SusieJ's Advent Calendar December 12, 2008

The recipe: Something for Santa

The man is flying all over the world tonight in the snow, sleet and rain -- he needs more than just cold milk! The minty white hot chocolate will be something out of the usual, and mokka (coffee and cocoa) will keep the jolly old elf awake and warm for the rest of the trip.

The surprise: A new obsession

It might look like a word game to you, but it's actually helping to feed starving children. I'm up to level 47 and have donated 1,840 grains of rice as of yesterday night. As my husband said (well after we should have been in bed) "Stop! The people who read dictionaries must stop! They found my weakness." But first, I just want to get to 2,000 grains...

My first mokka

[Copyright 2003 Tobias Buchmann, all rights reserved, used with permission]Mokka is what espresso has always wanted to be: a rich, strong coffee that isn't bitter. It is a perfect drink for hours of gemütlichkeit. Our first exchange student, Tobi, had regaled us with stories of celebrating New Year's Eve with his family, playing games and drinking mokka.

On the other hand, Tobi and I spent much of our time together studying math and physics. Despite exploring gravity's effects on small chocolates falling out of his Advent calendar, this was not particularly gemütlich. When he offered to show me how to make mokka, I jumped at the chance.

The recipe is pretty easy, and the result quite delicious. It is also very, very high in caffeine. Even serving it in tiny espresso cups, we were both bouncing off the walls and talking a mile a minute. Needless to say, that was the end of any physics homework for the night.

What makes you bounce off the walls?