Fall & Winter Drinks

On a cold day nothing is as welcomed as a comforting warm drink. Generally hot cocoa on a snowy day comes to mind. Sometimes coffee or tea... and when fall comes we start thinking of ciders.

With the wind starting to chill and the holidays approaching, I started to think of warm drinks. Ones I could easily make in the crock-pot and ones that would be nice and quick to fix a craving. Here are three warm drinks I've fallen in love with already: Peach Apricot Cider (spiked), CranCherry Apple Cider, and Warm Lemonade.

So if your looking for something warm and comforting this winter - this one's for you :)

Warm Lemonade:

 1     Cup        Hot Water
1     Tbl         Honey
1     Tbl         Lemon Juice
1                   Cinnamon Stick

Mix water, honey and lemon juice together - stirring with cinnamon stick. Allow cinnamon stick to stay in glass through up to 5 glasses (depending on how quickly you drink each cup).

If you wanted to let the cinnamon stick flavor all cups and not have to measure out your lemon juice you could increase the proportions as follows:

6       Cups      Water
1/2    Cup        Honey
2                      Lemons (juiced)
1                      Cinnamon Stick

Bring water to a boil. Reduce heat and add in honey, lemon juice, and cinnamon stick and allow to simmer for approximately 10 minutes.


CranCherry Apple Cider:

 8      Cups       Apple Juice
4      Cups       Cran-Cherry Juice
4      Sticks      Cinnamon
6                     Allspice Berries
1/2   Cup        Maple Syrup
2      Tbl          Lemon Juice

Combine all ingredients in crock-pot and allow to cook over low for at least 4 hours. Remove allspice berries and cinnamon stick, and enjoy.

For a little extra festiveness, I've also added some cranberries to the pot - about a cup. However, I add them around the last hour of cooking time because the longer they're in there they will start to burst and not look as pretty. So if you want them for the flavor, add them in the morning and strain out to serve.



Peach Apricot Cider:

 2      Cans     Peach Nectar
2      Cans     Apricot Nectar
1      Bag       Frozen Peach Slices (16 oz)
3      Cup      Water
2-3   Sticks    Cinnamon
1      Cup       Honey Whisky
1/4   Cup       Lemon Juice
1      Cup       Brown Sugar
6                    Allspice Berries

Combine all ingredients in a large pot and stir to combine. Cover and cook on medium-low for 2 - 3 hours. Remove cinnamon sticks and allspice berries and turn to warm setting (if have it) to keep it warm for serving.


These have been my main go to warm drinks so far this year. All of these can be made stovetop or in a crock-pot. The lemonade one, since I have a bowl of lemons, is really easy to make cup by cup - but especially over the weekend I like to toss things together in the crock-pot... let the aroma fill the house... and have a warm drink always ready to go throughout the day.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Quinoa Experiment

Image
I've had a bag of red quinoa in my pantry for a long time. I originally got it to be part of a recipe that sounded good, but I didn't find all the ingredients at the time. I never really went back out to search and the quinoa just sat in the pantry. So finally I decided to make some and try something with it. And well, I'm going to pat myself on the back a little, this was one experiment I really liked! It came out so good that a few days later, I did made it again :) However, as a result, I honestly didn't take many pictures. Sorry about that. So here's the yummy red quinoa veggie salad... I didn't cook the quinoa exactly as the package said too - but you could and have it totally cold. Trust me, this is one dish that's yummy warm or cold :) I'm going to write it the way I made it though... not necessarily the way it should've been cooked. Red Quinoa Veggie Salad 1/2       Cup     Red Quinoa 1 1/2    Cup     Water 1 1/2 ...
Read more

Crock-Pot Salmon?

Image
I don't know about you, but I love my crock-pot! The ease of tossing things together, walking away, and coming back to some yummy food is wonderful! I honestly have yet to make something that hasn't come out good from the crock-pot! It's not always as pretty, but is sure is tasty! I was recently looking through a blog where a gal used her crock-pot every day for a whole year! I found lots of yummy ideas on her site, but the one that I just couldn't wait to try was salmon. Fish - from the crock-pot? This was unheard of for me... would it really taste good? Would it dry out? It was certainly worth a shot! She had done Salmon 5 different ways - with green beans  in January,  sweet and spicy  in March, lemon and dill in May,  Jamaican  in July, and cedar planked in December. I must admit, I still want to try the cedar plank as that sounds interesting to me. However, my inspiration for this one came from the sweet and spicy and the Jamaican one. They were both...
Read more

Cooling Down Part 1

Image
I must admit, ever since I did the Peach Tea post I've been thinking of other summer drinks. So over the  past week I've been having fun with some cool drinks. Tea came first to mind, understandably after the last one :) But I did take the time to get at least a little more creative with most of the drinks... the first one though was very similar to the  Peach Tea  - but it's not sun tea or peach so I did grow a little :) Generally I am all about water in all honesty. It's my go to drink of choice and I honestly do enjoy a good tall glass of water. I'll drink it hot - and I mean like hot tea water without the tea :) Or room temperature... sometimes iced, but in all honesty iced is usually my least favorite. I don't know what it is about it - but I like water. However, that doesn't mean that I don't enjoy other drinks to get my daily dose of liquids - sometimes a little flavor is pretty nice :) The tricky part is not getting too  much sugar - and yes, ...
Read more