homemaderachel drinks! you CAN do that from scratch! Hot Drink Recipes.

I love a good hot coffee on a cold day. Cream and sugar please. None of that fake shit like sweet n low.

I don’t drink it but once or twice a week, but when I do I like the flavored stuff. Raspberry, Cinnamon, Chocolate, Spice, that type of stuff.

For the Raspberry I use either a flavored coffee syrup or, if I have any left, homemade raspberry syrup. Even seedless raspberry preserves will work in a pinch. Actually, any jelly will work if you’re into that kind of thing. Cherry might be nice.

I especially like pumpkin spice coffee – specifically a Starbucks grande pumpkin spice latte. It’s like fall in a cup.

I love those damn things, but must eschew such pleasures because I can no longer justify spending almost five dollars of our grocery money on a cup of coffee with some milk in it when my husband is not getting full hours at work.

Every once in a while I scrape up enough change from pockets (laundry money is mine! all mine!) and couch cushions (did i mention that’s mine too?) to get one. Of course I cannot enjoy it uninterrupted like I would like, perhaps savoring it and reading a book, because the only Starbucks in Essex/Middle River is in our friendly neighborhood Target. I always have the kids with me, so I never enjoy anything uninterrupted anymore . Not to mention Garrett can’t even have milk, so if I have it on my lips and then kiss him, he may get a rash. There is also a good possibility that he could knock it out of my hand while I’m wrangling him back into the seat (no cupholders like Wegmans )or, even worse distract me enough (not too hard to do w/my add- ooh look something shiny!) to take a drink. It’s stressful enough that I don’t do it often.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking for a few years that it might be easy to recreate it. Maybe not the steamed milk part, but at least the coffee with milk part.  I tried a few different ways and putting the spices in with the ground coffee seems to work the best. It tends to clog the coffee filter a bit this way though. Expect a little water to not make it through. I also wouldn’t do this in one of those 1-2 serving jobbies either, it may back up. I actually use a sieve lined with a filter on top of a glass measuring cup. No space for a coffee maker, my mixer takes that spot

If you put enough spices directly into the brewed coffee to get a good strong flavor, you also get a nice spicy sludge at the bottom of the cup. I discovered this by accident one day while running late driving to ABC (our playgroup) when I went to take the last swig out of the cup and got this horrible mouthful of nasty grainy liquid. I spit it right back into the cup BLECH! WTF? Tyler got a kick out of that. Mommy why did you frow up? I got a sip of sludgy coffee. Hahahahaha that sounds funny mommy you got sludgy coffee!!!!! you got sludgy coffee yougotsludgycoffee yougotsludgycoffee hahahahahaha.

I’ve seen some recipes that actually call for canned pumpkin like this one. Looks yummy, but I’ve never tried it.

Here’s my best go at it. Not exactly like the Starbucks, but close enough for me.

Pumpkin Spice Coffee

1/2 cup  ground coffee

1 t (ish – more or less to taste) *Pumpkin Pie Spice

dash salt (I swear)

blend thoroughly and brew as you would normal coffee. I use 3 cups of water for two big servings. As I said, some water will not come through.

I use *Vanilla Sugar to sweeten and milk (sometimes powdered milk or creamer or mimiccreme, whatever I happen to have on hand) to taste

*do happy dance*

 

Pumpkin Pie Spice

1/2 t cinnamon

1/4 t ginger

1/8 t nutmeg

1/8 t allspice

blend.

Vanilla Sugar

This is just a no brainer if you ever use vanilla beans.

Don’t buy them at the grocery store. Just last month I made a vanilla bean cake for my Mother-in-Law’s birthday and paid less for 8 whole beans at BJ’s than I pay for 2 at Food Lion. Better quality too.

Split open bean and scrape seeds out. Use seeds to add a deep vanilla flavor to any baked goods. You could probably put some in the ground coffee blend too. Damn, I wish I had thought of that then, it sounds yummy.

Take the empty bean(s) and bury it in some sugar.

Wait a week or so. or less. or more. depends upon how patient you are. a week is best.

I’m not positive of the amounts, but I have six empty beans in a glass quart mason jar full of sugar and the sugar has a very assertive vanilla flavor, might be too much for some, but I love an intense vanilla flavor. This is the second round of sugar I’ve had in with these beans and it is still flavoring it well. I’d say I could probably get a few more rounds off of it too. When the flavor deteriorates, chuck the beans and start again.

You can use this sugar anywhere you would use regular sugar.

A great use for something that would otherwise be discarded. Right up my alley.

Hot chocolate is great in the evening in front of a fire. yum.

You don’t need to buy the expensive packets of mix if you keep this on hand.

This recipe originally came from the Good Eats Episode – The Art of Darkness II.

Hot Cocoa Mix

2 c powdered sugar

1 c dutch process cocoa

2 1/2 c powdered milk

1 t salt

2 t cornstarch

1 pinch cayenne (I didn’t use this)

blend ingredients thoroughly.

to use – fill mug halfway with mixture then top off with hot water or milk and stir till combined.

you could also add drop or two of peppermint essential oil to each mug after stirring in the water for mint cocoa.

 

Another one of my favorites is mulled cider. No real recipe here. I usually wing it and taste as I go along.

I usually use whatever whole spices that I have on hand that sound good. I usually include fresh ginger (frozen actually) cloves, cinnamon sticks, allspice berries, star anise pods, lemon slices, & orange slices.

I add about 1/3 cup total of the whole dry spices to 1 gallon of cider on the stove. I add maybe a 1″ piece of ginger, sliced, 1 sliced lemon and 1 sliced orange and bring to a simmer. I usually simmer really low for maybe an hour, then cool and bottle for fridge storage. I usually pull some out to drink fresh before I store it though. I just can’t help it. It tastes so good!

I usually just reheat it in the microwave for a few seconds.

 

I hope I’ve been able to save you a few bucks!

 

as seen on a bumper sticker in my neighborhood – “having kids is like being pecked to death by a duck”  – well put.

SHINE ON!