We Bake The Bread • • • Kosher Bites Hot cocoa mixes burn the tongues and warm You Add the hearts of taste testers. The Spice. W JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR STAFF WRITER Breadsmith Heart Shaped Bread Adds Romance, Any Way You Slice It. Share our heart with your love ... a splendid hearth-baked treat laden with chocolate chips, tart cherries and a touch of honey. Sure to make your sweetheart smile! Heart Shaped Bread will be available February 13 & 14. Order Yours Today! At Maple and Lahser (810) 540-8001 At 14 Mile Road and Middlebelt (810) 855-5808 Casual Dining Choose From A Large Selection of Chairs, Tables and Bar Stools. FURNITURE DIRECT Rluioys The Right MON.-FRI.: 10-9 • SAT.: 10-6 • SUN.: 12-5 122 Price! VISA WATERFORD/WEST BLOOMFIELD • 7570 COOLEY LAKE RD. • 810-363-2800 ien I was a little girl, I could always count on two things during the winter. The first was that I would en- joy hour after hour of fairly dar- ing sledding on a local snow-covered hill. The second ----- was that my mom would in stinctively have hot cocoa and peanut butter toast ready for me when I returned home, happy but freezing from an afternoon of ad- venture. The cocoa she made was rich and creamy, made from sugar, hot milk and powdered cocoa, not some cheap imitation in a foil packet but the real thing. It was a magical concoction, whipped up to ward off any illness that could come from having played in wet socks in sub-zero temperatures for long stretches of time. I know the cheap imitation I keep in foil packages in my desk drawer could never measure up to her drink; but, hey, in a pinch, it works. And I find that if you make it hot enough, you can ac- tually burn your tongue severely enough so that nothing can be tasted. This being February and this being Michigan, we found that taste- testing instant hot choco- late mixes was a well-received idea, right up there with the now- legendary kosher cocktail weenie war. So popular was the idea, in fact, that my Jewish News co-workers absconded with the leftovers, stuff- ing them into their drawers like squirrels packing acorns away for a long winter. For our taste test, we sampled packets of Ovaltine's new hot co- coa, Ko-Sure hot cocoa and Mehadrin hot cocoa. The Ratings: One reason we selected the hot cocoa was because it was all of 10 degrees outside, with a windchill of 20 below; the other had more to do with the ease of preparation and little amount of clean up. For all of these mixes, all that was required was hot water; even I, about the furthest thing from the goddess of domesticity, can boil water. Stirring in the cocoa mix was only slightly more dif- ficult, but once you have the wrist action down, it's a snap. One note of caution: Unless you really don't want to taste the mix, be careful with the temper- ature of the water. Too many tongues have burned in the name of hot cocoa. KS DOWN"' Mehadrin Hot Cocoa "Medicinal tasting. No choco- late taste discernible." — Jill Davidson Sklar "After the burning sensation went away, I tasted this one and it was not that great. I liked the Ko-Sure better." — Jennifer McCarthy vatiw.w4.15•:'Ma.t'N\WM:r ..