October 24: Bubbling Swamp Juice

Today is a chilly fall day. The kind of day made for heading outside and raking up piles of leaves and then coming inside to enjoy warm, tasty beverages. Even green ones named after "a tract of wet, spongy land, often having a growth of certain types of trees and other vegetation, but unfit for cultivation" (thanks, dictionary.com!) 

Here at my house we skipped the raking part and went right to the warm beverage part! 

Truthfully, this drink was on my schedule for earlier in the week. But I pushed it back the first time because it was too warm outside for hot drinks, and I pushed it back the second time because my kids were misbehaving and needed an early bedtime. Such is parenting. 

The photography for this "juice" (which is not juice at all but is, essentially, hot white chocolate made with milk and white chips) was tough. The camera was simply NOT picking up the green cast of the liquid. Thus, I needed to edit every photo on my favorite photo editing site picmonkey.com. (And in case you're wondering, no, I do not get kickbacks for ANY of the advertisement-like shout-outs I give on my blog. They're all just my opinion freely given. However, if any company would like to compensate me for my endorsements, by all means, get in touch! Ha!) I was able to play around with things like "saturation" and show off the color. 

Check this out:

On the left, the original shot.
Looks like crap, right?
You can barely tell it's green.

But on the right, I darkened
things up and it showcased
the green which is the point!




This recipe comes from the 2010 Taste of Home Holiday Halloween magazine. 

You'll need:

4 cups milk
1 cup vanilla or white chips (I used Hershey's white baking chips)
12 drops green food coloring
8 drops yellow food coloring
4 bug gummies (note: they melt from the heat of the milk)
(optional) 1/4 cup mini marshmallows (my girls didn't want them so I left them out)

In a medium saucepan, combine milk and chips. Whisk over medium heat until chips are melted and mixture is warm, but NOT boiling. 

The chips are in there at the bottom, getting nice and melty  

Remove from heat and add food coloring, whisking until combined.

Drops of green and yellow coloring, before stirring

Pour into glasses and garnish with candies and marshmallows if using. 

Now THIS is a cool picture, amiright??? Really shows the bubbles and the green. 

I served this to my girls and we watched Monster Squad, a movie from my childhood. The drink was very good. :-)