Who Doesn’t Love Hot Cocoa?

Unless you don’t like chocolate (and who doesn’t?!), most everyone loves a hot cup of cocoa. Kids love it. Adults love it. And, you can dress it up or down, make it fancy or keep it simple.

Saturday, December 12, is National Cocoa Day and no camping trip would be complete without a good supply of hot cocoa. Hot cocoa is a must have for cold, winter weather, but it’s also great on a chilly spring morning or a crisp fall evening. It’s even a good way to start the day in the middle of July.

Hot cocoa can be made from scratch or you can grab a packet of the instant stuff and just add hot water. If you’re making cocoa from scratch, remember to add just a pinch of salt to enhance the flavor.

So, how do you spice up or, for the adults, spike your hot cocoa?

Marshmallows and Whipped Cream have to top the list. They are the classic toppings. If you are a marshmallow fan, they come in flavors and multiple sizes for more options.

Make a s’mores cocoa with Marshmallows and crushed Graham Crackers (pictured).

Melt a crushed up Candy Cane or an Andes Mint in your hot cocoa for a minty twist. My daughter has recently started doing this and loves it.

Stir in some Caramel sauce.

Add a dash of Cinnamon for a Latin twist.

Add some Almond Extract or Vanilla Extract.

Mash up a bit of Banana. It might make for some chunks and floaties but you can spoon those out and eat them!

How about using Coconut Milk in place of regular milk?

Melt some Peanut Butter in your hot cocoa or stir in some PB2 powdered peanut butter.

Add a flavored creamer, like Hazelnut or melt some Nutella in your hot cocoa.

Melt in some White Chocolate or, if you make your hot cocoa from scratch, use White Chocolate or Dark Chocolate instead of regular chocolate.

For the adults in the crowd, try adding a shot of Amaretto or Bailey’s Irish Cream or Kahlua or Crème de Cacao to your hot cocoa. Makes a perfect nite cap at the evening campfire.

In addition to the Crème de Cacao, add some Peppermint Schnapps and Crème de Menthe for a peppermint patty style cocoa.

For an almond joy, use Coconut Milk and add Crème de Cacao and Amaretto.

Grand Marnier makes for super-sophisticated, orange and chocolate cocoa.

We hope you’ll give some of these a try and have some fun experimenting. And, feel free to mix and match. We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

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12 Days of Scout Camp Song

After my son eagled and reached his 18th birthday, he signed on as one of the troop’s assistant scoutmasters. At summer camp, for the closing campfire at the end of the week, my son and I volunteered to come up with either a song or skit. My son was in one of our high school’s top choirs so, of course, he wanted to do a song. We chose the 12 Days of Christmas as our tune and these are the words we made up to go with it. I’ll just give you the final run through because y’all should be familiar with the song. So, it starts with the 12th day and works its way backward.

On the 12th day of scout camp my leader said to me:
Ask your SPL.
Don’t play in the fire.
Drop that snake.
Where’s your repellant?
Eat your oatmeal.
Go take a shower.
Time for inspection.
Where is your hat?
Don’t throw rocks.
Don’t chew gum.
Clean out the kybo, and
Be careful of the poison ivy.

For another fun song written by some of my Outdoor Chef students, please read my blog post: “Cooking and Crooning in the Camp Kitchen.” I also have a collection of some of my favorite camp songs on my Camp Songs page.

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Let’s Talk S’Mores

Today is National S’Mores Day! Who doesn’t love a good s’more?!

Some time ago, I ran across this infograph on s’mores by REI and I loved it so much I saved it to share here.

For most folks, it’s just not camping without at least one evening campfire and s’mores, songs, skits and stories.

While the classic s’more consists of graham crackers, chocolate squares and toasted marshmallows, it’s okay to break from tradition and put your own spin on it.

We love to swap out the chocolate bars and graham crackers for hazelnut chocolate spread and shortbread cookies (yes, we use Girl Scout shortbread cookies). We’ve dubbed them gourmet s’mores.

My daughter loves to add a layer of peanut butter to hers or swap out the chocolate bars for a peanut butter cup. Do you have a favorite candy bar that would get all melty and gooey and compliment the marshmallow and graham crackers?

Adding a layer of sliced strawberries to your classic s’more is simply divine. Blueberries and raspberries are yummy, too.

Channel your inner, evil mad scientist and experiment once in a while. Besides it gives you an excuse to have s’more than one!

Now the question is: When do you pull out the s’more supplies?

I think a lot of people make the mistake of saving s’mores for the end of the campfire and I understand why. The campfire has died down and you are left with a nice bed of embers on which to roast your marshmallows, but now we’re sending everyone off to bed on a sugar high and expecting them to settle down and go to sleep. Uh, ya, not gonna happen.

I would recommend starting your campfire with s’mores. One way to do this is to ignite a small bed of coals on the outer edge of the fire for toasting your marshmallows. This provides your campers with their choice of glowing embers or full on flaming fireballs!

Once everyone is all sugared up, begin the skits and rowdy songs. You know the ones: The jump up, dance around, make crazy hand motions songs.

As the sugar wears off and the fire starts to die away, shift into the quieter, softer songs. On scouting campouts, we love to end our campfires with taps and vespers. Now everyone is ready to go brush their teeth and shuffle off to their tents for a good night’s sleep.

If it’s going to be a cold night, we might include a little protein snack near the end of the campfire. A little protein before bed can help you sleep warmer because your body stays warmer digesting the protein.

All this leads to a perfect campfire on a perfect campout and sends them home wanting to do s’more camping and cooking outside!

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