Sweet Tea and a Teaser for Tuesday

A couple of weeks ago, I made "Iced Tea" in my Cookbook Countdown. (Yes, I was taking the easy way out... I have over 200 cookbooks to get thru)



I posted about it here: ICED TEA
 
Now, comes my comparison. If you remember, I said that "Sweetened Iced Tea" was not my thing....and my friend April, who grew up in Virginia was horrified at my use of words.



She said that "Sweet-en-eddd Icee-ed-tee" doesn't even flow off your tongue. ( oh my gosh she drew it out and made fun of me...sweet ten ed iced ed ed tee )


She set me straight.... it's Sweet Tea. It flows.....


I made my sweet tea from this cookbook.... You've all seen it: Screen Doors and Sweet Tea by Martha Hall Foose.

It's a great cookbook, full of all kinds of stories as well as recipes. I think I love reading cookbooks for reasons such as this, I like to hear the stories that went along with people's food memories.


I do feel some guilt here tho as there are so many great recipes in this book, that it seems a shame to make "Sweet Tea".


I even found one for "Inside out Sweet Potatoes" which is mashed sweet potatoes wrapped around a marshmallow, and rolled in cornflakes, baked and when you bite into it, the marshmallow is warm and gooey and yummy!!


This recipe is a legend in my family. From what I  understand, my great-grandmother used to make these, and no one has been able to reproduce them since she passed away.  I hear stories about how great they were, at every Thanksgiving.   I'm going to try them and see if I can surprise my mom! There are all kinds of treasures in this cookbook.


Anyway, make the Sweet tea, I did.

 And you know what? It was good. Even the Handyman thought it was good. We both liked it very much.


But....as you know. We are northerners/westerners, and we prefer our tea "un-sweet" (and also a bit stronger than this recipe allowed for), so we'll stick to that.

Even if Sweet Tea is not your thing, I suggest you check out this cookbook. It's a lovely little visit to the South.


Sweet Tea


4 pitcher-size cold brew tea bags or 6 tablespoons orange pekoe tea leaves in a diffuser.
3/4 cups sugar
Ice cubes
2 lemons
Fresh Mint sprig (optional)


Place the tea bags in a large pitcher. Add 3 quarts of cold water, and steep for 30 minutes.


Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine 1 cup water and the sugar. Boil, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved.


Remove the tea bags. Add the sugar syrup and stir to combine. Serve over ice with lemon and fresh mint, if desired.
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I am going to add a Tuesay Teaser here. I don't think I've ever done one before..



Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.


Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)


Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
Here is my teaser:
I stopped for coffee and hot biscuits just outside of Nags Head at an empty diner that probably thrived in the summer but was barely kept alive in off-season by teh occasional truckers passhing through. The woman behind the register was napping with her head down on the steel countertop when I arrived.
~pg 139, "Legwork", by Katy Munger.

Cookbook Countdown, What's Outside my Kitchen Window and Library Loot.

Wednesdays are long for my blog posts.  If you are looking for library loot,  don't be discouraged....just scroll down to the very end!

This could possibly be the longest post I've ever written.
(**not ture....there is mostly pictures, so written is subjective)


I'm not quite sure what to do about that. I mean, I KNOW my mom will read it and maybe my mother-in-law. My daughter in-law Sadie, a few Friday Friends, here and there.... but really, reading it to the end?


If a post gets too long and it's not that captivating --if my sense of humor and my quick wit doesn't reel you in, in the first couple of paragraphs, (because if truth be told, my recipes are not TO DIE FOR), well, then, you probably won't get to the end of my longest post ever.
That makes me a bit sad.    Also, knowing I just passed by my 400th post without having a big celebration....like a give-away--makes me feel bad too!

My first blog post ever? (click HERE for trip down memory lane and my first post)  It was about the same thing as my 400th blog post.  In a round about way.
I'm trying not to laugh, for fear of falling off my seat, --it wasn't a "food" post, or a "book" post -- BUT it did mention my trip to Virginia and me having
Sweet Tea.   It was not until my 2nd post, July 2007, that I mentioned having started my blog.   (   You have to remember, that it was not a food blog, but just a way to keep in touch with all my "Friday Friends" )



HOW WEIRD IS THAT?
That my 1st post and my 400th post mentioning the same thing: ICED TEA.
If I would have only thought ahead...... I would have done a give-away.  Maybe I can do one for my 425th post!
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Let's move on to my Cookbook Countdown!

I am going to count one of my "put together notebooks" as a cookbook... I have notebooks and notebooks of recipes I've collected over the years.

 Look at this notebook, (if you can read it ) it says:   
Soups, Hometown cooking misc. and Diet Recipes.
There is no rhyme or reason to my organizational skills.

On Sunday,  I was hungry for a stew that my daughter-in-law, Mara's, mother had made when we visited them last fall.  We were in Arizona visiting my son and his wife and most importantly, our new granddaughter, Cassandra, and we ate lunch at a restaurant where my DIL's mother works.



It's been on my mind for quite some time, so I thought I'd try my hand at making this original Mexican Stew.

Here we are....  the two grandma's.  Me and Maxine.  Which isn't her "real" name, but that is the Americanized version of it.   She speaks no English and I speak no Spanish.
REMEMBER, the camera adds 10lbs. Not to mention how many pounds are added when flying thru camera to computer to internet!

She made us these great dishes! (no cheese, no Fritos)

 "My" family makes a soup/chili dish that we call Chalupa.   It has pork, pinto beans and a  broth with spices...it's  really good.    But of course we "Americanize" it by adding cheese and crushed Fritos, among other things.
I thought I'd "UN-Americanize" it and make it like the stew last fall.

This stew (my photo is blurry)  came to the table with the beef and the broth and then my daughter in law added the cabbage and onions, which were in a bowl beside the soup/stew bowl.
 
So.... I got out my cookbook notebook and looked at my Chalupa recipe, called my daughter-in-law  and asked her if she knew what Chalupa was.
She said "from Taco Bell?" She had never heard of it before. She did say that different regions of Mexico cook different dishes, so it could be a dish, that she just hadn't heard of.



Next, I looked thru my Diana Kennedy cookbook "From My Mexican Kitchen" where she does indeed have a Chalupa recipe... that is nothing like what we make.

Her chalupa --meaning little boats-- is a concoction of flour, like a thicker tortilla, filled with toppings/fillings.

I will have to try them someday, but for now this is my Chalupa/or Pork stew.
 
If I'm honest with you---yes, I did buy Fritos for my family to crush up. And I had some Jack Cheese, and I set the sour cream on the table too..... I couldn't "UN-Americanize" it too much. The rest of my toppings were onions, cabbage, radishes, tomatoes and avocadoes.

 



The verdict was...it was REALLY GOOD. But we've always known that. It was good when it was just Chalupa with the Fritos crushed into it and the cheese melted on top of it.


I didn't have any Fritos in mine.... I made it more of a "stew". I think.

Chalupa--our way
(I add this as part of my cookbook challenge in my very own cookbook countdown --click here to see how far I've come)

3 pound pork roast
1 pound pinto beans
1 4oz can diced green chilies
1 tsp oregano
1 Tblsp ground cumin
2 Tblsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1 small onion -chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
7 cups of water

soak beans over night, drain.
Simmer all of the above for about 5 hours.  Remove the roast, shred and add back into the broth.

Crush some Fritos into a soup bowl, add the Chalupa and top with the following:
tomatoes
avocados
lettuce
cheese
onions
salsa 

to make it more original ( I thought) I also topped it with:
cilantro
cabbage  (instead of lettuce)
radishes


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As long as this is the longest post ever, (for me)  I will mention that the Handyman and I played a game and voted on it in our "Weed out the Games" resolution for 2010. (Brainchild of my dil Sadie) 
This way it will be recorded.

We played Showdown Yahtzee.

It was fun enough. We decided that we should play it with four people to make sure.


I said, "maybe this is a cabin/lake game" (meaning we'll take this one to my parents cabin and leave it there)
Handyman said, "I thought all the ones we didn't like were going to the cabin?"
Me, "no, we're selling them in the yard sale."
Handyman, "oh."  And then he looked at the Keeper pile (very big) and the loser pile (only 2 games) and he sighed.


So the verdict on this one is tabled for a while.
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What's Outside My Kitchen Window?
Lots of brown stuff right now. Brown grass, brown leaves, brown weeds......
But I can see spring...in my mind.

My "dining room" window.....

Just after Christmas, we had a sad thing happen---our old Basset Hound died. Monroe. He waited until all the boys were home and said good-bye and then he just lay down and died. He was very old. It was very sad.

But now....the Handyman and I have decided to live dog-free for a while. It has been over 30 years with a dog in our lives.


so what does one do with the old dog house? Since Monroe's pen and dog house (not that he was ever penned in his life) shared space with our garden.
See our garden space last year/click here.
 
Outside right now...

We plan to take the chain-link fence down and cart the dog-house somewhere and enlarge our garden area. I might even consider composting. I want to, but I have to research it.

Last Summer

Right now

I can't wait for it to get warm enough to plant something!

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Library Loot.



Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva (a striped armchair) and Marg (reading adventures) which encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!



Poor, poor library looters, who have come to see what loot I've gotten and then had to wade thru a rambling recipe and a gazillion pictures of my yard.


Ask me how I'm going to have time to read these book?! I have no idea.
But....here is my loot for this week.....

I'm a little obsessive, I know.
Happy Reading everyone!

Musing Monday and Cookbook Countdown and Weekend Cooking

  Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about picture books, but before I get around to answering that....I'm going to talk about "Iced Tea" and my cookbook countdown.

  All of you bookworms and book bloggers, who don't care about my "foodie" side, you can scroll down to the bottom OR (please don't) just, um, ignore me and my blog post. I'll never know.



  Iced Tea. I'm trying to give up drinking Pop ( mid-west, north and Pacific Northwest term for soda pop), so I thought I'd switch to iced tea. I've always "liked" iced tea, I've just loved pop more. Pop is not so good for us, as we all know, so I'm on the journey to switch to iced tea.


  All this switching got me to thinking....why didn't Sweetened Iced Tea make it out west? Or even to the north?
I posed this question to my friend April the other day, when she was over for a visit. I said, "Sweetened Iced Tea."
April said, "what?" And then she "tsk tsk tsked" me.
She took on a very arrogant attitude and said, "It's SWEET TEA". (she grew up in Virginia)


  My apologies for ever having said "Sweetened Iced Tea," to all my southern friends. I DIDN'T KNOW!!! Because....I've never had Sweet Tea, except for once when I visited Virginia 3 years ago. It's way too sweet for me and if the purpose of switching from pop to iced tea is cutting back on the sugar, I don't see the point of it.
Having said that.... I do realize that my Southern friends would find the thought of Tea without Sugar, HORRIBLE. I get it...really, I do. It's a western thing.... Iced Tea...without sweetener of any kind. Although some people will add some sugar and stir and stir it, until it dissolves, but I don't think it can compare to real "Sweet Tea" that you make with a simple syrup.


  So, why didn't Sweet Tea make it's way out west with the covered wagons? What happened? Why wouldn't it?
It's a mystery! Seriously.....the westerners who do use sugar in their iced tea (and, there happen to be quite a few of them) would save themselves a lot wrist action (stirring) and I'm sure it would taste a lot better than to have granules of table sugar that never really completely dissolve in a glass of cold iced tea.
 
  This morning as the Handyman and I were driving to the market, I asked him if he liked "Sweet Tea". He answered, "Huh? I like Iced Tea" (sorry again, we are ignorant Westerners when it comes to Sweet Tea), so on that trip home from the market, I thought to myself...I'm going to make some iced tea...FROM A COOKBOOK, so I can add it to my cookbook challenge   .....making still over 200 cookbooks to go.

I came home with the idea of trying an authentic "Sweet Tea", but I went with this more Western Version first.
( I will make Sweet Tea in a few days---and we'll have a competition. You never know, we might be Sweet Tea converts! My dad likes Sweet Tea infused with mint from his garden. And he lives in Washington State.)
As you can tell.....the Immaculate Iced Tea also has a "Sweet Tea" recipe, which I'll be using in a few days.

I bet you didn't even know that people actually write recipes for Iced Tea! I took me by surprise.    I will be submitting this to  "Weekend Cooking", a weekly meme hosted by "Beth Fish Reads".   This is a new meme for me, but I think it fits me to a tea---it's mainly for book bloggers who want to do a food realted blog.  And this blog is just the opposite!  I'm a food blogger who has just started to include my book blogging.

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. To see who else is participating go to Beth Fish Reads, Weekend Cooking, here.

  Immaculate Iced Tea, from the "Beat That" cookbook by Ann Hodgman.

I've had this cookbook for about 20 years. It is the sequel to "Beat this" by the same author. She has great recipes for "every day" items. I like this cookbook, but I don't use it/them like I should. That's the downfall of having over 200 cookbooks.
This one really does have everyday dishes, with just a touch of something special....like a "tad bit" of horseradish in deviled eggs. I've been doing my deviled eggs that way for some time now, and no one has ever said "these are HOT", but they do eat them all..
And her apple pie... nutmeg or not? brown sugar or not? These are the things that keep me up at night. I can't remember just what she uses to make her apple pie a bit more special... that could be a post for another time.

(officially adding this cookbook to my cookbook countdown)

  The Iced Tea she makes is a great Iced Tea. It's fresh tasting and well...it's just good. I grew up with my mom making "Sun Tea", but it's been forever since I've had Sun Tea, but I think I like this better. It's a bit stronger. I remember the Sun tea being kind of weak. I guess that depends on how many tea bags one uses.
Anyway......

 Immaculate Iced Tea
10-12 tea bags, any type
1 teaspoon sugar
1 quart boiling water
3 quarts cold water


Place the tea bags in the bottom of a heat-resistant container. Add 1 teaspoon of sugar. "I don't know what the sugar does"--obviously it couldn't actually sweeten that much tea--"but it makes all the difference" says Hodgeman.
Pour 1 quart of boiling water over the tea bags and sugar; let the concentrate steep for a full 15 minutes. Add 3 quarts of cold water, fish out the tea bags and chill the tea until you're ready to serve it.

It. Is. Good.

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  Now, the "Musing Monday's" musing. Do you have a favourite picture book, either from your own childhood, or reading to you children?



  Well, I have to tell you, that I misread the question. I got all excited about which picture book had my favorite illustrations. So, even tho, these aren't my all time favorite pictures books, they rate right up there in the top 20.


  They are classic books, with classic authors and illustrators. And.....they are not in color.
Can you believe it? Not...in...color. How "old school" (is that still a term that is used?) is that? I like that old time illustration. But that doesn't mean I don't love the newer illustrators too...


Are you ready for the unveiling? okay.....
One of my favorite picture books is "Make Way for Ducklings" by Robert McCloskey.
I even own 2 copies....

How can one NOT just love these illustrations?

I can not WAIT to share them with my grandchildren!!
I know they will love them as much as me.

And I cannot forget "The Story of Ferdinand" by Munro Leaf, drawings by Robert Lawson.  I love Ferdinand!!

  As I finish this post, I have to show you my "children's library" which sits inside the closet of a guest room (my youngest son's room, when he lived here ), it is now where I keep all the children's books I have collected over the years. As you can see, I had a lot of picture books to chose from.