Homemade Iced Coffee

Caffeine. Coffee, especially. I'm sure I could live without it, but why in God's name would I want to? Despite my love of the java, I must admit: when I first heard about "iced coffee," I turned up my nose in disgust. But then several years ago, on a really hot, summer day, in desperate need of caffeine and not thrilled about a hot beverage, I tried a Starbucks iced coffee with vanilla syrup and cream. I was hooked. Love at first taste. Iced coffee is chuggable, in a way no other beverage is for me (save for water). And, it gets expensive, especially when you have a coffee habit like I do.

So I can't tell you how excited I was when I finally figured out that homemade iced coffee is (a) way, way cheaper than coffee shop coffee, (b) something that can be kept in my fridge at all times for instant access/caffeine fix, and (c) more fun than store-bought coffee because of the many customizable, also homemade, sweeteners I add. I've mentioned the phrase "homemade iced coffee" in regular conversation over the past week, and every time I do, I get asked for the recipe. So here you go.

I should note first, that @bobzuercher used to come into the office raving about the massive amounts of homemade iced coffee he drank, made with his French press. Having purchased and used a French press, I agree that it is a marvelous tool that results in a simply divine cup of coffee. It also requires a little more cleaning/maintenance than my Melitta Mill & Brew, and despite what a lot of you think, I am lazy. I save the French press method only for when I feel like I have extra time. The Mill & Brew works perfectly well for this coffee, as will whatever coffee maker you prefer.

Plain Iced Coffee
regular brewed coffee (make it strong, readers!)
ice

Brew a pot of coffee. Let it come to room temperature. Put it in a pitcher/sealed container in the fridge, allow to cool. When you're ready, fill a big glass of ice and pour the coffee. Top with half & half (did you know they have fat free half & half now? I can't taste a difference in mixed drinks). Stir and chug.

Like your coffee sweet? I certainly do. I'm from Alabama. We are born with a genetic code that predisposes us to prefer sweet, and lots of it. Try this vanilla simple syrup as an add-in:

Vanilla Simple Syrup
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a small saucepan over medium heat, dissolve sugar in water, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat, and immediately stir in the vanilla extract. Allow to cool to room temperature, then add to your coffee; this concoction will keep in the fridge in an air-tight container for at least a week.

Don't like vanilla? Try hazelnut (instead of vanilla extract, add Frangelico or other hazelnut liquor), amaretto (yep, you guessed it, no vanilla/add amaretto liquor), or any other liquor or flavoring you prefer.

Enjoy being wide awake all summer long!

Raspberry Lemon Drop

You know, people don't share often enough the things they try in the kitchen that just don't work out. Take, for instance, my first attempt at making, step by step, an actual recipe with no substitutions, something from Mastering the Art of French Cooking - Julia Child's masterpiece cookbook. Last night, still on a high from submitting a draft of a proposal and secretly hoping my advisor never gives it back to me so I don't have to look at it ever again, I decided to be brave by cooking a fish dish, and a fancy one at that. My bacon wrapped scallops turned out well; I should not be so afraid of the fishes.

I attempted the very French technique of poaching fish fillets in white wine and water. I followed, to the letter, Julia's instructions on how to do so, following a variation of the master recipe that included a sautee of mushrooms, carrots, onion, and carrot julienne, baked with a cream sauce made with the poaching liquid, cream, butter, and flour, topped with swiss cheese and dots of butter. Sounds amazing and simple, right? For some reason, I hated it. I loved the sauce - could have stuck a straw in it and drank it - but hated the dish. Dave said it was the celery that threw the flavors off. I think it may have been the cod. For whatever reason, I couldn't eat more than 5 bites, which was truly a shame considering I invested about 2 hours of my life on the dish, counting prep time, cook time, studying the recipe time, and cleanup.

If you know me, you know that I don't handle failure very well at all. And I saw dinner last night as a failure; subsequently, it ruined my night and put me in the foulest of moods for the remainder of the evening. Bless his heart, Dave tried to make it a learning experience, and help me articulate what it was that went wrong and what I learned from whatever mistake I made. I was having none of it. I think I gave him "a look." I just wanted to reheat my pizza and sulk and forget about white wine poached fish fillets, no matter how amazing they sounded or their sauce tasted.

Anyway. The last huge kitchen failure I had involved tilapia, that were supposed to be sauteed and ended up inedible. The one before that involved coconut shrimp, and I think I scared Jonathan from ever wanting to come over for dinner again. Let me say it here, now, I cannot cook a fish to save my life. There was one stellar performance involving Paula Deen's parmesan tilapia a few weeks ago, and the great scallops dinner, but that's about it over the course of my culinary adventures. Other things I consistently fail upon attempting in the kitchen are: biscuits, chocolate & biscuits especially, yeast breads, and bread puddings (including French toast). I don't get what I'm doing wrong in these areas; they just don't work for me. I think that there should be a once-weekly show on Food Network where they showcase the chefs making things that fail. This would truly make the home cook feel better about her accidents, mistakes, and shortcomings in the kitchen, and I bet it would be quite a learning experience as well. Instead of showing us what we do right, why not focus on what happens when things go wrong, and how to bounce back from such a disaster?

So tonight, I had to make up for last night's lackluster dinner performance. I made a version of Giada's Steak Salad, keeping the steak, cheese, and vinaigrettes but placing them atop a bed of bagged greens, adding toasted walnuts and caramelized onions (and I don't like blue cheese so I swapped out goat cheese crumbles on mine). For dessert, we have Giada's limoncello cheesecake squares. And, *finally* I was able to create a martini involving limoncello that is chuggable. Cause, you know, that's how I like my martinis.

Raspberry Lemon Drop
1 oz limoncello
1 oz cranberry juice cocktail
1 splash vodka
1 splash raspberry vodka
1/2 Tablespoon lime simple syrup (which is just 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, and zest of one lime combined together over medium high heat until the sugar dissolves, then chilled)

Pour ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with crushed ice. Shake vigorously, strain into a sugar rimmed martini glass.

Dave actually came up with the name, and the drink tastes like summer. It is pink and pretty and delicious. Very refreshing after a day of painting, laying out, cleaning, and cooking.

Drinky Drink

I've been making a lot of progress on my proposal lately, so as a treat, I've been playing bartender at the end of a long day, sitting in one spot, writing, thinking, surfing the net, scribbling ideas, and maybe going to the gym or laying out.



This is my Italian Sweet Tea.

First, you have to make sweet tea, which, if done correctly, is basically tea flavored simple syrup. The only person who's ever actually given me a recipe more than "what do you mean, how do you make sweet tea, all you do is add some tea bags to hot water and add a lot of sugar, silly girl" is Dave's dad, the retired civil engineer. I have grown to love the engineers and their ability to articulate things such as abstract, ancient recipes like sweet tea into exact form. According to Donna Jo (Dave's mom), this tea was famous back in the day among Dave and Chris's (Dave's brother's) friends. So here is:

Dean's Sweet Tea
2 quarts water, boiling
2 Tetley tea bags
1 cup sugar

Steep 2 tea bags in the boiling water for no more than 5 minutes. Discard bags, pour tea into a pitcher, stir in sugar. Refrigerate and serve over ice.

(side note: I try not to make sweet tea very often because I tend to drink it by the gallon, which probably wouldn't be a bad thing if I used, say, Splenda instead of sugar. But I don't use Splenda unless I'm making something for my diabetic grandaddy.)

For the cocktail:
Fill a tall glass with ice. Add 1/2 oz limoncello, and fill up with sweet tea. Garnish with a lemon wedge.

This is a weaker drink. It's Italian because limoncello originated on the Amalfi coast since that's where lemons come from. I have been watching a lot of Mario Batali lately, and subsequently increased my love of all things Italian food. I can't believe I just pulled out that limoncello comes from the Amalfi coast. That's good trivia to have on hand. Of course, you can make limoncello yourself; that's another post, but Mario and Giada both have recipes over at foodtv.com. Never had it? Don't wait a week for the lemon peel to steep in sugared vodka, just run out to your local liquor store and spend the $20 to get yourself a bottle. Keep it in the freezer and you'll be drinking it all summer. It's amazing on ice, after the ice has watered it down just a bit, after a big dinner.

I actually added some bourbon to the first version of this drink, but it was a bit too strong for me, hence the suggestion to only add limoncello. If you love bourbon (like Loren, who is just about the only person I'll willingly drink bourbon with, and even though I live in Lexington and by default *should* love bourbon), then by all means add it.

And then go burn off the calories on the Wii Fit, which rocks.