Yes, I will be holding a cooking show in my home on Thursday, September 30, at 7:00pm. Of course many of you will be unable to attend due to distance, but I want to invite you to the web show, then! Here is the website; just place your order before September 30, and list my name as the host. As a side note, anyone who places an order of $60.00 or more will be allowed to choose one Pampered Chef cookbook for free! Enjoy!
Here’s a little graphic I have been working on recently, trying to give a fresh look at the idea of sharing a recipe online. I may work on more in the future, but I figure that this is the test subject on the idea of a recipe infographic. By the way, the finished product was superb. I enjoy store-bought dills, but these are quite a few steps above. Enjoy!
I never used to be a big fan of iced tea–sweetened or unsweetened. I liked hot tea, whether it was black or some kind of herbal. When I did drink hot tea, I liked it BLACK! The same with my coffee–BLACK: no cream, no sugar. None of that wimpy stuff goes in my morning drink. By the way, I think I have mentioned before that caffeine doesn’t do anything to me…at least not to the point where it’s noticeable. I just drink coffee or tea for the comfort of it more than anything else. My good old Dad (no, I’m not going to say how…um…young he is turning in few days, right Dad? Let’s just say it is a milestone in life.) says that used to be him too, until he hit about 40. Then, he said, he drinks a coffee in the evening and ends up staring at the ceiling while trying to fall asleep. That does not sound very fun at all!
Now, Ms. Andrea, she likes plenty of sugar in her tea. I always make fun of her for it! “Oh, we can’t afford all of that sugar you’re putting in there!” “Why don’t you have some pancakes with that syrup?” etc. I am still the unsweetened person–in tea preference and personality!
Over the past couple of years I have grown to like iced tea on the rare occasion–unsweetened of course. Once in college, just because it was a dollar, I bought a large McDonald’s Sweet Tea. I don’t hesitate to say that college kids many times sacrifice quality and taste, and just throw money at it just because it is cheap! Let’s just say I almost gagged because that goop was so sugary. I vowed to never drink sweetened tea again!
Recently, something has come over me, though. Maybe it’s being married has sweetened me up a little bit. All of the sudden one day several weeks ago, I had a craving for sweet tea. “What’s wrong with me!? I don’t like that stuff,” I thought.
Andrea and I were looking on All Recipes (our main “cook book”), and there on the front page of the site was a highly rated recipe for Smooth Sweet Tea. Well, we made some up according to the recipe, and I fell for it–and am still falling for it! With ice, tea, sugar, and the secret ingredient, you will be craving more even after already drinking a big glass!
We adapted it a little to our taste, and tend to drink it regularly. It is so much better than hot coffee or tea on a hot, muggy summer day. I find the biggest glass in our house, and fill it to the top. And when we don’t have any made–I hate to admit this now–I even enjoy having a McDonald’s Sweet Tea. Indeed, my Andrea has sweetened me up some! But I will always just like my coffee and hot tea black!
Here’s that recipe adapted to us a little:
Sprinkle a pinch of baking soda (yes, that’s what I said…just do it!) into a 64-ounce, heat-proof, glass pitcher. Of course, make sure you warm the pitcher warm water before pouring in the boiled water…unless you want a broken pitcher. Pour in boiling water, and add tea bags. Cover with saran wrap, and let it to steep for 12 minutes. Next, remove the tea bags, and throw them away; stir in the sugar until it is dissolved. Pour in the cool water, then refrigerate it until cold. Optionally, you can add ice and subtract some water for a quicker drink! The baking soda acts as a base on the PH scale, therefore countering the acid in the tea. This makes the drink slide right down!
…southeastern Pennsylvania style! You may have read Sharon’s post with this same title, so here is my edition of our ‘end of summer’ here in countryville, Pennsylvania! In Utah, summer means hiking in mountains and canyons, rodeos, and Utah Statehood days; in our neck of the woods, it means stocking and storing up Summer’s Bounty!
Last year, I posted about canning tomatoes, something I had never done before! Then I tasted the canned tomatoes. I was sold on them. The problem was, in January, I ran out. And then it was, that I decided, rain or shine, this next summer, I would can tomatoes, and I would can a lot of them! So last week I did twenty-four quarts, and may have more to come! Have you ever tasted home-canned tomatoes? Suffice it to say, I don’t mind if I never taste store-bought canned tomatoes again!Oh yes, and those green beans are actually remnants of last summer’s bounty! They have a story of their own you can read if you missed it last year!
Then there is the sweet corn. Oh, the sweet corn! A dear friend (and even more dearer now!) blanched and froze corn with another lady from church. Kindly, she offered to give us a bag. I expected one ziploc bag of frozen fresh corn for us to taste. Well, she awarded us with a grocery bag full of sweet corn! Wow, what a blessing! We tasted it for the first time last Sunday. I hate to be prejudice, but it had to be the best I remember! It had no sugar added to it, and yet was soooooo sweet! And the flavor and even texture were perfect! Come to find out, it was from this church lady’s Amish neighbors. Well, they must know the secret to raising and harvesting sweet corn!
Then there are all the berries! Last year we picked wine berries, a type of red raspberry, and I also picked blueberries. Well, this year I went the easy route, and simply bought blueberries and strawberries. I had to get up a good store of strawberries for Dustin’s favorite smoothie: Strawberry-Banana-Orange Juice. Bananas are still easy to find in the winter, as is orange juice, but strawberries go from $1-2/quart to $5-6/quart!
And last, but not least, we made refrigerator pickles. Dustin had a taste for pickles, and so after some research, we decided to make our own. We found a good recipe, put the spices into the jars, sliced and chopped cucumbers to fill them, and added the vinegar and water. They look mighty tasty, but we have to wait one more week for them to ‘pickle’ before eating them.
And there you have it…this time of year is very busy here in rural PA! There are produce stands all over the place, not to mention the farm markets; and some ladies at our church are very busy canning and freezing and pickling! We certainly don’t compare to the stockpiles some families amass, but we do make our own feeble attempt to preserve Summer’s Bounty!
