Lion House Wassail is the Best

We served this at our daughter's birthday party because she tasted Wassail and loves it!  If you make one, make this one.  Lion House Wassail

Rated: Submitted By: Audrey Wariner Photo By: Juno Suks At Cooking But Eats Servings: 36

"This recipe is Great! to have with or after Christmas dinner. It's one of our Christmas traditions."

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/4 cups white sugar 4 cups water 2 cinnamon sticks 1 slice fresh ginger root 4 cups orange juice

2 cups lemon juice 8 cups apple juice 8 whole allspice berries 1 tablespoon whole cloves

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a large saucepan, combine sugar and water. Boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, and add cinnamon sticks, allspice berries, cloves, and ginger. Cover and let stand in warm place for 1 hour.
2.	Strain liquid into a large pot. Just before serving, add juices and cider and quickly bring to boil. Remove from heat and serve.

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Printed from Allrecipes.com 1/8/2010

Mummy Dogs and Pumpkin Shakes

Last night we had a kids Halloween party and I served mummy dogs and pumpkin shakes.  Sorry no pictures -- missing camera, bummer for the holiday.

Mummy Dogs (Serves 8)
8 Hot Dogs or Veggie Dogs
1 Package breadsticks in a can
Mustard and Ketchup
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Spray a cookie sheet.  Pop open the can of breadsticks.  Separate them into 8 pieces.  Wrap one long piece of dough around 1 hot dog.  Leave a space for the face of the mummy.   Repeat until all 8 are wrapped.  I let each wrap their own.  Bake and when the hot dogs are cool, dot the ketchup and/or mustard with a toothpick and make eyes on the face.  Serve.


Pumpkin Shakes (Serves 2)
1/2 Cup Pumpkin (I used canned)
1 Cup Rice, Almond or Cow’s Milk
Pinch Cinnamon
Pinch Nutmeg
1 Tbsp Agave Nectar
1. Place all the ingredients in a blender.
2. Puree until smooth.
3. Serve.

Thanks to Weelicious for this recipe.

Fizzy Finnish lemon drink called Sima

One of the items I need to make ahead for my Mother's birthday this weekend is this fizzy Finnish lemon drink called Sima made somewhat like home made root beer with yeast. You need to make it about 3 days before you want to serve it. It will last unopened for about a week after that without going flat. 

Although traditionally served at May Day in Finland it was made for many celebrations in my home growing up. 

Title: Sima -- Finnish Drink

Ingredients:
4 quarts water
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 1/4 cup white sugar
2 lemons
1/4 t dry yeast
3-4 T warm water
sugar
raisins

Directions:
Make in the evening. Wash the lemons; use a carrot peeler to get the peel from the lemons; use only the yellow; peel and discard the white; slice the lemons; put lemons and sugar in a 6 quart kettle (unless you are very good at full kettles like Mummo is). Pour the hot water over all of this; let come to a boil but do not boil for very long; let sit until it cools--a couple of hours.
Mix 1/4 t dry yeast in about 3-4 T warm water to dissolve; sprinkle a little sugar to help it rise; pour this into the cool sima and stir; put a lid on it over night. In the morning strain the lemon pulp out. Pour the sima into Martinelli's bottles. Add 2-3 raisins and 1 t sugar per bottle before capping it.

Leave the bottles on the counter for a couple of days until the raisins swell and come to the top. Now it's time to place in a cooler place to chill it. Be careful when you open it! Open it at a slant with a glass under neath it to catch any spills.  Many are the stories of this drink being served over the years because of the yeast. 

Number Of Servings: 4 bottles

Green Lemonade or Green Smoothie Please

Thanks Chari for sharing with me some of your great smoothie recipes to try. I love my Vitamix (www.vitamix.com) industrial blender and my Jack La Lane juicer (http://www.everythingkitchens.com/jack_lalane_power_juicer.html) when I am making smoothies.

Fruit smoothies
Bananas (ripe! can be frozen without skin in freezer- makes smoothie chillier)
Fresh fruit
Frozen fruit
water
Blend!

Green smoothies
handful greens (spinach, parsley, romaine, kale, etc..)
2 ripe pears ( any juicy fruit peeled oranges, peaches, nectarines, strawberries, etc)
2-4 stalks celery
water to cover
Blend! (more water to thin or less for thicker)

Green Lemonade
(Juice all)
1 head romaine or celery
5-6 stalks kale
1-2 apples
1 whole lemon
1-2 T fresh ginger
JUICE! Drink up!
The lemon cuts the "green" flavor.

Resolved: Eat more fruits and veggies every day!

Last night for Recipe Club we were to bring a new recipe for the New Year.  Our New Year's resolution is for ALL of us in our family to eat more fruits and veggies.  We've had 2 big Christmas bowls full of fruits available on the table, a drawer of veggies in the refrigerator and bags of frozen fruits and veggies to choose from.  Each child has enjoyed being the one to go with one of us to pick out the fruits and veggies.  With the purchase of  a Vitamix, the industrial strength blender Jamba Juice uses to make their smoothies, we are having fun concocting smoothies.  By the way, you can buy a Vitamix online at http://www.vitamix.com or at Sam's Club or Costco -- at least during the holidays.  I also came across a much less expensive type by Jack Lalane at http://www.healthmaster100.com.  The idea is to have a heavy duty type which will chop ice in seconds and puree most anything and has a variable speed so you can puree part and stir in pieces, if desired, especially for soups. 

My husband made a Smoothie for me to share last night.  He just sees what we have in the freezer and fresh and goes for it.  The key is to have a mix of fresh and frozen so it's thicker and colder.  He titled this New creation:

Triple Berry Tropic Smoothie

3 cups frozen mango chunks

3 cups frozen blackberry, raspberry, blueberry blend

2 fresh bananas, slightly spotted makes them sweeter

2 scoops of Whole Nectar smoothie powder http://www.wholenectar.com 

3/4 can of Dole Orange Strawberry Banana concentrate

I avoid adding sweetener.  I add spotted bananas as my sweetener.  Of course according to your taste or take on sweeteners you may try: 

sugar or splenda or honey or agave, etc.

Serve it frozen immediately.  It tastes best frozen right then, just like at Jamba, so it wasn't as tasty thawed by the time we got around to drinking it an hour later.   Also be ready to rinse, soak or wash your glasses immediately as it dries on quickly.   

So here's to "5 a day" in a fun way -- get creative and eat your fruits and veggies as smoothies and soups.