You are here: Home / Archives for frugal gifts

Very Berry Hibiscus Refresher Clone (Starbucks Knockoff) and a Giveaway! | Make Ahead Mondays

August 27, 2012 by 127 Comments

 

Giveaway details below the recipe!

I got my dog fixed on my birthday.

It’s a glamorous life. Try not to be too jealous.

Because Frijole is a rescue dog (although some folks would argue that his inclusion in the dog category is in doubt considering he’s half daschund half chihuahua), we were invited to bring him to a free spay and neuter clinic about two hours from home. “Free” is one of my favourite words, so I grabbed the leash, the understandably unexcited dog, a cup of tea and set out at six in the morning on a Sunday to drop my pup off for ye olde snip-snip.

After depositing the dog (and a surprise attack of tears when leaving my sweet wittle puppykins in the arms of those strangers) I drove into town a little further and found the Holy Grail, Nirvana, Kismet, Shangrila…

I found Barnes and Noble in Elmira, New York.

Since it was my birthday, I gave myself permission to go a little wacky in the bookstore. Aside from living in a library, this is my idea of the ultimate in fun. I felt like Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music. I walked in, twirled around with my arms in the air, and sang (in my head.)

I walked up aisles. I walked down them. I tucked into ill-lit corners with piles of books by authors of whom I’d never heard. I sniffed new books.* I scoured the clearance and mark-down books. When I tell you I spent hours, I mean it.

When all was said and done, I carried my teetering stack of books to the register. While the clerk was scanning, scanning, scanning, I glanced at the time and realized I still had a couple of hours to go before I could pick up my now frijole-less Frijole. A glance to my right showed the semi-ubiquitous Barnes and Noble Starbucks, so I paid and scooted over there to spend a little air-conditioned time admiring my new acquisitions.

*Please tell me someone else loves the smell of books…

There are a couple of impulse buy food words that get me every time; citrus, lemon, lime, orange, berry and hibiscus. Lo and behold, Starbucks had a little something called a Very Berry Hibiscus Refresher. I was all over that like my kids on chips. I ordered one at the counter and they asked, “Can we make that a venti?” I am not a Starbucks veteran, so I had NO IDEA what that meant, but I wanted to be agreeable, so I said yes. Heck. It was my birthday.

I watched while she mixed up my refresher, took it back to the table, took a sip and did what any self-respecting blogger does when she likes something. I posted a picture on instagram. Then? Then I did what any self-respecting member of my family would do. I vowed to learn to make it myself because at that point, I had learned what venti meant. It meant EXPENSIVE.

With the justification, “It’s for research!” singing in my head, I ordered a second venti Very Berry Hibiscus Refresher while tucking an information card in my pocket and asking the poor gal what went into the drink. She said “Green Coffee Extract, this hibiscus mix stuff, dried berries, water and ice”. All that was left was for me to slurp my drink, call my sister to tell her how she needed to try one, pick up my drugged and tender puppy and drive home for my annual birthday fried chicken extravaganza.

Being cheap (and living a couple hours from the nearest Starbucks) is a marvelous recipe development motivator. I ordered green coffee beans from Amazon.com, busted out my stash of dried hibiscus flowers and freeze dried berries and set myself to experimentation.

I opted to make my green coffee extract using cold extraction. This sounds far more difficult than it actually is. In short, grind unroasted coffee beans, cover with water, let it set in the refrigerator overnight then strain it. Ta da! Yes. It truly is that simple. I make a quart at a time, so I can have this whenever cravings strike.

While researching green coffee beans, I found out that green coffee is currently the golden child of the diet scene. Evidently, taking green coffee extract (in any form) jacks up your metabolism so that -all other things remaining the same- you metabolize your food more completely and therefore lose weight. Who knew?

Because cold brewing/extraction is a gentler process, I used my beloved new Krups coffee grinder/spice mill from BigKitchen to break the beans up just a bit. I didn’t need to obliterate them like you would for a regular cuppa joe, just break them open a little. Can we talk about why I love this grinder for just a moment? My husband is the coffee drinker in the house. I’m a tea drinker. For years, our coffee grinder has been ‘his’. I borrowed it once -just once!- to grind some spices and we both ended up unhappy with the results. My cumin tasted like coffee and his coffee tasted like cumin. The rest of my spice and herb grinding took place in the pestle and mortar. Sigh. This new grinder is mine, MINE I TELL YA, and it will never have a roasted coffee bean in it as long as it lives. The green coffee beans don’t count because they don’t have that strong flavour, aroma, etc… that you find in roasted beans. Additionally, green coffee contains about one-fifth of the caffeine of its roasted counterpart. This probably accounts for why I can drink it without having to be scraped from the ceiling.

So why do all this? Hibiscus and berries are bright and fresh and naturally vibrant pink and full of vitamins and minerals. Green coffee is a metabolism booster and makes you feel energetic without feeling strung out. Put them together with ice and water and you have a truly refreshing drink.

If you have a Starbucks lover in your life, a jar each of the hibiscus syrup and green coffee extract in a basket with a couple bags of the freeze-dried berries would make a wonderful gift!

Print
Very Berry Hibiscus Refresher Clone (Starbucks Knockoff) | Make Ahead Monday

Very Berry Hibiscus Refresher Clone (Starbucks Knockoff) | Make Ahead Monday

Zingy hibiscus and sweet freeze dried berries get shake-shake-shaken into homemade green coffee extract (yes you CAN do that at home!) and ice creating a fabulous knock-off of the Starbucks Very Berry Hibiscus Refreshers at a fraction of the cost.

Ingredients

    For the Green Coffee Extract:
  • 1 quart cold water
  • 1/4 pound green (unroasted) coffee beans
    • For the Hibiscus Simple Syrup:
  • 1 cup, lightly packed, dried hibiscus flowers
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 cups water
    • To Make a Very Berry Hibiscus Refresher Clone:
  • 2 cups of ice cubes
  • 1 tablespoon green coffee extract
  • 1-4 tablespoons hibiscus simple syrup (to taste)
  • 2 tablespoons freeze-dried berries
  • 2 cups water

Instructions

To Make the Green Tea Extract:

Add the beans to a scrupulously clean spice or coffee grinder, pulse the grinder about 10 times just to break up the beans a little. Empty the beans into a half-gallon glass canning jar or another similarly sized container with a tight fitting lid. Pour the cold water over the beans, fix the lid in place and shake a couple of times to make sure it is all good and distributed. Stash in the refrigerator overnight to extract.

After it has soaked for at least 8 hours, line a fine-mesh sieve with a coffee filter or a piece of cheesecloth positioned over a pitcher. Shake the green coffee and water mixture one more time and pour it through the lined sieve. Transfer the strained liquid to a jar (it should fit into a quart jar) and store in the refrigerator for up to a month, using as desired.

To Make the Hibiscus Simple Syrup:

Add hibiscus flowers, sugar, and water to a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium high heat. Stir frequently to dissolve the sugar and bring to a boil. As soon as the mixture boils, turn off the heat and add a lid to the pan. Let it steep for at least 20 minutes, but not more than 40 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth or a coffee filter into a canning jar or pitcher. Store in the refrigerator in a tightly lidded jar or other stain-proof container. Hibiscus syrup WILL stain!

To Make a Very Berry Hibiscus Refresher Clone:

Add 2 cups of ice to a quart canning jar. Pour the green coffee extract and hibiscus syrup over the ice, add the freeze-dried berries and pour the water over everything else. Fix the lid tightly in place and shake vigorously for about 25 seconds. Pour into a pretty glass and sip. Heck, gulp if you want to gulp! This is good stuff and it's good for you!

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/08/27/very-berry-hibiscus-refresher-clone-starbucks-knockoff-and-a-giveaway-make-ahead-monday/

Now let’s talk goodies, shall we? The folks at BigKitchen -the same ones who provided my best beloved grinder- are offering to give away another one just like mine to one of you folks.

 

Big cheer for BigKitchen! This is a work horse of a grinder. These are the details about this gorgeous piece of kit according to BigKitchen:

  • Minces fresh herbs and dried spices and grinds coffee beans from
    coarse to fine in seconds
  • Sharp stainless steel blades quickly chop for easy preparation of your
    favorite dishes
  • Pulse action button lets you determine the degree of fineness
  • Brushed stainless steel finish
  • Safety lock lid
  • 140W
  • Retails at: $29.99

I concur with all of that, but I’d add that it’s just plain gorgeous. It is super sleek and I do love stainless steel appliances. They are out of stock (sad trombone!) currently, but they do have one in stock for the winner of this giveaway and they’ll be back for the rest of the world very soon, indeed (happy cry from the crowd!) So how do you win?

For 1 Entry:

You need to scoot on over to BigKitchen and look around. For one entry, tell me here in the comments what you would be most likely to buy from BigKitchen.

For Additional Entries (Be sure to leave a separate comment for each entry so we can have a truly random drawing!):

Like Foodie With Family on facebook, then come back here and say so.

Like BigKitchen on facebook then come back here and say so.

Follow Foodie With Family on Twitter and, well, you know, come back here and say so.

Follow BigKitchen on Twitter and… you know!

My word! That’s 5 different ways to win my favourite grinder. Make yourself a Very Berry Hibiscus Refresher and start entering today! The giveaway will close on Thursday, August 30th with a winner to be announced on Friday.

BigKitchen was kind enough to send me a Krups grinder and offer one to give away, but all opinions are my own. I am not affiliated with Starbucks in any way.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Beverages, Component Foods, Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, Make Ahead Mondays, Rebecca, Recipes Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Homemade Lemon Pepper Seasoning

April 3, 2012 by 8 Comments

I am a collector of herbs and spices. I like to have a little bit of everything just in case I need a little bit of anything. I have just about every herb and spice on hand that you could possibly want. (And a few extras: anyone need za’atar or nigella? Anyone?) One thing I hadn’t bought until recently, though, was lemon pepper seasoning.

I can’t really explain why I didn’t buy it. I love lemon and pepper together. My version of using lemon pepper usually involved squeezing and zesting a lemon and grinding a bunch of pepper on top.

Last week, a coupon and a sale conspired to convince me to buy my first ever little shaker jar of lemon pepper seasoning. I got it home, opened the safety seal, dipped my finger in and took a taste. Then I made a face and scraped at my tongue with my fingernails. EW. I mean really. The top note of this well respected manufacturer’s lemon pepper seasoning blend was citric acid followed by chemical followed by IDunnoWhat.  Egads, that stuff was awful! If I thought really hard about it, I could kind of taste lemon in there somewhere, but I think that was the power of concentrating on the yellow that was provided by the yellow food dye. FOOD DYE. In seasoning. Sigh.

It’s often the little things -a pinch of this, a smidgen of that- that make the difference between a recipe that is good versus one that is great. I’ve seen quite a few recipes that call for lemon pepper seasoning and I’ve always done my lemon juice/zest/pepper hack, and it usually worked out just fine. After trying the stuff that flies off the market shelves, though, I was convinced that I could easily do much, much better at home.

And I did.

Here you have Foodie With Family’s Homemade Lemon Pepper Seasoning. All the GOOD stuff, and none of the crizzap. Sprinkle this over grilled fish, chicken or pork. Use in place of commercial lemon pepper seasoning in equal amounts called for in other recipes. Put a dash or two over buttered popcorn. Go nuts. Now that I have the homemade stuff, I’ll never be without it again.

Bonus: The homemade mix comes in significantly cheaper and worlds tastier than the commercial stuff. Give it a try… I know you won’t regret it!

And in case you’re wondering whatever became of the shaker top of lemon pepper seasoning I bought at the store, you’ll be glad to know it didn’t all go to waste. My kids peer pressured each other into trying it as a feat of strength, “Try THIS! It’s REALLY GROSS! Can you handle it?” What can I say? Homeschooled kids have weird peer pressure.

 

Print
Homemade Lemon Pepper Seasoning

Homemade Lemon Pepper Seasoning

Add a punch of flavour to grilled fish, chicken, pork, popcorn, dips, salads and whatever else your heart desires with this perfect blend of salt, lemon zest, cracked black pepper rounded out with hints of onion, garlic and celery seed. You'll never want to be without it again!

Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons lemon salt , preferably, or kosher salt
  • 2 tablespoons raw sugar
  • 2 tablespoons cracked black pepper
  • the zest of one lemon, just the yellow part- avoid the bitter white pith
  • a heaping 1/2 teaspoon of granulated onion
  • a heaping 1/4 teaspoon of granulated garlic
  • 1/4 teaspoon celery seed

Instructions

Stir together all of the ingredients and store in an airtight jar at room temperature. This can be refrigerated if desired. Because there are no funky preservatives or anti-caking chemicals added to the mixture, you may find it has a tendency to clump slightly. Just break it up with your fingers or a fork before using if this occurs.

Replace using commercial lemon pepper seasoning by substituting an equal measure of homemade lemon pepper seasoning.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/04/03/homemade-lemon-pepper-seasoning/

Filed Under: Component Foods, Condiments, Happy Healthy and Wise, Recipes, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian Tagged With: , , , , , ,

DIY Body Wash and Liquid Hand Soap

February 15, 2012 by 13 Comments

As you can imagine, a home with five sons, an evil genius handyman husband, two dogs, an elderly cat and fifteen chickens can get a little -how to say- malodorous. Don’t misunderstand, I love every one of the aforementioned scent producers, but people… it can be a little hard on the nose around here.

Par example: I sent one of my children (name redacted for the sake of their future pride. We’ll refer to him here as Stanky Hank.) to the shower. Stanky Hank was in the shower for ten minutes. He emerged soaking wet and still covered with dirt. The conversation went a little something like this:

Me: You were in there for ten minutes. Why are your hands, feet, arms, and knees still covered with dirt stains?

Stanky Hank: Oh, I was supposed to get rid of those?

If I told you this was the rule rather than the exception, would you faint? Because I’m feeling a little faint thinking about it. And before anyone offers me smelling salts, remember, I live with a bunch of walking smelling salts.*

*Free social history lesson. Do you know what smelling salts actually were? They were bottles of ammonia solids mixed with aromatic essences. In short? They smelled like cat pee mixed with perfume. Remember, they were designed to wake you up. Now I’m not accusing my kids of smelling of cat pee, I’m just saying they have the potential to wake you up. But I digress.

Foodie With Family Trivia Moment: I’m obsessed with triple-milled French castile soaps. For those not equally obsessed with soap, castile soap is made with olive oil (translation: great for your skin). And the triple-milled soaps? Lush. Lush is the best word. My obsession extends most specifically to my favourite soap brand: Pre de Provence.

 

These massive bars of soap are unparalleled in the world of pretty smelling things. In scents like Coconut, Rose, Linden, Sage, Mint Leaf, Honey Almond Lavender, and my favourite- Green Tea- this soap makes me want to strap a bar to my nose just to get through life a little more happily. Although, upon reflection, walking around with a bar of soap strapped to my head might provide it’s own set of challenges…

…But I’m belabouring the point. I have used these soaps for a long time. The guys, however, didn’t want to use my pretty smelling soaps because they favour body wash over bar soap. They favour liquid hand soap over soap dishes. Sigh. My adorable cretins.

I’ve already told you about my happy, happy, super cheap and mega-effective homemade laundry detergent and my allergy-sufferer friendly unbelievably easy homemade air fresheners. You know I love to make pretty smelling things. Between that and the description I just gave you about my menfolk you can imagine that when I ran into this over on Pinterest, I was ready to make it immediately. STAT. Right away. Now. Time was a-wastin’.

Thanks to a proclivity for collecting lovely smelling soaps and a stash of vegetable glycerine from my previous Grand Marnier making forays, all I needed was to boil a gallon of distilled water.*

*Since even we cannot go through a gallon of soap in a week, I opted to use the boiled distilled water to slow any potential microbial growth in the soap. Distilled water has minerals removed (I used this because our water is hard) but still needs to be brought to a boiling temperature to kill any bacteria in it. I think we can all agree that a petri dish full of soap does not sound appealing, right? “Hi. My name is Rebecca and I’m a germaphobe.”

That’s right. It’s just three ingredients. THREE.

And because it is just three I have three pieces of advice about the choice of soap:

  1. Use one whose smell you love in the bar form because it will intensify a bit in the liquid form. It doesn’t have to be my beloved Pre de Provence. Just choose one that you adore.
  2. Choose a non-lotion soap. The lotion will prevent the soap from setting up well.
  3. Don’t choose a soap based on colour. Whichever colour soap you choose, your liquid soap will pretty much end up the same pearlescent shade of white.
  4. Did you know WordPress doesn’t recognize pearlescent as being spelled correctly? But by the same token WordPress doesn’t recognize itself as being spelled correctly. Yes. I know this is a fourth bullet point, but it’s not advice. So there.

I followed instructions and let the soap set up overnight. This leads me to two very important pieces of advice.

  1. Do not  put a lid that can absorb odours on top of your pan. Mainly because it will.
  2. Don’t panic if you have what looks (and feels, at first) like a solid mass of soap because it will loosen up.

Regarding that second piece of advice, I do not own a hand-mixer. WHAT? Yes. It’s true. I got rid of it because my husband insisted that he make mashed potatoes with them. After I made mashed potatoes with a ricer and a wooden spoon, he agreed, but I decided to remove temptation and thus avoid gluey potatoes from here on in… but again? I digress.

When I removed my now permanently scented lid from my pan, I touched the top of the soap and thought, “Well, that’s nice. I have a giant disc of soap jello.” After I jabbed at it a few times with my whisk, it started breaking down a bit. It was still a little too, er, chunky for our liking.

I found my egg beaters and set my very energetic six year old to mixing up the goo.

Do you have a six year old lying around? They’re dead handy.

Would this be easier using a hand mixer? You betcha… but an eggbeater and a six year old is an equally effective if slightly slower solution. If it had been any thicker, I might’ve heated it back up, added a bit more water and stirred it in then let it cool again to test the viscosity before bottling. As it was, I was happy. The now lovely smelling six year old and I ladled the liquid soap (which has a bit of a stringy consistency that doesn’t effect the overall product but takes a bit of adjustment if you’re using to the usual liquid soaps) into the gallon jug that had held the distilled water and found we needed more containers. We went on to fill an empty liquid hand soap container and an empty mid-sized body wash container. The breakdown on cost is:

  • For a gallon of distilled water ($0.69)
  • A bar of Pre de Provence Green Tea Soap ($6.69)
  • Two tablespoons of vegetable glycerine ($0.75ish)
  • Yield of about a gallon and a quarter, give or take a bit ($8.13).

My guys smell good. Really, really good. As in, “DAD! Mom keeps sniffing me!” good. $8.13 for a giant jug of body wash and hand soap is reason enough to make it, but the way they smell is priceless.

And lest you worry about nostril bombing with perfume, let me reassure you. My husband, as part of his Evil Genius job qualifications, is a super sniffer. His nose is very sensitive indeed. If this was overwhelmingly perfumey you wouldn’t be able to get him near it even with a ten foot pole. Whether it’s the fact that this particular soap -Pre de Provence Green Tea- is just a straight up wonderful and mild manly scent, I can’t say. But I can promise that Mr. Twitchy Nose and the five little urchins love it. And me?

Well, I get to swoon for an entirely different reason now.

Print
DIY Body Wash and Liquid Hand Soap

DIY Body Wash and Liquid Hand Soap

Make your own custom body wash and liquid hand soap with just three easily find-able ingredients for a fraction of the cost of pricey store versions. Be prepared to smell fantastic!

Recipe from and method adapted slightly from The Farmer's Nest

Ingredients

  • 1 (8 ounce) bar of castile soap (Pre de Provence, Dr. Bronner's, etc...)
  • 1 gallon distilled water
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable glycerine

Instructions

Bring the water to a boil in a large non-reactive pot (stainless steel or glass). Grate the bar of soap on a metal box grater. Add the soap shavings and vegetable glycerine to the boiling water, stirring frequently, until the soap shavings are completely dissolved into the water. Remove the pan from the heat, cover tightly, and let rest undisturbed overnight or for at least 8 hours.

After it has rested, break up with an egg beater or with a hand mixer until smooth. If it is too solid, warm over the heat again, add a little distilled water and let cool again to test the consistency. Repeat until you reach the desired viscosity for your soap.

Put a funnel into the now empty distilled water jug and ladle the soap into the jug. Ladle any extra soap into empty hand soap bottles or jars with tight fitting lids.

Use like you normally use body wash or liquid hand soap.

Store unused soap in a cool, dark place. If you're a nervous Nelly type, you can store it in the refrigerator.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/02/15/diy-body-wash-and-liquid-hand-soap/

 

Do you want to try out my favourite soap? You can click on the “Books, Gear, and Supplies” tab right below the header, then click on the “Make it Smell Good!” category.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Non-food recipes, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: , , , ,

Spiced Orange Chai Concentrate

November 3, 2011 by 8 Comments

This is the time of year when I want nothing more than to traipse through the woods. The leaves have hit the deck and between the satisfying rustling sound they make, the scent of pine needles and apples, and the brisk air, a walk yields something that just might be the best feeling in the world. I’m getting ready to hunker down along with the bears, groundhogs, hobbits, squirrels, and other woodland creatures.

With last week’s snowfall, I feel a little like Robert Frost ‘Stopping by Woods’ on a snowy evening even though it has all melted. It’s just something in the air.

Coming back from those walks, we turn to warm fires, family, good books, old movies, quiet music and great  roasts, mashed potatoes, pie, cookies and hot tea.

I know coffee is a perennial darling, but let’s talk tea for just a moment. Have you read the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder? I remember them taking the edge off of the long, hard winters with strong, hot tea more than once.  There is something about tea that makes you slow down and relax because there is just something about tea.

The gnarly dried leaves unfurl and stretch in the hot water the way you do in the bath after a hard day. It’s impossible to watch that and not feel at least a little tension melt away. I think it must have something to do with the intensive manpower that goes into every cup of tea. Hand-picked leaves dried lovingly, packaged carefully and shipped to those who stand by, kettles in hand, ready to bring the water to a boil and coax every bit of flavour out of those tiny but potent shriveled leaves.

The glow of citrus, subtle sweetness and round but gentle heat of spices makes this Spiced Orange Chai Concentrate do exactly what all chai –all tea, for that matter- should do; it fills your belly and warms you from the inside out. Handily, the recipe makes a large amount and is good for up to a month in the refrigerator or up to three months in the freezer.

Chai is one of my favourite teas, but I don’t often get it when out and about because a.)I’m in the middle of nowhere and there’s no one to sell me one; b.)They often cost far more than I’m willing to pay for a cuppa; and c.)They’re often far too sweet. “C” is important. Great glugs of syrup cover up the flavour of the tea. You might as well just have hot spiced sugar water as many chai lattes available on the market.

An obvious advantage to making your own is controlling the amount of sweetness you add. Adjust it. Play with it. Get it perfect for your preferences. I suggest starting with less sugar and tasting it in milk. If it’s not sweet enough, simply add more until it is, as Baby Bear said,  “Just right!”
While I prefer it served hot with banks of steam rising from it on chilly autumn and winter days, it is superb served over ice, ice cream, or yogurt just to keep things interesting. I’ve even been known to stir a tablespoon or two into an apple pie or galette. If a walk in the woods is the best feeling in the world, a Chai Apple Pie comes in pretty closely behind it.

Yes, this is caffeinated, but that’s no reason to deprive the kids out of the delicious warming powers of chai. Use a trick from the Little House books; cambric tea. When Laura Ingalls Wilder was young, tea was considered too stimulating for children (although coffee, interestingly, was often not.) Mothers would stir a hint of tea into hot milk to warm their chilled chilluns and make them feel like grown-ups. That seems like a pretty wonderful tradition to revive to me. Put a much-more-milk-than-tea mug of this into your young ones’ hands and let them sit to warm through and through with you after a fall hike. It’s a memory in the making.

Print
Spiced Orange Chai Concentrate {Foodie With Family}

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 3 minutes

Total Time: 23 minutes

Spiced Orange Chai Concentrate {Foodie With Family}

With spice and the glow of citrus, this Spiced Orange Chai Concentrate stands at the ready whenever you need a seriously fast dose of warmth.

Ingredients

  • 4 ½ cups water
  • 1 stick cinnamon, broken into large pieces
  • 1 piece fresh ginger root, 2-4 inches long (according to taste), unpeeled and roughly chopped
  • 8 whole cardamom pods
  • 2 whole star anise pods
  • 10 whole cloves
  • 8 whole black peppercorns
  • ½ teaspoon freshly grated or ground nutmeg
  • 1-3 slices of a fresh orange (according to taste), peel and all
  • 10 teaspoons green or black tea leaves ~or~ 10 green or black tea bags ~or~ an equivalent amount of green and black tea combined
  • ½ cup brown or raw sugar
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions

To Make the Concentrate:

Bring the water to a boil in a pan with a tight fitting lid.

Add all of the spices and tea, remove from heat, cover tightly and let steep 15-20 minutes, depending on the desired strength of the tea.

Strain into a large container and add the brown or raw sugar, honey, and vanilla. Stir to combine. Transfer to a large canning jar with a tight fitting lid. Store in the refrigerator for up to one month.

To Serve:

Mix 1 part of the concentrate to 1 part milk. You can mix it with steamed milk or with cold milk and then heat it together. Alternatively, you can serve it cold over ice. Brrrr

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/11/03/spiced-orange-chai-concentrate/

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.


Filed Under: Accessible Ethnic, Beverages, Happy Healthy and Wise, kid food, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Homemade Chocolate Syrup

August 25, 2011 by 21 Comments

 

It is no secret that I am a big proponent of making things that many folks buy at the store. From the common (potato chips, bread, ice cream, laundry detergent) to the hard-or-impossible-to-find (furikake, candied jalapenos, game stock), home kitchen alchemy can do it if it’s worth having or doing. Sometimes my efforts earn me admiration, but just as often it gets me a resounding, “Why would you bother when you can easily buy this fill-in-the-blank at the store?” My motivation for this DIY spirit tends to vary with the project, but here, in no particular order, are a few reasons that pop up frequently.

  • To save money: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I’m cheap. I want to stretch every household dollar as far as it can reasonably go without breaking. Starting with basic ingredients prepared at home is almost assuredly gentler on your wallet than pre-fab food.
  • To make it taste better: I honestly believe that the best food is never, ever going to come from a box mix or a shelf-stable pre-made package. This is not to say I’m a food snob; I’ll eat just about anything you put in front of me. Food should sustain your body, yes, but it should also nourish your soul, so if I’m the one slinging grub, I’m going to make it the best grub I can possibly sling.
  • To make it better for you: Soup made at home is, unless you’re very heavy handed, certain to contain less sodium than the canned or frozen variety. You can opt to make foods with healthier ingredients (for example olive oil vs. vegetable oil, butter vs. shortening, etc…)
  • To avoid certain ingredients: Thankfully, my husband, children and self are free of food allergies, but there are still certain preservatives and ingredients that I choose not to serve to us. Making our own food from scratch is a much easier way to accomplish that than obsessively reading labels.
  • To know the source of the item: This is not a star-bellied sneetch issue; I don’t care whether something has stars on thars. The problem is that there have been some real problems in the recent past with food, household, or health and beauty items that did not meet safety standards. Besides, why pay for something to come from overseas when I can make it here at home, saving goodness-knows-how-much fuel and/or energy for better purposes?
  • To prove that I can do it: It’s that pioneer spirit, that sisu, that I-don’t-know-what. It’s the same reason my dad put on his winter kit and walked around the house three times after the meteorologist said that the weather was too bad for anyone to be outside. We do this because we are capable and we are not intimidated. If a machine can make it, I darned well better be able to make it, too. (This is where we pound our chests and do warrior cries, folks.)

Chocolate syrup is a big deal around here. Chocolate syrup is stirred into cold milk for chocolate milk, hot milk for hot chocolate, blended into smoothies, squirted on ice cream, peanut butter and banana sandwiches, pound cake,  and –when I’m not looking- directly into mouths. We consume it in vast quantities. A couple years back, I got tired of actively ignoring the ingredient lists (the major brands all have high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavouring, food dyes, and other things on my no-no- list) and paying through the nose for the privilege. A little experimentation yielded a vastly superior in taste, higher quality, far less expensive chocolate syrup that was simple to make and required nothing more exotic than Dutch-processed cocoa powder.

I played around with the classic Alton Brown cocoa syrup recipe and found that our crew greatly preferred it made with raw sugar because of the light caramel undertones it delivers and the added richness. Honestly. How could rich + chocolate go wrong? I make at least one batch (sometimes more if the hot chocolate consumption is especially high around these parts) of this good stuff a month.

Bonuses: If you are looking for fat-free, this recipe is for you! If you’re not looking for fat-free, I suggest making it anyway. This chocolate syrup is mighty good. This syrup can be made with honey if you have corn allergies or aversions chez you.  Try finding a chocolate syrup at the store that is corn syrup free for this price!

Print
Homemade Chocolate Syrup

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

This simple homemade DIY chocolate syrup delivers a mega punch of deep, dark, and chocolatey flavour for drizzling on ice cream, stirring into milk, blending into Coffee Milkshakes , or whatever else your chocolate-loving heart desires.

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ cups water
  • 3 cups raw sugar
  • 1 ½ cups Dutch-processed cocoa powder
  • 1 ½ tablespoons vanilla extract (preferably homemade)
  • ¼ teaspoon kosher or sea salt
  • 2 tablespoons light corn syrup or mild honey

Instructions

Bring water and sugar to a boil in a medium-to-large saucepan (this will expand as it boils in later stages of the recipe), stirring until sugar is dissolved.

Whisk in the remaining ingredients until the cocoa powder is also dissolved. Return to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until slightly thickened, about 5-8 minutes. You do not want to boil it until it is very thick, as it will become even more viscous as it cools.

Pour the hot syrup through a fine mesh strainer and let cool to room temperature before transferring into squeeze bottles.

Notes: Dutch-processed cocoa powder is used here because it dissolves more easily in liquids than common (a.k.a. natural) cocoa powder; No matter what its other benefits, a homemade chocolate syrup that is gritty isn’t what we want. Dutch-processed cocoa powder is generally easy to find in grocery stores with well-stocked baking sections and in bulk food stores. I use raw sugar in this recipe because I like the added depth of flavour and touch of caramel it contributes. If you cannot find it easily (it is also sold under the names turbinado, sugar-in-the-raw, and demerara) you can substitute white granulated sugar for it. You can get squeeze bottles at big box stores or in the kitchen notions sections of grocery stores. If you use an opaque ketchup or mustard bottle to store your syrup, remember to label it so you don’t forget what’s in there at an inopportune moment. While chocolate syrup is good on many things, hot dogs and hamburgers are not among them.
http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/08/25/chocolate-syrup/

Filed Under: Chocolate, Component Foods, Condiments, Instructional, kid food, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: , , , ,

Strawberry Balsamic Thyme Freezer Jam

June 29, 2011 by 11 Comments

When I was small, my mom made strawberry freezer jam every year during Michigan’s brief and glorious strawberry season.

It was my mom’s thing: her annual food preservation pièce de résistance. She scattered packets and boxes of pectin thither and yon, she mashed berries with the bottoms of drinking glasses, her potato masher, and anything else she could fit into her bowl.  Her blonde hair had strawberry streaks, her hands were fuchsia , and she smelled like a strawberry patch for days on end. True to her style, she never measured (measuring was a creativity killer and the man’s way of keeping her down*) but somehow it always turned out to be the best thing we had eaten all year.

*Power to the people! Or Up with the People! Oh, geez. I can never get that right. I’m sorry, Mom.

I played around with cooked jam over the years, but it never drew close to the juicy, soft-set, fresh-from-the-field taste of strawberry freezer jam. Is it because of my formative years and my mom’s painting the kitchen with strawberries? Oh, probably…

I want my kids to have that same memory when they’re adults. The full sensory memory of watching their mom make jam: smelling, tasting, feeling the ripe strawberries… The anticipation of the flavour when a jar is fetched from the freezer and twisted open… I want them to have a vision of me with strawberry streaks on my cheeks (since my hair is not light enough to show it), fuchsia hands and smelling like a strawberry patch. Of course, their Mama measures obsessively, but every childhood is a little different, isn’t it? At least I got the important stuff in there.

…And my jam, well, now it has two crucial ingredients that my Mom didn’t put in hers. Balsamic vinegar and fresh thyme.

I know it might sound bizarre, but this is the most strawberry-y jam ever. If you can imagine the most fresh, juicy, flavour-packed strawberry you’ve ever had that is multiplied by about fifteen, you have an idea of what this tastes like.

You may already know that adding balsamic vinegar to strawberries boosts the flavour, but did you know that infusing it with thyme has a similar effect? And when you add balsamic AND thyme, you get knock-you-flat strawberryness. Whizz-bang, ka-pow, shammalammadingdong strawberry power is what Strawberry Balsamic Thyme Freezer Jam is.

I was already a big fan of the strawberry/thyme combination thanks to my good buddy, Krysta over at Evil Chef Mom and the strawberry/balsamic combination thanks to, um, I don’t know what. I first read about combining all of them in jam form, though, over on Serious Eats when Lucy Baker made a batch that sounded tantalizing.

When I read Lucy’s post, I knew that was going to happen as soon as the sleepy New York strawberries finally burst onto the scene.

A friend brought a whole flat of strawberries my way two days ago and thankfully, I remembered my previous plans. Mercifully. Appreciatively. I am so grateful that I remembered those plans because this is the best strawberry jam I’ve ever shoveled shamelessly into my mouth by the spoonful.

Best. Strawberry. Jam. Ever.

(…except for my Mom’s…)

A Note About the Pectin I Use:

Pomona’s Universal Pectin is well worth any trouble you have finding it. You can double, triple or quadruple recipes (or more if you have appropriately sized vessels for preparing massive batches of jam) with no ill-effects, unlike most “normal” pectins. It has no funky preservatives, additives, and allows you to make the best jam you’ve ever eaten with much less sugar than your average pectin (even the low-sugar varieties) or no sugar at all.  I’m getting nothing out of this, the Pomona’s people don’t even know I exist *sniffsniff*. I seriously believe their product is the best and have years worth of experience to back up my claims.

Yes, it looks expensive. I mean honestly, $4-$6 per box? Yipes! But if you break it down, you’ll realize that each box has enough pectin powder to make 2-4 batches of jam. That works out to about $3.00 per batch (calculating for liberal use) which is equal to or  better than the most common commercial pectins. When you add the convenience of larger batches to the equal or better price per batch, I think the comparative value makes Pomona’s the much better bet.

You can use a standard commercial pectin to make Strawberry Balsamic Thyme Freezer Jam (see recipe notes) if necessary, but I stand by Pomona’s!

5.0 from 1 reviews

Print
Strawberry Balsamic Thyme Freezer Jam
Author: 
Recipe type: Condiment
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 48
 

Don’t let the complicated name fool you. This freezer jam is pure strawberry. While the balsamic vinegar and thyme may sound wacky, they both simply enhance the explosive natural freshness of strawberries.
Ingredients
  • 4 cups mashed, hulled strawberries
  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • ¾-2 cups granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon Pomona’s Universal Pectin Powder(*See notes) + ¼ cup Pomona’s Calcium Water (or more, if necessary.)
  • 1 cup water
  • 3 sprigs fresh thyme

Instructions
  1. Prepare freezer-safe jars or containers with airtight lids that can hold up to 6 cups of jam. (**See Notes)
  2. Stir together sugar, crushed berries, balsamic vinegar and lemon juice in a large mixing bowl.
  3. Add sprigs of thyme to water and bring to a boil.
  4. Strain and measure ¾ cup into a blender carafe.
  5. Sprinkle the pectin powder over the boiling water in the blender and add the lid.
  6. Open the vent on the blender lid, cover with a doubled dish towel or wash cloth, and blend on high for 1-2 minutes or until the pectin powder is completely dissolved.
  7. Scrape into the berry mixture and stir well.
  8. Pour the pectin water into the berry mixture and stir very well to combine. It should start to gel visibly. If it does not gel (although the gel will be much more soft-set than cooked jam), add 1 teaspoon of calcium water and blend well, repeating if necessary.
  9. Ladle into prepared containers to within ½” of the rims, fix the lids on tightly and freeze immediately.

Notes
*If you can’t or don’t want to find Pomona’s Pectin, you can make your normal freezer jam (following the directions for the pectin you use) but adding 1 tablespoon each of balsamic vinegar and lemon juice per 2 cups of crushed berries along with the amount of sugar specified in the pectin’s recipe.. To infuse the jam with thyme flavour, simmer the fresh thyme sprigs with the water and pectin. **You can use Gladware or Rubbermaid containers or canning jars. I prefer to use canning jars with two piece lids.

WordPress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

 

Filed Under: Canning, Condiments, Food Preservation, Freezer Pleaser, kid food, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Recipes, Vegetarian Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Bacon and Eggs Candy

April 22, 2011 by 6 Comments

I love food with a sense of humour. Something silly that makes you giggle and screams, “EAT ME!” *

*Well, unless something is actually screaming “eat me” which would be more than just a little disconcerting.

It just doesn’t get much cuter than these little “Bacon and Eggs” candies that I saw years ago in Taste of Home and again at What Megan’s Making. And it doesn’t get much easier, either. You need three ingredients. Just three. You need about ten minutes, including clean-up. In short, you get a big, adorable pay-off for a very small commitment.

Let’s talk options, shall we? I’ve seen them made with white chocolate or white baking chips, but I’m not a big fan of either of those, so I substituted yogurt candy chips. These are often available in bulk sections of better stocked groceries or in candy making supply aisles in crafting stores. Of course, if you are a white chocolate lover, don’t knock yourself out sourcing the yogurt candy chips.  It turns out looking just as cutesy with the white chocolate.

There is just one problem, though. They’re a little too easy to eat. May I suggest you make them before Easter to pop into baskets or take to fellowship hour so that you don’t eat them all yourself? Unless of course you have self-control, which I don’t. As soon as these little beasts were finished setting up, I bagged them and tied the bags with a double knot. I know myself. This was crucial.

One final note… About three quarters of the way through assembling the candies, I had a thought. I popped some orange M&Ms on a few to be “pastured eggs”. Those look much more like the eggs we get from our ladies…

For my fellow chicken owners, it’s two egg jokes (or yolks) in one. Orange you glad I did it? It’s a double yolker. I crack me up. You might want to tell me to stop now because I have some eggcellent puns. Alright. Now,shell you goo make yourself some candy? One, two, three: SCRAMBLE!

 

Print
Bacon and Eggs Candy
Author: 
Recipe type: Candy, Dessert
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 20
 

This uber-cute candy is done in about five minutes and only requires three ingredients. Tuck some into Easter baskets or surprise your favorite sweet-tooth with a plate of these tonight.
Ingredients
  • 1 bag thin pretzel sticks
  • 1 bag (about 1 pound) yogurt candy baking chips or discs (or white chocolate chips or white baking chips)
  • About 40-50 yellow and orange M&Ms

Instructions
  1. Lay silpats, parchment paper or waxed paper on three cookie sheets.
  2. Arrange pairs of pretzels side by side with a small space between them on the prepared cookie sheets.
  3. Put yogurt candy baking chips (or white chocolate or white chips) into a microwave safe bowl.
  4. Heat at about 70% power for 1 minute.
  5. Remove from microwave, stir, and return to the microwave.
  6. Heat at 70% power in 30 second bursts, stirring after each burst, until smooth.
  7. Use a spoon or piping bag to spread about 2 teaspoons of the melted candy over the pairs of pretzel sticks in the rough shape of an egg.
  8. Drop an M&M on top of the melted candy in the center of each pair of pretzels.
  9. Let cool and firm completely before transferring to an airtight container for storage at room temperature.

Notes
Yogurt candy baking discs are found in the bulk or candy making sections at better stocked groceries and crafting stores. If you can’t find them, or don’t prefer them, use white chocolate or plain white baking chips or melting discs.

WordPress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

 

 

 

Filed Under: candy, Recipes Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Bourbon and Vanilla Infused Sugar

March 29, 2011 by 8 Comments

My friend Pamela is a good person to know.

She knits the most amazing things. She sews like an angel and can sing your pants off*.

*Make that sings like an angel and can sew your pants on. Really. She could probably sing while sewing on your pants and knitting you a sweater. She’s good like that.

Her kids and my kids and her mister and my mister and she and I get along famously.  A few weeks back, as our crew was getting ready to leave their casa, my kids started complaining loudly about how starved they were. STARVED, they said. Clearly this was hooey since they had done nothing but eat all day without cease.  Pamela, though, kind soul that she is, saw in an instant just how much longer that one hour drive home would feel with five griping children. She rifled through her cabinets and handed the kids a goody bag full of chips, crackers and granola bars. Then she handed me a jar full of a concoction from her own private stash; Bourbon and Vanilla Infused Raw Sugar.

Home again, I tucked the kids into bed, cracked open the jar, sniffed and swooned.  Bourbon and vanilla swirled around me.  I dipped my finger into the jar and sampled and swooned again. Holy moly. Oh yummy yum yum. The caramel crunchy raw sugar had soaked up all the bourbon and vanilla flavours. Every little grain was a perfect blend of caramel, bourbon and vanilla.

Life is very good with a jar of this around the house. Happily, Pamela shared her method. And luckily for all of us, it’s as easy to make as a cup of boiled water.

Bourbon and Vanilla Infused Sugar

Scroll to the bottom for an easy-print version of this recipe.

Yield: About 2 quarts of infused sugar. Keeps indefinitely.

Ingredients:

  • 4-6 whole vanilla beans, split in half lengthwise
  • 8 cups raw (turbinado or demerara) sugar
  • 6 teaspoons bourbon (Use one that is good enough to sip for best results.)

Fill a wide-mouthed half-gallon jar about halfway with raw sugar, shove the split vanilla beans into the sugar and pour 2 teaspoons of the bourbon into the jar.

Pour more sugar into the jar until it is about 2/3 full. Pour in another 2 teaspoons of bourbon. Tighten the lid on the jar and shake the jar HARD and repeatedly to distribute the ingredients well. Open the lid, fill the sugar to the bottom ring of the jar.  Add the remaining 2 teaspoons of bourbon, tighten the lid again and shake it, shake it, shake it. Shake what your Mama gave you.  Stash the jar in a cool, dark place for at least a week before using. You can top the jar off as it gets lower, just lid it and shake it every time you do.

If the sugar hardens up, place a slice of apple in the jar, tighten the lid and let it sit overnight. Remove the apple and stir before re-lidding.

Print
Bourbon and Vanilla Infused Sugar
Author: 
Recipe type: Condiment, Ingredient
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

 

Crunchy textured, caramelly, raw sugar infused with real vanilla beans and bourbon. Sprinkle on cookies, cakes, muffins or stir into coffee, tea, or hot chocolate.
Ingredients
  • 4-6 whole vanilla beans, split in half lengthwise
  • 8 cups raw (turbinado or demerara) sugar
  • 6 teaspoons bourbon (Use one that is good enough to sip for best results.)

Instructions
  1. Fill a wide-mouthed half-gallon jar about halfway with raw sugar, shove the split vanilla beans into the sugar and pour 2 teaspoons of the bourbon into the jar. Pour more sugar into the jar until it is about ⅔ full. Pour in another 2 teaspoons of bourbon. Tighten the lid on the jar and shake the jar HARD and repeatedly to distribute the ingredients well. Open the lid, fill the sugar to the bottom ring of the jar. Add the remaining 2 teaspoons of bourbon, tighten the lid again and shake it, shake it, shake it. Shake what your Mama gave you. Stash the jar in a cool, dark place for at least a week before using. You can top the jar off as it gets lower, just lid it and shake it every time you do.

Notes
If the sugar hardens up, place a slice of apple in the jar, tighten the lid and let it sit overnight. Remove the apple and stir before re-lidding.

WordPress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

 

 

Filed Under: Component Foods, Condiments, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: , , , ,
«Older Posts
Newer Posts»