Serving Up {Drink}: Hot Russian Punch (Hootch)

Posting a beverage photo is tricky, especially when it isn't something that can be topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings with drips running over the sides.... obviously I am over thinking my photos but really, what can you do with a liquid?  The only answer I have is that you can talk it up enough that anyone reading will believe you when you say, "THIS IS MY FAVORITE HOLIDAY BEVERAGE OF ALL TIME!!!"  Did you see the three exclamation marks?

This recipe is an old family recipe, although I don't know the true origins of it.  Grandma Wright's recipe card reads "Hot Russian Punch" but in our family we affectionately refer to it as "Hootch" and have as long as I can remember - unless you are my four year old who calls it "Pootch" and can't seem to get over his cute error.  Growing up we would always make gallons and gallons of this (not exaggerating  because it was what we gave to our neighbors at Christmastime as a gift.  It quickly became something that many of our friends not only looked forward to receiving but they had their own family traditions surrounding it.

This hot punch IS Christmas in my book.  From the time I make it, and it fills my kitchen with the delicious scent of cinnamon and cloves, until I am cuddled under a blanket with a steaming cup warming my hands as well as my insides.  Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without Hootch making it's appearance.  Even if the appearance in the above photo appears somewhat benign...

One Year Ago: Decadent Triple Layer Mud Pie

HOT RUSSIAN PUNCH (HOOTCH)     
(recipe from grandma Wright)
printable version    

4 quarts water
4 sticks cinnamon
30 whole cloves
1 cup lemon juice
6-ounce frozen orange juice concentrate
46-ounce can pineapple juice
4 cups sugar

Place water, cinnamon sticks and whole cloves in a large stock pot and bring to a boil.  Allow to boil for 10 minutes.  Strain spices.***
Add the lemon juice, orange juice concentrate, pineapple juice and sugar.  Allow to remain on the heat until punch has returned to a near boil and the sugar is completely dissolved.
Cool before placing in containers.  Store in the refrigerator.  Warm before serving.

***I follow my mom's lead and don't strain the spices.  I like them to remain in the container after I make the punch, which allows the flavors to intensify (if it lasts that long).  I just strain the spices as I serve it.

Serving Up {Dessert}: Frozen Hot Chocolate

Frozen Hot Chocolate is a popular treat, made super popular by the Serendipity 3 Restaurant in New York City (and more recently at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas).  I remember on a trip to NYC years ago, waiting for over an hour just to get into Serendipity 3 to try their famous hot chocolate.  The next trip to the Big Apple we decided to get reservations for dinner to bypass the wait (you can only get reservations if you are eating dinner - no reservations for dessert only) but the meal was really just our ticket to get to the dessert!  And while we have discovered other delicious goodies at Serendipity 3 (Deep Fried Oreo Sundae and a Frozen Mango "goodness" to name a couple) we always go back to the frozen hot chocolate!

Since we no longer live in Vegas, and our next trip to NYC is a ways off, I needed to get my Frozen Hot Chocolate fix here at home.  Thanks to the internet I was able to search for Frozen Hot Chocolate and come up with loads of recipes.  I read a handful, compared them all to the supposed "original" and then went from there.  Along with tweaking the amounts of sugar and hot cocoa mix and opting for canned whipped cream over whipping my own, I used a mint hot cocoa mix when I made this for my husband for Father's Day because if there is one thing my husband loves more than chocolate, it would be MINT chocolate.  The result....delicious!

One Year Ago: Angel Hair Pasta with Sausage and Clams
                         Not Yo' Mama's Banana Pudding

FROZEN HOT CHOCOLATE     
(recipe adapted from Serendipity 3 Restaurant via abc news)
printable version

4 ounces high quality chocolate (I used 1/2 semi sweet and 1/2 white)
3 Tbs. hot chocolate mix (I used Stephen's Mint Truffle)
2 Tbs. sugar
1 1/2 cups whole milk
3 cups ice
Whipped cream
Chocolate shavings

Chop the chocolate into small pieces and melt chocolate in a small heavy saucepan or in the top of a double boiler over simmering water. Stir occasionally until melted. Add the hot chocolate mix and sugar, stirring constantly until blended.  Remove from heat, slowly add half a cup of the milk, and stir until smooth. Cool to room temperature.

In a blender, place the remaining cup of milk, the chocolate mixture, and the ice. Blend on high speed until smooth. Pour into a chilled glass and top with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.

Serving Up {Dessert}: Chocolate Mint Frosty

Our family received a Blendtec blender as a delayed Christmas gift and we have spent the past six weeks LOVING it.  We have plowed through the recipe booklet, along with making our own creations by throwing all kinds of fruit and vegetables into the blender - add ice and it's magically a smoothie.  My boys ask for smoothies two and three times a day and I generally oblige :)  So much fun!

This recipe is not part of the blendtec recipe booklet, but is a recipe we have had for a few years.  It is a fun treat, made all the better now that I have the "best blender on the market" to make it!  This would really make a delicious Valentine's Treat for your favorite person should you need something super easy and quick to throw together.  If nothing else, hit the stores tomorrow and stock up on the mint patties that are in Valentine's wrapping that will be marked down 50% and you will be set to make this refreshing mint treat any time the craving hits!

CHOCOLATE MINT FROSTY     Pin It
(recipe from Kraft Food & Family, Summer 2006)
printable version

2 cups milk (I use whole milk but you can use any)
1 cup cool whip topping, frozen
1 pkg (4-serving size) chocolate instant pudding
4 small chocolate covered mint patties
ice

Pour milk into blender base and add enough ice to measure 3 cups.  Add frozen cool whip topping, pudding and mint patties.  Blend on high speed until smooth. Serve immediately.

Serving Up {Drink}: Strawberry Lemonade Quencher

This recipe ought to have been posted a month ago!  Yummy, refreshing, and delicious - it kind of encapsulates summer.  After our nice, cool weather here in the Northwest last week, our temperatures have spiked back up for another week of summer.  If you are experiencing something similar, this is the perfect drink to serve over ice to cool things off!

STRAWBERRY LEMONADE QUENCHER     Pin It
(recipe from The Pampered Chef)
printable version

10 cups cold water
1 can (10 ouncees) frozen non-alcoholic strawberry daiquiri mix, thawed
1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (4 to 5 lemons)
3/4 cup sugar
Whole strawberries (optional)

Place all the ingredients, except whole strawberries, into a large drink pitcher.  Stir until sugar is dissolved and ingredients are well combined.
Serve chilled and garnish with whole strawberries, if desired.

Serving Up {Drink}: Green Smoothie

About two years ago I was introduced to green smoothies (here) and I became very passionate about them.  It seemed like such a simple way to get fruits and veggies into my kids diet without the battle over "one piece of broccoli" - because, really, how much benefit does one piece of broccoli really afford?

(not to mention, how else will you get your kid to wear such a cool green mustache?)

While living in Vegas we would have a shake each morning with breakfast and another shake as an after school snack.  I am not kidding when I say that I would actually crave them!  But with our move last summer we kind of fell out of the smoothie routine.  We have them here and there but not with any regularity and I have missed it!

So with the summer harvest of produce, and the heat that makes a cold shake sound REALLY good, we have slowly been getting back into the Green Smoothie routine.  Just yesterday my three year old asked me to make a shake and he even opened up the fridge and pulled out two carrots and declared he wanted an orange shake (coconut milk, carrots, apricots, tart apple, tomato, banana)

You can put out a google search and come up with more drink combinations than you will ever use.  My advice is to start heavy on the fruit and then as you (and your kids) get used to them, slowly decrease the fruit and increase the veggie content.  You will be surprised at how the veggie battle will be a distant memory as your kids begin "drinking" veggies that they never would have eaten served on a plate.

I am sharing a "heavy fruit" recipe that is packed with spinach, which is a terrific leafy green veggie yet very mild in flavor.  As you begin to add more veggies, other mild flavored veggies include tomatoes, carrots, avocado and cucumbers - your kids won't even know they are in there.  I have discovered that if I throw in 1/2 lemon (peel and all) any other flavor is hidden by the citrus and I can get away with even stronger flavors such as bell peppers.  No matter what combination we use, we always throw in some frozen fruit of some type to make it nice and cold - frozen bananas work really well for that but so do frozen berries.  We also sometime steer clear of green altogether and go for another color - beets, red cabbage and strawberries are a delicious combination and because it's red, the kids think mom forgot to make it healthy :)

FAVORITE GREEN SMOOTHIE     Pin It

2 cups liquid (coconut milk, water, rice milk, kefir)

Spinach to fill blender container twice

Orange juice concentrate

Frozen peaches

Frozen banana

Place liquid in your blender container and fill the container with spinach; blend down to liquid.  Fill the container again with spinach and blend down to liquid again.  Add 1 Tbs. OJ concentrate, 1/2 - 1 frozen banana and 1-2 cups frozen peaches.  Blend until smooth. 

**if you have any smoothie remaining (which we seldom do) put the mix into a popsicle mold and freeze it.  Delicious (my kids had apricot smoothie popsicles just this afternoon)**

Serving Up {Drink}: Orange Frostie

Earlier this month I was at the mall, which NEVER happens.  I ended up in the food court, which happens even less than me being at the mall!  Go figure!  I went to Orange Julius and they have expanded their menu to include many more flavors than just orange!  I decided to try their "Mango Passion" and it was really refreshing and yummy.

The following week we were enjoying some nice, sunny days and I decided to re-create the drink for my kids for their after-school snack.  I used my recipe for "Orange Frostie" and made a few variations.  The end product was a hit with the kids, which shouldn't surprise anyone.  My kids are so used to Green Smoothies that to be served a drink without a single vegetable, they were bound to be excited.

So here you go, my Orange Julius knock-off...

ORANGE FROSTIE     

printable version

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup powdered milk (optional)

1 tsp. vanilla

6 oz. can frozen orange juice concentrate ***

1 tray of ice cubes, crushed

Put all the ingredients into the blender and blend on high until all the ice is crushed and the ingredients well mixed.

***For my Mango re-creation I used a can of DOLE Orange-Peach-Mango in place of the orange juice concentrate.  I also replaced 1/2 of the ice cubes with chunks of frozen Mangos (purchased at Trader Joe's).