Earl Grey Tea Cake with Lemon and Honey

This is in my to do list for today.  I love Earl Grey tea and my dream is to work/run my own tea shop. 

Check out the credits at the end.

Earl Grey Tea Cake worth lemon and honey

Ingredients

½ cup (120 ml) milk
4 Alokozay Earl Grey teabags (I used Tazo)
½ cup (113 g) butter, melted and cooled
2 tablespoons (45 g) honey
¾ cup (150 g) sugar
2 eggs
1½ cup (190 g) all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
zest of 1 lemon

Syrup:
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon honey
¼ cup hot water
3 tablespoons lemon juice

Instructions
Heat the milk in a small saucepan, and then steep 2 Alokozay Earl Grey teabags in the hot milk for half an hour.
Preheat oven to 325 F. Grease or line a 9x5 loaf pan.
If your honey is semi-solid melt together with the butter. Using an electric mixer beat together butter, honey and sugar. Add eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition.
Add flour, salt, and baking powder and mix until combined.
Remove the teabags from the milk making sure to squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Add infused milk, lemon zest and tea powder from 2 bags and mix until well incorporated.
Fill batter into prepared pan and bake for about 1 hour until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
For a nice, clean split in the loaf make a cut into the batter after about 10 minutes of baking time. If the top is browning too quickly, cover with aluminum foil towards the end of baking time.
Combine all ingredients for the syrup and set aside. Let the loaf cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and place on a wire rack. Poke holes into the top and brush syrup on while still warm. Store any leftover syrup in a glass jar in the fridge. A couple teaspoons of syrup make a great addition to a cup of brewed tea.

http://leelalicious.com/earl-grey-tea-cake/

Cold/cough remedy

I thought I'd take the lemons (major head cold) life handed me and use them in my favor!

Home cold/cough remedy
Hot water
Lemon
Honey

A cup of hot water a tablespoon of honey and a squeeze of a lemon. Whiskey helps at bed time, but don't take with cold medications!

Other things that you can add are:
Cinnamon
Ginger root (shaved or chopped)
Apple cider vinegar

We aren't doctors here! Just sharing with you what has worked for me. Sadly, I don't have a lemon or ginger root in the house! So I have chamomile tea with honey in my mug now.

Hope you have a great weekend and I will see you Monday!

Cough remedy

Sounds horrible, may taste horrible, but it does help! You can also just eat a tablespoon of honey 1-3 times a day. Do not give raw honey to children under 2, could cause botulism!

I don't know about your area, but ours is full of flu, colds, coughs, and sinus issues.

Hope you are staying well and don't need this recipe!

Black Pepper and Honey

-1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper -1 tablespoon of honey
-8 ounces of fresh water

Directions

Place the pepper and honey in a mug and then cover with boiling water. Give it stir to disperse the pepper flakes and melt in the honey. Steep for 10 minutes, stir once more, and drink in its entirety. Repeat 1-2 times a day as needed to loosen mucous.

Hot Toddy

With everyone being sick in our house it made me think of this. I generally leave out the whiskey unless right before bed and DO NOT USE IF GIVING TO CHILDREN UNDER 21 (or whatever your legal drinking age is)! I have used bottled lemon juice and it helped, just was strong. I know I rarely have lemons in my fridge unless it's summer time.

Lemon and honey both have properties to kill bacteria and soothe, the whiskey will help you sleep, which in its self is a great way to heal!

Hot Toddy

You will need…
-2 oz. bourbon or whiskey (optional, not recommended) - I prefer Jack Daniels ;)
-1 tablespoon of honey, or more to taste -4 ounces hot water
-1 teaspoon lemon juice
-1 slice fresh lemon (optional)

Directions
If you’re using it, pour the alcohol into a large mug. Add the honey, and leave the spoon in the mug. Pour the hot water into the mug, making sure it gets the last bit of honey off the spoon (remove spoon). Add the lemon juice and stir well. Place the mug in the microwave and heat until its nice and hot, but not boiling (about 1 minute.) Add the lemon slice, and enjoy.

If you are ill like we have been I hope you healing quickly. I think I may head back to bed as soon as the kids are on the bus.

Honey Pork Chops

I based this roughly off of Saucy's Caramelized Garlic Chicken recipe.
We wanted to get one more grill in before the snow comes (Monday).

Grilled Honey Pork Chops
5-10 pork loin chops
Honey
Soy sauce
Garlic (whole garlic head)

Measurments will depend on how many chops you have. I did 10 chops, 1 1/2 cups honey, 1 cup soy sauce and the whole garlic head, cut in slices or chunks.

Place ingredients in a ziploc baggie and let marinate for 2-4 hours (longer the better). Throw them on the grill or under the broiler until the juices run clear.

The house smells yummy, your hands smell like garlic and your belly will be full!

Pineapple Whip

Happy Thursday all, hope you making it through ok :).  Ugh Thank the heavens that tomorrow is Friday.  So this is a snack recipe.  Maybe not the best for this time of the year, but when crazy hits and you have responsibilities, you do the best you can.  So I am sharing this awesome dessert.  It doesn't get any easier than this either.  Look they want fresh pineapple and believe me it's amazingly good BUT time saver just as wonderful flavors comes with the frozen pineapple!  My grandchildren couldn't get enough of this.  Oh who am I kidding, neither could I!  I hope you enjoy!

Pineapple Whip

makes 4-6 servings

Adapted from ice-cream-freaks.com by the Detoxinista

Ingredients:

1 fresh pineapple, peeled, cored and chopped
1 cup almond milk, or non-dairy milk of choice
1 tablespoon honey (optional, for authentic sweetness)

Directions:

First off, you’ll want to freeze the pineapple chunks. I chopped mine a day ahead of time, and froze the chunks overnight. You could also purchase frozen pineapple, if you prefer.

This recipe works best in a high-speed blender, like the Vitamix, because you’ll need to be able to pulverize the pineapple into an ice-cream-like consistency. A normal blender will most likely not work, but a food processor might.

Combine the frozen pineapple with the almond milk and honey, then blend until a frozen sorbet texture is achieved. For an authentic Dole Whip presentation, transfer the frozen dessert to a large plastic bag, and cut off the tip to create a piping bag. Pipe the pineapple whip into 4-6 dishes, and serve immediately!

Enjoy!
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Honey-Molasses Chicken Drumsticks

Hellooooo!  My Asylum isn't organized enough for me to know if I used this recipe already or not, but I do know that it's good enough to repeat so I'm not going to worry about it.  I made it last night, love it everytime.  I use my electric skillet and it cooks the sauce down perfectly.  I found it in Cooking Light back in 2005.  Another thing to love about this one is that it can feed a group for pretty cheap.  It's all about the chicken legs!

Honey-Molasses Chicken Drumsticks

1 Tablespoon brown sugar

2 Tablespoons water

2 Tablespoons honey

2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 Tablespoon molasses

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon olive oil

6 chicken drumsticks, skinned

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Combine first 7 ingredients, stirring with a whisk.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper.  Add chicken to pan, browning on all sides.  Add honey mixture to pan, turning chicken to coat.  Reduce heat to medium-low.  Cover and cook 15 minutes or until chicken is done, turning chicken every 5 minutes.  Uncover and cook an additional 1 minute or until mixture is thick and a mahogany color, and chicken is well coated.  Remove from heat; cool 15 minutes.  Cover and chill.

Serves 6, 1 drum stick each

Be sure to have plenty of napkins available!

Happy Tuesday!

I hope everyone's week is going well.  This time of the year always seems to start the crazy times!  People are talking about holidays, I have 6 birthdays to celebrate this month!  Wow!  Ok, I'm sharing some more of my craziness, or so the Asylum affiliates would say and offering up a light dessert from Clean Eating! I enjoy the Clean Eating magazines and cookbooks but sometimes some of the ingredients are hard to come by.  This particular one calls for Cardamom, not something normally found in this girls cabinet.  So when making these I just didn't use it.  Pretty simple LOL.  You can't or won't always just run out for one spice, especially one you probably won't be using again any time soon lol!  Ok that being said.  There is something else you should know......you have to like dates!  I know, I know but please give them a chance.  It's worth it I promise!  And who knows if you use the Cardamom it might be even more amazing! ;-).  Good luck, have a great week!

Stuffed Dates

with Ricotta, Pistachios and Honey

Serves 4.  Hands-on time 10 minutes.

Total time 10 minutes.

1/4 Cup part-skim ricotta cheese

1 teaspoon raw honey

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom, plus additional for garnish

2 Tablespoons ground raw unsalted pistachios. (Tip:  Whirl whole nuts in clean coffee grinder)

12 medium deglet nour dates (I used the dates I was able to find the medjool I believe)

12 raw unsalted shelled pistachios or blanched almonds for garnish, optional

1.  In a small bowl, stir ricotta and honey until well combined.  Stir in cardamom and ground pistachios.

2.  Wish a sharp knife, cut a length wise slit on 1 side of each date.  Remove pits.  Using a small spoon, stuff each date with 1 teaspoon ricotta mixture.  Press 1 pistachio on top of each date.  Arrange on a serving platter and, if desired, garnish with additional cardamom.  Serve at room temperature. 

Option:  For a firmer, more flavorful filling, chill stuffed dates for 1 hour before serving.

Then stuff your face!  (Oh yeah that was all me ;-)!)

Greek yogurt upgrade

Here is a quick recipe I wanted to share! My kids love it!  I am being quick today as we are off to do some touring of our beautiful Black Hills!

Greek yogurt upgrade

1 container of vanilla Greek yogurt

1-2 TBSP peanut butter

White or chocolate chips to taste

Drizzle of honey

Mix all ingredients together and enjoy!

This makes a great after school snack or when you are craving ice cream or cookie dough!