Yesterday we had the first official hot chocolate of the season.

It’s been cooler here in LA (highs in the upper 60s, practically arctic for this area) and yesterday was the tipping point for me. Alice had been talking about how she hadn’t been able to get warm all day, so I knew what I must do: hot chocolate.

Nothing warms you up in the same tasty, yummy kind of fashion like hot chocolate.

Plus, Alice had yet to have my hot chocolate. Since I’m a chocoholic (seriously, I read a Danish study [of course it was Danish] talking about the benefits of 6ozs of dark chocolate a day and knew that I’d been on the right track all along), I’ve always been particular about my hot chocolate. I’m never fully happy when I buy it somewhere, but I’ll always get it because I love it.

After work when I went to the grocery store, I picked up a few food items for the week and some milk for the hot chocolate — you can try to use something other than whole milk, but it won’t turn out quite as tasty.

When Alice came home, after we had dinner (some very tasty fried rice that she made), I fixed us some hot chocolate.

I used two different chocolates for their complexity, whole milk, cream and a few other things — healthy and delicious. When I gave it to Alice, after she had a sip, she said, “I’ve never quite had hot chocolate like this before.” From what I could tell, it wasn’t a, “Eww, I’ve never had anything like this before,” it was a, “Yum, I’ve never had anything like this before!”

Since it was the first of the season, it was the standard plain version. However, soon to come are the variations, cinnamon, cayenne, peppermint (a personal fave of mine) and maybe even a few others.

No matter how you slice it, cold weather demands hot chocolate.

Sadly, it wasn’t until after we had finished drinking it that I realized we weren’t able to take any pictures of it. You know how it is with hot chocolate, once you get it, you don’t want to put it down. I promise, one of the next few times that I make it, I’ll try to remember to takes some pictures to show everyone.

You all just have to promise to go make some yourself. Making stuff at home is both fun and delicious! Plus, you’ll get to control everything that goes into what you’re making.