So many of you clicked and “hearted” and wrote such nice things about “Take You Home.” As a way of saying thanks, I asked my mom if she’d mind sharing this little family gift with you.
Val Espe’s Hot Chocolate Sauce
* 2 cups sugar
* 1/2 cup butter
* 1/2 cup milk
* 4 T. baking cocoa
* Bring to boil and boil no more than 90 seconds.
About This Recipe
Nearly every night my family would eat a bowl of vanilla ice cream topped with my mom’s special hot chocolate sauce. (You might be tempted to think,
“Oh, you mean hot fudge.” I will be tempted to ignore you.)
She’d begin stirring the ingredients on the stove-top with a wooden spoon. My sisters and I would draw straws to see who had to go down into the scary basement.
The basement was where the ice cream lived (along with the devil), kept in a deep freeze from 1924 (probably). It never functioned right because of frost-buildup around the latch. When you’re eight years old with goblins on your tail, all you want for Christmas is a brand new freezer that doesn’t look like a Cold War bomb shelter.
Back upstairs, the gallon pail would be set on the stove-top, opposite the saucepan. Mom would finish and call to Dad. He’d need three calls and a nudge since he’d be dozing in a living room chair, unaware his only son had just cheated death.
In the drawer below the forks and knives, he’d take hold of the Ice Cream Scoop 5000. If it wasn’t called the Ice Cream Scoop 5000, it should have been. It had more gears and levers than my bicycle.
We kids would stand as tall as our toes would allow us to and watch Dad muscle the machine across the entire length of the pail. He was a backhoe trenching perfect curls and spheres. His arm, a boom that swivelled above our porcelain bowls.
Mom had her own way, too. She’d neatly prop the silver ladle inside the pan and let us help ourselves to as much hot chocolate sauce as we’d like. Which we did.
Love,
Aaron