When autumn leaves begin to turn color and the weather begins to bluster a cup of hot chocolate, cookies and marshmallows is the winning trifecta to warm you.

Dress up your table with a few store-bought treats to create an easy centerpiece.  A mini pumpkin and butter cookies brushed with gold food coloring, add a few leaves from a craft store and one- two- three you have a festive presentation.

Dutch Cocoa Hot Chocolate with William Sonoma Mini Pumpkin Marshmallows

Dutch Cocoa Hot Chocolate with Melville Candy Snowflake Marshmallow Topper and Walkers Shortbread Mini Gingerbread Men or Mini Christmas Trees.

Ellen Easton’s HOT CHOCOLATE Recipe

1. Teaspoon Droste Dutch Cocoa

1 heaping Tablespoon Domino Brownulated Sugar

1. Tablespoon milk

1/2 Teaspoon of Nielsen Massey Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla extract

1. Cup of Milk.

(Not skim milk. Use whole milk or 100 percent nonfat Lactaid Milk)

Optional: 1/ 8- teaspoon ground cinnamon

Toppings: Marshmallows or whipped cream and

Chocolate shavings

Preparation: Mix cocoa, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla in a cup. Add 1 tablespoon of milk. Mix into a paste. Heat 1 cup of milk in a saucepan on the stove. Be careful not to scorch milk. Fill cup with hot milk and stir. Add the topping of your choice. Serves One.  Recipe can be multiplied. Text and

Text and Photos 2019© Ellen Easton- All Rights

Ellen Easton, author of Afternoon Tea~Tips, Terms and Traditions(RED WAGON PRESS), an afternoon tea authority, lifestyle and etiquette industry leader, keynote speaker and product spokesperson, is a hospitality, design, and retail consultant whose clients have included the Waldorf=Astoria, the Plaza and Bergdorf Goodman. Easton’s family traces their tea roots to the early 1800s, when ancestors first introduced tea plants from India and China to the Colony of Ceylon, thus building one of the largest and best cultivated teas estates on the island.