MojiTEA... or MoTEAto

This time of year, I'm dreaming of sunny days, and a warm Caribbean breeze. Since summertime is several months away, and because I'm nowhere close to the Caribbean, I can at least pretend by making a frosty beverage with a Latin flavor. This is my version of the traditional Cuban beverage, the Mojito.



Ingredients:
1/2 cup water
1 mint tea bag
8-10 chopped mint leaves
1/4 Cup fresh squeezed lime juice
sugar or sweetener to taste
ice



Boil water and allow mint tea to steep for 3-4 minutes. If you're using sugar, add the sugar to the hot tea to dissolve.
Fill a 16 oz. glass with ice, then pour tea and lime juice into the glass. Add mint leaves. Stir well. You can add more water if the lime flavor is too strong. I LOVE lime, so I left mine alone.

ValenTea

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



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.

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.



It is full of happy, bright colors.

Little turtles, frogs and duckies:


The backing fabric is a soft, striped flannel:


I hope he will enjoy it.

Spice up your New Year!

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).



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.

Now In Progress

Fabric for a surprise project, which I cannot divulge at this time (in case the person who will be receiving it is reading this).
Results to be posted once it is done!

Tea Of the Month: Clementine Cranberry Pomegranate Tea

October flew by and it's time for a new tea recipe. This month's tea features the fruits of the season, including clementines, cranberries and pomegranates. Look at these beautiful colors!



This tea would be great for a holiday gathering. This particular recipe makes 2 quarts, but could easily be adjusted to make more.

Clementine, Cranberry and Pomegranate Tea

Ingredients:
2 Quarts Water
4 Family Size Luzianne Tea Bags (Lipton or Tetley are other good brands)
1 1/4 Cups Sugar
1/2 Cup cranberries
6 Clementines
1/2 Cup pomegranate juice



1. Add 1 cup sugar to 1 quart water and bring to boil. Remove from heat and add tea bags. Allow to steep for 5 minutes.

2. Juice 5 of the clementines and set juice aside.

3. Juice 1 additional clementine into a sauce pan. Add cranberries and 1/4 Cup sugar to saucepan. Cook over low heat until berries begin to burst. Strain berries and reserve syrup that is left over.

4. Add the tea, clementine juice, cranberry syrup, and 1/2 Cup pomegranate juice to a 2 quart container. Add water until you have 2 quarts. Shake or stir well.

Serve with ice and garnish with cranberries, clementine slices or pomegranate pearls.

Enjoy!

One order of sunshine, coming right up!

This month of October has been a rainy and dreary one. Thanks to all the rain, we have had some nice, cool autumn days. Although I haven’t posted in almost a month, it has been a busy month for baking and photo projects. The fall weather has made me want to bake more than ever, so I will have several recipes to share in the coming weeks.

Since the sunshine has left us for the time being, I have found a dessert that is as close to sunshine as you can get without getting your retinas burned. It has a bright, lemony flavor, and uses one of my favorite ingredients, cream cheese. The recipe can be found here, but I added my own lemon twist by adding a fancy little blob of lemon buttercream and lovingly grated lemon zest on top. I can’t leave well enough alone!

Recipe for Lemon Chess Squares (from Proctor Silex website):

Ingredients:
1 pkg. (18 oz.) yellow cake mix
1 egg
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, room temperature
1 box (1 lb.) confectioner's sugar
2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon lemon extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large mixing bowl combine dry cake mix, 1 egg and butter using electric beater. Mix until combined into a dough. Pat dough into ungreased 9x13-inch pan.

With same mixing bowl and same beaters (not necessary to wash), beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth.

Add eggs and extracts, and beat until well blended.

Pour this batter over top of dough in pan.

Bake at 350°F for 45 to 50 minutes. Let cool, then cut into bars.


For Lemon Buttercream:

Ingredients:
1 stick softened butter
4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp lemon extract
2 Tbsp. of Lemon Curd (optional) - This can be found in jars in the baking section of your supermarket. I used "Dickinson's" brand.

Whip butter and sugar together. Add extracts and lemon curd. If too thick, you can add milk to thin out. If too thin, add more powdered sugar. I made mine thick enough to pipe with a piping tip.

Garnish with grated lemon zest.

You can also experiment with other cake mixes and extracts/flavorings.