Menu Monday: Hot Vanilla

I love autumn. I love, Love, LOVE it! Since I was a little girl, fall has always been the season I most looked forward to. I love the crunching of the leaves under my feet, I love the vibrant red, yellow and oranges of the foliage, I love brisk early morning walks with the boys; chilly enough for a sweatshirt but not cool enough for a jacket. I love the frost coating the last of the green summer grass, and I love the smell of the earth getting colder.

With fall comes harvest themed decorations, apple picking (and subsequently applesauce making and canning) pumpkin picking and sleigh rides, cornstalks and scarecrows, and warm drinks. Nothing says fall like a mug of cider, cocoa, or hot vanilla.

I know in a previous Menu Monday post I've given the recipe for Creamy Hot Cocoa (the only way I drink cocoa-- homemade and from scratch.) Hot Vanilla is almost as delicious.

Hot Vanilla

*serves 2

• 
  
  2C Milk
• 
  
  4 tsp. sugar
• 
  
  4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 
  
  2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Pour the milk into a sauce pan and cook on low/med heat. Stir together the cinnamon and sugar and add to the milk mixture (mixing the cinnamon into the sugar first will help to keep it from floating on the top). Stir in the vanilla and continue to cook until hot to taste. After I split the portions into two cups, I added french vanilla creamer to cool and sweeten. Delicious!