Summer Drinks.

Summer is always about bevos on ice.  And life these days is often a precarious balance of when to switch from a caffeinated beverage to an alcoholic one.  Kidding.  Kidding!!  I only drink alcohol on the weekends, and even then occasionally.  But caffeine, I have to have that stuff every day.  Have you ever tried to potty train a two-and-a-half year old while nursing/rocking/changing a one-month-old?  Or general daily living with a quick-witted and very loud three-year-old while hoisting around a twenty-one pound eight-month old?!?  On less than eight hours of sleep?!? You probably have - or are about to - so you know:  Caffeine is necessary.  And often times, more than once a day.  I am always on the search for the perfect iced coffee recipe.  I try to limit my Starbucks intake to $25/month, which is about one/week - so I get that on Wednesdays after yoga.  But what to do the rest of the week?  I finally found a drink that I like that isn't a bazillion steps.  Yes, it has a fair amount of sugar, but less than what I get at Starbucks.

Iced Coffee
-Brew 4 cups of coffee at double strength.  In our maker this means water to the 6 line, because a coffee cup is 5oz.  I used ~1.5 cups ground coffee.
-Pour coffee over 4 cups ice.  I used Sonic ice, because our machine is still.broken. (read: never worked)  This is your concentrate for the week (or two-day period, no judgement here!!)
-When you're ready to make the coffee, fill a cup with ice (I have a plastic iced grande beverage cup from Starbucks that I use), add coffee until almost full, and drizzle in 1-1.5 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk.  Then stir stir stir and enjoy!  Yummmmm.

So if you stop by this week, I've got the coffee in a 2-qt jug, and the condensed milk in a mason jar, all ready to go!  (but my bag of ice is running low, so you might have to bring your own.)

I know you are also dying to know what I was sipping while Rome was burning.  Here's that recipe.  Originally from food and wine, adapted by me to have less alcohol.  I didn't want to have to buy Grand Marnier.  My mom always had that stuff hanging around.  Me, notsomuch.

White Sangria http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/mango-peach-sangria
2 peaches, thinly sliced
1 mango, chopped
1/4 cup mint
1/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup water
1/3 cup OJ, 2/3 cup fizzy water (this was instead of 1cup grand marnier)
1 bottle fruity white wine (that someone gifted us when Caroline was born or something)
-Melt sugar and water in saucepan over low heat, transfer to pitcher, refrigerate until chilled
-Stir in everything else, serve over ice. Play with cutest little redhead ever.