Drinks I Made

Cheers to a Refreshing New Year!

January 9, 2016 // Posted in Drinks, Drinks I Made, Gallery, Photo Journal, Recipes

January 9, 2016 | Posted in [post_category]

Happy New Year to all of you! My last activity around these parts was more than a month ago & the only explanation is that I was pulled into a blackhole called Netflix, sucking up all of my free time. Blog or watch the next episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.? Just one more…episode…curse you, poor self-control!!! I’m not going to make a New Year’s Resolution list because I always break them & forget them, so I’ll just actively try to control my Netflix binging habits & place myself in a type of productivity rehab. Let’s begin with the first step towards a fresh start: a juice with detoxing properties. I’m not a medical professional (yet) nor am I a nutritionist, so I highly encourage you to use some common sense & do your own research. I’m just some person with a blog, so…yeah, don’t cite me, bro. I call this juice the Sweet Beet Zinger & it’s a great first drink in the morning after a night of partying too hard. But if you partied too hard, get yourself some water to rehydrate & a great meal packed with protein, amino acids, & vitamins.

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St. Patrick’s Day Recipes: Matcha All Day, Every Day

March 15, 2015 // Posted in Breakfast, Desserts, Drinks, Drinks I Made, Food I Made, Photo Journal, Recipes

March 15, 2015 | Posted in [post_category]

In my previous post, I mentioned my distaste for purposefully dyed green items for the sake of St. Patrick’s Day. Just as I did last year with naturally vibrant & green vegetables, I present to you some recipes that are green because of their ingredients rather than glowing green because you walked down the “baking” aisle to grab dye. No dyed green beer here, folks, just deliciously healthy green recipes featuring, you guessed it from the title, matcha!

Never heard of it before? Let’s get y’all educated then! Matcha is a type of green tea from Japan & is one of the healthiest teas you can consume because you’re drinking the entire tea leaf. It was first made in China & brought over to Japan by a Chinese Buddhist monk named Eisai. After a hundred years of its introduction, matcha tea ceremonies became a pretty big deal in Japan. So, how is it made? After the tea leaf is plucked, the leaves are steamed & dried. It is sorted meticulously to yield all the best parts of the tea leaf called tencha. The tencha is then pulverized–with care of course–to become matcha, an ultra-fine powdered green tea, naturally green! So, instead of dying your cookies, pasta, or eggs green with propylene glycol, FD&C Yellow 5, FD&C Blue 1, & propylparaben, just add a little bit of matcha, baby!

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Tea Time Thursdays: Pumpkin Edition

October 30, 2014 // Posted in Desserts, Drinks I Made, Food I Made, Photo Journal, Recipes, Tea Time Thursdays

October 30, 2014 | Posted in [post_category]

Just in time for Halloween, Tea Time Thursdays gets an added layer of sweetness in the form of pumpkin chocolatey goodness. Guess where this inspiration came from? Pinterest. I have this love/hate relationship with Pinterest – the photos I pin from my own website barely get any pins, but when more popular pinners pin my photo, well, my site gets a flurry of views, but no new followers. I’m going to break this 1k follower barrier somewhere eventually! I’m looking at you, Instagram.

As I’ve mentioned previously, more pumpkin delights will be shoved in your eyeballs. Forgive my inappropriate coffee mug – I stupidly left my teacups at home, but they’ll be back in Boston with me in January. So, let’s dive right into pumpkin goodness.

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How to Trick Your Tastebuds Into Thinking You’re on a Tropical Holiday

August 25, 2014 // Posted in Desserts, Drinks, Drinks I Made, Food I Made, Photo Journal, Recipes

August 25, 2014 | Posted in [post_category]

My mother has a stellar memory bank for numbers & fun stories, so she’d often tell us her hilarious childhood stories as she drove us to school. However, not all the stories she told were her own; many of them were ours. One childhood story my mom frequently told was how I used to sing lullabies to my baby brother, but with silly lyrics that were reflective of my language acquisition at that age such as phrases on mowing the grass. A story my mom still loves to tell is how Toddler Tiffany used to absolutely love squatting down in the snow, grabbing a handful of it, & just eating it like it were a doughnut. I may have been born in the spring, but I swear my ethos/spirit animal is a beluga whale. Sad news for Adult Tiffany: there’s no snow in Southern California for me to eat. Adult Tiffany prefers winter over summer. Adult Tiffany thinks speaking in third person is really lame, but for some reason, is still doing it.

So, what about all of those summer recipes you keep posting then, you ask? Listen, you can’t fault me for capitalizing on the season, its fresh fruits, & great recipe inspirations that come with it. Just because I’m bad with heat, doesn’t mean I don’t love the recipes of the season! Now that I’m back from my holiday, I’m posting two new recipes. Since California is experiencing the worst drought in the history of recorded droughts, it’s not exactly wise for us to be participating in the Ice Bucket Challenge to raise awareness for ALS, however you can still do something to help spread the word & donate to the cause. You can dump pool water on yourself while you’re in a pool or ice water while you’re standing over an area of your garden that needs watering. What else can you do? Well, shoot, just make some ice pops or an iced tea, social media that thing, & head on over to ALSA.org to donate! No offense to the guy who came up with the challenge, but I’d rather do something useful with ice than to let it go to waste. Tired of ice pops & iced tea recipes, you say? How about sangria with boba instead?

With my love for boba & Two Buck Chuck, why not combine the two with some fresh fruit & juice for a delicious original concoction for your next Sunday Brunch? So, how do you trick your tastebuds into thinking you’re on a tropical holiday you ask? Well, follow the simple steps below. (Remember to hover over the images for captions.)

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Boba Loca & Adventures

August 13, 2014 // Posted in Drinks, Drinks I Made, Gallery, Photo Journal, Recipes, Travel

August 13, 2014 | Posted in [post_category]

Last year, my former roommates & I took many trips down Sawtelle to get our boba fix, which often took up more time than we’d anticipate thanks to the magnificent beast that is LA traffic. I’d search the local Japanese grocery store for tapioca pearls to make boba in the comforts of our own apartment, but never found any. Since I’ve moved back to Orange County, I’ve finally found boba at a Japanese grocery store not too far from my home. So, now that my pantry is armed with a large bag of tapioca pearls, I’m posting two new boba recipes for you to be inspired to try new flavors or create your own boba at home. Tapioca pearls are surprisingly cheap as a pound of it will hover just under $5—which is generally how much a boba drink costs anyway—& you can make any type of tea you’ve got in your cupboard with some freshly brewed boba! Here’s hoping you’ll love these two new recipes & a bunch of pictures from Joshua Tree & Long Beach.