I am so excited to be back home in Colorado, but I must admit the warm temperatures in California were a welcome break from the subzero cold! Maybe I should have a home in both places--in my dreams!
How can I get my body acclimated to the cold again? Staying in bed with the covers over my head perhaps? Oh yeah, I have responsibilities--that won't work!
Warm drinks do help me! But I can only take so much caffeine! One of my favorite warm drinks to serve at teas and for my evening Bible study is spicy apple cider. Now I have made the traditional wassail and it is delicious. But there is an easy, "cheating" version, that I am more likely to do this time of year, when I have less time and energy to prepare.
The recipe is embarrassingly simple: in a crockpot, pour in a gallon of apple cider and a bag of Red Hots! Let it warm for an hour or so or until the red hots melt. I have also heated this on the stove and it comes together much more quickly in a pinch. The fragrance is like standing in an apple orchard with a bit of "zing" in the air. (My friends always ask me for the recipe and I just smile and say, "It is an old family recipe."
Often, I will pour the red hot juice back into the Apple juice bottle and serve it up one mug at a time--just heat on the stove or in the microwave.
Let each of your children choose a favorite mug and enjoy warmth from the inside out! And maybe pull out Laura Ingalls Wilder's The Long Winter if you need some encouragement that this isn't the longest winter ever!
Enjoy!