Dawn Keddy’s hot chocolate recipe

When we arrived in Oaxaca, Mexico, last summer, friends told us to go to La Soledad to try the hot chocolate they serve there. It’s a family business that was founded in the 1930s, and even before you walk into the shop with its beautifully carved wooden counters you can smell the delicious aroma of chocolate. 

On one side of the shop they sell different kinds of ready-made drinking chocolate and moles. Moles are traditional, spicy chocolate sauces often used in Mexican cooking. On the other side of the shop is the chocolate mixing area, where the staff will prepare your personalised chocolate mix. You can choose how much sugar you want in your chocolate mix and any other ingredients like cinnamon or chilli.

We headed to the café area in the middle of the shop and ordered their special hot chocolate with almonds and cinnamon – delicious! It was so good we came back the next day to try some of their other flavours. Here is my hot chocolate recipe – it’s not exactly the same as the La Soledad hot chocolate, but I’m sure you will like it anyway!

Ingredients for two servings
· 200 grams of dark cooking chocolate, or Mexican drinking chocolate if you can find it
· ½ litre of water or milk
· a pinch of salt
· a teaspoon of sugar
· a stick of cinnamon
· optional: a pinch of ground chilli

Instructions
1. Chop the chocolate into small pieces.
2. Heat the milk or water, but don’t let it boil.
3. Add the sugar, the pinch of salt, the cinnamon stick and the chopped chocolate. If you like, add the ground chilli. Stir until the chocolate is dissolved.

4. Take out the cinnamon stick, and whisk until it is frothy. Pour into cups and enjoy!

Suffolk’s largest family is about to get bigger! The Stanleys are happy to announce that their 15th baby is on the way.

Mother Jessica Stanley, 45, of Needham Market, Suffolk, announced on Facebook that she is pregnant with her 15th child, another baby girl.

Mrs Stanley and her husband Nigel, 46, posted the ultrasound picture of their latest baby on social media and wrote: “We can’t wait to welcome you to the family, sweet little one! We are truly blessed.”

The couple met when Jessica was 19. She became pregnant with her first child, Hugo, when she and Nigel were still at university. They decided to keep the baby and, with the help of her family, Jessica was able to finish her university degree.

Soon after, Nigel and Jessica moved into their first home together and got married. A year later, their second child, Kate, arrived, and since then they have had twelve more – the latest, Elton, being born in May last year.

The family lives in a large, Victorian six-bedroom house on the outskirts of Needham Market. The two eldest children are at university but come home regularly for weekends and holidays.

Raising such a big family doesn’t come cheap. Although the Stanley children all go to state schools and the family never takes holidays abroad, their food, electricity and other bills are astronomical. “But it’s worth it. I wouldn’t change my family for anything in the world,” Jessica said with a big smile.

Statistics show that the British have some of the biggest families in Europe; 9.5% of families now have three or more children. In fact, there is some evidence that big families are now a status symbol. Some of the richest women in Britain have up to nine children.

Frida Kahlo Museum

Another of the top attractions of Mexico City is the Frida Kahlo Museum. It is on a quiet residential street in Coyoacán. The building was the family home where the artist was born, where she lived for many years with her husband Diego Rivera and also the place where she died in 1954. The house was converted into a museum in 1958.

How to get there:
Take the Metro Line 3 to the Coyoacán Viveros Station. Then it is a short walk to Calle Londres, 247, on the corner of Ignacio Allende. Or you can take the Southside tour bus, which stops in front of the museum.

Opening hours:
Tuesday to Sunday: 10:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Wednesday: 11:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Monday: closed

The ticket office is by the entrance on Calle Londres. Turn left to enter the house. The first room was the living room where Frida and Diego entertained visitors. It has a large stone fireplace in Prehispanic style and on the walls are a number of Frida’s paintings, including one called Marxism Brings Health to the Sick that shows Frida throwing away her crutches.

Rooms 2, 3 and 4 contain paintings, drawings and photos by Frida, Diego Rivera and other artists. Notice Kahlo’s famous watermelon painting, Viva la Vida, in Room 2. Room 5 is dedicated to Kahlo’s collection of popular Mexican religious paintings.

Room 6, with its yellow floor, was Frida and Diego’s dining room. In the middle is their dining table, and around the walls there are shelves with collections of Mexican pottery and folk art.

Room 7 was Diego Rivera’s bedroom. Apart from his bed, wardrobe and a kerosene stove, you can still see Diego’s trousers and his hat hanging on the wall.

After the dining room there are the stairs that go to Frida’s rooms. Before you go up, look at the kitchen on the left with the tiled counter and a collection of Mexican pottery.

On the second floor is the artist’s studio. Here you can see where she worked, a table with paints, an easel and her wheelchair. This is followed by a little room with a day bed and a view of the garden. The last room open to the public is Frida Kahlo’s bedroom. The furniture, including her bed, is all original.