Good Housekeeping tested 19 nationally available supermarket brands of cocoa. Surprisingly, Swiss Miss Milk Chocolate hot cocoa tied for first place with Godiva.  Swiss Miss can be purchased for about $1.79 a box.

Lake Champion Old World Drinking Chocolate was the winner.  It has chocolate shavings instead of a powdered mix.  Yummy.  Each canister costs about $12.  Ouch!  Perhaps this one can be saved for special occasions (or for when the kids aren’t around). 

If you’d like to make your own hot chocolate, try Revka’s recipe.

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For this project you will need a bag (or two) of pretzel rods and a bag of chocolate wafers.  You can find the chocolate at your local craft store.  We used our Michael’s coupons to get these for a deal.    You’ll also need a pyrex measuring cup, knife or other stirring device, and waxed paper.

Pour some of the chocolate wafers into a Pyrex dish.  Then nuke them in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring each time.  I usually have to nuke them for about 1.25 – 1.5 minutes.

As I said before, I stir the chocolate every 30 seconds.  After 1.25-1.5 minutes, they should be about the right temperature.  If you find that the chocolate is too hot, then add a few more wafers to the mix and stir.  (Sorry, I don’t use a candy thermometer.)

After the chocolate is melted, just dip the pretzel rods into the chocolate.  You’ll probably have to tilt your measuring cup to the side. 

Here’s a rod that’s been dipped.  Make sure the chocolate isn’t dripping off the pretzel.

After you dip them in the chocolate, place them on waxed paper.  It make a take a few hours for them to set, so you might want to put the waxed paper on a cookie sheet so that you can move them out of your way.

To add a little color, you can use sprinkles if you’d like.

We had a little chocolate leftover, so we dipped some Oreos. 

Here they are on the table.  Quite a yummy treat! 

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Good luck, Heather.

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• Hershey brand chocolate bars,
• chocolate chips,
• Oh Henry! bars,
• Reese’s peanut butter cups and
• Cherry Blossom sweets
• White Chocolate

The white chocolate was just added this week. Good thing I don’t particularly care for chocolate.

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1.  Crayon on carpet - Spray with WD-40 and scrub.  Follow immediately with dish soap and water or steam clean carpet.  The soap removes the WD-40.

2.  Ballpoint ink -  Place a paper towel or rag under the stain and then saturate the stain with an alcohol-based hair spray or rubbing alcohol, which will help to break up the ink.  The paper towel will help to absorb the excess hairspray/alcohol or stain if it starts to run.  Then blot the stain with a rag.  Continue these steps until the stain is removed and then wash as normal.  (You may want to test the hairspray on an inconspicuous area first.)

3.  Chocolate – Mix detergent and warm water together and blot the stain.  Next, blot the area with ammonia and water.  Clean the area again with the detergent solution.  Then, clean the area again with clean water (no soap).  Repeat as necessary until stain is gone.  I found out the hard way that this does work!

4.  Chewing gum - Put ice cubes in a plastic bag and place on gum stain.  You could even try to put the whole garment into the freezer.  Crack or scrape off excess gum.  Spray the stain with a pretreatment product.  Rub with a heavy-duty liquid detergent such as Wisk, Gain, or Tide.  Rinse with hot water.  Repeat until stain is gone.  If stain will not come out, then try using liquid lighter fluid (test first).  Put lighter fluid on a clean cloth and rub over the remaining gum.  Wash as normal.

5.  Lipstick – Remove any excess, then rub in glycerine or petroleum jelly.  If stain persists use grease solvent or stain remover.  Wash as normal. 

For small and fresh stains – Spray the stain with a stain remover such as Shout! or apply liquid laundry detergent or powdered detergent mixed with water to make a paste.  Remember to blot and sponge the stain.  Sponge from the outside of the stain toward the inside to keep the stain from spreading.

Other tips: 

If you have a mystery stain, soak the fabric in cold water before washing or applying a stain remover.  Some stains will set with warm water. 

Sponge a stain, don’t rub it.  Rubbing sometimes damages the fabric.

Read clothing labels!  If it says no bleach, then don’t do it. 

Wash delicates in zippered mesh bags.  You can usually get these at the dollar store. 

Don’t heat dry or iron your clothes until you know the stain is gone.  This will cause the stains to set.

Please share your stain removing tips with us!   :)

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You will need:
1 cup skim milk
1 package reduced fat chocolate chip cookies
1 container fat free whipped topping
9×13 dish

You will layer this dessert like a lasagna. First, dunk your cookies in the milk very quickly. After you dunk each one, put it in the pan for your bottom layer. You will use almost 1 sleeve of cookies for this. Next, top the cookie layer with about 1/2 of the whipped topping and spread evenly. Then comes another cookie layer and another whipped topping. You will probably have about 4-5 cookies left over. Crush them and sprinkle on top of the dessert. Chill for a few hours or overnight. Yummy!

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The ladies at church just recently gave me a baby shower. I so appreciated the effort and friendship that came with it. One thing I found very fun and interesting was the take home gifts that they made. They were the big Hershey’s candy bars with my son’s name and due date on them. Wonderful M found them on Rachael Ray’s website. They are adorable and a cheap party favor. the candy bars were on sale at our local Kroger for $1 each and the wrappers were printed right off her computer. They were adorable and very well received. Then wonderful M’s mom used the same idea for graduation party gifts for her senior this year. They looked great and I am sure will be a huge hit! All teenagers love chocolate. Anyway, for $1 you simply can’t find a party favor that looks as expensive and well thought out as the candy wrappers. Happy printing.

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I walked into the living room and found chocolate all over the carpet.  Apparently he had been trying to get the chocolate off his hands and couldn’t.  He didn’t stop there either.  He wiped chocolate all over my off-white couch.  It’s a wonder I didn’t lose it.

I sprayed the couch with Woolite Upholstery Cleaner and began wiping and things weren’t looking so good.  I let it set for a few minutes and began wiping again.  Not such good results.  I sprayed the Woolite again and also used my Tide Spin Brush on it too.  That was yielding better results, but the stains were still there.  I then began to search online for tips.  You can be assured if you’re looking for information about something, you can find it on the internet. 

I came across Pioneer Thinking, which has tips for stain removal.  I found out that I was doing most things right, but needed to keep blotting and I also needed to use ammonia.  I’m guessing the ammonia was to help release the grease.

I am happy to tell you that the chocolate stains are gone from my couch.  I’m happy of that because it really looked like someone had rubbed poo all over my couch.  Nasty!  Anyway, here’s the recipe for chocolate removal.  I hope you’ll stop by Pioneer Thinking for more stain removal tips.

Chocolate- Stain Removal on Carpet and Upholstery

1. Mix one teaspoon of a neutral detergent (a mild detergent containing no alkalies or bleaches) with a cup of luke-warm water. Blot.

2. Mix one tablespoon of household ammonia with a half-cup of water. Blot.

3. Repeat step one.

4. Sponge with clean water. Blot.

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