Alright, here we go! Back on track! January 2nd!

There’s a lot going on with this Gassen girl lately! Mostly I’ve been doing construction work at the 2nd restaurant that my bosses are working on opening. Let’s see… I’ve learned to tile (floors and walls!), grout, patch dry wall, cut dry wall, and lots of other little tasks. I like to think that my grandpa would be proud to see me doing some labor like this!

With all that going on, I was still able to pull off hosting a Hot Cocoa Christmas Party!  And not only that, a gluten-free one! (You can call me crazy, it’s okay) At first, I was just going to do a mix of GF and not GF, but with the realization of Andrew being highly sensitive to cross contamination… I decided I might as well go all in! Plus, it’s a good opportunity to for people to experience the gluten-free lifestyle of ours.

Since it was a Hot Cocoa Party, that was the obviously main focus. I searched around for the best hot cocoa recipe I could find. I can across this recipe on Pinterest. I did a test batch weeks prior, in which I used the whole can of sweetened condensed milk & skim milk. I wasn’t completely pleased, so for the party, I changed it to whole milk but just half the can of sweetened condensed milk. I heated up two batches, one in the crock-pot and one over the stove, for about 2 hours… Just slowly melt them away to goodness. I bought these GREAT thermal carafes off of Amazon, they worked amazing at keeping the cocoa nice and warm! I wanted it to be like a salad bar somewhat, one basic hot cocoa, but many ways to make it your own. Here’s the options I had:

• Homemade Caramel
• Raspberry Syrup
• Hazelnut Syrup
• Peppermint Schnapps
• Amaretto
• Homemade Marshmallow
• Candied Orange Peels
• Candied Bacon (oh yeah, it’s good too)
• Peppermint Sticks
• Cinnamon
• Sea Salt
• Cayenne

These were the party favors, another great Pinterest idea – Hot Chocolate on a Stick! They actually work pretty well too! 

Then for the gluten free snacks!  

Well, you get the idea. I really love sweets and chocolate. I added in some Velvetta and popcorn for those who aren’t sweet freaks like myself. We had a great turn out with new and old friends! And since I wrote “Annual” on the invites, you know I’ll be planning something next year, too!

Find it,

Rachel