During the cold holiday months, I keep stock of hot cocoa mix. Year after year, my cabinets are filled with the premade boxes for hot chocolate.  My kids run through them like air. I mean, easy enough, right? Buy a box of packets, kids can microwave their drinks. Yeah, easy peasy. But what is even easier and more economical is making a huge batch of your own mix. Besides, everything tastes better when it is made by you!  

So there I was in the grocery store about to toss 4 boxes of hot cocoa mix in the basket when I remembered, heck, I have sugar, I have chocolate, I have cocoa. Literally, I had some kind of mommy-culinary-I-am-going-to-save-money epiphany. I put the boxed packets back on the shelf and put in a box of dry milk instead.

When I got home, it took all of a couple minutes to mix up enough hot cocoa mix to last us two weeks...and that is with 4 kids! I used a variation of a recipe from the Brown Eyed Baker. Seriously, it gets no easier and I like to think I saved a few bucks in the long run. I mean dude, a lil bit of unsweetened coco goes a long way!


You will need:

3 cups nonfat dry milk powder
2 cups powdered sugar
1½ cups cocoa powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1½ cups chocolate chips (I used mini chocolate bars...the kids loved that)

I mixed the dry ingredients in a bowl and placed in an airtight container (mason jars, here). I keep the mini chocolate bars in the pantry so that when I am ready to make the cocoa, I give a bar or two to the kids and let it melt and stir in their cocoa.  When you are ready to make it, just add some hot water, add in and stir your chocolate and yum!!

For the s'mores hot cocoa, I made the hot cocoa, topped the oven safe cups with a heap of marshmallows, then placed in the oven with it on broil until they browned. I topped with crushed graham crackers, a graham cracker and chocolate bar with a little of chocolate syrup drizzle. Yes, please.

This truly is one of my favorite times of the year. Growing up, my mother had a special stereo system put in our house. There were speakers in the ceiling of each room and we had volume controls in each of our rooms. I loved it most times....thanks to the volume control but oh no, sometimes my mother would tell us not to touch the controls. She wanted to hear what she was playing no matter which room she was in. The only time I really did not mind was the holidays. I loved hearing all the sounds of Christmas follow me from room to room and it really helped get me as a grumpy know-it-all teenager enjoy Christmas even more.


I don't have the speakers and stereo system that goes throughout the house nowadays but I do have the stereo in the kitchen during the holidays. I love listening to oldies mostly. Nothing like an old fashioned Christmas!



That brings me to this site. I found it many, many years ago when my children were really small. I download their Christmas music and stories and before bedtime, my kids listen to one of the albums. The stories truly are the BEST.


The site is Kiddie Records and they have all of the vintage, retro records from days gone by...before television was in every home, when radio was big family fun and before all of these techy gadgets took over. It is soothing and it is FREE. What is so neat is that you can also download for free the album art.

Check out the site, they have more than just Holiday music, but tons of great stories and poems and music that they pulled from albums that are now hard if not impossible to find.


I have been listening to "I'm gonna lasso Santa Clause" for ever lol

Click here for Kiddie Records: Christmas list

I was wondering where all the new visitors and pins were coming from. Thank you to Jessica over at Swanky Recipes for including my chocolate milkshakes in her holiday drink round up. Now, I seriously have a taste for chocolate.

*As Jessica said, add red and green sprinkles for a festive flair!

When it comes to the holidays I love good food with good friends and family. My children are getting older with the youngest being nine (Where the heck did time go???!) and although they still love cutesy foods and things, they lean toward a bit of youthful sophistication, lol.  I made these this summer for the current issue of Yum Food & Fun  For Kids, the Holiday issue. If you have not gotten your copy, believe me it is worth it!! Many, many, many holiday treats and party ideas perfect for your kids and even office parties!



A huge thank you to Yum Food and Fun For Kids for including me!!

Also, if you are in the state of Mississippi, Memphis and Birmingham area, look for my interview and recipe for Bangers and Mash in the December/January issue of Eat.Drink. Mississippi.!

I absolutely love pinterest. I have the Chrome button installed in my browser so I can pin no matter what site I am on. It is just so darn easy to do and I love that it saves all my favorites in one organized spot!

I did not do Thanksgiving dinner. I was out of town photographing for a commercial client and did not make it back until the late evening before Thanksgiving. I am so thankful that my mom stepped in and threw down in the kitchen! She put  her foot, arm, leg and head in that meal! YUM!

Since she helped me out and did Thanksgiving, Christmas dinner is up to me. I have been pinning like a mad-woman thinking of ideas and thought I would share my finds with you. I want to go a different route than we usually go so I have pinned some things I have never ever ever had that I really want to try: *cough* beets *cough*

Check out my pinterest board for Christmas Dinner ideas and inspiration from some of the best food blogs and sites around!

Follow Divian Conner's board Christmas Dinner on Pinterest.

Here I am sitting in the airport waiting on my ride to come pick me up and take me home. I left for only 4 full days but somehow those 4 days seem like not enough time all while seemingly lasting a lifetime. I made a trek to New York City for the first time e.v.e.r. and where has that city been all of my life? I usually do not do touristy things and my last night there was spent with me hanging with the locals in lower Manhattan with not a tourist in sight. It was good. I took lots of photos, met some amazing people and had a generally great time. But, one thing is certain, as I sit here in this airport I can only think of one thing:

Getting home to see my babies. Even if they are not exactly babies anymore, I cannot wait to see the smile of my children and I know they will smile extra big because mama came back bearing gifts.

Ohhhh, have I mentioned how excited I am about this cool weather we are having. Soup season! Yes! Now if I can decide which set of bowls to get from Williams Sonoma.

Here is another idea for a lunch. If your children do not mind cold pasta like mine, then this is perfect. My daughter loved taking this to school and said it was perfect by lunchtime. I packed it with an ice pack and by the time lunch rolled around it was not as cold as I thought it would be. She enjoyed it and asked for more pasta for lunch.

Stop by Living Locurto for my quick and easy recipe for an awesome lunch idea! Steps for making homemade guacamole!

So, I admit...I am a pinterest addict. I don't pin everyday, but by golly, I do find the time to check out pinterest daily. I am all over the place when it comes to browsing the vast world wide web.  I look at everything from children's party ideas, food and recipes, clothing and style trends...to now as of late, back to school lunch boxes.

I mean seriously, there is so much to pin and so little time! So while I sit here, typing, kids are in the living room each doing their own thing before we get dinner ready, I am going to share some of the things I have pinned in the last week.

Here we go!
(photos link to the source!)

I'm a homeschool mom. Nope, I do not fit any generalized ideals you may have but I can see myself slowly morphing into the figure that fits some of your thoughts. I have four children and out of the four I homeschool one. Yes, only one. He is the last male pea to be produced in my pod and he makes me happy, happy.

Being that I homeschool my little skillet means he gets to try my kitchen experiments before his brother and sisters. Usually all of this high level clearance cooking takes place around noon...after I have had about ten cups of coffee (loads of sugar and a little heavy whipping cream), caught up on my email, and read cnn.com backwards and forwards at least three times. Don't worry, he is never left to his own vices unless you consider 'his own vices' to be him doing school work while mommy activates via the power of crushed coffee beans and hot water. So, getting back on track, because, well, I tend to lose track easily and I seriously need to get to the point....homeschool means my son gets to be my primary test subject.

I pride myself in the fact that my kids have some well rounded taste buds. I get to experiment, they get to test and they normally like it. While the other kids are in school, my son and I take time to play Master Chef and we sometimes pretend we are on an episode of 'Chopped'....I pull out random ingredients and we try to come up with something cool, edgy and tasty. Typically it works.

Sometimes we recreate recipes we see online (we meaning I and he gets to be the focus group consisting of...one). Sometimes we find what you can buy at the store can be too easy to make at home. And really, the joy of letting your kids help out is way to fun than just telling them to go in the fridge and dig it out already made.

How about these bad boys? So easy it is crazy. All you need is ice cream, Magic Shell (#clickablelinkherefolks), and nuts. Yes, nuts...or dried fruit....or sprinkles...or tofu....hey, whatever floats your boat. Take your cones, fill them with a scoop or two of your favorite ice cream, dip in magic shell and roll in nuts. Dude, I told you it was easy. Place in the freezer or eat immediately. So easy a 4th grader could do it. See...I have photo proof. A fourth grader did it.