Caipirinha

Recently, Aaron took me to an awesome restaurant called Texas de Brazil.  The food was beyond amazing, but at around $50 per person, I suggest signing up for their membership...you'll get a buy one get one free pass during the month of your birthday.  Aside from the incredible food, they had a cocktail that I'd never even heard of before (that's pretty hard to find since we just finished our bartending class!).  It's called the Caipirinha and it's Brazil's national drink.  It's made from a unique spirit called Cachaça which is a rum made from fermented and distilled sugar cane and is only made in Brazil.  

The Caipirinha is surprisingly simple with only three ingredients:  Cachaça, sugar, and lime juice.  The sugar and lime is muddled in the glass and the Cachaça is added on top...serve over ice and you've got a very tasty beverage!  If you prefer something a little sweeter, add a touch of your favorite fruit puree and it only gets better.  We loved the drink so much that we went out searching for the Cachaça at our local liquor store.  I will say, it's not the easiest thing to find but our ABC did have it in stock.  If you can't find it locally, it is available online. The brand we tried and eventually purchased was Lablon.  

If you enjoy an occasional cocktail, I strongly recommend you give this a try if you can.  It's delicious!  PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE always drink responsibly!!!  Don't overindulge and definitely don't drive!

Recipe for Caipirinha

Cachaça

1 fresh lime

2 tbsp sugar

ice

Cut fresh lime into sections.  

Add sugar, muddle.

Add 2 oz Cachaça.  

Serve over ice.  Garnish with lime wedge.

Foam Tiles=Awesome Photo Op!

A while back, my mother-in-law, Debi, gave me a package of those foam letter/number puzzle tiles.  She said they make great mats for little ones to have tummy time on.  Since we have tile floors, I think we can use all the extra padding we can get for Ayden.  Anyway, I put them down and as usual, I started snapping picture after picture of my son at play.  As I was snapping away, I noticed how cute the tiles were as a backdrop for pictures.  Bright and colorful...and his sweet baby face really popped with all the color behind him.  

Lightbulb...they're letters and numbers...you can SPELL WORDS with them.  Duh.

So I found the letters to his name and spelled his first name, the date and then one row of random letters and numbers to set him down on.  Wouldn't you know it...makes a really cute way to chronical his growth!

5 months

6 months

I know my pictures aren't the best quality, but I think the concept is pretty darn cool!  My only regret is that I didn't think of this sooner.  I still think it'll make a really fun display for his first birthday party!

Goin' Greek

Before you get all excited...no, I'm not running away to Greece with a handsome Greek man.  I'm not that lucky.  (Just kidding, honey!)

I'm sure you've all heard about the Greek yogurt craze that has been going on for a while.  I have been SO reluctant to buy into it.  Yeah, sure it's healthier for you...it's yogurt...but can it really replace my Yoplait?  I doubt it.  Well in an effort to get healthy...I caved.  I bought three different brands of Greek yogurt to see if it was all it was cracked up to be.  The verdict: not a fan.  Honestly, it's not bad, but it doesn't taste anything like 'regular' yogurt.  I suppose my expectation was my first problem.  It's not the same thing, so why should it taste the same?  I found that it's much more tangy than yogurt and if I'm going to eat it say, for breakfast, I'd go with the Fage that has a 'two compartment' container where the larger compartment contains plain yogurt and the other, smaller side has a fruit jam that's pretty tasty.  I like it separate so that I can customize how sweet I want my yogurt.

Something I did notice while eating the plain yogurt...it tasted a lot like sour cream, but creamier!  Now, after thinking I'd had an epiphany, I read online that there may have been a few who caught on before me.   Nevertheless!  I'm excited...I'm trying this out.

I decided to try my new sour cream substitute out on a classic...tacos.  Taco night is sacred in our house.  It must only come on a night where my boyfriend does not have to work the next morning.  He claims this is important so that he can take his time eating and enjoy a few beers with his meal without having to worry about getting up the next day.  If it's not bad enough that I have to schedule taco night, he's painfully picky about his tacos and their toppings.  He MUST have Taco Bell packets (chilled, of course), onion diced very small (chilled) and black olives sliced (also chilled).  Also, the sour cream must be in a bag with the tip snipped just right for easy application.  His mother assures me that his pickiness isn't her fault, and I'm inclined to think she's right...he must just be unbalanced.  I digress...

Since my dear boyfriend has been such a good sport with my other cooking adventures, I opted to offer him his regular sour cream and just try the Greek yogurt myself.  Of course, seeing something new in the kitchen usually piques his interest...he asked what the heck I was putting on my taco that wasn't sour cream.  He tried it and said that, to him, it didn't taste quite like the real deal, but **gasp** BETTER!

Holy crap.  He likes it.  Hallelujah!  So we've made the switch...healthier, keeps better, and I can add fruit and eat it for breakfast.

And in case my word isn't good enough reason for you to go try it, let me just say that 2 tablespoons of the regular Greek yogurt is approximately 28 calories.  Two tablespoons of regular sour cream is about 60 calories.  So by making this little switch you'll save yourself 32 or so calories!  Doesn't sound like a lot...but it adds up!  Let's just say you make this switch everyday for a week...that's a total of 224 calories.  You could 'spend' those calories on a Coconut Creme Frappuccino from Starbucks.  You know...if you're into that sort of thing...

Sources:
Greek Yogurt Nutrition Facts
Sour Cream Nutrition Facts
Starbucks Nutrition Facts

Greece Photo

The Perfect Glass of Iced Tea

I'm sitting here on this beautiful, sunny Florida day thinking to myself, "I'm parched."  Hmm...well considering I'm not purchasing any groceries for a while, I don't want to waste the liter of diet Coke in the fridge, I'm not in the mood for water and my darling boyfriend decided to drink my last Starbucks Refresher...what libation can I concoct?  Well duh...ice tea!  We've had tea bags in our pantry forEVER since we bought some and my dad always gives us a box when he buys them at Publix as a BOGO.

One problem.  I SUCK at making good tea.  I'm so ashamed.  I grew up on iced tea, but for some reason whenever I make it, it's bitter and just in general icky.  Yes, icky...it's a technical term.  Now, the bf likes 'sun tea' where I place water and about a zillion bags of tea in a glass jar and leave it outside for a day or two until the water becomes an almost black liquid that I'm convinced is not fit for human consumption.  Ok, well that isn't really how sun tea ought to be...but that's how he likes it.  He's weird, I know.  But what I'm after is that cool, amber colored liquid that just quenches the most unquenchable thirst.

So, I slink to my computer and pull up my Pinterest board because I seem to remember pinning something about how to make the perfect sweet tea at one point.   And in my shame, I actually read a recipe for making good tea.  Turns out...I've been missing an ingredient that really surprised me: baking soda.

Off I go to make some tea...here goes nothing!
What you'll need:

8 cups water

2 family sized bags of tea (or 6 regular bags)

8 cup Pyrex bowl (or similar)

a pinch of baking soda (not pictured)

A vessel of choice to hold the final product

First step...boil 2 cups of water.  Pour the boiling water (carefully!) into the 8 cup Pyrex bowl.

Add the tea bags, keeping the tags out of the water.  Let steep.  (I steeped mine for about 10 minutes.  It really depends on how strong you like your tea...just remember that it's going to be diluted in the next step.)

Add a pinch of baking soda.
Chemistry Lesson!  Tea contains tannic acid, more commonly referred to as TANNIN.  This is what makes tea bitter.  Baking soda is a base, so adding it to an acid neutralizes it, resulting in a reduction of bitterness!

Remove tea bags, squeezing as much liquid out before you discard them (careful not to burn yourself).  Dilute with 6 cups of cold water.  Pour into a container of your choice and store in the refrigerator.

NOTE!  If you prefer SWEET tea, add sugar while it's still hot.  That's it!  I, myself, prefer to use Splenda and add it to my glass...that way anyone else who drinks it can make it as sweet (or not) as they like!

Apologies

Ok so ....as you know, I vowed to make 10 NEW vegetables in April.  You may have noticed...it's May and there are fewer than 10.

My bad.

I confess I have a bad habit of  becoming over ambitious and losing steam towards the end of the project.  I was getting fed up with the lack of selection in my local produce section and frankly...tired of cooking stuff no one would eat.

So...on to the next!

Vegetable 6: It ain't easy being greens

Being from the Midwest, I had no idea people even ate cooked greens until we moved to Florida and I encountered them on a few restaurant menus on my trip down here.  It was a bizarre concept to me...why in God's name would anyone want to eat warm, limp leaves?  I seem to remember at one time or another, my mom made me take a bite of her greens when we were out to eat (yes, I'm nearly 25 and my mom is still able to force me to eat my vegetables), but I don't recall their flavor or even what kind of greens they were.  Still...I figured for the purpose of my little experiment, they'd be worth a go.  Also...I have the beet greens leftover from when I made beets last time.  Waste not, want not!

Here's what you'll need:

Greens from about 3 beets

4 slices of bacon, chopped

4 green onions, chopped

salt and pepper

Well first things first...trim the stems off the leaves and chop those leaves into pieces.  Then rinse them thoroughly with cold water.  Shake as much of that water off as you can and set aside.

In a deep skillet, cook the bacon until crispy...be careful not to burn it!  Remove the bacon to a paper towel lined plate.  Drain all but 1 tbsp of grease from the skillet.  

Add the green onions and cook for approximately 1 minute.  Add the greens carefully and cook until tender.  This will take about 5 minutes.  Add the bacon back to the greens and serve...add salt and pepper to taste.

As you know, anything with bacon is aces in my book, but this one was a little less than great.  The greens were too bitter for my taste.  Now, I'll be the first to admit that it could have been an error on my part, or even just a bad batch of greens...but nonetheless, we probably won't be trying beet greens again anytime soon.  Perhaps next time we'll try a more 'user friendly' green like kale or collard greens.

Vegetable 5: Beet It!

Well, if you're like me, the only beets you've had in your life came out of a can.  Well canned or fresh, they are definitely a unique vegetable.  The root of the beet plant is packed with color as well as nutrients!  Beets contain folate, beta carotene, and potassium to name a few.  Beets were even used by the Ancient Romans to treat certain ailments.

So...on to the food cooking!

For this recipe, I deferred to an old favorite of ours to soften the blow of introducing yet another new vegetable to our table...risotto!  Now, for those of you who are particular about your risotto and only eat it from fancy-pants restaurants...pretend I didn't call it risotto and just roll with it.

First I roasted the beets in the oven.  Roasting makes the root soft and really develops the flavor.  I didn't add ANYTHING to the beets.  Their natural sweetness doesn't need any enhancement.  I simply scrubbed them, trimmed the ends and wrapped them in foil.  Bake in a preheated the oven to 425 for about 45 minutes (you may have to leave them longer if you have especially large beets).  When they are finished, set them aside and let them cool in the foil until you can safely handle them.  Dice them into bite sized cubes and set aside.

While your beets are roasting, make the rice.  In a saucepan, bring 4 cups broth to a simmer.  Traditionally, you would use chicken broth but I used vegetable broth since Aaron is allergic to chicken...use whichever you like. In a skillet, add 3 tbsp butter and let it melt over medium heat.  Add 1 small diced onion and cook until soft.  Add 1 cup of rice (risotto is made with Arborio rice, but we use jasmine rice...we're on a budget in this house!).  Stir to coat the rice.  Add 1/2 cup white wine.  Allow the rice to cook until most of the wine is absorbed.  Add the broth, one cup at a time and allow each cup to be absorbed before adding the next.  Once the rice is cooked through, add 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese and mix well.  Top with diced beets and serve.

Well the rice definitely made this a well received dish...the beets are a unique flavor, and I can honestly say that we'd be willing to try this one again.  However, I wasn't a fan of how pink my fingers were by the end of the night!

Ingredients:
Approximately 1 lb. fresh beet root
4 cups broth (veg. or chicken)
3 tbsp butter
1 small onion
1 cup rice
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup parmesan cheese