Decadent Hot Chocolate

I'm addicted to hot chocolate. I drink it (almost) every morning. Our good friends had us over to watch The Polar Express and drink hot chocolate and now I think I'm addicted to this hot chocolate.

1 cup milk

1 cup half and half

8 tsp. sugar

1 oz. semisweet chocolate; chopped

1 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped

1 T. brown sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Heat everything in a saucepan, except the vanilla, until chocoltes melt and sugar dissolves. Pour half into a blender and mix until foamy. Return to the saucepan, and add vanilla. Stir briefly then serve.

Peanut Butter Reindeer Cookies

3/4 cup peanut butter

1 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

3 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 egg

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

Chocolate-covered pretzels (Flipz)

Chocolate chips

Red M&Ms

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Combine brown sugar, peanut butter, butter, milk, and vanilla in large bowl. Beat at medium speed until well blended. Add egg; beat until just blended.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to creamed mixture at low speed. Mix just until blended.

Form dough into 1 1/2 -inch balls. To make reindeer-shaped cookies, pinch the bottom of the ball slightly to form a point, then gently flatten with your hand. Space cookies about 2 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 7 to 8 minutes, until set or just beginning to brown.

Remove from oven and immediately (and gently) press two pretzels into the tops of the cookies for the reindeer's antlers. Press two upside down chocolate chips in for the eyes and one red M&M for the nose. I lined my cookies up along a wall so that the pretzel antlers could rest on the wall and cool in place rather than topple over.

Makes about 24 reindeer cookies.