Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate

So, I have this favorite drink at Starbucks. But it's a seasonal drink, and one that is not offered at the Starbucks-brand coffee stands on campus. This makes me a really sad panda. That is, it did until I came up with a brilliant idea today. I can hack my way towards a Starbucks salted caramel hot chocolate. It's really easy and I'm not sure why I didn't think of it before.
Step 1: Order a caramel hot chocolate. On its own, this is nothing special. I really actually hate normal caramel hot chocolate.
Step 2: Add salt. Not just any salt will do. It's got to be coarse sea salt. Which my cafeteria happens to have in the spice section by the taco station. I didn't add to much (about half a spoon full for my 12 oz hot chocolate).
Step 3: Stir like no other. This way, there won't be any suddenly super salty bits in the drink. Also, since they tend to make everything at our coffee stands super foamy, this will help get rid of some of the foam so that by the time I made it back to my room, there wasn't any foam at all (which usually isn't true unless I stir it first).
And that's it.
Delicious slated caramel hot chocolate just like Starbucks, that I hardly had to work for. I'm going to be doing this from now on.


Dorm Food

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Back for More

Spring semester began on Monday, so it's official: I'm back. Which is lovely, really, because I enjoy my dorm, I enjoy learning, and I enjoy being at school in general.

Over break, I didn't really do all that much cooking. Actually, after Christmas, I didn't do all that much of anything. I had several doctors appointments and spent most of the rest of my time with my boyfriend (I'm slightly concerned with the fact that I may be becoming one of those girls who spend all their time with their boyfriends and not with their friends, but to be fair, my friends were in school while I was enjoying an entire month away from school). I did end up playing Zelda, which was something I've been told to do for quite some time. And, most importantly, I did end up with a few answers about my stomach aches. It turns out I have some decreased functionality in my gallbladder, as well as a hernia in one of the muscles around my stomach, which caused a bit of bleeding, apparently. It took several doctors appointments including two outpatient procedures at two separate hospitals, but I finally have a few answers. Now comes the fun part of visiting a surgeon over spring break, and we can decide what to do from there.

Anyway, now that I am back to school, I will be getting back into the habit of blogging. Besides cookies, I didn't make very much that was blog-worthy over break. But now, I'm back and I have plans for some amazing food in the months to come.

So far, I've been enjoying a lot of oatmeal and hot chocolate, thanks to my brother who gave me an electric kettle for Christmas. It's been slightly snowy (though until last night, nothing was sticking to the ground...and today everything was just a slushy mess by the time I was heading off to class), so a nice mug of hot chocolate and a bowl of oatmeal every morning feels absolutely perfect. In addition, I've been munching on some quiche, which, as my mother loves to point out, can serve as breakfast, lunch, or dinner! Essentially, that is all I've been eating in my dorm room. My cafeteria eating has been pretty limited as it is quite cold and wet outside so I've been trying to avoid evening food ventures.

Basically, that's about it. There's not all that much to say since it's only my third day back to school and not too much has happened yet. As this is a new semester, I'd like to start fresh with my blog so if you have anything you'd like to see on here, leave me a comment and I'll see what I can do. Just a warning, now that my brother has given me this electric kettle, I may start experimenting with TopRamen...be warned.


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Triple Something Hot Water

I woke up this morning with the thought I need something warm to drink. Perhaps it was the first night that I actually felt cold with the windows open and no blankets (I knew I would be too lazy to make my bed this morning) and I wanted something to warm me up. Or perhaps it's because in celebration of the fact that choir auditions were over (or so I thought) and I missed being able to drink milk. Or perhaps it was because hot chocolate has always been a de-stresser for me and I kind of needed that to get me through my long Wednesday (I have 6 classes on Wednesdays...yay double majoring). Whatever the reason really was, I decided I wanted hot chocolate. Actually, to be more specific, I wanted a white chocolate steamer to go with my Honey Smacks. So, I took my giant University of Portland mug and filled it about 3/4 the way full with water, and heated that in the microwave for about a minute and a half, so it was steaming. Meanwhile, I ate all of my bowl of Honey Smacks.

Then, I added my leftover milk to the water, and stirred.

Next, I took the white hot chocolate mix my mother gave me for Easter. The container was a glass Eiffel Tower, filled with what I swear my mother told me was white chocolate, though it was unlabled when she gave it to me. I used one spoonful an it didn't quite taste right. So I added another. And another. And then one last one just to be safe. After stirring, it still didn't taste right, so I decided it must have been powdered vanilla or something.

So, I decided to add some flavor. My roommate happened to have some chocolate, so I took what was there (3 chunks of Hershey's milk chocolate with almonds) and added it to my drink, allowing the chocolate to melt in the heat and stirring until it was uniform. This still didn't taste ok.

So, I decided to add Nutella. I happen to have a Costco pack of Nutella because Nutella is my favorite thing in the whole wide world. So, I added one spoonful of Nutella. Still not good so I added one last, declaring that if it didn't taste good, I was done trying. It still didn't taste good and I only had 10 minutes to get to class, so I gave up and dumped it down the sink.

So, long story short, DON'T DO WHAT I DID!

Dorm Food

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