Seagram’s Sweet Tea Vodka Lemonade

Seagram’s Sweet Tea Vodka Lemonade

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Happy Memorial Day everyone!  We hope that you were able to spend time with friends and family this weekend, but most importantly honor those who have given their lives in service to our country.  Years ago we had the pleasure to visit the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.  It was an extremely moving experience and we have never forgotten the quote by Abraham Lincoln inscribed on the wall.

“The solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom” – quotation from Abraham Lincoln’s Letter to Mrs. Bixby.

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This week we are sharing an All-American fan favorite with you — Seagram’s Sweet Tea Vodka Lemonade.  It can easily be your go-to drink of the summer. One of the great things about this drink, other than it is delicious, is that it is great for entertaining because it is a large batch drink.  We love to serve drinks to our guests made to order fresh from the shaker, but sometimes when you are entertaining it is nice to have a pitcher or dispenser sitting out so guests can help themselves to seconds and thirds and fourths….

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To make this drink you need three simple ingredients.  Remember?  Easy. Tasty. Fresh.  The ingredients are Seagram’s Sweet Tea Vodka, lemonade and agave nectar.  We used Minute Maid Lite Lemonade to keep the calorie count down, and we like Monin Agave Nectar. It is nice to have some lemon wedges and slices for garnish.  Now just remember 3 parts: 2 parts: 1/2 part.  It’s so easy!  Pour 3 cups of lemonade into a pitcher.  Next add 2 cups of Sweet Tea Vodka, and ½ cup of agave nectar. Stir. Add lemon wedges and ice.  Pour over a glass of ice and sit back on your patio and enjoy the summer!  You can make larger batches, just remember 3: 2: ½ parts!

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Seagram’s Sweet Tea Vodka Lemonade

3 cups of Lemonade

2 cups Seagram’s Sweet Tea Vodka

½ cup agave nectar

Add lemonade, sweet tea vodka, and agave nectar to a pitcher.  Stir. Add lemon wedges and ice.

Pour over glass of ice and garnish with a lemon slice.

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This drink is a crowd pleaser. It’s so easy to make and so easy to drink. We would love to hear if you serve this for your guests this summer.

Cheers,

Rhonda and Craig

 

Mary Ann or Ginger?

This week’s featured drink recipe is one of our favorites and references back to one of our favorite TV shows we watched while growing up, Gilligan’s Island.  Although we were not alive when it first aired, (No, we are not THAT old!) we definitely enjoyed watching reruns as kids.  If you did not watch the show, let us give you a short explanation.  Gilligan’s Island was a comic adventure of seven castaways as they attempted to survive on an island on which they had been shipwrecked. Most episodes revolved around the quirky castaways’ conflicts and their unsuccessful attempts to be rescued from the island.  Two of the characters of the show were Mary Ann and Ginger.  Mary Ann was the sweet girl next door who was always baking pies for the other castaways.  Ginger was a movie star who somehow had brought all of her glittery dresses and makeup with her on what was to be a short 3 hour yacht cruise.  The question, “Mary Ann or Ginger?” has persisted among men as to which they prefer long after the series ended.

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This drink certainly fits our 3 criteria Easy. Tasty.  Fresh.  It has three simple ingredients: Templeton Rye Whiskey, Ginger Beer (hence the name Mary Ann or Ginger?) and a fresh lime slice.  To create this refreshing drink simply combine 1.5 ounces of Templeton Rye Whiskey over ice in a rocks glass. Top off with ginger beer. Add ice and garnish with a fresh lime slice.  It is delish!

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We can already hear some of you now, “Whoa!  I don’t like whiskey,” or, “Beer?  I don’t want to mix whiskey and beer.”  Hear us out. First of all, Templeton Rye Whiskey doesn’t have the harsh whiskey taste that some of you may have experienced in the past.  It is a sweeter, smoother taste. If Rhonda can drink it and like it, then it definitely is not too harsh.  The Ginger Beer is not “beer”.  It is labeled as a non-alcoholic soda, so you don’t need to worry that you are mixing a Bud Light and whiskey.

Craig prefers to make this drink with ginger ale.  Rhonda prefers Goslings Ginger Beer.  Potato.  Pototo.  The ginger beer has only 190 calories per can, and we don’t use a whole can for a serving.  However, if you prefer a drink that is lighter on calories, Canada Dry Ginger Ale has 110 calories per serving (use half of a serving) or better yet, use diet Ginger Ale.

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This drink is great to make when you want something easy and tasty. We hope you enjoy this drink as much as we do.

Cheers,

Rhonda and Craig

Save Room for Pie

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the moms!  We celebrated Mother’s Day by running in our first ever half-marathon.  Craig and I woke up at 5:00 am to drive to Ft. Worth for the run.  Craig could have finished with a much faster time, but he stayed with me the whole way.  What a guy!  We made a special Mother’s Day dinner at our house with steaks and sides.  Of course we had to have a special dessert, so I made the pie we told you to save room for last week.

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I love to make desserts, and as a matter of fact I think that was one of the main reasons Craig asked me to marry him.  One of my favorite summertime desserts is a recipe that I found in a cookbook that was given to us as a wedding gift.  The recipe is from a cookbook named, For Goodness Taste by the Junior League of Rochester and this cookbook has some of the best recipes ever!  This pie recipe is so easy.  It is a crowd pleaser with friends and family.

Do you remember the criteria I listed last week for our recipes? Easy. Tasty. Fresh.  Well this recipe doesn’t really have super fresh ingredients, but it is definitely easy and tasty.  The most difficult part of this recipe for me is that you do need to plan ahead.  You cannot decide to serve this for dessert for guests that are arriving in 30 minutes. The ingredients that you need are peanut butter, light corn syrup, rice crispy cereal, 2 pints of vanilla ice cream, sugar, cocoa, cream, margarine, vanilla and Café Borghetti Espresso Liqueur.

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You probably are not familiar with the last ingredient, so let us tell you a little bit about it.  Café Borghetti is an Italian coffee liquor that is made from real espresso coffee that is a blend of Arabica and Robusta coffee beans.  When you unscrew the lid, the aroma makes you feel like you are in a little Italian coffee house in the middle of Milan.  You can find Café Borghetti Espresso Liqueur at some liquor stores like Goody Goody or Total Wine.  We have other great recipes that use Café Borghetti that we will share with you in future posts.

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First, get the ice cream out of the freezer while you are making the crust.  It is easier to work with if it is softened. Since we live in Texas, I always use Blue Bell Natural Vanilla Bean. (Yes, it was devastating to us Texans when Blue Bell took a hiatus from production last year.  We are glad Blue Bell is back!)  Next you will make the crust.  Mix ½ cup creamy peanut butter, ½ cup light corn syrup, and 2 ¼ cups of rice crispies together.

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Place the mixture in a pie pan sprayed with cooking spray.  I use a sheet of wax paper to help me form the crust into the pan.

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Spoon a layer of ice cream into the crust, and even it out.  Then place into the freezer.

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Next, you will make the fudge sauce.  In a sauce pan heat the sugar, cocoa, cream and margarine.  Stir constantly until boiling.  Add in 1 oz. of Café Borghetti and leave on heat for about 3 more minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in 1 teaspoon of vanilla.  Cool the fudge sauce.  Pour half of the sauce over the ice cream.  Place back in the freezer for about 20 minutes.

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Soften remaining ice cream and spread over frozen pie.  Drizzle with remaining sauce.  Freeze until firm.

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Remove from freezer approximately 10 minutes before serving.  Enjoy!  There are several variations you can do with this recipe.  If you don’t like the coffee flavor of Café Borghetti, you can leave it out.  You can add mini chocolate chips to the crust, or use a different flavor of ice cream.

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Café Borghetti PBIF (Peanut Butter Ice Cream Fudge) Pie

½ cup peanut butter

½ cup light corn syrup

2 ¼ cups rice crispies

2 pints vanilla ice cream

¾ cup of sugar

½ cup cocoa

½ cup cream

4 tablespoons of margarine or butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 ounce Caffe’ Borghetti Espresso Liqueur

Mix peanut butter and corn syrup until blended.  Add rice crispies and stir until coated.

Press into bottom and sides of 9-inch pie pan.

Top with 1 pint ice cream which has been softened slightly.  Freeze until firm.

In saucepan, heat sugar, cocoa, cream and margarine, stirring constantly until boiling.  Add Café Borghetti and remain on heat for 3 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Cool.

Pour half of sauce over ice cream.  Freeze for about 20 minutes.

Soften remaining ice cream and spread over frozen pie.  Drizzle with remaining sauce.  Freeze until firm, approximately 3 hours.

Remove from freezer about 10 minutes prior to serving.

We hope you enjoyed the PBIF Pie as much as our family does.  If you make it, we would love to hear about it – especially if you added your own variation.

Cheers!

Rhonda and Craig

Corralejo Honey Lime Chicken

Thank you to everyone for all the support you have shown regarding our blog.  Starting something like this is kind of nerve racking, but what the heck.  You only live once.  Right?

We were originally going to post a recipe about a fabulous ice cream pie that Rhonda wanted to make this weekend, but reality kicked in and we had to make dinner for our family. Go figure.  As we were preparing dinner, we realized that the grilled chicken recipe we were making fit the criteria for our blog. Easy. Tasty. Fresh! You will have save room for pie in the next post!

Years ago before Pinterest, Rhonda actually had to rip recipes out of magazines or print them off the computer as she found them.  This is a recipe that we adapted from either Southern Living Magazine or Better Homes and Gardens years ago.

First you make the marinade.  The marinade contains ½ cup of blue agave tequila.  We prefer to use Corralejo Reposado.  It is important to choose good quality tequila because you are putting it in the marinade for the flavor.  We are planning a post soon to explain the differences in tequila quality.

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Next the recipe calls for you to add in ½ cup of untoasted walnut oil.  However, we can never find untoasted walnut oil.  See criteria #1 above.  Rhonda is a busy mom with a full-time career.  If an ingredient is too far off her little quadrant of stores that she visits most, then she will not buy it.  We can find roasted walnut oil.  It is in our Kroger in the cooking oils section.  It is usually on the top shelf.  Oddly enough, we have also seen the roasted walnut oil at Home Goods in the kitchen and food section.  If you can’t find the walnut oil, you can use regular cooking oil.  We have substituted cooking oil before when we were in a pinch.  It just doesn’t add any flavor.

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Then you will add ½ honey, ¼ fresh squeezed lime juice and 1 tsp of finely shredded peel, 1 tsp kosher salt.  Mix all of this together.

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Place your chicken breasts into a gallon Ziploc bag.  Rhonda always puts the bag in a bowl or pan before placing in the fridge to prevent accidents.  The recipe originally calls for 12 chicken drumsticks instead of chicken breasts.  We have made the drumsticks and they are tasty.  Our family prefers white meat over dark meat, so we only make the drumsticks occasionally.  Leave the chicken to marinate for at least 4 hours.

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When you are ready to grill, place the chicken on a medium heat grill.  Cook indirectly to the flame and turning once half-way.

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Garnish with fresh cilantro. Yummo!  The chicken is juicy with a sweet and tangy flavor.  We would love to hear from you if the Corralejo Honey Lime Chicken makes it to your table this summer!

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Corralejo Honey Lime Chicken

Prep 15 min

Marinate 4 hours

Grill 20 minutes

1/2 cup blue agave Corralejo Reposado Tequila

1/2 cup roasted walnut oil

1/2 cup honey

2-3 limes (1 tsp finely shredded peel plus 1/4 cup juice)

1 tsp. kosher salt

4 chicken breasts or 12 chicken drumsticks

fresh cilantro

  1.  For marinade, in bowl whisk together tequila and oil.  Whisk in honey, lime juice, peel and salt.  Cover and refrigerate marinade for up to 2 days.
  2. Place chicken in self-sealing plastic bag in shallow dish.  Add marinade; seal.  Refrigerate 4-8 hours turning occasionally.  Drain and discard marinade.
  3. Place chicken on medium heat grill.  Adjust for indirect cooking.  Turning breast over once half-way through cooking.
  4. Garnish with fresh cilantro and serve.

Cheers!

Rhonda and Craig