Sylvia's Scenario

The popular drink for Easter yesterday was this Vodka Strawberry Lemonade Cocktail from Heather Christo's blog  where I get a lot of my drink recipes.  We had eleven of my family over for Easter dinner and Lauren and Ari came over for breakfast.   We had our traditional family favorite,  Dutch Babies , for breakfast with lots of fresh berries on them.  The drinks were great for both meals and everyone loved them.   I simplified the recipe quite a bit than the original due to the fact that I had a lot of other food projects going on for this Easter but everyone still loved even the simplified version. I used frozen strawberries instead of fresh and I bought frozen lemonade instead of squeezing all those lemons to make fresh lemonade.   You can serve them as virgin strawberry lemonade, too, without the vodka.  I made two pitchers of them without the vodka and then added the vodka to those drinks...

One of the beverages I served over Memorial Day weekend that everyone loved was this Blueberry Lemonade that I found on  white on rice couple blog .  This hit the spot on Saturday afternoon after our art therapy session that we opened our weekend with. We were asked a series of questions about our feelings of the upcoming weekend and we doodled our answers on colored paper and taped them on one large board so we could look at everyone's doodles.  Some answers entailed lots of circles and some answers resulted in jagged lines. This was "sisters weekend" and since we all live in different parts of the country, we don't have opportunities to get together very often so these gatherings are always special and meaningful to us. We also did an art therapy exercise where we drew our interpretation of our space for the weekend. What does it all mean?  Some lines of individual's spaces are awfully thick...does that mean "stay out of my spac...

If the   frappuccino   recipe is too much work for you, then try a affogato. What is an affogato?  It is a traditional Italian espresso-based treat that is on many Italian restaurant's and cafe's menus in Italy.  The full name is really "affogato al cafe" or "drowned in coffee" - in Italian.  What is drowned in coffee?  Gelato or ice cream, of course!  This is a very simple recipe, just mix iced coffee with a scoop of gelato!  A simple way to get that frappuccino fix on a hot day. First, you have to have some iced coffee on hand.  To get good quality iced coffee, it involves a little more than just brewing regular coffee and adding ice, although you can do it that way, too.  I use the cold-brewed coffee method which makes a coffee concentrate that's much less bitter than normal, has low acidity (so it seems naturally sweeter), and it has a very rich coffee flavor - perfect with some vanilla gelato. Cold-Brewed Coffee Concentrat...

I stopped at Starbucks today and got a grande, iced latte and it tasted so good, I just savored it. When I got home, I was still in the mood for a Starbucks so decided to work on my frappuccino recipe.  I've been perfecting this recipe for awhile and I think I finally have it!  The key is to use half cream so when you blend it, the cream turns into whipped cream...thus the delicious froth! Ever since we got our built-in espresso maker, I've wanted to make this summer drink because I just need to push a button to have perfect espresso. And I have a magic bullet, so this is an easy way to whip up a frothy drink without any effort.  So, here it is!  Homemade Frappuccino. Serves 2  (because you must always enjoy this drink with a friend) 2 cups espresso, cooled  1 Tbsp. instant espresso powder 1/4 cup sugar 1 tsp. vanilla 3/4 cup nonfat milk 3/4 cup cream 1.  Pour the cooled espresso into a blender.  (I used decaffei...