Sip Guru: Jenny from The Southern Institute

So... remember last week when we said "let's celebrate fall with one last drink"? 
Well, we just have one more variation on Caramel Apple Cider. 
We had to share this one for several reasons: 

1. Homemade caramel sauce is great for lots of holiday recipes

2. Let's be fair to apple cider (my last post might have given it a bad rep), it really does carry over into Christmas time.

3. It's from Jenny at thesoutherninstitute.com, there's really no more convincing needed after that.

Jenny's blog is so fun. She has such cute southern style (love these mod podge letters. So fun for bookselves, or baby's rooms), a great blog series called Meals Kids Love, and Kirst always hopes that Piper and her will craft one day like Jenny and Abby.

So... enough from us, here's Jenny:

Hello, everyone!  When my friends at kojo designs asked if I would share a favorite beverage with you all, I thought "Um...".  Literally, that was it.  I wanted to share something, but I had no idea what!  I didn't currently have any drink "recipes" or anything special that I made, so what did I do?  I came up with something, and luckily it worked.

One of my favorite things about it getting colder is hot seasonal beverages.  Starbucks happens to have many of them... the Pumpkin Spice Latte, the Salted Caramel Mocha, and the Caramel Apple Cider.  The trouble is that I think they changed their Caramel Apple Cider recipe last year, but whatever they did, I didn't like it.  HUGE disappointment.  Why not try to make one at home from scratch though?  So I have.

Caramel Apple Cider from The Southern Institute

First of all, when you think of a caramel apple cider what do you think of?  The caramel, right?  Of course, it's the most important part of the equation.  I didn't want to use a stale old store bought caramel sauce, so I decided to try to make one from scratch.  Everything I saw online spoke of how easy it was to make homemade caramel sauce.  Well, that may be true if you have a good recipe to follow.  The first recipe I found had beautiful photography and sounded delicious.  Unfortunately it failed.  Twice.  I followed the recipe carefully, but after two failed attempts I decided it must not be me... it must be the recipe.  I did another search and found this recipe from Simply Recipes.  Success on the first try!  And it was gorgeous!

It tastes as beautiful as it looks, believe you me... I've had a lot of tastes.  So with a beautiful caramel sauce I was ready to proceed.  I did not make the cider from scratch.  I bought a gallon of Trader Joe's spiced cider, which is delicious.  Here's what I did:

• Warm 6-8 oz of spiced cider in a microwave safe mug for about one minute.
• Add one HEAPING tablespoon of caramel sauce and stir until dissolved.
• Top with homemade whipped cream.  This is what puts it over the top.
• Drizzle with the caramel sauce.
• ENJOY!

Incase you haven't ever made homemade whipped cream, I'll let you in on a little secret.  It's the easiest thing ever to make, and it tastes sooooooo gooooooood!  All you need is a container of heavy whipping cream and a hand held mixer (and maybe a pinch of sugar too).  Pour about a cup of the cream into a medium bowl and mix, mix, mix.  Start on low then slowly up to medium.  After a while the cream will start to get thicker.  You can turn the mixer to med-high at this point and continue to mix until it thickens up to the consistency of cool whip.  Yum!  

Enjoy the cool weather and your caramel apple cider!  I hope to see you over at The Southern Institute real soon!

See, we told you. Doesn't it looks de-li-cious!

Happy Birthday Kirstin (and a Chocolate Milk Martini)!

You probably don't know this, but today is Kirstin's birthday!

And since she was so sweet about what she wrote for my birthday,

and I don't think I get to say this stuff about her enough,

and so you can get to know her a bit better,

I thought I'd share some of my favorite things about her here:

1.She's beautiful inside and out.

2. How much she loves her family (immediate and extended). I was seriously hard pressed to find a picture of her to put on here where she wasn't posing with a family member.

 In fact, I was unsuccessful.

3. She's seriously one of the most generous people I know. I'm not sure we've said this on here yet--probably not, because why would it come up?--but my Adam, me, and Stetson (did we mention he's a St. Bernard?) are currently living with their family until we are a bit more settled here in Denver. And Kirst and her Adam have pretty much gone by the philosophy "what's ours is yours". I just hope that some of this generosity rubs off on us, but I know at the very least I know I have never been so thankful.

4. She's quirky, and funny. In fact pretty much the perfect mesh between the two. 

5. She loves to travel.

6. She's passionate-- about diet coke, sushi, the beach, and some more important things too:)

7. She is a great friend and a great encourager. She throws showers for people all the time (even for people who she just met) and will always take a phone call from a friend regardless of how busy she gets.

And so, in honor of Kirstin, I tried to find a drink that used some of her favorite things: Magic Shell, dark chocolate, and whipped cream.

The Chocolate Milk Martini + some Magic Shell for rimming = just the thing.

Here's what you need:

2/3 c milk

3 t Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Syrup

2 oz Pinnacle Whipped Cream Vodka

Hershey's or Smuckers Magic Shell Ice Cream topping (again, for rimming)

Here's how to do it:

First mix up your milk and chocolate.

Then add in your vodka.

Stir well.

Then pour your Magic Shell onto a plate or into a wide bowl.

Take your empty glass and turn it upside down to coat the rim in chocolate.

It should harden.

Then pour in the drink.

It's ok if some of the Magic Shell breaks off into the drink. It's like adding chocolate shavings.

Happy Birthday Kirstin!

Do you have anyone special who has a birthday coming up?

What kind of special drink can you think of to customize for them with things they love?

BITES: Chocolate Whiskey Ice Cream Balls

First, I'm really excited about December.

We have some really fun holiday recipes and gift ideas coming up for you guys!

Second, we're starting December off with a fantastic dessert appetizer for your adults-only holiday party.
The combination of chocolate and whiskey paired down into bite size treats make it the sweet tooth's (and her man's) perfect dessert.

I had the idea of doing chocolate whiskey candies while trying to figure out what to do for my Gifts for Guys guest post on Kojo Designs . So I bought all of the ingredients for it and was planning to make Chocolate Whiskey Truffles.

But as I was making them they didn't turn out like I planned

(I'm pretty sure it's because I added extra Whiskey).

I'm not telling you this to sell out my cooking skills,

Im telling you this because it's the fun part of cooking,

it's creative, and it's ok if it's not perfect.

In this case, I think these turned out better than I hoped!

OK, so if you want to make these Chocolate Whiskey Truffles turned Chocolate Whiskey Ice Cream Balls yourself, I'm going to show you how:

Here's what you need:

12 oz bittersweet chocolate chips (I used mini so they melted easier)

2/3 c whipping cream

1/4 c unsalted butter, softened

4 T Whiskey (or 5 for whiskey lovers)

Hersheys or Smuckers Magic Shell (ice cream topping that hardens)

Here's how to do it:

First, simmer the whipping cream over medium-high heat until hot.

Meanwhile, place the chocolate chips in a separate bowl.

When the cream is hot, pour over the chocolate, stirring until melted.

 Be sure to use a bowl that can tolerate extreme temperatures--I used a glass one.

Add in the butter.

And then the whiskey.

Stir until smooth.

(I put it in the microwave for 20 seconds just to finish melting the butter)

When it is all melted and smooth, put bowl into the freezer until it is firm and moldable, but not hard--about 30 minutes.

Then roll into 1 inch balls and place onto a cookie sheet covered in wax paper

Then put back into freezer to firm up again.

They will get messier and harder to form as you go because they're warming up.

Try to keep smoothing them out as much as possible, but they won't be perfect.

(Also, I didn't use all of the chocolate. If you have some left over, or want to make a double batch, set aside, not in the freezer, and I'll show you another great dessert to use it for, in the next few days).

 

When firm again, pour the Magic Shell topping into a bowl

Roll each ball into the topping until completely coated.

Set on the cookie sheet and place back into freezer until serving time.

 

So chocolatey. So rich. Sooo good.

Say goodbye to Fall with a Hot Caramel Apple Cider

Adam hates when people start to celebrate Christmas too early.

And too early means before December 1st.

So every year since we've been married the few days between Thanksgiving and December 1st cause a little tension between us and the level of merriment that is "tolerated" around our house.

So today, in honor of my husband, and any of you who carry that same holiday celebrating philosophy, I thought we should do one final fall drink before we embrace the season in full force.

So here's one last cheers to fall with a Caramel Apple Cider.

Savor each sip.

It's been a great few months.

I found this recipe here.

Here's what you need:

1 1/2 c apple cider

1 1/2 T caramel sauce

1/2 t vanilla

Here's how to do it:

Combine ingredients into a saucepan over medium-high heat

Stir constantly until the caramel is melted and cider is warm.

Serve.

(you can probably do it quickly in the microwave as well)

Enjoy a few minutes for mini fall farewell today.

And think of a couple things you have been thankful for.
Maybe even tell someone about it.

Swizzle Sticks (DIY Drink Toppers)

You know how lately cupcake toppers seem to be all the rage?

We love them. They're adorable.

So adorable in fact, that we decide to work on our own product line extension for them...

we bring you Drink Toppers.

They can also be referred to as "Swizzle Sticks", but what's great about drink toppers is that they aren't only limited to drinks that need stirring,

they can go in any drink!

Just add a cute word, phrase, graphic, or in our case, our logo (for the launch party),

the same way you would for a cupcake topper, 

 set it into your drink,

 and BAM!

 the oh-so-cute-topper is brought to life in another way...

through your drinks! 

We even made a tutorial for you just to show you how easy it is:

Step one: Design your topper, print, and cut out.

Step two: get your sticks

(unlike cupcake toppers, you need a stick that's larger than a toothpick so your swizzle stick/drink topper doesn't get wet. We used wooden skewers cut in half)

Step three: tape the stick to the topper on the backside

(Another great use for the printed masking tape, can't get enough of this stuff)

Then place into each cup for the party.

Or, you can put all the toppers into one cup and let your guests add them.

And that's it!

We're in love.

Funny when little details can make all the difference.

Any up coming parties you're throwing that might need a little drink toppin' love?

Tell us, we want to hear!