My Cooking Spot

When Girl Meets Kitchen

Genuine Authentic Homemade Chai Tea

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I am at it again. I am notorious for finding a food, beverage, or snack that I love, but then I read the ingredients and its all over.  When I want to indulge in something tasty I want it to have real ingredients.
Why does the FDA add natural flavors, high fructose corn syrup, and artificial colors to so many of our foods?… thats for another post, but for now, sip on this authentic Indian chai tea.
This is nothing like the sugary, super spicy, or the ones that don’t even taste like chai. This is the r.e.a.l deal.
This tasty organic//gluten free// authentic chai tea comes from real herbs and spices that will make you slip out of your shoes and snuggle up to a good book and probably finish the whole batch (at least I did) ~Enjoy!
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Genuine Authentic Homemade Chai

Ingredients

  • 5 cups of water
  • 2'' inch of sliced ginger
  • 10 cardamom pods smashed
  • 8 whole black peppercorns
  • 6 cloves
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons fennel seed
  • 2 star anise
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1 slice of an orange
  • 9 earl grey tea bags (I use Paromi coconut almond black tea)
  • 1 cup almond milk
  • 1/2 cup milk (could substitute another nut milk to make completely dairy free)
  • 1/4 cup organic unrefined brown sugar cubes
  • 2 Tablespoons of honey

Instructions

  1. Place the cardamom in a mortar and pestle and give it a good smash to break the pods open
  2. Place all the spices into a mesh bag or wrap up in cheese cloth
  3. Bring the water with the mesh bag of spices to a boil// let boil for about 10 min
  4. Add the orange slice, tea bags, sugar, honey and milk to the pot and bring back to a boil, then turn the heat off and let sit for 5 min.
  5. Ladle into a cup, sip slowly and enjoy.
http://mycookingspot.com/genuine-authentic-homemade-chai-tea/

 

Easy Restaurant Style Salsa

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Spring and summer is here and my favorite thing is chips and salsa. I really think that I have an addiction.  I love eating it all summer long. This recipe is so good, and crazy easy to make. I made it with canned tomatoes, but if I could, I would use home grown tomatoes.

I wish I grew my own tomatoes, because there is nothing like the taste of fresh out-of-the-garden tomatoes. For real! Mmmm, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

But, since I don’t have fresh, I just used canned, and this salsa was totally delicious. You can make a ton of it, and as long as it is refrigerated, it should last up to two weeks.

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Gluten-Free Blueberry Rhubarb Crumble

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“The time has come,” the Walrus said, “To talk of many things:
Of shoes–and ships–and sealing-wax–
how rhubarb is the King…”
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Okay, so maybe that is not exactly what Lewis Caroll said in Alice in Wonderland but I am sure if he had to do it over, he would, especially if he had a bite of this scrumptious Gluten Free Blueberry Rhubarb Crumble.  There is something magical about Rhubarb time.  Perhaps what makes it special is that it is so fleeting.  Now you see it, now you eat it, now you wait until next year, gosh darn it!

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My childhood is full of rhubarb tales.  Memories rush in any time I take a bite, standing on a wooden stool, watching my mom carefully stir the pot of bubbling strawberry and rhubarb, its thick aroma filling the house with excitement as we waited to spoon it over ice cream.  Coming home from working on the ranch in my teens, I would step off the plane tanned by the sun, with my arms full of rhubarb stalks; I would hold them tight and present them like they were a bouquet, greeting my mom with their bright tart magnificence.  Then when I was older, I would take a jar of precious rhubarb preserves to college each fall.  When I was homesick and feeling low, I would pop open the seal to spread some “home” on a thick slab of sourdough toast, feeling much better about the world and my place in it.  Oh yes, rhubarb and I go way back.

Here is a quick, simple dish to start your own love affair with this tart little stalk.  Normally, I do strawberry to make it a little sweeter but I am in love with embracing its acerbity with blueberries, trust me it’s divine.  Make it now before the rhubarb time is gone!

 

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