Tea Jar

While I was in Denver, my friend Jen and I went to Crate and Barrel. I had not previously been to one so this was a great experience! Crate and Barrel was slightly overpriced but contained a lot of great, unique, and beautiful items. I found exactly what I was looking for within minutes of arriving.I found a Tea Jar! A very large glass jar with a lid and a spout. With how fast Sam goes through sweet tea in our house, I have to keep it on hand at all times! I had a bunch of lemons and strawberries so I made some strawberry lemonade for a 'welcome to our family, now hold our delicious drinks' celebration.

To make homemade lemonade, you'll need water, lemons, and sugar.

I used about 10 lemons and probably about a gallon or so of water. Squeeze lemons into water and then throw the whole lemon inside the jar. You could use lemon juice from a squeezy bottle, but it wouldn't quite be homemade then, would it?! I also added about 9 strawberries to make it deliciously flavored. I put approximately one cup of sugar in the jar. I like my lemonade tart! ENJOY!

On a side note, I collect movie ticket stubs and concert stubs. I have collected all my stubs from the past ten years. I've been wanting to frame them all or hang them somehow, but could not figure out how to do it. I didn't have a big enough frame either. While at Goodwill a few weeks ago, I bought a coffee table for our living room to set drinks on. It is glass top and you can lift the glass to reveal a wood enclosure, like a shadow box almost. I decided THAT is where I would put all my stubs.

Sweet tea and stubs!

We are just sitting down from a long day. I bought a new pair of running shoes, Sam and I worked on the house a bit, and we went on a 3.5 mile walk/jog. We're going to watch Pirates of the Caribbean, At Worlds End. Yay! Here are my new shoes. They are fantastic.

There are little pockets of air in the bottom. Reebok claims these shoes will help tone your legs while you run. I think it's a bunch of bahooey, to be honest, but I liked the way they felt.

Back to work tomorrow! Hope you have a grand day!

Cookies

Today was a cookies day. I baked chocolate chip cookies as well as peanut butter / pb chocolate chip cookies. I gingerly mixed the sugar and flour, the eggs and butter, the salt and brown sugar. I hoped with all my might that the baking soda and powder I added would make the cookies rise as big as the Roman Empire and not flatten like a deflated balloon on a hot summers day. On a side note, I don't measure baking powder or soda anymore. I just add a bit. This method seems to work for me.

Chocolate chip cookies turned out great. Perfectly puffed and wonderfully crisp on the outside and soft on the center. My peanut butter cookies came out very wrinkled! Is the oven a time machine that ages whatever is inserted by years and years? Most definitely. I whipped up a batch of my peanut butter frosting (you can't have peanut butter cookies without frosting!) and frosted those little cookies like a mad woman.

Today was also cheesecake day. I made the equivalent of 2 cheesecakes in batter and poured all the batter into a large rectangular pan, no crust. I baked this for 50 minutes and turned off the oven to let it cook slightly. Tomorrow, first thing, I will scoop out balls of cheesecake and stuff a lollipop stick in them. I will then freeze them and dip them in chocolate later. CHEESECAKE POPS!

Work has been slow. Are we worried? A tad. I am a bit discouraged. We have great food. We have a great staff. I will admit the location is not optimal. I don't know what we need to do to get more business. Dave is searching for a Marketing person to go out to the bigger businesses (banks, hospitals, etc) to gain catering and delivery business.

Tomorrow will be a good day. I hope to make my cheesecake balls first thing in the morning (perhaps get all fancy and dip some in nuts or sprinkles after chocolate!) and then I hope to make tiramisu. EEH! I will be sure to take pictures and write the directions out for you.

Have a great day!