Sweet Tea

I LOVE the sweet tea  they serve at Cracker Barrel and I finally decided to make some. I found this recipe and it’s really good. The baking soda kind of scared me but it works. Trust me!

• just under 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 cups boiling water
• 6 regular tea bags (or 4 big ones)
• 3/4 cup white sugar (or some honey to taste)
• 6 cups cool water (or less depending on how strong you like it. I found 6 diluted it too much)

Directions

1. Boil water and sugar together.
2. Sprinkle baking soda into a 64-ounce pitcher, add tea bags and boiling sugar water. Cover, and allow to steep for 15 minutes.
3. Remove tea bags, and discard; Pour in cool water, then refrigerate until cold.
4. I recommend tasting it as you put the cold water in so you don’t over dilute!

Crock Pot Mac &Cheese

My sister hosted a recipe exchange on Friday night and everyone brought copies of seven or more recipes to give to everyone else who was there. I made use of the recipes to make Crock Pot Mac&Cheese last night and it was SO good! I doubled the recipe and changed a couple of things but I’ll give you the original and then my version.

• 8oz of your favorite pasta
• 1 egg (beaten)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup butter (melted)
• 12oz can evaporated milk
• 3 cups sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 1/2 cups Milk

1. Cook the pasta
2. Place all the ingredients in the crock pot on low for 3 hours

I doubled the recipe as I like pasta as my main dish, not my side dish. I used 3 eggs because there were three eggs left and I didn’t want one to feel lonely. I didn’t melt my butter before hand, I figured the heat of the freshly cooked pasta would melt it for me. I only had one 14oz can of evaporated milk. I used 4 cups of cheese as 6 cups seemed like way too much. I used slightly less than 3 cups of milk. I also didn’t have enough time to cook it for 3 hours so I cooked it for 1.5 hours on low and .5hours on high. It turned out quite nicely. :)

Almond Cinnamon Rolls

I was making cinnamon rolls the other day and thought I’d switch them up a bit. So I made Almond Cinnamon Rolls. I used sour dough bread for the rolls but they didn’t turn out as light as I like them, so I’m just going to cover the filling and you can choose your own dough recipe.

• 4TBS of butter
• 2 tsp almond extract
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 3 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp ground nutmeg

 

1. Roll dough out to 1/4 inch thick rectangle.
2. Melt butter and add almond extract to it.
3. Drizzle butter mixture onto rolled out dough
4. Mix brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg together and sprinkle on top of the dough
5. Roll dough into a long log and cut into pieces as big as you’d like.
6.  
7. Place in greased baking dish, cover and let it rise for an hour or two
8. Bake in a pre-heated oven set at 350 for 25 minutes or until lightly golden brown on top (more or less depending on your choice of dough)
9. Let cool for about 5 minutes then flip the rolls onto a plate.

For the icing you will need

• Icing sugar
• Milk
• Almond extract

I don’t remember how much I used of any of those. But just keep adding until the taste and consistency are how you like them, then drizzle the icing on the rolls. Yum!
 

I have a feeling these would taste great with Almond pieces in them, but I didn't have any when I was baking...