Lavender Chai Tea

With the advent of fall, I start thinking of amazing warm drinks. A fantastic blog, called Three Many Cooks, wrote a post in January this year called Spiced Chai Concentrate. It's one of the best tea recipes I've ever tasted, and you can make it at home! It's better than any chain-coffee-store chai that I've tried. It's also very adaptable! I don't particularly like the orange flavor in my tea, so the recipe I used below leaves that out. While I was in Chicago this summer, my friend, James, introduced me to another awesome version of chai, Lavender Chai. Inspired, I decided to take the Spiced Chai Concentrate recipe and add my own lavender twist. While chatting with one of my foodie friends, Paul, he suggested infusing the milk with lavender. Brilliant! 

Spiced Chai Concentrate  

Ingredients:

3 Tablespoons of Strong Black Tea (I prefer Darjeeling or Ceylon, but if you don't have loose leaf tea, use 5 Twinings English Breakfast teabags)

4 Cups of Water

2 Cinnamon Sticks

10 Cloves

5 Allspice Berries

2 Star Anise

1 Teaspoon of Fresh Ginger

A Pinch of Fresh Nutmeg 

1 Tablespoon of Honey

1 Tablespoon of Vanilla Extract

1/2 Cup of Brown Sugar

Cooking: 

In a stock pot, pour in all of your ingredients except the honey, vanilla and sugar. Bring this to a boil, then immediately remove from the heat and cover for 15-20minutes. In a pitcher, pour in your honey, sugar and vanilla. With a mesh strainer, pour in your steeped tea into the pitcher. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. I like to store my tea in a resealable bottle. This will keep for at least a week, but I bet it won't last that long!

Lavender Cream

Ingredients:

4 Pieces of 3" Long Fresh Lavender

3/4 Cup of Half and Half

Cooking: 

In a saucepan, pour in your half and half. Bring it to just barely simmering. Remove from heat and stir in the lavender pieces. Let sit until cool, then strain and store.

Lavender Chai Tea

Preparation:

Pour in the Spiced Chai Tea Concentrate to the Lavender Cream in a 2 to 1 ratio. Warm in the microwave or the stovetop. Enjoy! 

*I want to add a note to this recipe. I'm aware that lots of the spices above can be expensive, but I recommend going to the Dekalb Farmer's Market for your spice source if you're in the Atlanta area. The spices are very affordable there! Also, all of these spices are great to have on hand if you like Indian food! If you don't have the whole spices in your cabinet, don't panic. I have made this using the ground versions with great success, you just need to strain it through a bit of cloth* 

A Cocktail to Ring in the New Year

My husband and I went crafty for our holiday gifts this year, making soap and infusing brandy. The brandy was really great, and feeling inspired by a drink at Cakes and Ale, I decided to come up with a custom cocktail to celebrate the New Year.

Quince-Pear Holiday Brandy (makes one pint)

Ingredients:

1/2 Anjou Pear, Sliced into 4 Pieces
1/2 Quince, Sliced into 2-3 Pieces
1 Stick of Cinnamon
1/4 Vanilla Bean
3 Allspice Berries

Preparation:

Place all of the ingredients into a pint sized canning jar, then cover with brandy, leaving approximately 1/2" of space at the top of the jar, place lid on jar and let cure for 6 weeks. It's actually delicious at 4, but 6 is ideal, if you can wait.


The Brandy Resolution

Ingredients:

1/2 Ounce Blood Orange Bitters
1 Ounce Infused Brandy
1 Ounce Orange Juice
1 Egg White
Cinnamon to Garnish

Preparation:

Place all of the wet ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice, shake vigorously to foam up the egg white and pour into a martini glass. Add cinnamon to your liking. Drink up!

Happy New Year!

Southern Comforts

I've been sick this week, with the worst cold. I'm not a good sick patient, so it's pretty excellent that I am rarely taken ill. However, when a bug does strike me, it always makes me nostalgic.
In 4th grade, I had the worst teacher (I didn't know at age 9 that she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.) I would constantly call my grandmother to come and pick me up from school because, "I wasn't feeling well." Nothing could make my troubles go away faster than my grandmother's recipe for an upset stomach: a good book, rest, saltine crackers and a Red Rock Ginger Ale.
Red Rock Ginger Ale has been bottled in Atlanta since 1885. The slogan is "just the right bite," and they're not kidding! I love the way the first sip takes your breath away and makes you almost cough! It's good stuff. Babe Ruth even endorsed the soda in 1939. The cola is also delicious, both sodas are sweetened with cane sugar instead of corn syrup, and the flavor is so much richer than mass marketed sodas.
Red Rock Ginger Ale is one southern comfort that I hope lasts for a very long time!