Warm, Happy Days and Fruity Drinks

Full disclosure, I'm pretty much a wine girl.

I don't like beer.  I don't like super-sweet drinks.  I do enjoy a margarita on occasion, but overall?

Wine.  Sometimes I might even do something crazy and unexpected like order a dry white instead of a dry red!

I'm crazy predictable in this area.

Yet the happy warm-weather bug bit me the other day and when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to cook I found a recipe for a Blue Hawaiian.

They're just so pretty!

I had never tried one, but I do love a frozen, slushy drink once in a while.

So off I headed to the liquor store for some blue curaçao (which the lady behind the counter excitedly pointed out that I had pronounced correctly- yay!) and cheap rum (because...I mean...why spend money on the good stuff when it's going in a blender with fruit juice?).

Frozen Caramel Coffee

I try to avoid coffee places...but not because I don't like coffee.

Far from it, actually.

No, I love coffee.

Especially those drinks that *true* coffee lovers turn their noses up at.

Give me a sugar-laden flavor-of-the-season any day of the week!

While I certainly enjoy a warm drink during the colder months, for most of the year my biggest temptation is anything iced or frozen.  Flavored, loaded with syrup...yeah...I don't avoid coffee places because I don't like coffee.

I avoid coffee places because my waistline really can't handle my lack of self control.

Sure I tell myself that I'm just going to order a regular coffee.  Something strong and dark.

Then the next thing I know I'm staring down a very large drink with a very large swirl of whipped cream on top.  Possibly some kind of chocolate shaving on top, as if the whipped cream wasn't enough.

You might wonder why I'm telling you all of this while you're staring at pictures of a coffee drink that is 1)topped with a very large dollop of whipped cream and 2)dripping with caramel.

I can understand your confusion.  Just stick with me for a moment.

Hot Days and Cold Coffee Treats

Five years ago this month I took a trip to Seattle courtesy of Allrecipes.

I've taken a number of Allrecipes trips since, but this was the first- and my anxiety was high.

Now don't get me wrong- I was excited about all of the fun stuff they had planned for us.

They flew their Allstars out to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Allrecipes.com, put us up in a very nice hotel, wined and dined us at their headquarters...it was all quite exciting.  At that point in my life I was one year into being a stay-at-home mom and life really revolved around all things children and homelife.  This blog was in it's infancy, and I was just...you know, a mom.

Have I mentioned I have just *ahem* a touch of social anxiety too?

So I was flying cross-country into a totally new situation to meet up with people whom I had only interacted with online.  I hadn't lost any of the weight I'd gained during my pregnancy so I was even more self-conscious than normal- which is saying a lot.

I seriously almost passed on even taking this incredible, free trip!

But I didn't.

More Fun With Frozen Drinks: Amaretto Sours

There was a time when I was young.
I know, hard to believe, even for me these days, but I totally was.

I used to go out with friends, stay out late, take impromptu road trips...lol those days are gone my friends.  I took my 10 year-old to her first concert the other night, didn't get home until almost midnight, and was soooo ready to crash by the time I got home after my late night.

Times have changed.

Anyway, back in the days of fun nights out with friends the Amaretto Sour was definitely my go-to beverage.  I'm not really sure why...I think somewhere in the back of my head it stuck that my mom- which is hard to believe, as she simply doesn't drink at all- is rumored to have enjoyed them at some point in time.  When I turned 21 it just sort of became my default drink order when I would go out.

These days sweet drinks have been replaced with dry red wines as my go-to beverage- in fact, I don't think I realized how long ago my early 20's were until, during a rare weekend away last year in Asheville, NC,  I ordered an Amaretto Sour on a whim while waiting for our table at a restaurant.

My husband stared at me in shock asking, "Who ARE you??".

Apparently I've been a wine person for longer than I thought if my Amaretto Sour days ended before  our relationship began!

Tastes Like Summer: Frozen Watermelon Margaritas

Ladies and gentlemen, summer has arrived!  Well, unofficially.  The pool is open, the weather is warm, the kids are home and ready for adventures.  I'm one happy mama!  We've had a low-key Memorial Day weekend.  While the part of me that loves entertaining was kind of sad that we just hung out around the house this weekend, we really needed a break.  It's been a month full of company and traveling for birthdays, Mother's Day, and a host of other events.  We have company coming again this weekend.  We definitely needed some down time!

 

 So, while most of America soaked up the sun and grilled out we watched movies, played board games, ate breakfast for dinner, and just generally enjoyed being a family.  No complaints here.

While our weekend may have been plenty relaxed and homebodyish we decided that it was still deserving of a fun summer signature libation.  :-)

I mentioned that I've been a little blender-friendly lately now that I finally have a blender that's capable of turning ice into beautifully creamy concoctions.  I have been having soooo much fun making everything from smoothies for my daughter to grown up drinks and I honestly can't say enough good things about my Ninja!  Why did I suffer through life with a sub-par blender for all of those years??

Derby Day Drinks: Frozen Mint Juleps

Honestly, I know pretty much nothing about the Kentucky Derby beyond fun hats and mint juleps.  I'm sorry...I just don't.  It seems like one of those things I should be paying more attention to.  I know that my husband's family always watches the derby and I have fun with the hat and julep part of the deal.  :-)

 This year, I decided that our standard julep needed an upgrade- honestly for no other reason than I just got a new blender and I feel like putting it to good use as often as possible.  For way too long I've made do with a horrid blender that couldn't handle ice at all.  The final straw was a few weeks ago when my husband tried to make ice cream concoctions (apparently Dairy Queen's line was too long...?) and my blender did a miserable job even with something that simple.

The day had come- it was time for a replacement.

Tastes Like Summer: The Perfect Sweet Tea

Twelve years ago, when I joined the Air Force and found myself living in Mississippi, I discovered something amazing- sweet tea.

It may be hard to believe to those of you living East of the Mississippi, but sweet tea is something that simply doesn't exist for most of the country.  I literally didn't know it was a thing until I was, oh, 20 years old or so.

It.  Is.  Life changing.

Personally, I think the best sweet tea I've ever tasted is from a restaurant called Pepper's (also the best potato salad EVER for the record...) but Pal's is a close runner up now that I live in TN.

Regardless, it's perfect.  Some people like it SICKLY sweet.

I can't handle that.

The Fall Flavor Challenge Take Two

I mentioned before that the Allrecipes Allstars are partnering with SPLENDA® Sweetener this month, something I'm pretty excited about.  We go through a LOT of SPLENDA® Sweetener in this house!

I sub it for sugar very often..in coffee, soups, sauces, salads....but to be honest, I've never- EVER- baked with it.

This was new territory to me.  I already knew that we enjoyed it in the pumpkin cookies and mini apple muffins I made last week, but I had a new apple vs. pumpkin challenge posed to me by SPLENDA® Sweetener and Allrecipes.com.  

Mainly Margaritas :-)

Life's been a little hectic the past few months!  My son turns two next week and he doesn't really talk yet.  I take that back- he doesn't speak any kind of language we understand.  He jabbers incessently, but very little beyond "uh oh" or "dada" comes out of his mouth in any recognizable way.  So, we finally went to have a speech evaluation done and he's now seeing a speech therapist twice a week, an occupational

My Handsome Man