Tuesday, October 21, 2008

::30 Days:: Day 25

More laundry... I had to re-wash 2 loads because the husband cut the grass while the clothes were still wet and at the end of the day, the dust from the mower dried into the clothes. sigh.. A woman's work is never done, eh?


Petting Archie the cat on the way back in the house. He used to be an indoor cat, until he decided the litter box wasn't good enough for him anymore. He is doing pretty well outside, already caught several mice! Good cat!

More apples... are you getting sick of hearing me talk about apples? Me, too! I'm so done with apples right now. I made several more batches of apple sauce, dried apples and the apples above are about to be made into apple chips. Apples are sliced thinly then dipped in lemon juice, then dipped in cinnamon and sugar and dried in the dehydrator until crispy. I have about 10 apples left and I will NOT be getting anymore.

We are big iced tea drinkers and I make it by the gallon every few days. I never liked tea growing up and one of my best friends always offered me iced tea and I always said "eww, no!" Then when I was 17, I went to Cordoba, Argentina in South America with my performing arts group and we were told not to drink the water unless it was heated. For two weeks, it was either soda, warm milk or hot tea. I watched all my friends drink the tea and they added lemon or honey or sugar to it. I thought to myself that if they all liked it, tea must not be that bad. So I tried hot tea for the first time and liked it! When I came back home and went to my best friends' house, I asked for the iced tea. You should have seen the look on her face! I learned how to make iced sweet tea the way her momma makes it and I've been making it that way ever since. I even got me a gallon sized tupperware pitcher just like her momma has and it is used exclusively for tea.

In case you're wonderin' how to make sweet iced tea...

6 tea bags

1 cup sugar

1 gallon water

1 gallon size tupperware pitcher!

Boil tea bags in a small pan. Let it boil about 5 minutes then turn off heat but let tea bags sit for a little while. In the pitcher, add the sugar and then the hot tea. Stir to dissolve sugar and then add cold water to make 1 gallon. That's it! Less sugar than a gallon of kool-aid. Less sugar and caffeine than a liter of soda.

5 comments:

Amandeep said...

If you add some lemon juice to this sweet iced tea, the taste gets even better! (At least that's how i like it...) :-)

Have been visiting your blog regularly, but since life's been too busy lately i rarely get around to leaving a comment! You have a lovely family, and you seem to be an absolutely wonderful mom! God bless you and your loved ones... :-)

--Amandeep

Wendy said...

I LOVE tea! Hot, cold, sweet, with lemon ... but it has to be fresh brewed. I hate the stuff in cans.

My favorite hot tea is "green tea", and when I make iced tea, I use half green tea and half black tea.

Incidentally, you could grow the camellia sinesis plant where you are - the leaves of that plant are where our "tea" comes from - all of it (green, black, white and oolong). The different "types" of tea depend on how the leaves are processed/dried/fermented. I have a camellia sinesis, but it's too cold up here for it to live outside, and mine hasn't flowered in a long time.

Glenda, saved by grace said...

I think the black box brought me here from T E X A S ...I love looking at random blogs. You laundry having to be redone reminded me of when I was your age.
I used cloth diapers so EVERYDAY I had 2 or 3 lines of wash.
I will be back.
~blessings~ Glenda

Bluemeya said...

Wow... your blogs are sooo..... YOU! I've been reading them and trying to go backwards and catch up on your life and I'm still in awe!
The kids look great and I love your recipes! yummy!
I still new to blogging world but I'll try to catch up!
I'll come down for tea soon!!

Keep Blogging! Love the pictures!

jenny said...

Amandeep-- Well hello there!! I'm so glad you found the time to leave a comment! I can't always reply to them right away, but I DO love hearing from my readers. :o) Funny thing, I don't care for lemon in my tea... I've tried it, but it just doesn't do a thing for me! Thank you for your kind words and I do hope you'll leave another comment! Bless you and yours.

Wendy-- me, too! I don't like the stuff that comes in cans, has a funny taste to it. I will def check into growing my own tea!! If it can be done in this area, I'll do it! I can only imagine how fresh it will taste!

Glenda-- Welcome!! I think that's the one thing holding me back from using cloth diapers.. the extra laundry. I already have tons to do between the 6 of us as it is... but I also feel guilty when I use the disposables. I think I'll do a trial period of using cloth diapers and see how it goes. Do come back!! :o)

Blue girl-- Welcome!! I'm tickled you like my blog!! There's a lot to read here and I hope I don't bore you to tears! :o) Feel free to leave more comments and let me know what you think!