Beverages

Homemade Hot Chocolate – Diane Foshee

  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 Tablespoon cocoa powder
  • 2 Tablespoons sugar

In a saucepan over medium high heat, warm the milk.  In the cup you used to measure the milk, mix the cocoa and sugar together.  Dip the cup slightly into the milk you are heating and allow some of the milk to run into the cup.  Mix the dry ingredients with the milk to make a thick paste.  Dip again and allow a little more milk to run into the cup.  Stir again to get a thinner paste.  Keep dipping and adding more milk to the cup until your sugar is thoroughly dissolved.  This time when you dip the cup, allow the mixture to run out and into the heating milk.  Stir and keep scraping out the cup with more milk until all the cocoa-sugar is in the pot.  Continue stirring as you heat the milk to prevent any sugar from sticking to the bottom of the pan and burning. Turn heat to medium high and heat until the milk barely starts to boil.  Turn off immediately and serve.  Makes 1 cup.

To serve a crowd of 16, increase ingredients to:

  • 1 gallon milk
  • 1 cup cocoa powder
  • 2 cups sugar

Mix the same way, just use bigger pot and mixing cup!

Simple Cider – Carlyn Chatfield

  • 1 gallon apple juice, preferably natural style
  • 1 apple
  • 20-30 whole cloves
  • 3-4 cinnamon sticks

Pour apple juice into crock pot and turn on high or 250 degrees for initial heating. Stud apple with whole cloves; add clove apple and cinnamon sticks to juice. Simmer until heated throughout then reduce to low or warm temperature. Serve straight from crock pot with a soup or punch ladle. Makes 1 gallon.

Hot Spiced Tea Mix – Carlyn Chatfield

  • One large container Tang orange drink mix (4 pounds, 5 ounces)
  • One large container Nestea instant iced tea, sugar sweetened with lemon (2 pounds, 13 ounces)
  • 2 and 1/2 Tablespoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons ground cloves

Mix dry ingredients in very large container, shake to combine thoroughly. Package in jars or other individual containers with tight seals. To serve, mix 2 Tablespoons powder to 1 cup boiling water.

Hot Cocoa Mix – Carlyn Chatfield

  • One large container Nestle’s Quick drink mix – 2.54lbs or makes 72 servings
  • One large container Coffee Mate – 2.2 lbs or 500 servings (see nutrition panel)
  • Dry Carnation Instant Lowfat Milk, enough powder to make 15 quarts
  • 1 box Hershey’s Natural Unsweetend Cocoa powder – 8 oz. or 45 servings (see nutrition panel)
  • 1 lb package powdered sugar (unsifted)

Mix dry ingredients in very large container, like a punch bowl. Mix dry ingredients thoroughly.  Store in containers with tight seals. To serve, mix 1/3 cup powder with 2/3 cup boiling water to make 1 cup of cocoa.   For crock pot batches, mix 1 quart powder with 2 quarts water.

Mango Mockery (punch) – Carlyn Chatfield

  • 3 large (32 oz.) cans Rosedale sliced peaches in syrup
  • 2 small packages peach Jell-O
  • 4 Cups boiling water
  • 2 cans (about 12 oz. each) peach nectar
  • 2 bottles (about 10 oz. each) Jarritos Limon soda
  • 1 2-litre bottle Sprite
  • 1 large can Dole pineapple juice
  • 1 pint coconut sorbet (optional, it is hard to find!)

This frozen punch tastes of mangoes, but there are none in the recipe. You need a very large container to mix this and you will need large Ziploc freezer bags or individual containers to freeze the main ingredients.

In large container, add boiling water to powdered Jell-O and stir until dissolved. Puree peaches and syrup in blender until thick and smooth and add to hot Jell-O mixture. Pour in peach nectar, Limon soda and Sprite. Stir all together until thoroughly mixed. Pour into containers or Ziploc bags for freezing. Freeze overnight or longer.

To serve, partially thaw frozen concentrate in refrigerator or microwave. Place in punch bowl and pour in Pineapple juice. Breaking up remaining chunks of concentrate and stir to make a slushy consistency.

Pina Colada Punch – Carlyn Chatfield

  • 2 cans Coco Lopez or other brand cream of coconut
  • 2 large cans Dole pineapple juice
  • 2  2-litre bottles Pineapple Soda
  • 1/2 gallon container pineapple sherbet
  • 24-30 oz coconut sherbet or 6 coconut pops (like La Michoacana Cool Stix)

Chill Pineapple Juice and Pineapple Soda until time to serve punch. Thaw sherbet and coconut pops slightly in the microwave. Place in punch bowl, then pour pineapple soda over and begin to break sherbet down into small pieces. Open the can of cream of coconut and stir well to combine. If you have a small blender, that would be even better. Pour in cream of coconut and stir to mix thoroughly. Add Pineapple juice last and stir to combine.

Look for the Coco Lopez cream of coconut in the alcohol mixers aisle. The frozen pineapple and coconut sherbet can be tricky to find. I usually find everything at Fiesta or H.E.B. but you can locate different brands or substitutes at other grocery stores.

Jazzberry Cooler (punch)- Carlyn Chatfield

  • 2 64-oz containers Ocean Spray Raspberry Cranberry Juice
  • 24 oz frozen mixed berries (blackberry, blueberry, strawberry, raspberry)
  • 12 oz frozen raspberries
  • 12 oz frozen sliced strawberries
  • 2 2-oz packaged Raspberry Jell-O
  • 4 cups boiling water
  • 1 2-litre bottle Canada Dry Ginger-Ale

This punch can be made “slushy” by freezing all ingredients (as prepared below) except Ginger-Ale, or it can be served as a refreshing cold punch without the frozen consistency.

In large container, add boiling water to powdered Jell-O and stir until dissolved. Puree half of the frozen berries and about 32 oz. of Raspberry Cranberry juice in a blender. Repeat with remainder of first bottle of juice and remaining berries. Add pureed berries and juice to hot Jell-O mixture. Freeze in Zip-loc bags overnight or longer.

To serve, place the frozen concentrate in punch bowl and pour in second bottle of Raspberry Cranberry juice and Ginger-Ale. Stir to mix thoroughly.

For a slushy version of this punch, add all juice before freezing. Pour Ginger-Ale over frozen concentrate about 15 minutes before serving and stir to breakup large chunks of juice-berry concentrate. One option is to serve as a slushy punch for the event and store the left-overs in easy pour containers for a breakfast beverage the next morning.

Buffalo Bayou* Coffee Cooler – Carlyn Chatfield

  • 1/2 gallon coffee, made into ice cubes
  • 1/2 gallon sweet coffee, pre-made and chilled
  • 1/2 gallon 2% milk
  • 1 pint Haagen Dazs coffee ice cream
  • 16 oz. Cool Whip

Two days ahead, make strong coffee by brewing 1 cup coffee with 1 quart of water. Pour into ice cube trays and freeze. One quart will fill about two ice cube trays. Make 1/2 gallon (2 quarts) of strong coffee ice cubes for this recipe.  You can also freeze in a small storage containers if you don’t have ice cube trays.

One day ahead, make the same strong coffee, but add 3/4 cup sugar to each quart of coffee while hot. Stir to dissolve coffee and chill in a container with a tight lid. Also, defrost Cool Whip in refrigerator.

Day of event: 30 minutes to 1 hour before event, crack ice cubes into punch bowl. (This is messy due to the concentrated coffee; wear an apron). Add Haagen Dazs coffee ice cream and Cool Whip. Pour in chilled coffee and add half of the milk. Stir to combine.  The coffee ice cubes will melt, continuing to chill the punch without diluting the taste. Add the rest of the milk when about half of the punch has been consumed.

This will produce a foamy coffee punch with lumps of frozen coffee and ice cream floating in it*, which is why it is named after a bayou.  The lumps typically evade the ladle so guests drink only the liquid.  If you want a smooth coffee punch, chill all the coffee instead of freezing some, thaw both the Cool Whip and ice cream before making the punch, and use all the milk at once.

*Houston’s primary bayou is a muddy color and has lots of “stuff” floating in it.

Serves 25-30