Sore Throat Remedy

Okay, so I have a sore throat right now, and my sister made me this remedy... It doesn't taste very good, but it really helps. It numbs the throat a little bit, and it soothes the soreness.

1/2 - 1 shot whiskey
1/2 lemon juiced
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons honey
Wedge of lemon
Boiling water

In a mug, add half a shot to one shot of whiskey.

Add the juice of half a lemon.

Add sugar and honey, and stir the mixture.

Add the boiling water to fill the mug 3/4 of the way full, and stir.

You can float the wedge of lemon in your glass for a little bit to add more lemon if you'd like, if it starts to taste bitter, take the lemon wedge out.

Now, it's going to be hard to drink it, but you need to drink it warm. The warmth helps, and if you want you can take two 500 mg tylenol (paracetamol in Europe) right before drinking this remedy.

It seriously helps, my throat was cured for a bit, and it helped me sleep throughout the night. The whiskey helped me sleep.

Pancakes with Coconut Syrup

So, I love pancakes with coconut syrup, sliced bananas, toasted coconut, and toasted pecans. You could make it with toasted macadamia nuts as well. This recipe is very easy to make and it's sooo good. :3

Buttermilk Pancakes:

2 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs, unbeaten
2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup melted butter

Mix dry ingredients thoroughly. Add remaining ingredients and stir lightly to just moisten dry ingredients. Mixture will be thick and lumpy.

Pour 1/4 cup batter into a hot pan and cook until golden on both sides, approximately 2 minutes per side.



Coconut Syrup:

3 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 15 ounce can coconut milk
Pinch of salt

In a saucepan over medium heat add the sugar and water. Bring to a boil, and turn to medium low stirring frequently until reduced by half.

Add the coconut syrup and a pinch of salt and bring to boil, turn down to medium low stirring frequently until syrup is reduced by half.

Remove syrup from heat and set aside.



Toasted Coconut and Pecans:

Preheat oven to 350 F

In two tin pie pans, put one cup coconut in one pie pan, and one cup pecans in another pie pan.

Bake for 15 minutes stirring every 5 minutes.

I hope you enjoy these delicious pancakes with bananas sliced on top, toasted coconut and pecans with the coconut syrup. It's truly a taste sensation! ^_^

Homemade Ginger Ale

So, I've decided to start making my own soda... I don't like the fact that most companies put caffeine in their soda, and other ingredients that are not needed. I like this all natural soda, and it has a great taste.

Ginger Simple Syrup

1/2 cup peeled, organic ginger root
2 cups raw sugar
1 cup water
1 lemon
cans of sparkling water (which is the same thing as club soda)

In a saucepan add sugar and water. Bring to a light boil over medium heat.

While the syrup is coming to a boil, peel the ginger and wash your lemon.

Once the syrup comes to a boil turn down the heat to medium-low, and let simmer while you finish peeling and ginger.

Cut the lemon in half and juice it; Set aside.

Add the peeled ginger to the syrup and simmer for 9 minutes.

Cut the juiced lemon into quarters, removing the end pieces.

Add the lemon quarters to the syrup and cook for 1 minute.

Turn off the heat and stir in the lemon juice.

Strain the syrup through a sieve into a bowl. Cool to room temperature, and store in a jar, or air tight container in the refrigerator.

To make a soda:

3 - 6 tablespoons ginger syrup to taste
1 can sparkling water
Ice if desired

Pour the syrup into a 16 oz glass / tall glass, add ice if desired, and pour over the sparkling water and stir until well combined. You've just made homemade ginger ale with no added dyes, or preservatives! Enjoy!

Giveaway From Tricia's Dish

I know this is not cooking related, but there is a giveaway over at Tricia's Dish for a handbag, and I so I thought I'd share this with everyone else.

Mrs. Weasley's Rock Cakes Updated

So, I realised that my conversion skills from metric to imperial really blow, so I had to change the recipe to the correct conversion. The original recipe I posted was a half recipe, so I just had to change the half recipe to metric... Before the metric recipe was the whole recipe, and I converted it to imperial in a half recipe not knowing that my conversion was off. However, the conversion to imperial turned out to be an exact half recipe, so the Americans were making half recipes and the metric users were making the full recipe. I'm really sorry for this, now the metric users can have a half recipe, and the Americans can have a full recipe. So, I have updated it to give the correct imperial conversion.

Here is the link to Mrs. Weasley's Rock Cakes Updated

Cherry Almond Muffins

These muffins are so moist and light. I love the cherry preserves and the almond flavouring... This was a major hit in my house!


Yield: 18 muffins

Topping:
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/4 cup brown sugar
* 1/4 cup granulated sugar
* Pinch ground cinnamon
* 1/4 cup butter, cut into small pieces
* 1/4 cup slivered almonds

Muffins:
* 3 cups cake flour
* 2 cups superfine sugar
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
* 1/2 cup butter
* 2 teaspoons vanilla
* 3 eggs
* 1/8 cup vegetable oil & 1/8 cup melted butter
* 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
* 1/2 cup cherry preserves (I used Trader Joe's)


Muffins:

* Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
* Stir to combine.
* Spoon butter into dry ingredients and beat well with mixer on medium speed.
* Mix until no chunks of butter are visible.
* The mix should resemble cornmeal.
* Using an electric mixer, combine cake mix, eggs, oil, butter, extract and preserves. Batter will be somewhat lumpy.
* Use an ice cream scoop to evenly fill each muffin pan with the batter. Sprinkle tops of muffins with 2 teaspoons of almond topping. Bake 17 to 21 minutes.

Topping:

* In a medium bowl combine all topping ingredients except almonds. Using a pastry blender or 2 forks, combine ingredients to a course consistency. Once combined, fold in the almonds.
* Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 (12-cup) muffin tins with paper liners for 18 muffins.

Peachy Keen Splash

Here is the recipe for the peachy keen splash that you can get at Red Robin... The Monin syrup was a little more effort than going down to a store and buying it. I had to call Red Robin and ask them if they'd sell me a couple bottles and they agreed. They had to order it for me and I had to wait a few days, but I got it at wholesale price. Anyway, here is the recipe.

* 2 tablespoons Monin Peach Syrup (I might buy some peach flavoured Torani just to see if it would taste the same)
* 1 tablespoon Minute Maid Lemonade (I used the frozen lemonade)
* 1 12 ounce can Sprite
* 1/8 cup diced peaches (optional)
* Ice
* If you want a spiked drink you can add 1 oz. Bacardi Rum to the drink


In a 20 ounce glass pour in syrup and lemonade. Stir.

Fill glass with ice. Pour in Sprite and top off with peaches.

Enjoy!

*NOTE: The peaches don't really change the flavour of the drink, so you can leave them out if you don't feel like trying to find frozen diced peaches, or dicing a fresh one yourself. However, the peaches are great if you are having a party and you are entertaining, they make the drink look nice.

Purple Fuzzy Cow

This drink is similar to a Purple Cow, but the reason why it's called a Purple Fuzzy Cow is because of the carbonated soda. I love these drinks and my mum used to make them for me when I was young child, and I've loved them ever since!

Serves 1

2 - 3 scoops lemon or lime sherbet
2/3 cup grape juice
1/2 - 1 cup 7 up (7 up is the best for this drink, it's not quite as sweet as other lemon-lime sodas, you can also use an all natural soda from a health store if you wish)

In a 20 ounce glass, place 2 or 3 scoops sherbet.

Pour grape juice over the top, then top off with 7 up.

Eat with a spoon like you would a root beer float. Enjoy!

Chicken Teriyaki Burgers

I made up this recipe because I wanted something new, and low in fat to eat. I wasn't expecting these burgers to be as good as they are. I really love these burgers, and on weight watchers they are 11 points per burger.

Serves: 4

1 lbs ground chicken
1/4 cup teriyaki sauce (Recommended: Yoshida's)
1 clove garlic
1/2 tsp minced ginger (I used minced ginger in a jar, and it's more of a pureed texture)
2 tbsp pineapple juice
1 cup plain bread crumbs
2 oz. provolone cheese
1 can rings of pineapple (optional)
Green Leaf Lettuce (optional)
Sliced Tomatoes (optional)
4 potato hamburger buns


Preheat a greased non-stick pan or skillet over medium heat.

In a bowl small mix together the teriyaki sauce, garlic, ginger, and pineapple juice.

In a medium sized bowl, mix chicken and 2/3 of the teriyaki mixture. Add the bread crumbs and mix well.

Pat four pineapple rings dry and brush the teriyaki mixture over both sides and sauté in the preheated pan on both sides for 2 - 3 minutes or until golden brown. Side pineapple aside.

Reduce heat to medium-low. Weigh out 4.25 ounces of chicken mixture, or divide into four equal parts and shape into patties. Then cook on both sides for about 6 - 7 minutes or until medium brown. Using some of the left over teriyaki, brush the tops of the chicken burgers once they have been flipped. This will add a golden colour to the burgers, and also add more teriyaki flavour.

Keep your oven on warm and place burgers inside warm oven with half a slice of provolone cheese on top to melt.

Place patties on buns, and add pineapple, lettuce, and tomatoes.

Enjoy!

Easy Rice Breakfast

I came up with this the other day because I had some left over rice and didn't know what to do with it... I'm supposed to try to limit my wheat consumption, so I decide to go gluten free for this breakfast. I hope you all enjoy!

4 oz. cooked rice (I used jasmine rice)
1 tablespoon toasted coconut
1 tablespoon toasted sliced almonds
2 tablespoons dried cranberries
2 tablespoons low-fat 1% milk
2 teaspoons honey of your choice

In a bowl weigh out your rice. Pour in your milk, honey, and cranberries and microwave for 1 minute. Remove from microwave and stir; add almonds and coconut. Enjoy!

Coconut Laddu

Coconut Laddu is a very popular sweet treat in India. It's very rich and easy to make. These coconut laddu's are not low in calories... On Weight Watchers they are 4 points per coconut laddu. You can reduce the calories by using fat-free condensed milk, but it only cuts the weight watcher points by 1, so they are 3 points per coconut laddu with the fat-free condensed milk.

* 1 tbsp butter
* 1 14 ounce package dried shredded coconut(bakers brand is the best), ground up in a food processor or if you can find finely ground coconut, that would work too.
* 1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk (or fat-free for less calories)
* 2 pinches freshly ground cardamom, or 1/8 teaspoon of jarred ground cardamom

In a non-stick skillet, melt butter over medium heat.

Add 3 cups finely ground coconut and brown for about 5 minutes or until most of the coconut is golden brown through out.

Add one can sweetened condensed milk and stir for about 6 - 8 minutes or until it's very sticky and thick and comes together in one mass.

Turn off the heat and add the cardamom and mix well.

Let the mixture cool enough to handle, you still want the mixture warm or you won't be able to form balls.

Set aside the rest of the coconut in a bowl.

With the warm coconut and condensed milk mixture, make balls about the size golf balls, then roll the coconut laddu's in the coconut that has been set aside.

Makes roughly 20 coconut laddu's