The 5 Best Teas for Fall!

An early blast of winter weather has invaded Indiana. This has baffled  everyone, and we are still adjusting to the random 15 degree weather.

Of course, if you're me, you know what that means: an excuse to drink 1-4 cups of tea a day!! (You guys know about my insane love of tea, right? Right.)  My mom and I have a whole cabinet in our kitchen that stores nothing but tea. I dug out my five favorite fall teas to remind myself that, it is, in fact, still fall. (That way I don't go off yodeling "Jingle Bells" like a deranged Julia Child.)

I hope you all like this post, because it caused a lot of more trouble than it normally does. First off, I took the picture of these teas a week ago, back when the weather was, you know, nice.  Then between my birthday, having family here, and the craziness of life in general, I finally got around to actually writing the post today. But guess what happened? When I went to transfer the picture from the camera card to the computer, the stupid card reader decided that working was overrated. So I had to load everything outside to my front porch and squat in the snow with my iPad to get this picture. I came back inside with a frozen rump and squealing, "I better get a jillion page views or something!!"


And what better way to warm up from all this craziness then a cup of one of these teas, am I right? :)


The 5 Best Teas for Fall

#5: Stash Chocolate Hazelnut Decaf

When I was younger, my mom used this decadent tea to get me started drinking tea.  It's almost like drinking Nutella! (Which is another one of my favorites. Nutella tea = happy happy Hannah!)

#4: Twinings African Rooibos Red

This tea is is divine. Its rich, sweet, and almost smoky flavor makes this tea fabulously unique.

#3: Twinings Chai Hazelnut

My mom and I are suckers for anything Chai. Just add some milk to this delicate tea for an amazing treat! (I'm drinking this right now as I type!)

#2: Beans and Baristas Cinnamon Orange Spice Decaf

There is a sweet little tea/coffee shop in the Eastland Mall in Evansville, Indiana that sells this sweet and spicy tea. They have all sorts of teas there, but this one is a favorite of mine for fall.

#1: (the best fall tea!) Stash Pumpkin Spice

I'm sure you all are SO surprised to see Pumpkin Spice anything on the list. (Not!) Yes, I am hopping on Pumpkin Spice bandwagon with the rest of the world. But, hey! What other tea describes fall so perfectly?

I hope you all stay warm! Let me know what your weather is like in the comments!

Happy Halloween!

Boo to you!

It's a dreary and cold day -in fact, there's a chance of snow this evening- but that does not change that it is Halloween!

Every year, no matter the weather, we will get dressed up in a fabulous costume and tromp through the neighborhood for loads of candy. Not just the trick-or-treaters get into the spirit (pun intended), but the hander-outers do too! There is always someone dressing up as a dummy and coming to life. Last year, when someone did that to my friends and me, I yelled at him! Needless to day, we didn't get any candy from that house. Oops.

Anyway, Halloween shouldn't be just about the costumes and the decorations. Here is a sweet and simple recipe sure to be a hit with your goblins and ghouls!

Slime Cookies

Ingredients

-1 roll store-bought sugar cookie dough
-1 and 1/4 cups powdered sugar ( give or take)
-3 tablespoons milk (give or take)
-3 drops neon green food coloring

Directions 

Bake cookies according to package directions. While your cookies are cooling, whisk powdered sugar, milk, and food coloring together in a bowl. You might need to add more powdered sugar or milk if you think the mixture is too runny or too hard. The mixture should be gooey, slightly runny, and slimy green. Once cookies are cooled, use a teaspoon to put "slime" mixture on cookies. Let icing set for about and hour and a half and enjoy!

Note: you can use a spoon to make a "splat" design on your cookies. They are supposed to look messy, so they don't have to be perfect!

Happy haunting!

Something New...

I have something new I'm sure you all will like! 

Drumroll, please.... 

Okay, I'll tell you. You can now follow me with Bloglovin'! Just click on the button on the top of my page, by my most recent post. I hope you all follow me!!

Thanks, friends!

Kickin' Vegetarian Tacos

Everyone loves tacos, right? Well, this recipe at least! It is one of my favorite original recipes. I use two of my other recipes to make the filling, so you are getting three recipes in one post! SCORE!!

First, we're going to start off with some homemade refried black beans. These are super duper easy to make, and full of flavor. Just throw a can of rinsed black beans in a skillet with some butter and spices, then mash them up with a spoon. YUM!!!

Here's the official recipe:

Refried Black Beans

Ingredients 

-1 can black beans
-2 tablespoons butter
-1 teaspoon garlic powder
-1/2 teaspoon onion powder
-1/2 teaspoon chipotle pepper

Directions 

Drain beans. Melt butter in a skillet on medium heat. Add beans and spices. Stir and smash bean mixture with a spoon until it is your desired smoothness. Serves two.


Now that you have the beans taken care of, you can move on to the other essential part of any Mexican meal: spicy, flavorful rice. (My favorite!)

This rice recipe was created by my mom way back when. It has always been pure heaven for me, and I just jazzed it up a bit when I created this taco recipe. I hope you like it as much as I do!!

Fiesta Rice

Ingredients

-1 cup brown rice
-1 cup water
-1/2 cup frozen corn
-3 tablespoons low sodium taco seasoning
-1/4 cup green chiles
-Colby jack cheese, for topping

Directions

Cook rice according to package directions. Add corn, let sit for 5 minutes. Stir in seasonings and chiles. Top with cheese and serve. Serves four.


Those two simple recipes are the fillings of our tacos. Once you have these, it's time to open up your very own taco assembly line!

Kickin' Vegetarian Tacos

Ingredients

-1 tortilla
-Refried Black Beans (above)
-Fiesta Rice (above)
-1 tablespoon sour cream (optional)

Directions

Spread as much as desired Refried Black Beans on your tortilla. Top with Fiesta Rice. If you want, you can put some sour cream on top.

Enjoy!!

Pie Champion!!

I have been officially named the Best Pie Maker. (Of my church, at least.) My church's Fall Festival was a couple weeks ago, and we volunteered to help. The day before, we found out that they were holding a pie contest. My first thought: peanut butter pie. My second thought: I'm going to cream those old church ladies like softened butter and sugar. (Real good Christian attitude, don't you think?) Anyway, I whipped up a pie, and it turned out fabulously.

Peanut butter pie has ALWAYS been my weakness and this one just took the cake. Er, pie. I took it to the festival, and it became pie number 83 (there weren't 83 pies, it's just a random number) and I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Until finally a priest announced the best non-fruit pie goes to: pie number 83!!! So I went up and got my ribbon, trying to hold in my happy dance, and then I found out that I ALSO won best overall pie!!!!

I couldn't hold in my happy dance there.

Photography!

Hello everyone!!

Photography is one of my favorite activities, so of COURSE I was very excited to enter my photos in our county fair. I did very well, and my pictures made it to the state fair!!!! After the last day of the fair, 4-Hers can start taking pictures for their next entry to the fair.

This morning, I took some pictures in hopes that some of them might contribute to next year's photography project.  The sun was just coming up (I'm an early riser); fog was drifting through the air. Also, the spiders must have been busy last night (creepy-crawly! ew!), because the sun caught a ton of beautiful spiderwebs just right.  I got some great pictures!

Here's our first little web- spun between our deck posts!

These little spiders must've been bungee jumping between trees!

This spider had to have gone back to college for his engineering and architect major!!

(Hard to see from the picture, but this web is 3-D!)

The itsy-bitsy spider has some artistic vision...

And I couldn't miss a chance to take a pic of my sweet little kitty.

Hope I've inspired you to take some pictures of your own!

How to dry fresh herbs- quick and easy!!

Hi everyone! If you're like me, and you LOVE gardening, then I'm sure you're wondering about the quickest and easiest way to dry your fresh herbs. Some recipes call for fresh herbs and spices, but dried is the most common. Having an herb garden and this step-by-step how to on hand will make your cooking more flavorful and convineint!

Quick and Easy Herb Drying

Step One:    Pick several large sprigs of your desired herb from your garden.

Step Two:   LIGHTLY sprinkle herb sprigs with cool water. Shake vigorously and pat with paper towel to dry.

Step Three:   Lay a paper towel on a plate, place herbs on towel. Cover herbs with another paper towel.

Step Four:    Microwave herbs for 10-20 seconds or until dry and slightly stiff. NOTE: Microwaving might require longer times if your herbs are still damp from steps two and three.

Step Five: Cut leaves of dried herbs of the stems and crumble into small pieces. Boom! You have dried herbs in a matter of minutes!!

XOXO,
Hannah