Mimosa Sunrise

A few weeks back we glass etched some champagne glasses and this week we are going to make something that can go in them...Mimosas. Our colour is called “Mimosa Sunrise” and it’s in one of the Fenty palettes and is described as a “tangerine metallic.”

Mimosas are great for so many occasions. You don’t just have to have them for breakfast! Plus there are so many varieties so you can experiment and try something a little different from your typical orange juice and champagne mix, you can add some other additions too.

Original Mimosa – Basically you need two ingredients...orange juice and champagne. Fill half your glasses with orange juice and the other half with champagne and you’re set! Here's ours in our etched glasses.

Pomegranate Mimosas – Fill your champagne flute ¼ of the way full of pomegranate juice and top it off with champagne. Then add some pomegranate seeds for a garnish on top.

Pineapple Mimosa Slushies – This one serves four but you can add more if you have more people to serve. In a blender, add 3 cups of Prosecco, 1 cup of frozen mango, 1 cup of pineapple, juice of half of a lemon, and 2 cups of ice. Then blend it all together. Fill your flutes and garnish with fresh pineapple.

Strawberry Mango Mimosa – You’ll need 1 diced mango, 1 cup of diced strawberries, 1 cup of orange juice, and 1 bottle of champagne. Blend the fruit together then add the fruit mix to each flute, fill them half way. Then add in the champagne and enjoy.

Sparkling Raspberry Lemon Mimosa – Pour chilled champagne into your flute (2/3s full is good). Then add some raspberry lemonade in so that it’s filled to the top. Top with fresh raspberries.

Cinnamon Pear Mimosa – Heat 2 cups of pear juice up on the stove. Add in 2 cinnamon sticks after the juice has boiled and cover with the heat turned off.  Let it steep in the pan for 30 minutes first then put into a sealed container and refrigerate overnight. Fill your flute half full of the pear juice and fill up the rest with champagne and top it off with a slice of fresh pear.

Sherbet Mimosa – Add four small scoops of your favourite sherbet to a champagne glass. Add a tablespoon of clementine vodka and top with champagne. Add some fresh fruit on top if you like.

Summer Slushie Drinks

Ok so as promised...here is our finished DIY Mod Podge tray. It’s all dry and we added on a black decorative ribbon around the edges.

Now for the drinks...

We tried one called Summer Slush. It ended up being quite sweet so I would cut back on the sugar by at least half, maybe even more. Both of the juices are sweet along with the 7 Up that we used.

For the Summer Slush you will need 46 oz. can (4 ½ cups) of pineapple juice, 12 oz. can (1 ¼ cups) of frozen orange juice , 3 cups of sugar (this made it super sweet so try cutting it down to 1 ½ cups), 46 oz. (4 ½ cups) of water.

Combine all of the ingredients together in a saucepan and boil until the sugar dissolves. Pour into a 13x9 inch pan and a loaf pan. We used some recycled containers along with a reusable container. Freeze overnight. We let it sit for a couple of days. 

When you are ready to drink, chisel some of the frozen slush out into glasses and pour 7 Up over it. You can also pour Ginger Ale, Club Soda, or even some of Vodka, Tequila, or Wine!

Some other drinks that we thought sounded interesting are...

Mango Pineapple Frozen Sangria – Combine in a blender, 1 bottle of sparkling wine (half frozen), 1 ½ cups of frozen apple juice, 1 cup of frozen mango, 1 cup of frozen pineapple, and a 1/3 cup of triple sec. Blend it until fully mixed and serve with a garnish of fresh pineapple.

Watermelon Frosty – Combine in a blender, 2 cups of frozen watermelon cubes, ½ frozen banana, juice of half a lime, ½  tbsp. of honey, 2-3 mint leaves. Blend until incorporated but still thick. Garnish with mint and lime.

Pina Colada Smoothie – Combine in a blender 1 cup of pineapple, 1 cup of frozen mango chunks, ½ banana, and 1 cup of coconut milk.  Blend until smooth.

Maybe we’ll give some a try in the warm weather ahead. Enjoy!

Coffee!!!

It’s time for a coffee blog. Yes, this week’s flavour is a Ben and Jerry's one and is called “Coffee coffee, buzz buzz buzz.” I am a big fan of coffee and I thought that we’d trying making a few different things with coffee this week. I will try out a couple of iced versions, some homemade iced and warm latte, and a dessert with coffee in it.

With Summer in full swing, I was feeling quite warm even first thing in the morning while I was sipping my hot coffee so I decided to try out a few iced cold coffee drinks to kick off my day. 

First of all I tried one that crushed up the ice like a Frappuccino.

*For all of these coffees, you’ll want to make your coffee stronger than usual so that you get better flavour when it gets diluted with ice/water (maybe cut the water in half; I usually do equal parts grounds and water when I make my regular morning coffee).

Blend about 1 ½ - 2 cups of ice cubes crushed up. Add ¾ cup of brewed strong coffee that is cooled along with ½ cup of milk/cream. If you want to, you can add some sugar (I prefer mine without) and a few drops of vanilla.

I also made one with whole ice cubes which I like better (see above pictures for the first steps). You can keep it real simple or make it a bit fancier. I made one with instant coffee in which you will need ½ cup of hot water and 2 tsp. of instant coffee, let cool. Then blend it with ¼ cup of cream and 1 tsp. of vanilla and pour over ice. If you make it with regular brewed coffee then blend a cooled 1 cup of coffee along with 1 tsp. of vanilla, 2-4 tbsp. of half and half and then pour over ice.

I love lattes, but they can be expensive and have a lot of calories, so these are some easy at home lattes that you can try.

For an iced latte try brewing 1/3 cup of coffee with 2 cups of cold water. Combine the brewed and slightly cooled coffee with 1 can of sweetened condensed milk and serve over ice. This makes lots of coffee so if you only want some then refrigerate some and pour over ice when you are ready to drink it.

For a warm latte, I kind of used the method that we did when we made London Fogs a while back. Start by brewing some really strong coffee. 

Pick the mug you want and then fill it half way up with milk or cream and pour into a saucepan. Then whisk constantly while it simmers on the stove (make sure you don’t boil). 

Fill your mug/mugs up with coffee half way, add a bit of vanilla, this is where you’d add syrup or sugar if you like it, and then when you have a nice foam on your milk that you are whisking, pour the milk into the coffee and top with the foam. You can sprinkle with cocoa or cinnamon.

Ok, so another must try and a must try that is at the top of my list, are these Oreo cookie ice cubes. Simply crush up some Oreo’s and line them in the bottom of some ice cube trays and top with the milk of your choice. Once they have frozen, add them to your morning coffee, iced or warm!

Coffee dessert time! We’ve been talking about different ways to drink coffee but now we thought we’d try a dessert with coffee as the main ingredient. Nicole isn’t a coffee fan so I have been testing out the drinks so far and have been taking over this blog and I’ll do the same for this dessert but maybe I can try and convince her to have some. I have chosen to make chocolate chip coffee cookies. These have a really nice strong coffee flavour; it’s not so much mocha like some coffee chocolate combos, you can definitely taste the coffee and chocolate separately.

Chocolate Chip Coffee Cookie Recipe:

You will need...

½ cup of butter

½ cup of granulated sugar

¼ cup of brown sugar

1 egg

4 tbsp. of instant coffee granules

1 tbsp. of water

2 cups of flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. of cornstarch

½ tsp. of baking soda

¼ tsp. of salt

1 cup of chocolate chips

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk the flour, powder, soda, cornstarch, some of the coffee granules, and salt.

Then almost melt the butter in the microwave and pour into mixing bowl. Mix in the sugars and then the egg until combined.

Dissolve the  rest of the instant coffee into the water and then add to the wet ingredients.

Now add in the dry ingredients slowly until completely mixed and then stir in the chocolate chips.

You can roll balls of dough and place on the cookie sheet for a more polished look or you can scoop the dough. It’s up to you.

Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Allow to cool a bit before removing from the sheet.