Sunday, August 22, 2010

Ta-Dah!!

Oh I am so excited to finally post this! I'm jumping up and down like I just won lottery. Okay not really, but you get my enthusiasm here.
So where do I begin?? First good news, the wonderful people at CSN has allowed be to review some of their amazing products. There are so many to choose from. Fitness, cookware, bakeware (they even have my favorite Le Creuset ), and household items. Check them out if you haven't already, http://www.csnstores.com/ourstores.asp, and stay tuned for some future reviews and product offers on the blog. YEA!

Next up, some fun times and recipes to be shared. Last night the hubs and I went out to our little local wine bar and pub (FIONS) for nice drink together. We love this place and its nice to get away and chat while sipping on good wine. Well, 30 minutes later, we were starving. The sweet potato fries were good but did not hold us over very long. haha.
Now, we could have just stayed and ordered a pizza or another entree but I was craving my local goat cheese in the house back home. I told the hubs I'd make him an awesome pizza since he treated me to some awesome wine.
Back at the house, I whipped out our Gluten Free thin pizza crust, fresh tomato sauce, ready to eat shrimp, spinach, and GOAT CHEESE. Bake at 425F for 10 minutes then broil the last 2 to 3 minutes. This makes the cheese a little browned and even more delicious!


Oh ya, this hit the spot. Better than take out ANY day!

Next time I am going to use fig, goat cheese, and mushroom. Gotta get my goat cheese fix in various ways. Any other flavor combos I'm missing here? Do tell!
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Okay, I saved the best for last.......my kombucha has been brewed and flavored. Announcing my COTTER KOMBUCHA BREW and the many FLAVORS to go along with it!
I have to admit this experience has been so drawn out but I am so glad I did it. I now have my own scoby to brew more and I actually created some descent kombucha. Well, at least I think so. I may be bias.
So here's my brew that fermented for about 7 days with the mother scoby inside.


I then used these juices and a little honey agave nectar to flavor them.

Remember I brewed it with a green ginger and black tea so all the bottles will have a little ginger flavoring. The hubs wanted me to use pineapple juice and I wanted blueberry so we decided to go with 4 flavors. Blueberry Ginger, Pineapple Ginger, Pineapple Ginger Berry, and Honey Ginger Pineapple.
We poured the juice in the glass bottle first and then used a plastic funnel to pour our brewed batch on top.

blueberry Ginger
pineapple ginger fizz, yumm!
 
pineapple ginger

After all the mixing, we bottled and labeled them in our jars. I actually kept a lot of my old synergy bottles so this was perfect for storage! 
look at the fizz. perfect!

told you I was excited!
I think my favorite is the honey ginger pineapple. Its got a nice tang and kick to it! Any other suggestions for flavors? What about watermelon or honey dew? Hmmmmm, thats a thought.

first batch gone. Bye bye booch.
Now, I hope to continue to brew and save some $$ but like I said, I'm an impulse buyer and if I see another brand of Kombucha out there, I just might have to try it. A big thanks to Averie and Hannah for answering all my Booch questions. You both were lifesavers!

Alright, waiting for these suckers to chill so that I can enjoy a full bottle. Cotter Kombucha is Complete!
Cheers,
LC