Showing posts with label drinks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label drinks. Show all posts
Ever since the Harry Potter hoopla hit our house, and it's been going on over five years now, my girls have been obsessed with anything to do with Harry Potter. They've had the Bertie Bott's every flavored beans, for example. So you know that the butter beer experiment is not far behind. Ever since we've tried it, this has become a tradition of sorts in our house. They just have to have butter beer the night before Christmas. Here's the best recipe we've found so far. It's a cholesterol attack waiting to happen, but what the heck, you only have it once a year! That is if they don't ask for it on New Year's Eve :)
Ingredients:
1 pint vanilla ice cream (softened)
1/2 stick butter (softened)
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 quart apple cider
Directions:
Cream butter, sugar and spices together. Beat in the vanilla ice cream. Re-freeze the mixture. Scoop out the frozen mixture into a glass. Pour hot Apple cider over the ice cream mixture.
Optional: add an ounce of rum for an adult treat.
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A case of these sexy POMs arrived at our door not long ago. If you didn't know what POM juice is or had never seen them at your grocer's before, then you're in for a treat. These are 100% pomegranate juice and only juice and that's the honest to goodness truth. Because they do not contain any preservatives, do not look for them on the juice aisle. Look for them in the refrigerated section, most likely in the produce area (that's where I've always found them).
My girls and I have always loved fresh pomegranates. We get them all the time when they are available (mostly around fall) and when they are on sale. We've tried to get their dad to eat the fruit with us especially since it's been found to be beneficial to prostate health. Studies claim that men who have been diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer were found to have reduced PSA levels after drinking POM juice regularly. The seeds on the fresh pomegranates have always been a deterrent to my husband liking them or eating them on a regular basis. In its juice form though, he would gladly drink it daily. He said he liked the flavor. It reminded him of cranberry juice which he also likes.
Besides prostate health, pomegranate juice is also beneficial to your cardiovascular health. Research has shown that people who drank pomegranate juice regularly had reduced the amount of plaque in their arteries. If you didn't know, atherosclerosis, the build up of plaque in the arteries is a leading factor in heart disease which is one of the deadliest disease in our society today.
So for your health or just because they taste so good, make sure you try out POM juice next time you're at the grocery story. They come in the original pomegranate flavor (my favorite) but they also come blended with other flavors like blueberry, cherry, mango and tangerine.
You can also cook with pomegranate juice, just take a look at the various recipes you can make with POM. I was thinking of making a flan with POM syrup, but wouldn't you know it, my husband and kids drank all the juice before I could get to it! Now I'll have to go buy some more.
At least I got to taste a glass full before it was all gone :) It was very refreshing!
Visit our other blogs:
Amoores.com
Cooked from the Heart - our new food blog
Our New Backyard - garden & photo blog
Found Not Lost - about all the things we 'find' worth talking about
One of the perks of enjoying good food, for me, is that it is usually best accompanied by a good glass of wine. I'm not a wine expert, but just like the appreciation of good food, I too am still discovering something new everyday about wine. A couple of weeks ago, we had a wine tasting here at work and I learned a little more then. The wine guy, or if you want to get fancy, sommelier, who conducted the wine tasting brought some new wines that I hadn't tasted before and probably would have been too scared to try if it hadn't been offered to me. They were so good that my husband and I immediately went to their wine store and got a couple of bottles to enjoy at home.
A wine club would essentially serve the same purpose of introducing you to new types and makes of wine. For instance, a club like the CA Wine Club will introduce you to the best of California's artisan wineries. You can sample wines from award winning wineries that aren't usually found in your local wine store. There are three wine clubs to choose from, depending on your preference: The CA Wine Club, The Upper Level Club and the International Selections. In addition to sampling wines, you also benefit by receiving a subscription to the newsletter, Uncorked. You can get assistance from experienced wine consultants in choosing the right wines or just to answer your questions. As club member you will also get 50% off the retail price when you reorder a wine that you have sampled. The best thing is, there is no contract to join the club. You can cancel your membership at anytime and membership is free, no fees. All the wines sent to you are 100% guaranteed. That means there is no risk of getting a 'bad' bottle of wine. Can't beat a deal like that, can you?
If you're interested, you can also give as gift a wine club membership. If you sign up now, they will give your first month's shipment free. All you have to do is pay for the shipping which is $13 and you'll get two bottles of wine, a savings of $34.95. Check out their website and learn about the program.
It's summer time again for sure when you can't stay but a minute outside and you are already sweating and sticky without doing anything more strenous than lifting a glass of iced tea. I'm loving it though. It gives me an excuse to come up with cooling treats like Halo-halo.
Halo-Halo is the Filipino version of the summertime ice treat. Halo-halo, which means mix-mix literally, has its various renditions in different countries: Ice kakang in Malaysia, Es Teler in Indonesia, Ruam Mit in Thailand, Three Bean Drink/Rainbow Ice in Vietnam, and of course don't forget it's simpler sister, the Italian ice.
There are a great many versions of halo-halo so I won't put a recipe here, but here are more halo-halos on the web if you're interested in making your own.
As you may have noticed from the sampling of recipes for halo-halo, there isn't a strict recipe for it, put what flavors you like and enjoy!
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Another summer time treat that I remember is this cantaloupe juice. I remember buying this from street vendors when I was growing up in the Philippines. I don't know why, but the steet bought juice was always so much better than the known to be hygenically prepared juice from home. Today, I make this when I have a cantaloupe that is slightly over ripe and too mushy for the girls to eat as is. The girls have taken a liking to this refreshing drink and so has my hubby who was a bit skeptical about watering down a cantaloupe.
Filipino Cookbooks
I thought Jade took such a pretty picture of her concoction and I was waiting for her to post her recipe, but she didn't ever get around to it. So I thought I would just post her drink here for something pretty :-D
Maybe one of these days she'll remember what she put in this.
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