Drinks

HOT CHOCOLATE MIX

February 18, 2021 by Sarah Baade Leave a Comment

Cold Weather Days

I have spent time in cold places. Several years, in fact. Growing up in Kansas, we would see snow a few times each year. Grad school in Buffalo, NY felt like winter would never end. Living in Colorado still brought plenty of snow but it would melt pretty quickly. San Antonio? We rarely get snow here. But here I am, texting snow pictures to family and friends and quickly going through all of our hot chocolate mix. The South isn’t built to handle the cold and snow. It broke down the power infrastructure to the point that much of the state (not just the city, but the entire state) has had power outages for three days. Even as I sit here writing this, I’m expecting the power to go out again at any moment. This is not something I ever expected to deal with in South Texas.

Overhead view of a mug of hot chocolate and marshmallows next to a bowl of hot chocolate mix and a bowl of marshmallows.

Coping With The Cold

Admittedly, my family has had it better than most. We have a gas fireplace which normally doesn’t get much use but has thankfully still been functional without power. We also have a gas stovetop so I’ve been able to light that up with a lighter and still cook for the family. Did you know you can cook chicken nuggets on your stovetop? Turns out, they are delicious that way! We managed to save most of our food from spoiling by putting it outside in the freezing cold temperatures. We also have ample supply of hot chocolate mix. Truthfully, when I initially made this mix, I wasn’t sure how quickly we might go through it. A week ago, we were hitting nearly 80℉ – who drinks hot chocolate when its that warm out? But here we are, warming ourselves from the inside out with lots of hot chocolate as we sit near the fireplace. As I look out the window, I see that snow has started coming down at a pretty good pace again. Honestly, I’m over it. But at least I know we can snuggle up together with mugs of hot chocolate in our hands.

Hot Chocolate Mix

Sarah Baade

This mix is very easy to make and will keep the whole family warm during those cold winter days.

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Course Drinks

Cuisine American

Servings 17 servings

Ingredients

1½ cups dry milk powder
1 cup powdered sugar
1½ cups cocoa powder
¼ cup powdered vanilla creamer
Optional toppings: marshmallows; whipped cream

Instructions

In a large bowl, stir together all ingredients until well combined.
Mix ¼ hot chocolate mix with 8oz hot water or milk. Stir until mix is fully dissolved. Add toppings as desired.
Store mix in an air-tight container.

Notes

If your cocoa powder has clumps, sift it into the bowl rather than just adding it in as is.

Keyword Chocolate, Hot Chocolate, Hot Chocolate Mix, Hot Cocoa, Hot Cocoa Mix

Wanting a treat to serve with this hot chocolate? I’ve got you covered. Check out my recipe for Fudgy Brownies. This is the perfect pairing for any chocolate lover.

GREEN MAGIC SMOOTHIE

March 14, 2020 by Sarah Baade 2 Comments

I go through fazes when it comes to sweets. At times, I can resist easily and am not at all bothered by watching others indulge in front of me. Then there are times when I am completely addicted. I go on big baking kicks and have “sharing” sized bags of candy hidden in my desk drawer at work. A month ago, I was on a huge sweets kick – HUGE. I was eating skittles by the handful, a few times per day. Not good, friends. This was not good. So, I made a commitment to give up sweets for Lent this year. Not only that, I added in daily exercise – a minimum of 10 minutes but striving for 30 each day. I’m nearly half way through my 40 days without sweets and am happily back to the point where I’m not excessively tempted. My body is also happy with the changes I’ve made. I’m feeling a bit more energetic and definitely feeling more capable of keeping up with my energetic toddler. I’m always a work in progress (aren’t we all?) but I’m thankful for the changes I’ve seen so far.

One of the perks of giving up sugary treats is that naturally sweet foods, such as fruit, taste more vibrant. Smoothies are a great example of this! You can keep on track with healthy eating habits while satisfying any lingering temptations for something sweet. I’ve been a big fan of green smoothies for a long time and finally decided to create my own. A blend of both fruits and vegetables with a lightly sweet flavor. We are loving this new smoothie recipe in our house. It is also a great way of getting extra servings of fresh produce into my daughter’s diet.

Green Magic Smoothie

A blend of both fruits and vegetables with a lightly sweet flavor.

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Course Drinks

Servings 2 Smoothies

Ingredients

4 cups fresh spinach
2 kiwi, peeled
1 frozen banana
1 cup frozen broccoli
1 cup frozen pineapple
1 cup frozen peaches
1 cup almond milk
1 tablespoon agave (optional for added sweetness)
2 teaspoons ground flax seed (optional)

Instructions

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend on high until smooth.

Notes

You can portion out the fruit and veggies ahead of time and place them in a bag in the freezer. When you’re ready to make your smoothie, empty the contents of the bag into your blender and add the almond milk

Keyword Green Magic Smoothie, Green Smoothie, Smoothie, Smoothie Recipe

Love this recipe? You might also enjoy this Pomegranate Blueberry Smoothie.

POMEGRANATE BLUEBERRY SMOOTHIE

November 24, 2018 by Sarah Baade 1 Comment

I went, I ate, and I ate some more. I swear I tried to take small portions so as to have room to try every side dish. I didn’t succeed. The problem (truly the ONLY problem) with spending Thanksgiving with friends who love to cook is that you can’t possibly eat as much as you would like to. Every single dish was delicious. I walked away with a happy heart, a full belly, and arms full of leftovers to take home. Now that our leftovers are dwindling, I need a break from the comfort food. Did I really just say that?!? I love those traditional holiday dishes but moderation is a must.

In order to give my body a day or two of recovery, I’m trying to keep things lighter and healthier. I’m also embracing pomegranate season for this delicious smoothie. Pomegranate has become one of my favorite smoothie ingredients. Part of the allure could be that fresh pomegranates are hard to come by through most of the year – you want what you can’t have. But I actually really do love the flavor and find that they add a natural sweetness without the tartness that some other fruits can bring to a smoothie.

Tips:

You can portion out the fruit and spinach ahead of time, place them in a bag in the freezer. When you’re ready to make your smoothie, empty the contents of the bag into your blender and add the almond milk, flax seed and chia seeds.
See video below for my method of removing seeds from pomegranate.

POMEGRANATE BLUEBERRY SMOOTHIE

Satisfy your sweet tooth with a healthy option.

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Servings 2 smoothies

Ingredients

seeds from 1 large pomegranate
1 frozen banana
2 cups frozen blueberries
2 cups spinach (loosely packed)
1 cup almond milk
1 Tablespoon ground flax seed (optional)
1 Tablespoon chia seeds (optional)

Instructions

Place all ingredients in a high-power blender and blend on high until smooth.

A FOOD LOVER’S TRAVEL GUIDE TO CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA

October 18, 2018 by Sarah Baade Leave a Comment

Earlier this month, my friend, Deya, and I spent a few days in Charleston, SC for a girls trip. It had been years since I had gone on a girls trip. Does a trip back to your home state even count as a girls trip?!? Years, it had been years!!! Not only was I overdue, I had a really stressful week leading up to our departure. This could not have been more perfect timing for me to get away. Deya had been dreaming about going to Charleston for a long time and was the one who got the ball rolling. We did our research, had a couple of planning sessions over coffee and ultimately planned the whole trip around food. Don’t get me wrong, we were excited to see some sites too but the itinerary was focused around local restaurants.

FRIDAY

We arrived in Charleston on Friday afternoon with time to relax and refresh from our flight. Our first culinary stop was at The Ordinary, a seafood hall and oyster bar. In a restaurant with a bar this beautiful, I think a cocktail is exactly the right way to start. I had the Raoul Duke and Deya had the Classic Daiquiri. Both rum based drinks, these cocktails were incredibly smooth and just slightly sweet. We ordered the ordinary Hawaiian rolls with sea salt butter as our appetizer. The salt on the butter, and the rolls added so much flavor! These rolls were also our introduction to benne seeds – a type of sesame seed that was brought over from western Africa by slaves in the early 1700’s. We quickly learned that these seeds are a local favorite and are incorporated into dishes at restaurants all over the city. Our second starter was the snapper ceviche with pedron pepper and avocado. When you’re at a seafood restaurant, you order seafood, right?! This dish was incredible fresh and light and served with huge tortilla chips. For our entrees, we shared the New England style fish chowder and the grilled New Orleans Style BBQ white shrimp. The chowder was creamy with huge chunks of fish – exactly what you want from a chowder. However, the shrimp dish is what really won us over. If you’ve never had New Orleans style BBQ you might be surprised to know that it is nothing like a typical red BBQ sauce. Instead, this divine sauce is made up of butter, Worcestershire sauce, tabasco sauce and rosemary. We at a lot of amazing things on this trip but this sauce is what we continued to talk about even after we got home. Friends, do yourself a favor and just order some extra sauce on the side – you’re going to want to dip some of those Hawaiian rolls into it!

The Ordinary, Charleston, SC

SATURDAY

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right? We knew we had a full day ahead of us so we wanted something hearty to get us going. We walked from our hotel to Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit on King Street. It is such a tiny little restaurant but it is cute as can be. They offer up a variety of biscuits (living up to the name) along with a couple of sandwich options and a handful of other options. At first glance you might think the menu is limited but let me tell you, when you’ve perfected what you make, there isn’t a need for a huge menu. Deya and I each had the bacon, egg and cheddar biscuit sandwich with a coffee. This sandwich was so thick I could barely get my hands around it, let alone my mouth. The biscuit itself was so rich and buttery!!! That butter is exactly where the love lies in this meal. If you stop in here, get there early. There was a line to the door when we arrived and not an hour later we saw the line curling out the door and down a couple of store fronts. Absolutely worth a little bit of a wait though.

Husk is one of those restaurants we had heard a lot about when we first started doing research for our trip. The best advice I can give here is to make reservations well in advance. Deya made our reservation at least a month ahead and we still were not able to get in for dinner. However, the lunch menu was great and lunch is always more affordable than dinner. Having had such a hearty breakfast, I kept it relatively small for lunch and just had the Charred broccoli with mushrooms, crispy onions, smoked cheddar and Alabama white sauce. I’m a sucker for broccoli anyway but this flavor was incredibly rich, like melt in your mouth comfort food. Deya started with the pickled shrimp dish and, of course, I sampled it as well. I didn’t even know pickled shrimp was a thing (I grew up in a land locked state) but it was absolutely delicious! She had the fried chicken with Carolina gold rice, bacon, cabbage and butterbeans as her entrée. I didn’t taste this one but Deya raved about the rice and bean mixture!

Saturday night dinner was truly a unique experience. Deya found Feast Upon Charleston through AirB&B Experiences. We ubered our way to Chef Christopher’s home and were greeted by his huge smile, smooth jazz, and a choice of rum or gin for a cocktail. The blackberry mule he made with rum was the perfect drink to sip on while getting to know the other soon to be friends attending this pop-up dinner. Once we sat down, Chef Christopher treated us to a four-course dinner. He changes up his menu regularly so I hesitate to spend too much time describing our meal but let’s just say those crab cakes could be famous one day. Not only can he cook, Chef Christopher was able to give us history lessons on both the food and the city of Charleston. What I loved most about this dinner experience, though, was getting to know people we otherwise wouldn’t have ever met. Chef Christopher’s food is delicious but his passion for creating community is what really shines through.

SUNDAY

I love rich, buttery food as much as the next person but at some point, you also need some fresh, lighter fare. Sunday morning, we hit up Butcher & Bee for brunch. Coffee, local beets and ricotta toast for me. Coffee, crispy sweet potatoes and the smoked salmon bagel for Deya. The flavor combinations made with such fresh ingredients – exactly what I needed! This is one of two restaurants on the list that I absolutely wish had a location in my hometown of San Antonio. Lots of vegetarian options in addition to classic options like a burger. Seriously though, go here for the freshness that they put together on their plates!

Our big splurge dinner was at Zero Restaurant + Bar. This place made us feel like we were on an episode of Chef’s Table. So much thought goes into each dish – colors, textures, plating, and of course flavor. This is the type of spot that is best experienced without the distraction of a phone. In other words, no photos for this one. If you’re looking for a romantic spot to celebrate a special event, make the reservation and enjoy every single bite.

MONDAY

If dessert for breakfast is wrong, I don’t want to be right. Sugar Bakeshop has got to be the cutest little bakery I have EVER seen! Jars upon jars of huge cookies plus cupcakes galore. It is absolutely best for my waistline that I don’t live near this shop. We shared all five of the mini cupcake flavors that they had available that day. Coconut, vanilla, honey, almond and caramel. If I could have, I would have tried every single dessert but I needed to save room for one last lunch in the city.

Our last meal was at Basic Kitchen. This restaurant has natural light flooding in from all sides which automatically has you feeling refreshed. Using seasonal and local produce, they strive to fuel your body with food that will keep you going throughout the day. Once again, great vegetarian options abound here. I had the basic bowl which was full of veggies and chickpeas; Deya had the power bowl which was packed with protein from steak, eggs and quinoa. These dishes were so good we didn’t even bother sharing with one another. I also need to take a moment to mention Kellie, the general manager. She took genuine interest in our experience and was more than happy to answer questions we had about the food and the restaurant.

RESTAURANTS

The Ordinary

Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit

Husk

Feast Upon Charleston

Butcher & Bee

Zero Restaurant & Bar

Basic Kitchen

A Food Lover's Travel Guide To Charleston, SC - Slice Of Honey Blog

SIGHTSEEING

Farmers Market

Waterfront Park

Rainbow Row

Charleston City Market

King Street

A Food Lover’s Travel Guide To Charleston, SC – Slice Of Honey Blog

SNACKS

Sugar Bakeshop

Byrd’s Famous Cookies

Jeni’s Ice Cream Shop

COFFEE & COCKTAILS

Revelator Coffee Company

Strawberry Float

July 1, 2018 by Sarah Baade Leave a Comment

Happy Independence Day!!! I have celebrated this holiday from all over the country – Kansas, Texas, Colorado, Alabama… I’ve watched fireworks lakeside, mountainside and from my own driveway. However, my favorite memories of this holiday are from my grandparents’ backyard. As a kid, we would drive down from Kansas to Texas to visit my grandparents. They would have what seemed like an endless supply of sparklers and popper for us to light up after it got dark. All of us kids would line up out in the yard, a few feet in front of Grandpa’s giant vegetable garden, and write our names in the night sky with the sparklers. Aside from summer camp, this has got to be one of my all-time favorite summer memories.

This year, I’m keeping the holiday low-key. My little one is too little to play with sparklers and I won’t be staying up late since I’ll need to be at work the next day. But I still want a festive treat. Making the ice cream ahead of time means all I have to do is scoop and pour some soda for this one. I opted for fresh strawberries since they are readily available this time of year. And in the continued effort to keep things simple, this is a no-churn ice cream. You’re welcome!

Tips:

Make sure the strawberry syrup has completely cooled before you add it to the cream mixture.
The homemade syrup is really delicious – it would also be fantastic poured over any vanilla ice cream for a sundae.

Strawberry Float

¼ cup sugar

¼ cup balsamic vinegar

16oz fresh strawberries, de-stemmed and finely chopped

16oz heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

14oz sweetened condensed milk

Strawberry soda (I used a passion fruit & strawberry Italian soda)

Directions:

Place sugar, balsamic vinegar and half of the strawberries in a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring frequently. Reduce heat to low and simmer until liquid has reduced by half. Set aside to let cool.

In a large, cold bowl, beat heavy cream until soft peaks form. Stir in vanilla, sweetened condensed milk, cooled syrup and remaining fresh strawberries. Pour ice cream into a 9×5 loaf pan. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for a minimum of 6 hours, preferably overnight.

Place 2 scoops of the strawberry ice cream into a glass. Fill glass with strawberry soda until ice cream is covered and starts to foam. Serve with a straw or spoon.

Flight of Mocktails

May 12, 2018 by Sarah Baade 1 Comment

I’ve reached an interesting stage of life where friends are not consuming alcohol like we used to. The reasons seem to vary greatly – pregnancy, health issues, recovering alcoholic. Regardless of the reason though, let’s just admit that we would all be a bit healthier if we went for a mocktail rather than some booze. When I was pregnant, I would ask bartenders to create a mocktail for me when I was out to dinner with friends. Maybe it was pregnancy brain getting the best of me but it never really occurred to me to create some mocktails of my own at home. Now that I’ve made a few I’m actually inspired to make and drink more of them!

The inspiration on this flight of mocktails was really to create drinks comparable to cocktails I would normally order myself at a bar or restaurant. I enjoyed all four drinks listed here but the first two are my favorite. These could be so fun to serve at a baby shower or even just a booze-free brunch with friends!

Tips:

If added sweetness is desired for the Pink Lemon Drop, serve in a sugar rimmed martini glass.
You can buy or make your own simple syrup. To make your own, add ½ cup sugar and ½ cup water to a saucepan over medium heat. Stir until sugar is completely dissolved. Let cool completely before adding to your mocktail.

Flight of Mocktails

Sober Sangria – makes 4 drinks

1 orange, sliced

1 apple, sliced

1 lemon, sliced

1 peach, sliced (in winter, you can sub the peach out for 1 cup pomegranate seeds)

1 cinnamon stick

1 ½ cups pomegranate juice

juice of 1 lime

1 cup cranberry juice

Place all fruit and the cinnamon stick in a pitcher. Pour in pomegranate juice, lime juice and cranberry juice. Stir all ingredients and refrigerate a minimum of 4-8 hours in order to allow flavors to blend and drink to chill. Can be served over ice if desired.

Pink Lemon Drop Mocktini – makes 1 drink

¼ cup cranberry juice, chilled

½ cup Italian lemon soda, chilled

2 fresh ginger slices

1 small sprig rosemary

Optional garnish – 1 lemon slice

Pour juice and soda into a martini glass. Place ginger slices on a toothpick then place in drink. Add rosemary and lemon slice.

Mock-Mojito – makes 1 drink

2 tablespoons simple syrup

Juice of 1 lime

1 sprig fresh mint

¾ cup Topo Chico (or plain carbonated water of choice)

Crushed ice

In a 10oz glass, stir together simple syrup, lime juice, Topo Chico and mint. Add crushed ice until glass is full. Garnish with more mint if desired.

Berry Sunrise – makes 1 drink

1 handful blueberries (or opt for blackberries, raspberries or sliced strawberries)

½ cup grapefruit juice

½ cup sprite

Crushed ice

Muddle berries in the bottom of a 10oz glass. Stir in grapefruit juice and sprite. Add crushed ice until glass is full.