Coconut Milk

Staple. Make it. Love it. Be pro at it. Especially because it's practically impossible to find legal coconut milk. Most have guar gum added to prevent the cream from separating from the water.

Ingredients:

2 cups coconut flakes
4 cups water
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup honey

Instructions:

Soak the coconut in the water for 1-2 hours. Blend the coconut water mixture until it's very fine. Strain the pulp out of the blended mixture. Add the vanilla and honey and mix well.

Notes:

*If you're in a bit of a bind, you don't have to soak the coconut. What soaking does is draws out the flavor so that more coconut flavor ends up in the water and less in the pulp.
*Coconut flakes can be bought at local organic food stores. The coconut doesn't have to be organic, but they tend to carry more exotic substances like that.
*Best fresh. Refrigeration causes the cream to separate from the water. It's alright, just mix it up a little bit and it'll be good to go again.

Hot Apple Cider

The weather's getting colder, and as a result, I'm coming home from school freezing cold. Now that hot chocolate is out of the question, I needed a good replacement. So here it is, hot apple cider, full of all the warm, festive bliss without the accompanying ulcers.

Ingredients:

1 cup NFC (not from concentrate) apple juice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg

Instructions:

Mix and heat.

Notes:

*I love lots of flavor, so I add a generous amount of seasonings. For a lighter taste, use 1/8 tsp cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg.
*I heat mine in the microwave for 45 seconds. You could use a range, in which case, use medium heat and stir occasionally.
*This recipe can easily be doubled, tripled, quadrupled, octupled. You could even do it a gallon at a time if you wanted to. Just measure out the spices accordingly.