Taurus

April 20-May 20

TaurusTraits: Patient, practical, responsible, stubborn and possessive.

As someone who eats less for adventure and more for high-quality foods, you can be stubborn, especially when it comes to trying something other than your favorites. So if you have to eat a beautifully marbled rib-eye with fingerling potatoes or crab cakes with no starchy binders, or drink a robust red wine day in, day out, you would do it without any complaints. Mercury’s retrograde in April and May could enable you to be stuck in the mud for even longer, but a shot from Cupid’s arrow in fall will give you a jolt, and love will be in the air.

Eat this: All things made with good chocolate — the gooier the better.

Not this: Cheap candy bars, processed foods and sugary drinks.

Frozen Hot Choclate
Gretchen McKay/Post-Gazette

Frozen Hot Chocolate 

PG tested

Who says hot chocolate has to be hot? This frozen concoction is the dream drink of Taurus, who loves all things decadent but not over the top. Serve the indulgence with a spoon.


4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
1½ teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1½ tablespoons sugar
½ cup half-and-half
1½ cups whole milk, divided
4 tablespoons coffee liqueur or brewed espresso, divided
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, divided
4 cups ice, divided
Vanilla ice cream for serving


Break chocolate into pieces. Place them in a medium bowl over a pot of simmering water, stirring until just melted.

Turn off the heat, whisk in cocoa, sugar and half-and-half, and set aside.

Place ¾ cup of milk, 2 tablespoons of coffee liqueur, ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract and half of chocolate mixture in a blender.

Add 2 cups of ice and blend for several minutes, until mixture is thick but not icy. Add more milk or ice if it’s too thick or thin.

Pour into 2 (10-ounce) glasses. Top with a scoop of ice cream.

Repeat for the second 2 glasses. Makes 4 glasses.

— “Cooking for Jeffrey” by Ina Garten (Clarkson Potter; October 2016)

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