaty and spicy enough for us. Spicy kick is required, to feel like Aztec royalty. ;-)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups lowfat milk
• 3 tblsp Hershey's Dark & Dutched Cocoa powder
  
• 5 tblsp sugar
• dash of cayenne pepper
• 4 tblsp whipped cream

Instructions:

1. Warm milk in sauce pan (do not boil) and keep on low heat.
   
2. Add cocoa powder, sugar and cayenne. Slowly stir until dissolved.
3. Add whipped cream and then remove from heat, stirring until dissolved. Continue stirring until thick crema on top becomes a thin film.
   

Serves 2.

summer corn and pea salad

I had som corn and nothing to do with it, and out came this salad. It's summery feeling with a little kick.

Ingredients:

• 3 ears sweet corn
• 1 can blackeyed peas, drained and rinsed
• 1/4 small sweet onion, diced
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1/4 c fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1/2 large orange, juice only
• 2 tsp tobassco
• salt and fresh black pepper

Instructions

1. Boil the corn for about 3-4 minutes and cut off the cob. Combine with peas.
2. Saute onion in 1 tsp olive oil until tender. Add to mixture.
3. Add cilantro. Squeeze juice of orange into mixture. Add tobassco, salt and pepper.
4. Stir to combine.

I am serving this as is, but you could probably keep this in the fridge and let the flavors soak in and serve cold.

apple cranberry stuffed pork roast

apple cranberry stuffed pork roast

Holy cow this is delicious. Elise does it again with this one from Simply Recipes. This is my first "fall time" dish for the season and we liked it so much we plan to have it for Christmas dinner this year. It's everything fall time: the smell of cloves and cinnamon on the stove, and the meat just calling for a green bean casserole and some hot sweet potatoes. I really enjoyed making this; because it's such a keeper I need to repost the content as well but please visit Elise's blog - she's got a ton of great recipes.

Ingredients

• 1 cup apple cider
• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 large shallot, peeled, thinly sliced
• 1 1/2 cups tart apples, finely diced (packed)
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger
• 1 Tbsp yellow mustard seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice (or substitute)
• 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

• 2 1/2 pound boneless center-cut pork loin roast (short and wide - about 7-8 inches long and 4-5 inches wide)
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions:

1. Before starting on the pork, put the pork roast in the freezer for 30 minutes to make it easier to cut. While the pork is chilling, you can make the filling.
2. Bring all the filling ingredients to simmer in medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook until apples are very soft, about 20 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve, reserving the liquid. Use a rubber spatula to press against the apple mixture in the sieve to extract as much liquid out as possible. Return liquid to saucepan and simmer over medium-high heat until reduced to 1/2 cup, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat, set aside and reserve this liquid for use as a glaze. Pulse apple mixture in food processor, about fifteen 1-second pulses. Set aside.
3. Preheat oven to 350°F or prepare your grill for indirect heat. You will be "double-butterflying" the pork roast. Lay the roast down, fat side up. Insert the knife into the roast 1/2-inch horizontally from the bottom of the roast, along the long side of the roast. Make a long cut along the bottom of the roast, stopping 1/2 inch before the edge of the roast. You might find it easier to handle by starting at a corner of the roast. Open up the roast and continue to cut through the thicker half of the roast, again keeping 1/2 inch from the bottom. Repeat until the roast is an even 1/2-inch thickness all over when laid out. If necessary, pound the roast to an even thickness with a meat pounder.
4. Season the inside of the roast well with salt and pepper. Spread out the filling on the roast, leaving a 1/2-inch border from the edges. Starting with the short side of the roast, roll it up very tightly. Secure with kitchen twine at 1-inch intervals. Season the outside of the roast generously with salt and pepper.
5. Place roast on a rack in a roasting pan, place in oven, on the middle rack.
6. Cook for 45 to 60 minutes, until the internal temperature of the roast is 130 to 135 degrees. Brush with half of the glaze and cook for 5 minutes longer. Remove the roast from the oven or grill. Place it on a cutting board. Tent it with foil to rest and keep warm for 15 minutes before slicing.
7. Slice into 1/2-inch wide pieces, removing the cooking twine as you cut the roast. Serve with remaining glaze.