Category Archives: Drinks

Drinks

Crock Pot Apple Cider

It’s that time of year again! I can never say too much that I love fall. I love everything cozy about this weather and season. Even though it was 84 degrees today, we were still looking forward to apple cider today! I bought a whole bushel of apples today at the farmer’s market. Going to the same people every Wednesday does come with some great perks like getting a better deal on veggies because you buy a bunch from them. I always ask if they have seconds of anything. If they don’t sell the seconds by the end of the day, they get tossed out, so they are happy to make something off of them considering that they know they will definitely sell the good stuff. I hate food waste with a passion.

Apples always get used in our house one way or another whether it be snacking, applesauce, apple cider, apple pancakes, or apple muffins. Who doesn’t like a good apple?

What do I need?

  • about 20 apples*
  • 8 cinnamon sticks
  • 6 whole cloves
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • Water
  • brown sugar, white sugar, or both to taste (I don’t use sugar because we don’t really like sweet apple cider)

How do I make this?

  • Add apples, cinnamon sticks, and cloves to the crock pot.
  • Fill the crock pot with water but give yourself 1-2 inches of space because the apples will expand and also float.
  • Cook on high for 4 hours or on low overnight.
  • I strain the liquid through a fine strainer and put the meat and skin of the apples into a blender to turn into applesauce.
  • Mix the vanilla extract into the cider and add sugar if wanted.
  • If you don’t feel like fishing out the cloves and cinnamon, put them in a mesh bag before placing them into the crock pot so you can just pull it out at the end. I use reusable mesh produce bags because they are fairly big and you can spread them in the middle of the pot.
  • Serve cider hot or cold.

Send me some ideas for next time. Just remember, anything you can make, I can probably make vegan.

Standard
Drinks

Watermelon Lemonade

I went to the grocery store today and they had massively huge watermelons for only $3.99 each! I definitely got one but picking it up was the challenge. I was destroying my brain trying to think of things to use all of this watermelon on. I made the kids a fruit salad with watermelon, strawberries, and blueberries. I made some fruit Popsicles using the same ingredients, and I also made some watermelon jam (don’t worry, I have a recipe coming for that one right after this one.

What do you need?

  • 6-7 cups of watermelon after it’s been pureed
  • 1/2 cup-1 cup of sugar
  • juice of 2 large lemons (probably about 1 cup)

Time to make those yummies!

  • cut a bunch of watermelon up (if you want to save yourself the headache, make sure that you get seedless or you’re going to get really bored, really quickly)
  • put the watermelon chunks into a blender and blend until perfectly pureed.
  • using a fine strainer or cheesecloth to strain the liquid out of the pureed watermelon.
  • While waiting for the watermelon to strain, zest 2 lemons (save the zest, it’s not for this recipe but always good to have some on hand. It will last about a week in a container in the fridge.
  • juice both lemons, should be about 1 cup of lemon juice.
  • add 1/2 cup of sugar to the lemon juice and blend for a few seconds.
  • If the watermelon is drained enough, add it to the lemon juice and sugar in the blender and blend until fully combined.
  • Pour the watermelon lemonade into mason jars. Mine filled exactly 4 pint jars.

What would make this even better?

  • A little drink umbrella, because it makes every drink better
  • mint leaves. Bruise some mint leaves in a mortar and pestle to release some of the flavors.
  • Frozen watermelon balls. A melon baller is an amazing kitchen tool to have. It’s good for the obvious reason, making fruit balls, but also to scoop seeds out of a squash such as butternut, pumpkin, and acorn.

Standard