cure for a rainy day (or night)

San Francisco broke my umbrella today. My good umbrella (actually two umbrellas, although to be fair, the shitty plaid umbrella I bought from a street vendor in Venice was had already been semi-broken for quite a while). Specifically, it was the torrents of rain that did the breaking. And the wind, especially the wind, that unbelievable asshole.

I'm slightly amazed I even made it home, considering the homicidal gusts that seemed to be trying with all their might to blow me into the middle of a Van Ness Avenue full of crazy San Francisco drivers hurrying to get home and blast their space heaters. Because I just had to pick tonight to end my nearly two month forced exile from pilates due to my ridiculous back-crack strained-chest-cartilage injury followed by the Cold-From-Hell.

Anyhow. What I really mean to say is that it's been the kind of day that's left me with a craving for a hot, steaming cup of cocoa. And by that I do not mean the crappy, generic cup of watery brown liquid that tastes vaguely like something resembling chocolate that you can find at Starbucks, 7-Eleven, a wide variety of other cafes, coffee shops and diners, or from a little paper packet of powdery mix that comes in a cardboard box from the grocery store. No, the only thing that will truly do on a blustery evening such as this is the special kind of thick, decadent, liquid-melted-chocolate-so-rich-you-can-really-only-drink-half-a-mug cocoa.

So while my utterly-soaked-through sneakers are still drying, for a month probably, I am at the moment satisfactorily cozied-up and not at all concerned about the cruel cold wetness beyond my bay window, thanks to my own personal remedy. And I am now going to share my very top secret recipe with you, shhhh, just because I'm feeling generous and sufficiently chocolated-up.

Perfect Rainy Day Hot Cocoa

Ingredients:

-1 Mugful of Almond Breeze vanilla almond milk (can be substituted for soy milk, rice milk, cow milk or goat milk if you're not as cool and dietarily hip as moi)

-a Buttload of Ghirardellii unsweetened cocoa powder (if you're not comfortable using a Buttload, instead use a Ridiculously Generous Heaping)

-granulated sugar to taste

-1 Capful of vanilla extract

-a Generous Sprinkling of cinnamon powder

Instructions:

1. Heat almond milk in a saucepan until just below boiling, reduce heat to low/medium-low.

2. Add unsweetened cocoa powder and sugar, stir until well mixed and lump-free.

3. Pour in vanilla extract (try not to drink any straight, I'm sure there must be some real liquor in the house somewhere). Stir to mix.

4. Top off with a significant dash of cinnamon and continue to stir until smooth.

5. Pour into your favorite Alice in Wonderland mug (or something else if you are not fortunate enough to own such an amazing piece of ceramic drink ware). Try not to spill as much as I did.

6. Take a deep, comforting whiff and enjoy.

Now if only I had some marshmallows. Cheers!