sweet leaf tea

so when we were in seabrook for an amazing vacation last week (see below for evidence) i discovered my new favorite drink...budget permitting. at $1.50 a piece it may be more of a special treat but boy oh boy is it amazing! 


sweet leaf tea out of austin, texas is my fave! i tried the diet seeing as i'm on a diet, and it tasted just like sweet tea and was totally refreshing (before my pina coladas) on the beach. 

below is the back label...which is proof that its as good as i say it is! 

DIET ORIGINAL SWEET TEA
 If you doubt that a zero-calorie sweet tea can taste as good as The Original, ask one of the thousands of people at Austin City Limits Music Festival, where we ran out of The Original Sweet Tea. We served them Diet for a few hours and no one noticed. True story.


find a bottle near you! 

how to dry hydrangeas

from this month's Southern Living for those of us who live in Georgia highlighted how to dry hydrangeas. i feel like everyone has at least one hydrangea plant in their yard/garden and i always wondered how people maintained the color in the dried ones! 


tips:
-use water (to preserve color)...cut blooms off of plant shortly after they peak, remove leaves, and place in a container with water covering 1/2 or less of the stems. after a few days, the water evaporates, drying the flowers. 
-add Rit dye to your hydrangeas in denim blue or royal blue to give deeper color. add a few drops to the water and/or dab the petals with dye to enhance as well. 

happy memorial day weekend

we are off to seabrook with pig and kent for the weekend...as we all enjoy the weekend, make sure you remember why we get an extra day off work on Monday. 


True Meaning of Memorial Day (video)


thank you for all of those who continue to lay their lives on the line for us daily and serve in our defense here and overseas and God bless all of those who have lost their lives in our defense. 

10.10.10 Recipe Correction

Pig made Pam's chicken slaw and caught my mistake! Apologies on the mess up here! See below (forgot 1/2 cup canola. oil)


Pam Cakes Chicken Slaw
what you need & what i use (and what they tell me to in parenthesis)
the slaw:
package of uncooked chicken flavored ramen noodles
rotisserie chicken
2 green onions
1 package cabbage slaw
1/2 cup silvered almonds
2 tbsp sesame seeds


the dressing: 
1/2 tsp salt (they say: 1 tsp salt but there is a lot of salt in the ramen package below)
1 tsp ground black pepper
the packet that comes in the chicken ramen package
3 tbsp white vinegar
1-1/2 tbsp white sugar (2 tbsp white sugar)
1/2 cup canola oil
what to do:
1. mix all the dressing ingredients together and put aside for later  2. get a pretty good size bowl out and take a fork and get as much white meat as you can off of the rotisserie chicken.  3. dump in the slaw  4. in the baggie still, crunch up the ramen noodles to little pieces and sprinkle on top of the slaw  5. use some kitchen sheers and finely cut cleaned green onions 6. toast the almonds in a pan on the stove and when they are almost toasted, add in the sesame seeds (not too early or they'll burn!) 7. toss the almonds/sesame seeds in with the slaw.  8. pour on the dressing and refrigerate for at least 2 hours--the longer you can leave it the better. 9. serve cold

happy birthday pig & carrie!

happy 25th birthday pig! can't wait to see you this weekend!

happy 25th birthday (again...for at least the 2nd time) Carrie!!!