Category: Lifestyle

How to Make a McCafe Frappuccino at Home

Make-at-Home McCafe Frappuccino1

In November I shared my recipe for how to make a McDonald’s McCafe iced mocha at home. Yesterday, my daughter asked me to duplicate her favorite McCafe drink–a mocha frappucinno. She really loves this frozen drink, and I wanted to duplicate it as closely as possible, so I bought a McCafe mocha frapp to use as a taste comparison and got to work. It only took me one attempt, plus a few adjustments, to come up a recipe that tastes very close to the original.

The same ingredients are used to make both McCafe drinks, but the proportions and preparation are different. Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make a home-made McCafe mocha frappuccino:

Iced Mocha Ingredients

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon Starbucks Via iced coffee mix
3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
3 tablespoons chocolate syrup
1 cup water
2 cups crushed ice
Canned whipped cream

Combine the Starbucks Via coffee mix, heavy whipping cream, chocolate syrup, water, and ice in a blender. Blend until slushy. Pour about one tablespoon of chocolate syrup in the bottom of the glass, add the frozen drink mixture, top with whipped cream, then drizzle with chocolate.

Now you can enjoy your favorite McCafe iced coffee treats from the comfort of your own home, plus it’s cheaper.

Hearty Winter Meals–Beef Stew

Beef Stew1

On cold winter days like yesterday nothing hits the spot more than a steamy bowl of soup or stew, and this hearty beef stew really hit the spot. This recipe is easy to prepare but requires a long cooking time to tenderize the meat and vegetables, so you’ll need to plan ahead. Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make beef stew:

Beef Stew Ingredients

Ingredients:

3-4 pounds of stew meat (or a 4-lb. boneless chuck roast, defatted and cut into cubes)
1 tablespoon oil
1 can (14 oz.) beef broth
2 cans (14 oz.) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 cup red wine (or cooking sherry)
1 envelope Lipton onion soup mix
1 large onion, peeled and diced
1 package fresh mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
3-4 carrots, peeled and sliced into bite-sized pieces
6-8 fingerling potatoes, cubed
Seasoning salt and pepper to taste

Brown the beef in hot oil in a large pot over medium heat, stirring to ensure the meat browns on all sides. Add the beef broth, diced tomatoes, wine, soup mix, and onions. Cover and cook until the meat is tender (about 1.5 – 2 hours). Add additional beef broth or water if too much liquid evaporates during cooking. Add the mushrooms, carrots, and potatoes and cook until the vegetables are tender (about 1/2 hour). Season with salt and pepper. Spoon into bowls and serve with cornbread, butter, and honey.

Holiday Decor Ideas–Winter Owl Theme at Anthropologie

Winter Owl Theme3

Winter owls nestled in branches.

Winter Owl Theme1

Winter Owl Perched High on a Wall Made of Wood1

Perched high on a wall made of wood.

Winter Owl Perched High on a Wall of Wood2

Winter Owl on a Swing

Swinging from swings. I like the birch trees and snowflakes painted on the rustic window panes.

Mason Jar Chandelier2

A mason jar chandelier flecked with snow and filled with candles and bits of nature.

Mason Jar Chandelier1

Tied with simple twine and hung from the ceiling. How lovely.

Old Books Covered in Snow and Cranberries

Old books covered with snow and cranberries.

Pretty Perfume Bottles

Pretty perfume bottles.

Pretty Ceramic Vases1

Lovely ceramics.

Ceramic Owl1

And even more owls. Lots of fabulous holiday decorating ideas I can recreate in my own home. If you don’t have an Anthropologie store in your area, visit them online at Anthropologie.com.

Tea at the Ritz

Tea at the Ritz

Each Christmas the women in my family meet for tea at the Ritz Carlton. We’ve been enjoying this tradition for over twenty years. Some of the ladies pictured here were toddlers when I first began the tradition; now they’re young women who will one day introduce their own daughters to the pleasures of taking tea.

Karen1

Karen.

Karen2

Karen3

Cindy1

Cindy.

Cindy2

Cindy3

Liz

Liz.

Grandma1

Grandma.

Grandma2

One Lump or Two

One lump, or two?

Teapot Warmer

Teapot warmer.

Dessert Tray1

The dessert tray.

Holiday Bling1

Holiday bling.

Tea at the Ritz

Such a lovely holiday tradition.

Colorful Kitchen Accessories

Pantone Coffee Mugs and Kenwood KMIX Mixer

Remember the Kenwood KMIX mixer in Firecracker Red that I purchased a few weeks ago? I’ve been searching for additional kitchen accessories to match the stripes on the mixer and found these fun Pantone coffee mugs at Amazon.com. You can purchase the mugs as a set, like I did here, or choose any color you like from the full array of Pantone colors. How awesome is that? These mugs would make great gifts for artists, designers, or color lovers. They would look great on a studio desk holding paint brushes, colored pencils, pens, or your favorite beverage.

Pantone Coffee Mugs

The mugs arrived with Pantone color chips tied to the handles so you can tuck them conveniently in your purse or wallet to use as a guide when selecting additional accessories for your kitchen or home.

Pantone Color Chips

Or you can use the color chips as inspiration for a bigger project. I plan on using this color scheme on my front porch this spring and summer. I can’t wait for the weather to warm up so I can get started.

In Search of Rainbows–For My Kitchen

Speaking of colorful kitchen appliances, how fun are these limited-edition Kenwood kMix retro-style mixers accented with rainbow stripes? Since I couldn’t purchase my Delonghi kMix small kitchen appliances in every color of the rainbow (that would just be too crazy), I found this fabulous stand mixer in firecracker red.

The orange stripe in this playful pattern is the perfect complement to these Delonghi kMix appliances I recently purchased in orange:

This way, I can add just a touch of rainbow colors to my kitchen without going completely over the top.

Colorful Kitchen Appliances to Brighten My Kitchen

The moment I laid eyes on these colorful kitchen appliances from Delonghi’s kMix collection, I just had to have them. I love the sleek, retro design, the touches of stainless steel, and bright, cheery colors. If you have to display appliances on your kitchen counters then they should make a statement–like “hello look at me.”

The collection includes a 5- or 10-cup coffee maker, a toaster, an electric tea kettle, and an espresso maker. It was difficult to choose just one color–I wanted them all. I finally chose orange since I’ve been on a tangerine tango kick this year. How fun are these?

Farmer’s Market Goodies

I went shopping at the farmer’s market again yesterday. It was a great day to be outside. The weather was gorgeous. The air was cool and crisp–just the way I like it. And  look at all the fabulous goodies I bought. Since there’s only one week left to shop before the market closes for the season, I stocked up on all the fresh goodness I could carry home. I’ve got lots of cooking to do this week.

For just $20.00 I bought two types of apples, green peppers, cherry tomatoes, eggplant, kale, jalapeno peppers, tiny white potatoes, and sweet potatoes. What a deal! I also bought farm fresh eggs, home-made applesauce and apple butter, barbequed chicken, and plenty of pulled pork and barbequed beef brisket to stock my freezer so I can enjoy it over the coming winter months.

I’m going to miss my weekly trips to the farmer’s market and all the people I met there this summer. I’ve grown so fond of all of them. See you next spring.

Eat, Paint, Love

What a busy weekend. Not only did I attend the Remington fall festival, I also hosted a Columbus Day girls weekend at my house. My mother, sister, daughter, and I spent the entire weekend together and we did what we girls do best–we cooked, we ate, and we painted. On Sunday we started off the day with a breakfast consisting of this delicious bananas foster puffed pancake and coffee:

After a quick clean-up, we got down to some serious painting.

My daughter worked on these colorful stargazer lilies:

My sister tried her hand at painting a bouquet of tulips:

My mother worked on these morning glories:

And I worked on this rainforest fairy, who looks a bit freakish at this stage because she has no eyes:

We painted for several hours then stopped for lunch. My sister prepared this fabulous panzanella salad with some tomatoes I bought at the farmer’s market (probably the last of the season) and some fresh basil from my mother’s garden. She served the salad with glasses of peach iced tea.

Then we continued our painting fest. We painted well into the evening because my sister was determined to go home with a finished painting. Everyone completed their paintings except my mother, who stopped to cook us this fabulous chicken with coconut-pineapple curry sauce, which we piled on top of jasmine rice:

I don’t know which was more fun–painting the day away with my family or preparing and eating these fabulous meals. I’ll call it a tie. I’ll be posting pictures of the completed paintings and recipes for the fabulous good eats next.

Remington Fall Festival

This weekend my mother, sister, and I attended the Remington Volunteer Fire & Rescue Department annual fall festival. The event was held at the Remington Carnival Grounds and featured a pancake breakfast, arts and crafts, ice cream and live entertainment, an antique car and tractor/truck show, and a fish and chicken fry. Remington, Virginia is a small town, so it wasn’t surprising that the carnival grounds and festival were quite small as well, which is just the way we gals like it.

The day started out cloudy and there was a light drizzle when we first arrived at the event, but it lasted only a few minutes and then the sun came out and it turned into a picture-perfect day–sunny, cool, and breezy. We had a great time.

We skipped the pancake breakfast and headed straight to the antique tractor, truck, and car show. Here are few pictures of the antique tractors on display:

This gentleman was all smiles when I asked him to hop up on his tractor and pose for a picture.

This was an interesting tractor. Notice the log cutter on the front of the machine–it’s a two-fer-one special.

Next, we headed over to the antique car and truck show. There were some real beauties on display, like this gorgeous turquoise Ford truck:

Here’s my sister getting “all up in its grill.” She really loved the front grill and how the red tail lights looked against the bright turquoise paint.

This picture is for you, sis:

My mom really loved this old Chevy.

This orange Chevy Nova really caught my eye.

Check out the size of that hood scoop.

Love the two-tone paint job on this Plymouth Charger, the chrome bumper and side pipes, and mag wheels.

I don’t recall what type of car this was, but check out that custom paint job. What’s not to like about purple flames?

My sister and I loved the front end of this car. The over-sized wheel wells that wrapped around to the front of the car reminded us of the Batmobile.

We spent a long time talking to the owner of this 1957 Cadillac, which is still sporting its original chrome, paint job, and interior. He is the third owner of this garage-kept vehicle, which has only 75,000 miles. With the exception of a few scratches on the left rear panel, this car was in mint condition, and still sports the original goddess hood ornament. What a beauty.

When the owner pointed out the goddess on the hood to the onlookers, for a moment there I thought he was referring to me. A girl can dream, can’t she?

To gas up this baby, you have to lift up the tail light. I’ve never seen that before. We thoroughly enjoyed looking at these beauties and talking to their owners.

After the car show, we decided to sample some fall fair delicacies. The selections were typically unhealthy, but so delicious.

We chose funnel cakes and fried Oreos–totally delicious. Afterwards, we headed over to the fish fry. It’s always best to eat dessert first so you don’t run out of room for dessert.

My sissy about to dig into her meal.

What a meal–two kinds of fried fish, french fries, home fries, green beans with bacon AND sausage, cole slaw, corn muffins, chocolate cake, and iced tea. Not the healthiest meal, but sometimes it’s okay to throw caution to the wind and just enjoy the moment.

The live country music was the perfect accompaniment to this down home meal.

Several gents were sporting straw hats.

The Remington Fall Festival is held each year on the first Saturday in October. I know where I’ll be next year. I better shop around for a straw hat, so I won’t look like an out-of-towner.

%d bloggers like this: