Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Time for company!

Hello, everyone! The Fresh Pioneer is back and we're having friends over! It's almost the end of the hot season here and I want to be the hostess with the mostest, so I'm going to whip up some super  EASY and delicious COLD drinks. Let's go ahead and start.
 
A little picture to get you in the mood.

Now, I love coffee. Love, love, LOVE it. But when it hits 100F, I tend to look at that steaming cup with a different sort of feeling. I want to go to Starbucks and get me a cold granita. But it's 12 miles away, and it costs a lot of money. What's a girl to do??
She brews up some coffee and puts in the sweetener. (For me, this is sugar. Some of you can use the fake stuff or honey. Or nothing, if you're tough like that.)
Then we put it in the freezer, in a large bowl, for about 5 hours. (A good hostess plans ahead. If she remembers. And has fair warning. But we'll just assume all that, no?) Take a fork and drag over the coffee until it comes off in tiny, frozen chunks.
                                
 MMMM, now if you're a wuss like I am, you don't like it black. You need milk! Fat free condensed milk...  And you're ready!!

 Oh, wait. Your friend doesn't drink coffee?? It makes her stay awake all night? It gives her an ulcer? Reverse. Back to the freezer, where you have RASPBERRY HERBAL TEA frozen in its own little bowl. (Say after me, "I am the hostess with the mostest." Say it again... )
Repeat the process with the fork, except for the milk. Add slice of lime. (This was melting. And I got to drink that one, too! I love this food blog thing.)

NOW you're ready.

Oh, wait! You think the kids might like something, too? We can't just throw popsicles at them? Well, we ARE the hostesses with the... you know the rest. Good thing that last night we cut a watermelon. (It was a Hermiston, Oregon, melon, too. Award-winning YUM.)

We squished it up and did NOT ADD SUGAR.
Because the kids don't need it. They're crazy enough as it is.
For the parents, we added vodka. KIDDING. Let's keep this playdate running smoothly, eh?
It sat in the freezer all night, just waiting for the moment it could become... THIS.


Oh, man.

NOW
YOU'RE
READY!

Let's head outside!
 




16 comments:

  1. Can I come over to your house to play??????? So much more fun than a two hour commute to work.

    I'm not a coffee drinker but I'm game to try the other two. In fact you've helped me figure out a great way to use up extra watermelon since I live alone and can't eat a whole one before it rots in this heat. At least that's been my experience this summer. And I'd never thought of freezing tea. Why did I not think of doing that two months ago? I love herbal tea -- the only kind I drink. I wonder if frozen peppermint tea would be refreshing or just strange? I'll have to experiment.

    Thanks for the ideas!

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    1. Kav, the herbal tea took about twice as long to freeze as the coffee, which was odd. Maybe it was the honey??

      And yes, head on over! We need more watermelon eaters around here. :D

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  2. well I'm a kid I want the watermelon one! :-) gosh my freezer isn't big enough for all that - I can barely squeeze in my frozen dinners and other essentials!
    Susanna

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    1. My dad gifted us with a giant upright freezer. It's so wonderful!!! But when I had a tiny freezer, I remember making a mango slushi by mashing mango and lime juice and spreading it in a flat dish. MMMMM.

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  3. Y.U.M.!!!! Those look amazing. And something I've never thought to try. Plus, it never crossed my mind to use condensed milk in coffee, but I'm sure it's delicious!!

    Thanks, Jan, for sharing. And for bearing the burden of drinking these in the name of blogging. haha

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    1. I know, Missy, it was SO HARD. :D

      And I think PW does the condensed milk in a refrigerated iced coffee drink she has on her site, but it's full fat. :O She must work hard to burn off all that bacon!!

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  4. I don't think Missy has had her coffee yet, Virginia - she should know I'd never do coffee anything!

    :)

    But, oh, these look soooo easy! (as long as you remember to start them ahead of time...). Does the frozen tea really crush that easily? With just a fork? Or if you leave it longer than 5 hours have you ruined it?

    The weather has turned here. Our highest highs are in the mid-80's this week, and the nights are downright chilly. Once temps get below 45 at night, I start closing windows...

    Oh, and fun stuff! I was up 1:30ish this morning and found out what our poor dog has been barking at in the wee hours - there were 5 or 6 deer in our yard. They were coming up out of the creek behind the house (rustling in the cattails) and eyeing the neighbor's garden.

    Wynter (the blonde husky mix) was either thinking they were monsters or food. Either one needs to be barked at, right?

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    1. HAHAHAHA! Love that, Jan!! How fun!

      And our weather turned, too. That's what I get for scheduling this blog about two weeks ago. *sigh*

      And the tea actually took a long time to freeze. Maybe because it was fruit tea? I think it took about 4 hours.

      And yes, this is a work-ahead project. But then again, you might just leave some in there on a regular basis in the hot months!

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    2. LOL!! It just now hit me that I had the wrong blogger!! LOL Yeah, I guess I need more coffee. Might go dig for a can of condensed milk...

      :)

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  5. Don't your stores sell Country Time and Kool-Aid??? What backwoods part of the lower forty-eight do you hail from, woman????

    :)

    Great ideas. I'm lovin' on the coffee and tea ones. I might just have to try it this weekend. We have a local pharmacy with a coffee counter that makes the best drinks but...

    about 500 calories each.

    Who knows how many carbs????

    My Crystal Light tea/lemonade mix. Like 4 calories.

    And then I can eat pie. I love pie SO MUCH.

    I'm just throwing this out there. Pie rocks.

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    1. wow you buy the namebrand huh?! :-) and I thought I was uptown buying some of those ice cream drumsticks at the grocery store - even got the variety pack!..I've never gone to this kind of care for company - maybe that's why I dont have any! I do like reading about others doing it though!
      Susanna

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    2. You know, 've never been a fan of Country Time OR Kool Aid. I like Jello, though, if that helps. And brownie mixes. And soda pop, any flavor. :D

      My sister loves the Crystal Light but it tastes completely fake to me. Ahh, the curse of the sweet tooth who hates fake sugars.

      And yes. Pie. It's all about the pie.

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    3. Susanna! I'm sure you have friends!!! You probably have the 'let's go out for dinner' kind of friends.

      I have the 'we're coming to your hosue to eat something' kind of friends.

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    4. nope no friends - my closest friend had a kid (he's 4 now) then they moved 3 hrs away for her hubby's job, another friend is married and working a lot and busy with her husband, and the friend I was with at the quilt show today is married and busy with her quilting business- we get together sometimes but now she's in a MLM doing some kind of 'healthy shake' so she eats out very little...I need to make more friends but just haven't.

      Susanna

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  6. Mum use to make a large jug of Iced coffee and have it in the fridge to drink on a hot day (she drank it not me!)

    We have cordial here its a little like kool-aid but its already liquid and you just add water and often will have it in the fridge. a link to the one i like is here http://www.cottees.com.au/ i like lemon crush.

    A side note I started High school (year 8 - 12) just after dad passed away and had to ride my bike. its around 2 miles. on hot days when we got home from school we would find a nice cold milkshake complete with some icecream in it waiting in the fridge for us. The first time was a real surprise and it became something to really look forward to on those hot days after riding home and a memory of mum I really treasure. (the funeral went really well she would be happy and I did blog about it on my blog http://ausjenny.blogspot.com, haven't been posting alot cos I have just been so tired I did sleep better last night and at least this morning feel a little more rested).

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    1. Oh, Jenny, praying hard for you! This is such a rough time.

      What wonderful memories you have, though. Very caring.

      remind me of a friend who said her Grandma used to put her clothes in the dryer for a few minutes on those really cold days, then wake her up for sschool She said it was a lot easier to gt out of bed when she had warm clothes to slide on!

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