Oh, Those Tasty Beverages!

Sipping something warm and spicy during the winter holidays has always been a treat. For some it is a special blend of coffee, others hot chocolate.

I decided even though the weather outside is not frightful but wonderfully warm, I would go ahead and share with you a few of my favorite drink recipes.

The tea and mull can be made up to give as a gift for a teacher, co-worker or even a neighbor. You can place the mixes in a mason jar or in a plastic sandwich size bag stuck down into a mug.

The first recipe has been around for ages. I remember the first time my mom made this and gave it to us kids. The first thought was “Oh what is she giving us now!” Needless to say after the first sip, it became a favorite in our house.

I made this one year for the women I worked with in probation. I had to laugh at one of the women. She was so tickled I had made this. She had not had the tea since she was child and had always loved the taste it. These are times when making your gifts are so special. 

Russian Friendship Tea:

This tea does not really taste like tea, you could say it tastes like hot orange cider. It does have tea in it, but the Tang, lemonade, and spices overwhelm the black tea taste.

The recipe makes 4 cups of mix. Single serving would be 2 to 3 teaspoons of mix into a mug of hot water.

Ingredients:

1½ cups of white sugar

2 cups of instant orange tang

½ cup Lipton Instant Iced Tea Mix, sweetened

1 envelope of Kool-Aid lemon aid, unsweetened

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground allspice

½ teaspoon ground cloves

Directions:

Combine all ingredients and store in an airtight container.

Wine/Cider Mulls

This is a wonderful way to give a mull as gift. The mull itself is stuffed into half an orange peel, then decorated by pressing whole cloves and cinnamon stick into the middle. Wrap the half orange in a clear cellophane and present with a bottle of red wine.

 For non-alcoholic drinkers like myself, give with a good jug of apple cider.

Make sure you include the recipe for Mulled Wine found below!

This recipe will make two mulls

Ingredients:

1 medium orange, cut in half and pulp removed

½ cup packed brown sugar

2 teaspoons allspice

½ teaspoon nutmeg

2- 2” cinnamon sticks

Whole cloves

Directions:

Preheat oven to 200°F

Place a ball of foil inside the half-orange ball and place upside down on a baking sheet. Dry in oven 4 to 5 hours. Remove foil and dry an additional 15 minutes.

In a small bowl combine brown sugar, allspice and nutmeg, divide

Pack half of mix into a orange half.Decorate with cloves and cinnamon stick, repeat.

Recipe for Mulled Wine/Cider:

Place 1 mull and bottle of red wine, in a large saucepan

Simmer over low heat for 20 minutes. Serve hot

The next recipe comes from a friend on writers/readers group. Thanks Fatin!

Gingerbread Spiced Coffee Syrup

"This is delightful spicy syrup that you can use to spice up coffee, tea, apple cider, you name it, it's all good! Add a tablespoon to your favorite beverage, use it in whipped cream, or brush it on cakes. Drizzle it on yogurt, oatmeal, or pancakes - the possibilities are endless!"

 Ingredients:

  1 cup water

  1 cup sugar

  1 tablespoon honey

  1 (1 inch) piece fresh ginger root, sliced

  1 cinnamon stick, broken into large pieces

8 whole cloves

1/2 teaspoon whole allspice berries

1/2 teaspoon whole peppercorns

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions:

In a saucepan over medium-high heat, combine water, sugar, and honey. Stir in ginger, cinnamon stick, cloves, allspice, peppercorns, and nutmeg; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool for 20 minutes, and then strain through a fine mesh sieve, or double layer cheesecloth.

Candied Citrus Peels

After read the blog yesterday, a few people have asked for the recipe to the candied citrus peels. You can use any citrus fruit your prefer. I usually make lemon and orange. I  have never made the lime or grapefruit. My son loves lemons any way he can get them. If I let him, he will eat them like an orange. I usually use 5 lemons and 1 orange when making the candied peels, so the rest of us have a chance at the lemon ones.  

The trick to making these is making sure you cook the peels enough. If you do not, the orange especially will not taste good and will have that bitter peel taste to them. These are very simple make; a lot simpler than the fudge, I think.

Grandma’s Candied Citrus Peels:

Ingredients:

4 lemons, 2 oranges, and 2 limes

4 1/3 cups of water

1 cup of white sugar

1 cup of raw or rock sugar, if need be white sugar can be substituted but it will change the look and taste of the peels

Directions:

Peel the fruit, and scrape off any of the white pith.

Julienne peel into strips, 1 ½ inches long by ¼ to 1/8 inch wide

Bring 4 cups of water to a boil and simmer the peels six minutes

Drain and rinse in cold water, set aside

Bring 1/3 cup of water and white sugar to simmer, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.

When sugar is dissolved, cover and simmer for 8 minutes

Removed from heat and stir in the cooked peels, let steep for one hour.

After an hour roll remove peels from pan roll in the raw sugar.

I lay my peels out on a wire rack covered with wax paper to dry.

Lisa's Orange Cake

My Aunt Jackie gave me this recipe; she got it from my Cousin Lisa. The recipe is written using low or no fat ingredients. You can use full fat or full calorie ingredients but it would a waste, this cake is full of flavor as written. If you like chocolate orange flavor, you could substitute the yellow cake out for a chocolate one!

Ingredients:

 1 box yellow or white cake mix

 2 boxes of sugar-free vanilla pudding (instant)

 2 cans of mandarin oranges can size 11 oz., drained

 Sunkist diet orange drink

2 tubs of frozen Cool-whip topping, light

 Orange flavoring/ extract

 Directions:

Heat oven to 350°F

Prepare a 13x9 cake pan per the box cake directions

In a large bowl add cake mix, one box of pudding and one can of oranges (mixer will break up oranges) one tablespoon of orange flavoring/extract and one cup of orange drink.

 Bake for about 35 to 40 minutes, check center with toothpick

Completely cool cake.

 Mix partial thawed topping with 1 box of pudding and one tablespoon of orange flavor/extract. Spread on cake and place drained oranges on top.

This would be great to make the day before an event; it gets better the longer it sits.

 Keep refrigerated

Battle Colds and Boost Your Vitamin Intake

The temperature outside Tuesday morning was forty-four degrees; summer is over. Bring on the cold and flu season. In our house, we fight the cold and flu season with fruit smoothies.

 If your children are mine, getting them to swallow a vitamin pill can be more hassle than it is worth. This tasty smoothie has solved the "swallow your pill" fight in our house. We make this two different ways, depending on which ingredient is on hand.  One variation is with Yoplait Light Yogurt, the other with Simply Orange brand orange juice.

I will buy and freeze fresh fruit in the summer for winter use, but you can buy cut-frozen fruit in the freezer section of the grocery store.

This recipe will also accept a vanilla flavored, whey protein powder, without altering the flavor

 

Ingredients:

1 cup of Simply Orange, orange juice / Or 1 container of Yoplait Light yogurt (vanilla, or one of the fruits in the smoothie)

6 whole strawberries, fresh if you have them, can be frozen

1 cup sliced peaches, frozen

1 medium banana,

¼ cup of blueberries, frozen

(If you are using fresh fruit add 6 ice cubes)

Directions:

Place orange juice in blender followed by, blueberries, strawberries, banana, then peaches (and ice if needed)

Blend on high until smooth, if need be you can add warm water ¼ cup at a time.

Should make 16 plus ounces

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