Sweet Tea

At the cooking Class today, we made some sweet tea.  It was very good. Not too sweet. Here is the recipe that we used.

5 -10 tea bad - black or your choice

1 cup of sugar

3 cups of water

Dissolve the sugar in the water and bring to  a boil.  Add the tea bags - turn off the eat and cover. Steep for 20 minutes.  Then add to 12 cups of water that has three lemons cut up in it ahead of time.  Add ice and serve. 

Enjoy!!

Compound Butter

Compound Butter sounds like something difficult . Actually it is very easy.  A Compound Butter is simply adding other flavors to butter.  The idea is to add some intense flavor to the butter so that a small amount will add an accent of that flavor to anything you put it on.  Garlic butter is a compound butter.

Here are some simply but tasty ways to do that.

1. For steaks add roasted garlic and some blue cheese crumbles.  Or you can saute some shallots in butter until they are tender, deglaze with vermouth and add that to some more butter.  Either on of these will add a certain flavor to any meats.

2. For seafood - add some dill or tarragon. You can also add some shallots or any herb that you like.

3. Vegetables - I like dill or oregano with a lot vegetables.  Especially if you grill them, Add the compound butter just as you serve the veggies. 

Try some Lemon in the butter too - it really adds a zing. Or peppers or - the list is endless!
Experiment and see what you like.

French Toast

For a little different taste here is a quick tip to spice up breakfast. 

French Toast - add 1/2 a teaspoon of Cinnamon and a dash of fresh Nutmeg to your egg mixture. I also add 1 tablespoon of sugar.  The sugar will sweeten the mix and the spices give just enough background taste to make the toast special.

I also warm the syrup in the microwave. That makes a difference.