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Delicious Snack Idea

Mayan Hot Chocolate

Cut a small chili pepper in half and remove the seed. Boil chili in 2 cups water until volume is one cup. Strain chili and seeds from remaining water and discard. Keep water for later. Combine 5 cups milk with one vanilla bean (split in half) and a cinnamon stick. 2 tsp of vanilla can be substituted for the vanilla bean. Cook over a medium heat until milk steams and bubbles form around the edges. Lower the flame and add 8 oz of dark chocolate. Stir with a whisk as the chocolate melts to avoid burning. Add chili water to taste. Remove vanilla bean and cinnamon stick before serving. Garnish with whipped cream if desired.

• BOOK TALK

  INTEREST LEVEL: YA Fiction, 14 and up

  GENRE: Contemporary, humor

  RELATED TOPICS: sibling rivalry, theater; William Shakespeare; sexual identity; bisexuality; friendship; humor

  BOOKTALK SYNOPSIS: Roz and Eva are sisters, close friends, and fierce rivals. Roz fantasizes about snagging the lead in the school play and landing sexy skate god Bryan as her boyfriend. Sadly, a few obstacles stand between her and her dream. For one, Eva is the more talented actress. And Bryan happens to be Eva’s boyfriend. But is Eva having a secret love affair with a girl? Inquiring minds need to know.

  Roz prides herself on random acts of insanity. In one such act, she invents a girlfriend of her own to encourage Eva to open up. The plan backfires, and Roz finds herself neck deep in her invented life. When Roz meets a mercurial boy with a big problem, she begins to understand the complex feelings beneath the labels. And she gets a second chance to earn Eva’s trust. My Invented Life is set in small California high school during the rehearsals for a Shakespeare comedy.

  TWO LINE SUMMARY: Roz wants to be close with her sister, but her invented life keeps getting in the way. My Invented Life is a modern day quasi-Shakespearean comedy filled with rivalry, deceit, and sisterly devotion, cast with characters of ambiguous sexuality.

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