Friendship Tea-Russian Tea-Friday Friend Recipe #10 and #11

Ahhhhh....counting down!  Only 300 or so to go!

I think Beverages must be the slimmest category in the Friday Friend Cookbook. (click here to see what I'm up to with the FF recipes)   Not very many of my friends turned in a recipe for the Beverage chapter.  So, it's pretty funny that two of my best friends turned in the same one.  Kind of.
I say 'kind-of' because there is a slight difference in measurements and technique.
What are they you ask?

Well, let me tell you (I have to meander back a bit)--I actually made 3 different kinds of Russian Tea.  THREE!

See here...can you tell the difference?

The same goes for my friends---not much difference-- in Tomi Pingree and Debbie Engstrom.  Except---I live in the same town as Debbie.  Debbie and I have had coffee every Tuesday morning for years.  12 years to be exact.
I know that if Tomi and I lived in the same town now, we might be early morning friends too...as it was, we were afternoon friends when we lived in the same town.
See?   Just a few different measurements and techniques!

Let me meander back to the tea.
Debbie has ground cloves in her's.   (the one in the middle)
Tomi does not.  (the one on the left)

Then I came across one that added a package of black cherry Kool-aide, so I added that to the one on the right.   And that's what I ended up taking a photo of---the reason it is so dark orange.  It wants to be black cherry color. 
They are all good---just like they are.  You could choose any and be okay.
If you want to add the Black Cherry Kool-aide, add it to Debbie's recipe.  That's what I did. Or  Tomi's.  Either way, it's okay.

Friendship Tea
My friend Debbie E. via the Friday Friend Cookbook

2 cups Tang
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened instant tea
1 pkg lemonade Kool-aide
1/2 t. ground cloves
1 t. cinnamon

Stir all together. Store in a sealed container.
To brew:  add 1 heaping T to 1 cup boiling water.


Russian Tea
My friend Tomi via the Friday Friend Cookbook

2 cups Tang
1 pkg (3oz) unsweetened lemonade
1 to 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup instant tea
1 t cinnamon

Mix all together.  Put 2 T into a cup of hot water.

And now.... I give you not 1, but 2 of my favorite friends!

Tomi and I met about 33 years ago, when we both lived in Elko, Nevada.  Neither one of us does now.  We plan to meet there one day for lunch tho.  This summer or the next!   
We had many suppers with our families.  Our kids were babies and toddlers and there were a lot of them.  Well, 6 seemed like a lot at the time. 
We would talk about housecleaning (weird, I know, since we both hate it---but we wanted the most efficient way to do it with 3 little kids each),  exercise  (we would get together to do--Richard Simmons!),  cooking  (I loved it, she didn't but some of my most favorite recipes are  things she made--go figure), and BOOKS!!   She is a bibliophile like me.   To this day, we still talk books with each other--We both just read  "This Dark Road to Mercy" by Wiley Cash--and then discussed it via email.
Love her and miss her----and we WILL meet in the middle to have lunch one day soon!!

Tomi and her little grandson William.
(I stole it from Facebook.  I am going to have to look thru old 35mm photos of ones of her. We haven't lived close since the invention of digital.  )

Debbie and I became next door neighbors  25 years ago.
We used to do afternoon tea.  For 3 years.  Then I moved away for 5 years. When I moved back we didn't live next door to each other any more, and we didn't see each other as often, so we decided to do coffee at  6am. Every Tuesday morning.  I LOVE Tuesday mornings.
Our children  have grown, graduated, got married, had their own children, and sadly  we've lost parents.  But there has always been, and we both believe there will always be a Tuesday morning and a coffee cup to talk all those things out.

Debbie E and her grandson Dane.

*** Love the circle of  life***

We used to be young.

We used to be in pictures like this with our children.

Now we hold our grandchildren.

We are lucky.

My Friday Friends and I.