Apple Cider and Ginger Ale, A Nice Summer Beverage

Farmer's market is here every Sunday. Chinese take-out shows up here almost as often.

At the farmer's market, I'll likely to pick up a 1/2 gallon of fresh apple cider. If we order too much take-out, we tend to get a 2-liter bottle of Ginger Ale or Orange soda. (I suppose we might get Cola or something else if we asked in advance.)

Not too many soda drinkers in the house any more, so the bottle is still half-full. (Hey, optimist!) But it's going to go flat! (Pessimist!) And I need to finish the apple cider before it ferments (not likely to happen unless I totally forget it's there) and before next Sunday when I can buy some more!

Half a glass of cider with half a glass of ginger ale works out pretty well.

Enjoy

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More pictures from the past month or so coming soon.

What's a Good Recipe for Iced Coffee?

There's a heat wave in New York City, which means three or more days of 90+-degree heat, with the accompanying humidity. And yet, I still like having cups of tea or coffee. Now, for tea, I need a cool breeze or something. I can't drink tea in the middle of a hot afternoon. Coffee, on the other hand, I can pick up at any store at any time of the day (especially McDonald's where the large coffee is still a dollar).

The one problem I have at home is that tea can be made one cup at a time, but coffee requires a pot. Even half a pot, if I wanted, but still wasting a filter that could make a pot. So I made 8-10 cups, most of which sat there for a while, until I decided to try making Iced Coffee.

Note: I would not call this a success, but it wasn't terrible either. I could work on it (or I could just get someone else's recipe).

Basically, here's what I did: In a large cup (one of those plastic, extra-large drink cups from one of those stores) I put in
4 - 5 ice cubes
2 scoops of vanilla ice cream
10 - 12 ounces of room-temperature coffee, previously brewed
3 - 4 ounces of milk

Then I realized that I needed to sweeten it because the ice cream wasn't going to do that much. So I added ...

a little Light Corn syrup, because we didn't have any Dark syrup,
a little Dark Corn syrup, which I found as I was putting away the light syrup
about a teaspoon of sugar
a little smidgen of honey

I was worried about it being too sugary and having to scrape the syrup off my teeth. Also, I was afraid that it was all going to settle too the bottom of the cup (the main reason I don't make unsweetened iced tea). In fact, there was some syrup stuck on the iced tea spoon I was using to stir the concoction, so I kept stirring vigorously.

In the end, it was refreshing and I could take the sweetness, but it still had a bitterness to it that I didn't like. Yes, coffee is bitter, but not if you sweeten it properly. I'll work on it some more.

Maybe even later today, if I put on another pot of coffee.

EDIT: I should read my own blog. I might've remembered this entry:
Drink With Maple Syrup, from 2010!

Sierra Mist and Orange Juice -- Who Knew?

I was having a nice Sunday breakfast (nothing new, nothing big) and I wanted something cool to drink instead of hot tea or coffee. Orange juice is nice, but too acidic for me to have more than one glass.

Okay, so try something new. The worse that could happen is I waste 16-20 ounces of beverages and have a glass of cold water.

I took one of those hard-plastic souvenir cups from a national chain, which was covered with advertisements, which makes it a keepsake. I put about half a tray of ice in it and added a can of Sierra Mist.

Topped it off with orange juice. Well, "topped" is not right. It's a big cup. I poured in about 6 to 8 ounces, so I'm guessing the ratio of soda to juice is about 2:1.

Lemon-lime soda with orange juice? Not bad. I like it.

Why not ginger ale? We were out of it.

Substitutions: Next time, particularly if it isn't breakfast time, I'll substitute the OJ with Hawaiian Punch. That's is always plentiful around here.

Ginger Ale and Fruit Punch

No orange juice in the house. No problem. There was some Juicy Juice Fruit Punch in the fridge and a can of ginger ale. Mixed the can with 4-6 ounces of juice and ice. Not bad. Needed ice cream, but not for breakfast.

Actually, I bought some cream soda yesterday, and I need to use that with ice cream.
And syrup. Maple or corn. Light or dark. Gotta figure that one out.