Sunday, January 31, 2010

ValenTea

StrawBerryTea

Valentine's Day is just around the corner and I have brewed a special tea that should please any tea-loving Valentine. It's got a hint of strawberries and cherries and is a festive shade of red.

Ingredients:
1/2 Cup sugar
1 Black tea bag (I used Luzianne)
4 Celestial Seasonings Tropic of Strawberry tea bags
1 Cup of cherry juice
Strawberries for garnish
Water

Strawberry Tea Ingredients

Bring 16 oz. of water and 1/2 cup of sugar to boil. Remove from heat and add tea bags. Allow tea to steep for 5 minutes. Pour into a 2 qt. pitcher. Add Cherry juice and add water to bring to 2 quart level.

Serve over ice and garnish with a strawberry. I cut my strawberries in the shape of hearts and notched the bottom of the berries with a knife to fit on the rim of the glasses.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

I have a new Nephew!

Our new Nephew was born yesterday, which makes him a NEW YEAR BABY! In anticipation of this, I have been working on a quilt for him to cuddle with and slobber on. :-) It is now finished (short of stitching his name and birth date). We are excited and I am anxious for his Mom to see it, so am hoping to get it shipped off in the next few days.

Quilt

It is full of happy, bright colors.

Little turtles, frogs and duckies:
Quilt2

The backing fabric is a soft, striped flannel:
Quilt3

I hope he will enjoy it.

Friday, January 1, 2010

Spice up your New Year!

SpiceTea1


After a long blog break, I'm back with a new recipe, perfect for cold nights at home. It's a modified version of my Mom's Russian Tea recipe. I didn't have all of the ingredients for that recipe on hand and I didn't want to make a huge batch of tea (hers makes enough for a small army), and since this is the New Year, I don't need that much sweet tea hanging around my house; am trying to lose some of the holiday weight I picked up! This recipe makes a fairly small batch - enough for 3 or 4 people, and is perfect served hot or iced.

Ingredients:
3 Cups Water
3 Family Size Tea Bags (I used Luzianne)
2 Cups Pineapple/Orange Juice Blend
1/4 Cup Sugar
10 Whole Cloves
1/8 tsp. Cinnamon Extract (not sure why I had this on hand, but that's what I used since I didn't have any cinnamon sticks).

SpiceTeaIng1

Put all ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a boil on stovetop. When tea starts boiling, immediately remove from heat.

Serve hot or over ice.
Garnish with cinnamon sticks or orange slices.