The “Recipe”

Are you looking for a new or different drink to serve at your Christmas open house or New Year's Eve party? In the "spirit" of the holiday, let me pass along a tasty option that some friends shared with me over twenty years ago. (Shout out to the Schafers and a nod to "The Waltons" for the name!)  It's become a tradition in our house - perhaps it will in your house too!

This tasty drink can be served formally in a festive punch bowl or doled out one drink at a time straight from your freezer and fridge. (Sweet and smooth, it packs more of a "punch" than you would expect, so warn your guests to be cautious if you serve it using the never-ending punch bowl approach.)

Enjoy! Happy holidays to you and yours!


The “Recipe”: A Sheffield Family Holiday Tradition

Ingredients:

4 teabags
7 cups water (divided)
1 large can frozen lemonade – thawed in refrigerator
1 large can frozen orange juice – thawed in refrigerator
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups Amaretto (you can use the cheap stuff for this)

Additional items:

Two-liter bottles of Sprite or 7-UP

Four 32-oz plastic cups (like the kind that extra-large drinks come in at fast food restaurants) or similar sized containers for freezing the mixture

Directions:

Begin by boiling 2 cups of the water and steeping the 4 teabags for 10 minutes. Remove teabags.

In a very large bowl, mix the hot tea with the thawed lemonade, orange juice, and sugar. Add the Amaretto and the remaining 5 cups of water. Mix thoroughly.

Divide this mixture by pouring equally into the four large cups. Cover the top of each cup with plastic wrap and then aluminum foil. Freeze the cups for at least 12 hours.

To serve:

By the glass:
Use an ice cream scoop to place one scoop of the frozen mixture into a large glass. Top with Sprite/7-UP and stir.

As punch:
Run warm water over the sides of one plastic cup to slightly thaw and loosen the frozen mixture enough that it will slip out into a large punch bowl. Mash or chop with a large spoon or whisk. Cover with a full 2-liter bottle of Sprite

Sugar Scrub - A Quick Handmade Gift Idea

Pinterest is an addiction. A time suck. A wonderful world of recipes and craft ideas that you'll never have time to complete. I wrote about it on my blog as an obsession in July.

One of the recurring ideas I had seen there over the past few months is homemade sugar scrub. If you don't know, sugar scrubs are scented exfoliants that typically sell in small jars for anywhere between $12 and $30 (and up).  There were so many versions of this gift idea floating around on Pinterest that I began to collect them all, sorting through the different versions to come up with a combination I could call my own and give as gifts to my female coworkers and friends.  (I don't want to be sexist here - just because my recipients were all gals doesn't mean that the men in your life might not want to receive this too!)

I finally got around to making this over the weekend and was really surprised at how nicely everything turned out. The fact that the house smelled like peppermint on Saturday was just an added bonus! Since everyone who has received a jar so far has seemed pleased, I thought I might share my version of this idea with you.

Note:  I actually ordered my supplies online, but I think you could probably find everything locally with some effort.

Dodie's All Natural Peppermint Sugar Scrub

Ingredients:

• 3 parts sugar
• 1 part sweet almond oil (can sometimes find at Walmart, but is always available online)
• Peppermint essential oil (not extract [for cooking] - the aromatherapy kind)

Directions:

1. Mix the sweet almond oil and sugar thoroughly using a whisk.
2. Add several drops of peppermint oil to the level of scent of your preference and stir well. (I used about 10 drops per 1 cup of sugar.)
3. Use a funnel to place in clean mason jars with tightly sealing lids (preferably the plastic "storage lids" that are sold separately from the jars).

Notes:

I used 6 cups of sugar, 2 cups of sweet almond oil, and about 60 drops of peppermint oil, which made enough to fill 12 4-ounce small quilted jelly jars.



Packaging:

I designed and printed front and lid labels using Avery oval labels:

Notice the "don't sue me if you slip in the shower" disclaimer I added to the directions!

The end result:

I had some unused treat bags in a drawer from last year's after Christmas sales and found some pink ribbon in my wrapping stash, all of which I think ended up as a cute, but simple, presentation:

Other ideas:

The sweet almond oil seemed to be preferred in most of the iterations of this idea that I read because it's typically used as a skin moisturizer, is all natural, and doesn't have a scent. Some of the recipes used olive oil, but I think that might be too heavy. One even used canola oil, but I had some of that in my kitchen and didn't like the smell.

If you don't like the natural color, I suppose you could add a drop of liquid food coloring to the mixture, but one of the reasons I liked this gift idea was that it is all natural. I'm not sure I'd want to tamper with that.

Now that I think about it, you could also use any combination of essential oils that you like. I think that some sort of citrus combination would be wonderful in the summer. Maybe a lavender/rosemary mixture for its calming properties? The possibilities are endless once you master this simple technique!

Isn't creativity fun?!