Mulled Wine or Glühwein

This post is part of my vacation away series. These posts are from other blogging endeavors and aren't about Southern Ohio but I hope you find them fun, interesting and informative! I am around to read comments so don't hesitate to leave them :)

Mulled Wine (or Glühwein as my german acquaintance calls it) is the perfect hot drink to serve at a party on a chilly winter evening. It’s sweet, spicy, hot and festive! Here's the recipe I follow...

Serving: 4-6 mugs

1 Bottle of Red Wine
1 Large Orange
2 Cinnamon Sticks
1 cup White Sugar

1 cup Water
Jar of Cloves

Optional: honey, ground allspice, nutmeg, ginger
Prep: stick cloves in halved/quartered oranges, measure sugar and water

1. Simple Sugar - Make a simple sugar with equal parts water & sugar
2. Boil - Bring to a boil until sugar is dissolved then lower heat to a simmer.
3. Add - Halved/Quartered Oranges with cloves in the pot to simmer
4. Add - Cinnamon sticks to the pot
5. Simmer - for 20-30 minutes
6. Add - Red Wine
7. Lower Heat - keep it hot and steamy; no bubbling
8. Taste - add extra sugar to taste
9. Enjoy!

If you make Glühwein before any party, it will make the whole house smell fragrant and festive!

You'll eat a cookie in the near future

This post is part of my vacation away series. These posts are from other blogging endeavors and aren't about Southern Ohio but I hope you find them fun, interesting and informative! I am around to read comments so don't hesitate to leave them :)

I work in one of those 9 (actually 8, ugh) to 5 office jobs and it can get pretty monotonous. So to spice things up people take turns bringing in treats on any given holiday. There really isn’t any pressure or rule to do it, so it’s always fun to come up with inventive and creative treats. And this year’s Chinese Year/Valentine’s I got one of my best ideas...Fortune Cookie Valentines! And yes, I know this isn’t the most original idea, but merging these two holidays was to good to pass up.

I did a quick google search and found this recipe. It’s from about.com so fair warning to all of you who get annoyed getting resources from there. The nerd in me doesn’t like a website monopolizing google searches and providing often mediocre material but none-the-less this recipe turned out to be a gem.

I did make a slight change because of lack of resources and I really liked how it turned out. And without further ado, Fortune Cookie Valentines...



2 large egg whites
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
9 8 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 teaspoons water

Prep:
Create your fortunes. Here are the fortunes I created. Have them cut and ready
Preheat oven to 300 F
Grease baking sheet

1. Beat egg whites, vanilla extract, almond extract and vegetable oil until frothy
   
2. Mix the flour, salt, sugar, water in separate bowl
3. Add flour mixture into the egg mixture and stir until you have smooth after
4. Bake until the outer 1/2 inch of each cookie turns golden brown and they are easy to remove (14-15 minutes)

1. Remove cookies with spatula
2. STRONGLY recommend not holding them in your hand as “About” suggests. They are really HOT.
3. Place fortune in middle of cookie
4. Fold over and then fold the corners towards each other, moving away from the rounded part

And done! My favorite fortune was “Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays” (VDay fell on a Monday, genius!) but the office really enjoyed “You’ll eat a cookie in the near future”. Happy fortunes everyone!

Smooth(ie)

This post is part of my vacation away series. These posts are from other blogging endeavors and aren't about Southern Ohio but I hope you find them fun, interesting and informative! I am around to read comments so don't hesitate to leave them :)

I pulled a smooth move this week and created a fantastic smoothie. My Lemon Cantaloupe Berry Smoothie had a very fresh taste despite half the fruit being frozen and the yogurt being less than new. In fact the yogurt had an expiration date of December 2010! But it had never been open and when I did open it (this week), it was pleasantly fresh and delicious. Coincidentally, The Kitchn had an article about the validity of an expiration date and I was excited to share my experience. And now I'm excited to share my recipe...don't worry, it does not require aged yogurt.

Ingredients

Serving: 2-4 glasses

1 cup Frozen Mixed Berries

1 cup Fresh Cantaloupe

1 cup Vanilla Yogurt

1 cup Orange Juice

1 tbs of Lemon Curd

Prep

Halve the cantaloupe then cut or scoop a cup of melon out. Own (or borrow) a blender.

Directions

Add

Frozen Mixed Berries, Fresh cut-up Cantaloupe, Vanilla Yogurt, OJ, Lemon Curd

Blend

till smooth