Friday, July 27, 2012

Iced tea, level up!

Iced tea.
Simple.
Summertime.
Cool.
Quench.
Heat.
Sweat.
Lemons.

Lemons?

Excuse me. I was channeling a little Kerouac there.

Iced tea is a hot weather staple. We love making sun tea on bright hot sunny days. So simple. Just a gallon of water in a glass container and about 10 tea bags. Leave it in bright sunshine for about an hour or two, to desired strength of brew.
This time I punched it up with lemonade ice cubes. I brewed up a simple syrup using a cup of water and about 4 Tbsp of sugar. I love the organic turbinado sugar. Heat that to a simmer and all the sugar is dissolved. Then add some lemon zest. I use a vegetable peeler on a lemon to get the rind without any pith. You want the oils fr4om the rind to add a rich flavor. Once that has all had a chance to blend for about 5 minutes, remove from the heat and take out the rind. Add the lemon juice from the lemon you just skinned and then pour your lemonade into an ice cube tray and freeze. If you have any left over add a little water and enjoy a great tasting glass of lemonade.

To make an excellent glass of iced tea plunk in a few lemonade ice cubes and some sugar to taste. This really cannot be beat on a hot day, and we've had plenty of those this summer.

The munchkins like helping with this project. D likes to unwrap the tea bags and Bean likes to put water in the glass jug with the hose. (With assistance of course) :)

Oh, and speaking of some cool cats:




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