Hot Cocoa Mix — The Same Tin That Goes Into the Chili

Labor Day weekend and the first true frost touched the low spots in the south meadow Tuesday morning. I went out at five-thirty to check on a heifer who was due to drop her late calf and the grass in the bottom by the willow had crystals on it that broke under my boots like sugar. Forty-one degrees on the porch thermometer. Summer is finished in the bottoms. The corn in the garden froze. The squash leaves blackened. Mom had been picking ahead all week and most of what was ripe is in jars or in the freezer or in baskets on the kitchen counter waiting to be dealt with this morning. The garden gives you a deadline you cannot argue with.

I got the third cutting baled Saturday under sun. Four hundred and twenty bales. Stacked Sunday with the help of two of the AA guys, Vince and Pete, who came out at seven in the morning and worked till noon and ate sandwiches on the porch and drove home. They would not take money. Vince said, You feed us once a month. We feed you back this way. Pete nodded. There is no arguing with that economy. I made them a peach pie Saturday night before they came and they took half of it home. The exchange was fair. The exchange was perfect.

Cole and Tara drove down Sunday for the long weekend. Tara is fifteen weeks. She is showing now in a way you cannot miss. She is in that phase of pregnancy where she has more energy than she has had in months, and she helped Mom in the garden Sunday afternoon while Cole and I worked the heifer through the chute for a vet check (she is fine, the calf is fine, she will drop in the next ten days). At dinner, Tara told us they have an appointment in three weeks for the anatomy ultrasound and they will know if it is a girl. Patrick said again, It is a girl. Tara laughed. We will see, she said. Patrick said, I am not wrong. He said it with a small smile. He has been smiling more this stretch. I do not know if it is the medication finding a rhythm or the prospect of the grandbaby or both. I will not analyze it. I will accept it.

The Helena podcast Monday morning. I drove down Sunday night and stayed at a motel and did the recording at ten and was on the road home by noon. Eighty minutes of conversation about the book and about cooking and about Montana. The host was a woman named Ellen who had read the book carefully and asked the questions of someone who had read carefully, and that makes the difference. I talked more than I usually do. I talked about Mom's kitchen and about Patrick and about the fence I rebuilt in 2019 and about how cooking on the ranch is not separate from cooking elsewhere it is just cooking with the materials and constraints of where you happen to be standing. Ellen said, that is the whole point of regional food writing. I said, I guess it is. She said, You sound surprised. I said, I am.

Came home Tuesday afternoon. Patrick was in his chair on the porch with a book and Mom was in the kitchen processing tomatoes and the air was cool and clear with that early-September quality that is unlike any other time of year, and I stood in the yard for a minute and looked at the place and felt — I am going to risk the word — happy. Just for the minute. Just standing in the yard with the September light coming in low and a podcast in the can and the hay in the barn and the heifer due any day now and Patrick alive and Mom in the kitchen and Tara growing a baby three hours away. The minute was enough. The minute is what you get. You take the minutes when they come and you do not ask them to extend.

Cooked a pot of chili Saturday with the last of last year's ground elk and beans I had soaked overnight and tomatoes from the garden and a little cocoa powder and a stick of cinnamon and the last of last year's dried chiles from the basement. The chili I have been making for six years now, the recipe that does not change, the chili that some autumns is the first chili of the year on the first cold weekend and that this autumn arrived on time. Three bowls each for Mom and Patrick, two for me, one set aside for Cole to take home. It tasted the way it tastes. The taste is part of the calendar now. Some recipes anchor a year. The chili anchors September. The fire helps. The chili helps. The minute in the yard helps. The minutes are what we have.

The same tin of cocoa powder that went into Saturday’s chili — a spoonful stirred in with the dried chiles and the stick of cinnamon — is the tin I reach for when the bowls are cleared and Patrick and Mom are settled and the night has gone properly cold. I started keeping a jar of this mix on the counter in September years ago, right around the time the chili recipe stopped changing, and they belong to the same weekend now the way the frost and the baling belong to the same weekend. The chili is the meal. The cocoa is what you hold afterward, standing at the window, watching the yard go dark.

Hot Cocoa Mix

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 5 minutes | Total Time: 15 minutes | Servings: 16 (makes about 3 cups dry mix)

Ingredients

• 2 cups nonfat dry milk powder
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup powdered non-dairy creamer
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
• 6 to 8 ounces hot water or hot milk per serving
• Marshmallows or whipped cream for serving, optional

Instructions

1. Combine dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the dry milk powder, cocoa powder, powdered sugar, powdered creamer, salt, and cinnamon if using until fully blended with no cocoa clumps remaining.
2. Store the mix. Transfer to an airtight jar or container. The mix keeps at room temperature for up to 3 months. Label it with the date.
3. Make a mug. For each serving, measure 3 tablespoons of the mix into a mug. Add 6 to 8 ounces of hot water or hot milk and stir well until fully dissolved.
4. Adjust to taste. Add more mix for a richer, deeper flavor, or thin with additional hot liquid. A small pinch of extra cinnamon or a drop of vanilla extract on top is welcome on a cold night.
5. Serve. Top with marshmallows or a spoonful of whipped cream if you have them. Drink it while it’s hot, standing at the window or sitting by the fire.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 80 | Protein: 4g | Fat: 1g | Carbs: 15g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 95mg