Make it Monday - Raspberry Rum

Last summer I tried my hand at making raspberry vodka and I drank it over Christmas - it was delicious.

This year, our raspberries are going crazy so we harvested them in the sun yesterday and this time I tried the recipe with rum:

0.7l rum

360g sugar

360g fresh raspberries

I have to shake the jar every day until the sugar is absorbed and then seive into a bottle and put it away until Christmas! I'm looking forward to tasting the results!

Refreshing Summer Drink

Despite the long to do list this morning, I'm feeling nice and refreshed having lit some relaxing scented candles and my wonderful husband providing refreshments.

We've had a soda machine for a while and Nico recently ordered some new syrup flavours. Today I'm enjoying a summery, refreshing mojito. Yum!

My top three tipples

I'm not a big drinker and when I do drink, I'll often opt for a glass of wine. Now that the nights are getting colder and darker it's the season for something a little bit stronger. These are my favourites:

1. Amaretto

I first started drinking this with apple juice when I first lived in Germany. Overly sweet for some tastes, I much prefer it to harder tastes.

2. Ouzo

Another drink I picked up during my time in Oldenburg, we started drinking this at our regular Greek restaurant. I like to drink it with water which minimizes the hangover.

3. Irish Mist

Nico is something of a whisky connoisseur. I've never enjoyed whisky but we did discover this blend which is the perfect mix of whisky and sweet.

Christmas Bonus: Baileys

This is my traditional Christmas drink, sweet and creamy on ice - perfect for getting into the festive spirit.

Recipe: Apple Smoothie

Towards the end of the holidays we tried this smoothie. It was great to try something new, tasty and healthy for breakfast.
It's basically made up of apple, almond milk, honey, cashew nuts and cinnamon so it's filling and fits in with paleo.

Looking forward to making it again.

Cold Brewed Coffee

Recently, I've heard a fair bit about cold brewed coffee. It being so hot this summer and us living with a one year old, Nico did a bit of research and we decided to give it a try.

The difference between iced coffee and cold brew is that iced coffee is normal, hot coffee cooled down with ice. Cold brewed coffee is brewed for twenty-four hours before it's filtered.

It's definitely different - milder, less acidic and very refreshing. I think we'll be doing it again next summer too!

Summer Manifesto #3 Part 3

Last night we enjoyed our latest mocktail by candle light on the terrace.

I used this recipe and it was a little sour but nice. Mojitos have long been my go to cocktail and a key summer drink for me so this one was especially nice.

We also got to use fresh mint from the garden which I always love.

Summer Manifesto: #7 Drink Peppermint Tea

On our new health kick, I'm feeling good and trying to limit my coffee intake. It finally gave me the chance to get the peppermint tea back out. I used to drink it a lot but stopped when Isabella was born as it can stop milk production.

It's lovely and refreshing and keeps my water intake up and caffeine levels down!

Summer Manifesto #3 Part2

Last week we tried our second new mocktail of the season. It was more adventurous, delicious and I couldn't get enough of it!

You can find the recipe here. I switched out the candied ginger for fresh and a half teaspoon of sugar. The peaches and limes are key though.

Summer Manifesto #3 Part 1

As part of my summer manifesto I wanted to try some mocktails.

Over Isabella's birthday, I was sipping virgin Buck's Fizz. Lovely, summery and thirst quenching - a great way to start enjoying this season more.

Lemon and Mint Iced Tea

I've been waiting for a nice day to try this out and what could be better than a sunny Friday afternoon - my last working Friday until 2015!!

Take a litre of water and boil it up with the juice of two lemons, four tablespoons of sugar and a good handful of mint leaves. Take off the heat and add three ginger and lemon tea bags to brew for at least ten minutes. Allow to cool. Serve over ice with lemon wedges. It's so refreshing - give it a try! (Recipe from here)

Fruit Milkshake

Ever since our trip to Buesum, I have been getting a little too into milkshakes.  I hadn't had one since I was little but now that I have been reminded and can blame everything on the bump, I was going a little crazy.  

Luckily, I have an amazing husband who whipped me up this healthy shake with some frozen fruit and yoghurt - delicious! 

Hot Toddy

 If it's getting a bit chilly where you are and your not feeling 100%, I can't recommend this recipe from Jo over at Cup of Jo enough!  I indulged on Wednesday night and it was delicious!

Posh Drinks

Lately, we've seen some of this series on youtube.  It's a little like Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares but for bars and one of the tips we've seen is to have one large spherical ice cube in the drink rather than lots of little ones.  It melts slower so it doesn't water down your drink too quickly and you drink more slowly.  We found some online and they came last week - it was different!

Smoothie Recipe

As one of my new recipes for this month, I tried this delicious smoothie recipe yesterday.  It's so simple it's untrue and tastes really nice even though I was unsure about the mix of orange juice and milk.

Something New - Ginger Beer

When we went for lunch on Sunday, Loreto asked for ginger beer.  We managed to find her something similar but I had trouble explaining what it was as it's something I have never tried and although it is called beer, I knew it couldn't be alcoholic because it crops up on so many children's adventures in Enid Blighton novels, in fact, that's probably the only place I had heard of it until then.

Coincidentally we came across some ginger beer in the Asia food shop while we were out and about on Monday so our first new adventure of these summer holidays was trying that...

...and we were pleasantly surprised.  Nico introduced me to all things ginger after we started going out and he discovered that I am always cold.  It was a little sweet and probably didn't fit in with the diet but it was one can and I'm glad we tried it.

Cocktail Hour

Check out the palm tree in the back

Following on from our delicious mojitos a la Nico the other week, I got a taster of the delicious orangacolada a la Nico this week.  Nico has been stocking up on coconut lately and not just using it in cooking.  This was delicious.