Making Iced Tea

Source

I know this is what they say but what I do is make ICED TEA.

I love iced tea. I make a gallon of iced tea every other day!

The best part is ... I make it in my coffee pot.

First, I put 3 tea bags into the coffee pot. (I use Tetley British Blend tea bags)

Then I fill the coffee pot all the way with water and press start.

Then I go to my garden. I grab mint and lemon balm. {Both pictured below}

 This is my glorious mint plant. I love having easy access to mint throughout the summer. I do need to figure out how to keep this going through the tough Chicago winters.

 This is my new and finally sprouting lemon balm plant. I don't really know many other uses for it than putting it in iced tea. I also want to bring this indoors during the winter.

I grab about three sprigs from each plant.{I also picked some ripe cherry tomatoes while I was outside}

I throw the sprigs of mint and lemon balm into a pitcher with 1 1/3 cups of sugar. {I used to use 2 cups of sugar so this is at least a little bit better} 

   

Fill the pitcher entirely with ice. {I just put the ice on top of the sugar and herbs.}

Once the tea is done brewing in the coffee pot, pour the hot tea over the ice and the herbs and the sugar. 

 

Stir, Stir, Stir. {To get the sugar dissolved}

Put the pitcher in the fridge until it gets really nice and cold.

Then pour yourself a big glass and enjoy. With or without the lemons!

Chicken Bam {Recipe}

Dan is an amazing cook! He can have a few ingredients and make a gourmet type meal for the entire family. I, on the other hand, need a recipe of some sort in order to make something.

This is Dan's recipe. He calls it Chicken Bam. It is light and delicious. A perfect summer time meal.
{Sorry the photos are not great ... I took them with my IPhone 3G}

You will need ...
* a box of Fettuccine noodles
* 3 Roma tomatoes
* 1/2 a red onion (diced)
* 1/2 of a red pepper, orange pepper, and yellow pepper.
* 1/2 a stick of butter
* 1 tbsp of minced garlic
* 1 small can of sliced mushrooms
* Juice of 1 lemon
* 1 pound of chicken tenderloins
* salt and black pepper
* 3 tbsp olive oil
* 1/4 cup of water

First, you will need to slice the peppers. I sliced the entire pepper for each color and placed the half not needed into a baggie to use for my Pepper Steak recipe. {I will be making it later this week!}

Also slice the tomatoes the same way as the peppers and dice the red onion.

Throw all the ingredients into a skillet except for the fettuccine noodles.  Allow everything to cook down and the chicken to cook thoroughly.

While this is all cooking, get a large pot of water and bring it to a boil to cook the noodles. 

Once the chicken has been cooked. Take the chicken out of the skillet and let it rest while the pasta is cooking. Take the skillet off of the heat.

Once the chicken has rested for a few minutes. Cut up the chicken into bite size pieces and place the chicken back into the pan.

After the noodles have been cooked and drained pour the chicken mixture over the hot noodles.

That's it ... all done!

You can top the pasta with parmesan cheese.

If you do make this ... let me know what you think.

Enjoy!