If I Dream It...

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, ...

I had a craving to make sun tea the other day. Why, honestly I couldn't tell you... it just sounded good. I remember making sun tea with my Mom and having it sitting out back on the cover to the hot tub. Watching it slowly get darker and darker as it sat out in the heat. However my Mom likes straight tea and I have always been a fan of the sweet tea... the taste for unsweet tea has just never worked for me. So I've never taken the time to make sun tea. And so when I got the craving to try to make some, I decided I would make sun sweet tea :) If you don't like sweet tea you can certainly decrease or completely omit the sugar... and if you like the true, syrupy type sweet tea you'll want to add more. This is certainly sweet, don't get me wrong, but I have certainly had sweeter :) The wonderful thing about this is that you can really infuse your tea with any fruit, just like you infuse your water. And honestly, I think the fresh fruit adds a much better flavor than...

With the issues of the last post behind me - THANKFULLY - I couldn't help but spend some time in the kitchen :) So today I share two "dishes" that are summer inspired - veggies with dinner and fruit with dessert. Both were super easy and pleasantly yummy!  Veggie Penne 1      Tbl      Bacon Grease (could use olive oil) 2.5   Cups   Penne 2      Cups   Chicken Broth (could use vegetable broth) 1/2   Cup     Water 2      Cup     Broccoli 1      Med     Carrot (shredded) 1/2   Cup     Frozen Peas 2      tsp       Minced Garlic (divided) 1/4   Cup     Grated Parmesan Cheese 1      oz        Cream Cheese Salt & Pepper to taste Melt bacon grease in a large skillet and add 1 tsp minced garlic. Allow to simmer for a minute and ...

Summer is here and my desire to eat more fruits and vegetables has increased... I always try to eat fairly decent (believe it or not), but for some reason when summer is here it seems much easier and I believe I get more fruits and vegetables in my regular diet. This is predominately a good thing, though sometimes it does lead to unfortunate side effects. We all know there's really not much of a bad side effect for things so good... Seriously, take a second to think about it... figure one out yet? Well thankfully this isn't always an issue, but now and then it does pop up... If you haven't figured it out yet - I'm talking about fruit flies!! You can take out the trash - keep the fruits and veggies in the fridge and still for some reason, they're in your house! Lately they've been hanging around my lemon seeds that have been sprouting in my kitchen window. And for some reason, instead of just being one or two of the little annoying things - there are ...