Perfect Southern Sweet Tea

So one of the things that irks me the most when I go to restaurants is having to sweeten my own tea!  I mean c'mon!  The worse thing is putting ten packs of sugar in a cold glass of unsweetened tea and stirring...and stirring...and stirring.  And then stirring.  The sugar will not melt no matter how hard you stir.  Now that I'm living on the East Coast, you can't find presweetened tea anywhere and the restaurants that do offer sweet tea have the tea that comes out of a can.  Blasphemy!  So, needless to say, I drink only water at restaurants now, but I still miss my sweet tea.

Now I've been making sweet tea at home for a long time.  My mother used to make it by steeping the tea bags in a glass pitcher in the sun.  That method can take a while and who wants to wait on sweet tea?  I on the other hand prefer to steep my tea bags in a pot.  It's quicker and I think I've come up with the best I've ever had!

Try this recipe.  It comes out perfect every time!

Southern Sweet Tea

Ingredients:

8 tea bags brand of your choice (I use Lipton)
12 cups of water
1 cup of water
1 cup of sugar

Fill a large pot with 12 cups of water and bring to a boil.  Turn off the heat but leave the pot on the burner.  Add your 8 tea bags and swoosh them around just to get them to start spewing their goodness.  Cover the pot and time for 3 minutes exactly.  While the tea bags are steeping, in a smaller pot add the extra cup of water.  Bring to a boil and add the 1 cup of sugar.  Reduce to a simmer and stir, allowing the sugar to dissolve completely.  Dissolving equal cups of water and sugar is called making a simple syrup.  When your timer goes off, remove the tea bags from the pot, but make sure to squeeze any liquid out of them.  You wouldn't want to lose any of that goodness.  Pour your tea into a pitcher and then add the simple sugar mixture.  Stir and chill.  Now the tea will be hot so if you immediately pour your tea over ice it will melt the ice and dilute the flavor.  It's best to pour cold tea over ice.  The flavor will dilute less.  Or if you can't wait like me, always have some tea ice cubes in the freezer so then you can pour your tea over tea ice cubes and the dilution won't make a difference in the flavor.  But trust me, if you allow the tea to chill you will have a better tea experience. 

Enjoy!

Vane

Cinco de Mayo in Browns Mills, NJ Review

So my husband is AF and we recently moved from Lackland AFB in San Antonio, TX to Mcguire AFB, NJ.  Big change for me but not for my husband.  When we got here in January of this year, we realized how small this base is compared to what we were used to in San Antonio.  There is literally nothing outside of base.  Even the Walmart is a 20 minute drive away. 

Needless to say, we were interested in what kind of restaurants were near.  I went online to Yelp and Youtube to see reviews of nearby restaurants and found NOTHING!  From then on I decided that whenever I visited a nearby restaurant that I would review it myself and started posting my video reviews on Youtube. 

The first place I reviewed was Cinco de Mayo in Browns Mills, NJ right outside the Browns Mills Gate on Texas Ave.  Being from San Antonio, I have high expectations for my Mexican food.  This place did not deliver, but I do have to say that it is the best option for Mexican food in the area.  If you've heard of El Sombrero here near the Mcguire gate on Wrightstown-Cookstown Road, and eaten there, you know it is bad.  Of the two, I would definately rather go to Cinco de Mayo, plus they deliver on base!

If you haven't seen it already, check out the video here!

P.S. Be nice...it was my first video review!  LOL

Muchas Gracias Muchachos y Muchachas!!

Vane

Where I'm Coming From

Hey ya'll.  Before I start this journey I'd like to thank ya'll for stumbling across my page in which ever way it happened. 

I grew up in a hard-working Mexican-American home in Floresville, TX right outside San Antonio.  No one has ever heard of it unless you've heard of Promised Land Dairy Milk.  My mother cooked from time to time but only had a few go to recipes.  I never showed any interest in cooking and she didn't show any interest in teaching me.  My father also cooked and he loved to experiment.  I remember we would come home from school and he would have a nice treat waiting for us.  To this day he calls me with some new recipe he has tried.

Growing up I was very involved in school and sports.  My grandmother would tell me I needed to learn to cook.  I always dismissed her.  My family would tell me, "How are you going to cook for your husband?"  I would answer by saying, "I'm going to marry a man that knows how to cook so I don't have to!"  I really never wanted to learn to cook.  I've burned toast, messed up Hamburger Helper, and more.  Even when I would try to make something and would follow the directions, it still would not come out right.  So I gave up.  I said, "Forget it!  I give up."

So I went through my teens and 20s never cooking a thing.  I thought cooking was the most difficult thing ever and was not the least bit interested.  That was until I met a certain man who cooked me dinner on our first date.  I was intrigued to say the least.  I had finally met a man who could cook!  Needless to say he became my husband and little by little I would join him in the kitchen.  It was our favorite thing to do together and in no time,  I was the better cook.  Although he would argue different. 

In this blog I plan to share my experiences with food with you as far as cooking, eating, and reviewing local restaurants and hopefully help you find your inner chef! 

Please enjoy, comment, and share any recipes...

Vane
Say it with me...(Vah-Neh)...lol