Every year around the holidays our family makes frozen whiskey sours.  The recipe is written on an old 3×5 card, smudged, folded, with bent corners.  The jars used to freeze the mix are old peanut butter jars – at least 25 years old – with wide mouths, sealed with wax paper under the lids.  These two elements are family standards – if the jars and the recipe card aren’t there, then the recipe simply can’t be made.

I’ve never understood why we make this recipe during the holidays when it’s cold, but it’s one of those family things that just “is”.  Well this year, I’m changing it up.  It’s hot here in Atlanta; really hot.  The heat index has been over 100 every day.  And I decided that there was no better time for frozen whiskey sours than a steamingly hot Atlanta summer day.

So without further ado .. here is this deceptively simple, amazingly yummy summer drink.

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This showed up over the weekend and before I even opened it, I was in love with it.  First of all, I love tins – of any kind – and this one is a gorgeous deep copper color and octagonal as well!  Then I opened the tin and the smell of spice and cinnamon was immediate and intense … filling the room.  Yum!

Of course it didn’t matter that it was 95 degrees out, I had to make a cup of tea right then. So very very good.  It’s naturally sweet, and spicy enough to tingle just a little bit as you sip along.  I’m toying with the idea of making this as an iced tea – we’ll see how that goes.

From a being healthy perspective, tea – both green and black teas – contain antioxidants and tannins that are good for you; the same types of tannins that are found in red wines that are beneficial to heart health.  Also, believe it or not, tea contains small amounts of fluoride, which helps keep teeth and bones healthy and has been shown to help prevent osteoporosis.  And, of course, if you’re restricting your eating to try to lose weight, a cup of tea in the afternoon, especially a spicy/sweet blend like this, can take the edge of off hunger or a craving, and help you manage your appetite and avoid a snack attack!

So this tin has been relocated to my office for afternoon pick-me-ups and I’ll be ordering another one to keep at home.  After that, I can buy bags of the sachets to refill the tins with at a slightly lower price. The tin above is the Harney & Sons Hot Cinnamon Spice Tea 30 Sachet Tin and runs $10.95 plus shipping.  There’s also a smaller 20 count tin, as well.

For the month of July you can use the coupon code SUMMER12 and get 12% off.

<em>This post is not a sponsored post, I have not been paid or compensated to post it, and Harney & Sons have no idea who I am.  I just really really really like this tea and wanted to blog about it. </em>

[ rave! hot cinnamon spice tea is a post from kara cooks. If you are reading it anywhere but in a feed reader, it has been scraped without my permission. The use of this feed or any kara cooks content on any other website is a violation of copyright. ]

See, I told you!

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I have had different variations of the bloody mary in various cities, and even had the Tex-Mex version, the bloody maria, made with tequila instead of vodka. But my favorite remains the basic and simple version with tomato juice, vodka, and some seasoning.

A few weeks ago I had some vodka left over from making vanilla and so I decided to experiment and try infusing my own hot pepper vodka. I filled a quart canning jar with vodka and added the last 3 hot chili peppers, split down the middle. I love the way the vodka has taken on a pale green hue from the peppers. And just for the record, you could definitely taste the peppers and additional spiciness in the final drink!

To a shot of that, I added some homemade hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and of course tomato juice to top off the glass.

Garnish with celery salt and a pickled string bean.

And …. voila! … a yummy (and marginally nutritious) bloody mary.

[ bloody mary is a post from kara cooks. If you are reading it anywhere but in a feed reader, it has been scraped without my permission. The use of this feed or any kara cooks content on any other website is a violation of copyright. ]