Can we brag for a sec?

Happy Friday Friends!
Is it just us, or has it been a crazy week?

So thankful for weekly built in breaks...

Anyway...guys, we have exciting news so if you don't mind,
we're going to brag for a second:

Our little Sips blog was featured again on http://www.foodgawker.com/!

( Have you checked them out before? There's lots and lots of yummy recipes and treats! )


Our Mocha Cupcakes made with Via  post from Wednesday made it on their site!

Go see if you can find it!
And hang around, ya know, "gawking" at some of their other great stuff over there.

If you can't tell, we're pretty excited about it :)

Mocha Cupcakes made with Starbucks Via

I wish I could claim this genius idea as my own, but I cannot. Jordan (our sister/sister-in-law), added Starbucks VIA to her cupcake batter and icing a couple of years ago to make the Best. Mocha. Cupcakes on earth. 

And even though it's not my idea, I will sleep better at night once I pass this tip along. Because if you like coffee and chocolate (and cupcakes), you haven't really lived until you've tried one of these.

The whole mocha cupcake recipe is here, but the jist is that you add three packets of VIA to the cupcake batter and two packets of VIA to the frosting. You could use homemade frosting, but the Betty Crocker Buttercream is great in a pinch.

And then, you should probably pack up a platter or two and take them to various coffee-loving friends. If not, you might look at the plate a couple hours later and realize that you've eaten eight cupcakes. Not that that's happened around here or anything.

ps- We served these at the Denver Blogger Meetup and they were quite the hit!

MMM...March Mimosa Mondays-Mimosa Round-up

Today's the last Monday in March, which means it's the last Monday dedicated to Mimosas (for now). And so, in honor of this, we thought we'd gather up some of our favorite Mimosas from around the internet.

Honeydew Mimosas
Blood Orange Pomegranate Mimosas
Pear Mimosas
Watermelon Mimosas
Mimosa Popsicles
Clementine Ginger Mimosas
Mimosa Granitas
Merry Mimosas
Mimosa Cupcakes 

We loved doing MMM...March Mimosa Mondays.  Did you enjoy it? Try any? We're dying to know. 

In fact, if you did, or if you created your own version email us at sipsetc@gmail.com. We'd love to have you be our next Reader Feature!

TheAdams: Coors Brewery Tour

So I've been on quite a few brewery tours. I pretty much make it a point to visit the local brewery for any place I visit. So I figured I knew what I was in for when we decided to tour the Coors Brewery in Golden while Trish's brother and sister-in-law visited us last weekend.

I was wrong.

This place was massive. (the largest single location brewery in the world to be precise) I was in amazement as we walked through our audio assisted, tour-guideless, tour. There was staff throughout, in case you had questions, which I did. You would be amazed at how many different brands of beer are actually brewed by coors. (I didn't know that they brewed the Blue Moon beers) The only thing we missed out on was the bottling. It was down for maintainence.

Now the best part. So most brewery's let you sample a little of their beer after you've been through the tour. Not Coors. They give you three full beers. Yeah, THREE. Can you hear singing? Wait, there's more.... they don't even require you to go on the tour to get the beer. You can just go to Coors brewery and get three free beers. I know this might not be worth it for some, but we're on a student budget and this opens up worlds for me.

Now, I do love microbrews and their tours, but if you're ever here in Denver I would highly recommend checking out the Coors tour. It's a nice change of pace in the world of brewery tours.

Blueberry Spiked Lemonade

Like I mentioned last week, it's been gorgeous around Denver lately.

Gor-geous!

It's amazing how much nice weather perks you up, isn't it?

And everyone else seems in a cheery mood too.

So why not cheers to the extra cheeriness with this Spiked Blueberry Lemonade

(or even with just regular blueberry lemonade) 

To make a single serving:

Take a handful of blueberries and muddle them in the bottom of a glass.

(Ideally you can use a muddler, but we just used a spoon to mash them and it worked just fine)

Then take 1 1/2 c of cold water,

 1T (or more depending on your taste) of lemon juice,

and 3T of sugar

and a shot of vodka

and combine it with the muddled blueberries.

Then shake it up until the sugar is dissolved.

You my want to strain out the blueberry seeds and skin, but we left them, and it was great!

Garnish with the leftover blueberries, and toast to Spring!

"MMM... March Mimosa Mondays" - Strawberry Rhubarb Mimosa

I think strawberry and rhubarb is the quintessential combination.

Add in champagne (or sparkling cider) and you have some serious Mimosa Goodness.

To make one yourself-

Combine 1 cup cut rhubarb and 1 cup sliced strawberries.

Add in 2 cups of water, 1/3 cups of sugar and bring to boil.

Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Pour through strainer. Set strawberry rhubarb simple syrup aside to cool.

Throw rhubarb away. Combine cooked strawberries with 2 cups of white grape juice (or apple juice) and strawberry rhubarb syrup in a food processor. Blend well.

Strain out strawberry seeds, store strawberry rhubarb juice.

Add equal parts strawberry rhubarb juice and champagne for a seriously fabulous Ruby June Mimosa. Try this (and take pictures and email us for a "reader feature").

You won't regret it. We promise.

Vacations and Stay-cations

Kirst and Adam headed out of town this morning for a week away at the beach.

What a great way to celebrate their last Spring Break.

 Can't wait to see pictures when they get back.

And for us, we're having a "stay-cation".

My brother, Tom, and his wife, Becky, came out to Denver to visit us!

(I think I make so much more sense when my family is around)

We're just at the beginning of our weekend, but here's a few pics so far:

Happy weekend/Spring Break everyone!



Flavored Italian Sodas

It's been so nice around here lately.

And actually when I checked weather.com and saw the national weather map this afternoon, pretty much all over the country was warm (like 70s-80s)

except for Maine, and the Pacific Northwest.

It's days like today that don't make me miss Coeur d'Alene in mid-March.



So if you would rather replace your afternoon tea/hot chocolate of the winter months with something a bit brighter and more freshing like I did, try making an italian soda!

Here's what you need:

Club Soda

Milk (anything from skim to half and half)

Flavored syrup (I used Starbucks Raspberry Syrup)

Ice

Then mix, add a fun straw, and sip away those winter blues.

Those Italians know how to do soda. ...mmm...mmm.

What's your favorite italian soda? Do you add anything extra other than those basics listed above?

"MMM... March Mimosa Mondays" - Strawberry Lemonade Mimosa

To keep the March-y Mimosa-y Mmmmmmmm going, today's recipe is for a Strawberry Lemonade Mimosa. It's kind of like spring break in a glass- refreshing, sweet-plus-tart goodness. Want to make one?

To make the strawberry lemonade-

Prepare a pint of strawberries (clean and cut off stems).

 

Add the strawberries, one can of Raspberry Lemonade concentrate, and one cup of water into your food processor. Blend well.

Strain out the strawberry seeds and add two more cups of water to your bottle or pitcher.

Combine half a glass of strawberry lemonade with half a glass of champagne. Add in a few strawberries for a little extra pizazz (yep, I just used the word pizazz!) and enjoy!

Whipped Cream Messages

I didn't used to like whipped cream very much.

Whenever they would add it to my sundae, I would always scrape it off to get to the ice cream.

(Maybe it wasn't so much that I didn't like whipped cream, as it was that I love LOVE ice cream).

But somewhere along the way I found a stronger affection for whipped cream.

And it's growing daily.

And it grew even more last weekend when I figured out that you can use cupcake stencils to decorate your whipped cream too!

Even better, I got these stencils from Michaels fall clearance section for like 90% off or something.

Fun, huh?!

Just pour your drink of choice (hot chocolate/coffee/chocolate milk),

Top with whipped cream,



Then take your cupcake stencil and your hot cocoa mix

(cinnamon would probably work well too. We tried cocoa powder first, but it was too clumpy)

tips: Try not to dip stencil into the whipped cream.

When you go to lift off the stencil, it pulls the whipped cream up and stretches your word/stencil.

The more the better, you can see that "yum" above is the best looking, that's because we were most generous with the hot cocoa powder on that one

When you do it thicker (like "yum") it lasts a long time and doesn't spread too much when it's moved. When it's thinner it doesn't last nearly as long and stretches a lot when you move it.

It's better to use homemade whipped cream, or let your drink be hot so it melts a bit.

The picture will be much clearer if the whipped cream flattens out.

It's great for a hot cocoa bar, or just a cozy Saturday morning...

looks good, and tastes good too!

What do you think?

What else could put whipped cream on top of?

Even better, what else could you stencil?

"MMM... Mimosa Mondays" - Mimosa Bar How to and Shopping List

If you read about the vintage children's book Sip 'n See at kojodesigns, you might've got the "I'm in love with Mimosa Bar" vibe. It's true. I am.

Among the many, many fabulous Mimosa Bar features, "SO EASY" tops the list! You could add this to any brunch you're putting together- from a casual get together to a baby shower or Sip 'n See.





And to make things just a wee bit easier on you, I thought I'd put together a Mimosa Bar How To, complete with every thing you'll need to make your own Mimosa Bar (even a shopping list).





DIY Mimosa Bar wares-


-one ice bucket (mine is rather large- all five bottles of bubbley fit in there) with ice


-three or four glass dishes for fruit (we used the rectangular ones from Ikea)


-three or four glass juice bottles (again, Ikea)


-juice labels


-glasses (one per guest)





Optional- an ornate frame and a "Mimosas" pennant (I just freehanded mine on coordinating paper)


Optional- other decor (bunting, pom poms, etc.)









DIY Mimosa Bar shopping list


-champagne


-sparkling cider


-orange juice (you could make homemade, or Simply Orange works great)


-grapefruit juice (same)


-raspberry lemonade concentrate


-two pints strawberries


-1/2 lb. rhubarb


-raspberries, blueberries, blackberries (for mix ins)


-pineapple (for mix ins)


-ice





To do the night before-


-Make all juice (strawberry lemonade, strawberry rhubarb juice, etc.-all of our recipes will be posted later this month during "Mmm... Mimosa Mondays"- watch for them!)


-Pour all juice into glass bottles and keep refrigerated


-Label all juice bottles (we tied these on the night before and kept them on the bottles in the fridge overnight and they were fine- no warping)


-Chill champagne and sparkling cider


-Set out ice bucket (without ice) and glasses


-Hang your "Mimosas" sign, frame, pom poms, bunting and other decor





To do the morning of-


-Fill all the glass dishes with fruit and set out


-Fill the ice bucket with ice


-Set out the juice, champagne, and sparkling cider





Funny story- I kept making myself little tiny 'mini-mosas' (just a sip or two in size) so that I could try more of the variations. I loved the Spring Break Mimosa (with berry lemonade) and the Ruby June (with rhubarb strawberry juice)! Even better, the Sparkling Peach made for all sorts of great combinations- I liked it even better than the champagne.





Have you seen this Mimosa Bar craze? Have you tried it out? Do you love brunch like we do? Any thoughts on other juices or mix-in additions to this Bar Of Brunch-y Goodness (seriously- pass those ideas along- I WILL be doing another one of these!)?