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I’ve been having a passionate love affair with sweet tea for many, many years. Yes, Jase knows about it and supports me 100%. My mom used to make it when I was a kid, growing up in San Diego. So, imagine my jubilation, after moving to the South, when finding out they serve the stuff everywhere, EVERYWHERE! It took a lot of restraint from running out of my car and hugging the drive-through attendant at Arby’s when she first offered me “Sweet or Unsweet.” When we moved to Colorado, I went back to making my own batch. Yesterday, I was craving some real bad. I was having complete psychological withdrawals. However, we only had two Lipton tea bags, instead of the usual five. After nearly panicking, I realized we had a large “Cold Brew” tea bag, one green tea bag AND (here’s the kicker and reason for this post) some mint tea bags. If you know me, you also know that I am in love with mint pretty-much-everything.

* Small Saucepan Of Water

* 2 Lipton Tea Bags

* 2 Mint Tea Bags

* 1 Large Cold Brew Tea Bag

* 1 Green Tea Bag

* 1/4 Raw Sugar

* Lemon (optional)

Boil water for 5-10 minutes and pour over 2 cups of ice. Mix in sugar. Add cold water to taste. Add lemon (optional).

Delicious! Voila!

Very few things make me feel accomplished like I do when I cook or bake something fantastic. That feeling could be ingrained into my DNA or maybe it’s from having a grandma go all out with food and meals whenever we came to visit.

I made the most delicious, thrown-together meal tonight. Now, what I’m about to share may be influenced by the fact that I had gone about eight hours between meals. Maybe I was starving and anything would have been a magically delicious gift from the heavens. I just think it was damn brilliant so I’m sharing it here.

It’s been raining and overcast for two days so I knew I wanted soup for dinner. I didn’t want the soup straight from the can though, it sounded too boring. As soon as I eyed some avocados on the counter, my brain went crazy with an idea. I took out a can of Campbell’s Chunky Chicken Noodle soup and added some chunked avocados, cruched tortilla chips (La Favorita, literally, are my favorite) and some splashes of tabasco sauce. A twist to tortilla soup and it was so easy and actually tasted better than any other restaurant’s tortilla soup.

I don’t think I could have topped that off any better than with a big ol’ slice of my homemade banana bread. Delicious!

I got inspired today and decided to spend more than 5 minutes making my lunch. So I started pulling stuff out of the fridge and ended up concocting THE BEST Chicken Salad Wrap ever imagined. My tortilla was a little small for all of the ingredients so I ended up eating it like a soft taco but the only thing that could have made this any better (I think) would have been some feta cheese.

Prep time: 10-15 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

Tortilla

Colby Jack Cheese (shredded): 1/4 cup

Canned Chicken (in water): 2-13oz. cans

Mayo: 2 Tbsp.

Grapes (cut in quarters): 1/2 cup

Roma Tomato (sliced): 1 medium

Jalapenos (sliced): As desired

Romaine Lettuce: As desired

DIRECTIONS:

Open the can of chicken, drain and mash in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Add mayo. Gently fold in grapes. Scoop 1/4-1/2 cup of mixture onto warmed tortilla and add cheese, jalapenos, lettuce, tomato. Enjoy!

Jase has always been the baker (working at Paradise Bakery as a teen makes him the pro) and I love being the cook in our family. I don’t like baking all that much, I’m too impatient for it. I love oatmeal cookies without the raisins but once the raisins are taken out, they’re lacking in something. I also love peanut butter. A lot. So, months ago, I started a craving: a Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookie. I’d never seen one but I knew it would be magnificent if I ever had a chance to try one.

Yesterday I googled a recipe for it but I couldn’t wait to let the “Baker” come home to make it tonight, so the kids and I made them. These cookies are fantastic! I LOVE them. They are my favorite.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 cups peanut butter
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream butter and brown sugar. Add eggs, vanilla and peanut butter. Add dry ingredents. Roll by tablespoon-full into balls.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy!

Jase and I shared about 8 cups of apple cider yesterday. We would have probably shared 20 cups if I had made that much. It was so dang good, I thought I’d post the recipe here, to all of my… one reader (Hi Erin!).

INGREDIENTS

• 6 cups apple cider
• 1/4 cup real maple syrup
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 6 whole cloves
• 6 whole allspice berries
• 1 orange peel, cut into strips
• 1 lemon peel, cut into strips
• Cheesecloth & string

DIRECTIONS

1. Pour the apple cider and maple syrup into a large stainless steel saucepan.
2. Place the cinnamon sticks, cloves, allspice berries, orange peel and lemon peel in the center of a washed square of cheesecloth; fold up the sides of the cheesecloth to enclose the bundle, then tie it up with a length of kitchen string. Drop the spice bundle into the cider mixture.
3. Place the saucepan over moderate heat for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the cider is very hot but not boiling.
4. Remove the cider from the heat. Discard the spice bundle. Ladle the cider into big cups or mugs, adding a fresh cinnamon stick to each serving if desired.