Harvest Punch

This is my all-time favorite drink to make for guests, and I was recently surprised to find that I had never posted it before. I aim to fix that today. Please, please, please try this. It is so yummy, you won't even believe it.

This is all you need: water, Sprite (or any lemon-lime soda), 1 can of frozen orange juice, 1 can of frozen lemonade, vanilla, almond extract (the secret ingredient), and sugar (the magical ingredient).

Surely you must be thirsty now?

Old Fashioned Lemonade

Now that it's July and hotter than heck but not quite as hot as Texas, it's the perfect time to make lemonade. Not much sounds better to me than sitting outside under a shade tree with a good book and a cold glass of lemonade.

If you've never made lemonade, it's pretty easy to make, you just have to be willing to play around with the proportions, depending on how tart your lemons may or may not be.

My recipe starts with the juice of 12 lemons. I also set another lemon aside to slice and float in the lemonade. We happen to have a juicer, and it strains the pulp pretty well. I'm not a big fan of the pulp, but Peanut Head loves it.

Even though I strained the pulp, you can see that the process isn't perfect. It sure is tasty though.

Want a glass?

Here's the basic recipe. Don't be afraid to tinker with it and adjust it to your own personal tastes. You might also like to try Strawberry-Watermelon Lemonade for a different spin. It's one of Peanut Head's specialities.

Cinnamon Candy Cider

Do these little red hots look familiar to you? I used to eat them as a kid, and although I rarely use them when decorating cookies, I do use them in my Valentine drink.

For my Winter Crop, I got my croppers settled in with this hot drink because it was dang cold outside. And I wanted to get them all cozy and ready to crank out the pages.


The red hots can be found in the baking isle at your grocery store, with the candy sprinkles and cake decorating paraphernalia.

Every sugar junkie's dream.

Anyway, all you do is melt a cup of these hot little mamas in a gallon of apple cider and you're all set.


Here's the recipe card. Enjoy!

Sweetheart Punch

My Winter Crop is coming up this weekend, so I'm sharing my recipe for Sweetheart Punch with you. Peanut Head and I just made this one up because we needed a pretty, Valentiney drink. We experimented and this is what we came up with. I hope you like it. Enjoy!

Paper and embellishments from Pandemonium kit by Mindy Terasawa at Designer Digitals.

Wassail

Tomorrow I'm having my holiday open house for my Creative Memories business, and I'll be making Wassail for my guests. I'm going to hope for a cold day because that'll make the Wassail even better. I'll be serving my Gingerbread Cookies as well.

Putting the cloves in the orange hurts the tips of your fingers, so I recommend you first poke holes in the orange with a toothpick.

Other than that, it's a pretty easy recipe. Enjoy!

Hot Chocolate Mix--Cute Gift Idea

Every year about this time, Peanut Head and I mix up some of this hot chocolate mix for all the cold wintry nights ahead.

My sister-in-law, Marcia, originally found this recipe in Sunset magazine and it has become a favorite of ours.

One thing that I love about this recipe, is that it fits perfectly into a quart size canning jar and it makes a cute and practical gift.

I jazzed up the lid a bit with some scrapbook paper, snowflakes, of course.

And then I added a snowflake sticker.

And finally a gift tag, which I digitally scrapbooked and then had print off as a 4x6 print to give me two tags.

I then adhered it to cardstock to make it a little sturdier.

Then cut it out, punched a hole through it, and tied it on with a pretty ribbon.

And Ta DA! Gift ready.

Here's a recipe card for you.



And you can't forget the tag.

I think these would make great teacher gifts. Unless of course you live in Texas or someplace with an equivalent climate, where it's still blinking hot this time of year.

Strawberry Watermelon Lemonade

Peanut Head came up with this recipe a few years ago. He's pretty handy in the kitchen, although he has some mishaps that he'll never live down. Like the time he made Enchiladas with a whole can of chipotle chile peppers instead of the "one canned chipotle chili pepper" the recipe called for. He ate alone that evening, sweating buckets because he made it dang it, and he was going to eat it.

BEVERAGES

Cinnamon Candy Cider

Classic Cocoa Mix

Harvest Punch

Old Fashioned Lemonade

Strawberry Watermelon Lemonade

Sweetheart Punch

Wassail