Iced Coffee - [cold brew coffee]

So, I'm very into trying new things. And I'm also a Starbucks addict. I love it and I go there way to often... I may have some "friends" at Starbucks who know my name... That being said, I spend way too much money there, and should probably just buy stock in the company (is that how that works? I know nothing about this), and I just need to find a more economical solution.

So, last year, when I was saving for a trip abroad, I had to cut WAY back, but wanted a good solution. This has become a part of my day, my routine, so I needed a replacement of sorts. So, I had a friend with an espresso machine who gave/sold it to me for free or some very reasonable price. I bought some coffee and got it ground finely, bought a bottle of my favorite syrup - cinnamon dulce - and decided to try making my own espressos. I even have a Starbucks barista friend who walked me through how to use the machine and everything. This solution was ok, but was not the real thing, and the machine would get clogged, so I need to rethink that and see if I can figure out how to give that another go...

But for now, it's SPRING! and it feels like spring, so we're in the season for iced coffee. I have been seeing things about this for a while. I've been looking up how to make your own coffee concentrate, and whatnot, and I have finally tried it. I used the Pioneer Woman's instructions to make my own. This is what resulted:

This lovely-looking drink is the start of something that could be very good. I need to perfect it, and I have some ideas on how to do that... but I think it's definitely a good start. And, I have 2 GALLONS of cold brew coffee now to experiment with. Yikes! My refrigerator is not huge. I think I'm going to just use half of a bag of coffee and one gallon of water next time... The first time I made it, I used:

*a medium roast coffee
*coconut milk (it's what I have at he moment - I get my drinks at Starbucks with soy milk now, thank you lactose intolerance, so I'm thinking about getting a vanilla soy or almond milk to try...)
*SF cinnamon dulce syrup

Again, I say it was pretty good. My friend liked it. I'm just trying to decide what to try next to see if I can really make this something that I can replace at least some of my Starbucks runs with... Because they are taking all of my money. No, I give it to them. But I shouldn't. As I work through this 2 GALLONS of coffee, and try some different things, I'll let you know if I come up with any better solutions too...

Happy drinking!

Red Curry

Recently, I made my first attempt at curry. I fell in love with Red Curry from the Thai restaurant across the street, and have been wanting to try to make it ever since. However, I have to say that, while it looked fairly similar, and my friend (who had never had curry) thought it was pretty good, I was pretty disappointed. It just didn't have the flavor that I was looking for. I'm not sure what was missing or how to improve on it, because most of the recipes I've found have very similar ingredients... So, I've decided to share the link for the curry that I made in case you're interested. I'll make some notes about the changes I made - which could have caused some of the change in flavor from what I'm used to (if you know more about this - please let me know what I'm doing wrong), and let you try at your own volition.

What I did...

Ingredients
1½ Pounds Boneless Chicken Thighs breasts
4 Tablespoons Olive Oil, divided
3 Cloves Garlic, minced
8 Tablespoons Thai Red Curry Paste
14 Ounces Coconut Milk
2 Cups Hot Water
4 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
3 Tablespoons Fresh Ginger, minced
½ Whole Red Onion, sliced
3-4 Thai Bird Chilies, minced (optional)
1 Whole Red Bell Pepper, cored and sliced
1 Cup Grape Tomatoes
1 Cup Fresh Thai Basil, chopped
½ Cup Fresh Cilantro, chopped
½ Cup Scallions, chopped

I really made a lot of changes... many of which I didn't mean to make. I bought the cilantro, but forgot to put it in. I couldn't find the Thai Basil... I think fish sauce sounds disgusting... but maybe those were the key ingredients!?

For veggies, I used red pepper, onion, carrots, and bamboo shoots - these are the main veggies in the curry that I normally order.

I prepared it basically like she said to on the blog, so I'll let you use the link if you're really interested. I don't know that I'll make it again, mainly because I can go across the street and get some REALLY GOOD stuff... and if I try again, I'll probably try a different recipe or change this recipe. I will update you if I find something that I love :)

Broccoli & Cashew Stir Fry

This recipe is one of my new favorites. I was introduced to it by a friend who was just raving, and was excited to try it because it's really not hard (and I love anything stir-fry related). The recipe comes from Mel's Kitchen Cafe blog - and I'm excited to look around some more, because it looks like she's got some great stuff on there!

I want to start by saying what my friend who introduced this to me said to me: You can add meat to this recipe (shrimp, chicken, etc.), but I have just found that it's not as good... Also, it was a suggestion of my friend that the cashews were added - and they're SO good in this! I will say that if you're watching calories, the cashews up the ante a little bit, but they're fantastic if you're not too worried.

So, without further ado...

 

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon vegetable, canola or coconut oil
3-4 cups bite-size broccoli florets
2 cloves garlic, finely minced or pressed
Sauce
1/2 cup chicken or vegetable broth
4 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon Thai sweet chili sauce (see note)
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 teaspoons cornstarch

**Serve on brown rice

Instructions:

1. In a large 12-inch nonstick skillet, heat the oil over medium to medium-high heat until hot and rippling. If using meat, add it now and stir-fry until cooked through. Remove the meat to a plate.
2. Add the broccoli to the hot skillet (you may need to add another teaspoon or so of oil if the skillet is completely dry) and cook, stirring often, until the broccoli has turned bright green and is lightly browned, 7-9 minutes. It won't cook much more after this so it should be crisp-tender. I like a bit of bite to the broccoli but if you want it more tender, add on a few minutes cooking time.
3. Stir in the garlic and cook over medium to medium-high heat, stirring, for a minute or so.
4. Whisk together all the sauce ingredients and pour over the broccoli. Add the meat if you cooked it in step 1. Stir the ingredients together until well coated with the sauce and simmer for 1-2 minutes. Add additional salt and pepper to taste if needed.
5. Serve immediately over hot, cooked rice.

This is the meal with chicken from when I made it a few days ago - like I said, good, but not as good as without...

The things that I found to be good tips from my friend:
*no meat actually gives it more flavor
*cashews - yum!
*when cooking the brown rice, using part chicken broth instead of all water makes for a tastier batch of rice - not a must, but definitely a good idea!