Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Snow in Texas

Snowball, originally uploaded by hungry neko.

Imagine that...snowing in Texas. It's officially the first day I've seen enough snow to make a snowball! I made one as I recorded with my phone, so it turned out all lumpy. It was too cold to make, especially with no mittens on, so I had to let the snowball rest in the inside of my sleeve (the bottom part got all wet). I was freezing my hand off while I looked for my target. The friend I was meeting was somewhere inside the building in front of me. I had to go downstairs with a phone in one hand and guard a snowball with the other. My friend was on the phone telling me where he was, and there were so many turns! When I finally got to him, I revealed my snowy piece of art/weapon. There was an exit nearby and we just had to go out for a snowball fight! A bunch of other college students there (and engineers at that)--I must have looked like a little kid. ;D We had to go to a corner to get enough snow of the ground, but it was fun! I took a few more snow photos, which can be seen here.


Cold/Hot


It didn't snow today, but I was in the mood to make hot chocolate...I mean, cold hot chocolate.
My mom always makes us Abuelita during December and on New Year's day. Me and my sisters call the drink Abuelita, but that's really the brand of the chocolate tablet used to make it. Anyway, I was excited to make some on my own and I had the main ingredient on hand: Abuelta. Things were not working out for me...
First of all, I had no cinnamon or cloves. I just used pumpkin spice since I had it and thought it would lend a nice taste. Then the milk I was heating developed skin, gross. A quick scoop with a spoon, no harm done, right? I filled the blender with pieces of the chocolate tablet and poured the milk in. Almost ready! But wait, not just yet!
I noticed that hot milk was dripping from the bottom of the blender, so I had to do everything in a pan. Not cool. I was trying to follow my mom's recipe, and she used a blender. I made it before with her there and I really wanted to do everything exactly like she did. I'm stubborn like that.
After transferring the mixture into a new pan (without gelled milk stuck to the sides), I continued my project. So I stood there with a spoon, stirring and stirring. The sugar crystals were still visible (little chocolate dots were too). 
At that point, I decided to look at the real directions instead of my moms. Ok--it says to whisk until frothy and starts to come to a boil. No whisk. I ended up using a fork and the pan was so small that it was easy to spill some milk with one wrong move. Naturally, I splashed some hot milk onto my hand. :( This was not turning out how I imagined. I pined for the blender. It would've made things so much easier. But I returned to reality and my milky troubles...

Is this going to unsuccessful cooking story? 

By the time I was done, I didn't feel as excited. The hot chocolate was then sealed in a square tupperware container (no other container could be found) and put in the refrigerator. That's where my milk was going to be different than my mom's--I like drinking it the next day, after it's been chilled.
So it was a trick question--I'll find out if the drink was a success tomorrow.

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