You've been BREWed!

It's that time of year again.  Does your neighborhood participate in this fun little game of Halloween doorbell ditching?  We received a plate of darling and delicious goodies a few nights ago.  I've been wracking my brain and I came up with this idea for retaliation.  A fun pack of Halloween elixir!

Just follow these seven simple steps for some devilish fun!

1 Run to your nearest store and pick up a few bottles of root beer (any soft drink will do).  I really liked the look of the brown glass bottles.

2  Print out the labels and attach them to your jars.  Click here for the labels. After you print them, carefully cut them out.  You could get really fancy and print them on sticker paper.  Or just print on regular paper and stick them to your jars.  Sticky dots work pretty well.  Spray adhesive might be another option.

3  Spray paint your cardboard carrier a spooky Halloween color.  I had a partial can of black spray paint, and decided it would do nicely.  Frugality.  Let your paint dry completely.

4  Place your brew in the carrier and embellish with a tag and some ribbon from your scrap bin.  Again, frugality.

5  Sneak up on your unsuspecting neighbors in the cover of night.

6  Ring the doorbell.

7  Run. Run. Run!

**An alternate idea would be to gift these brews one bottle at a time.  They would make great teacher gifts.  I decided to embellish my bottle with a tiny witch's hat, some ribbon and a teeny tiny spider.

Happy Halloween!

I'm linking up with:
Whipperberry 

Italian Cream Soda

Have you jumped on the cream soda bandwagon?  As in Italian Cream Soda?  One of my very best friends in the whole wide world introduced me to homemade Italian Cream Sodas.  In fact, she gifted me all the supplies for Christmas.  Which was a way awesome gift if you ask me!  And my family has embraced the cream soda tradition wholeheartedly.  They are very simple and fun to individualize.

This is what you will need:

flavored syrup (Torani or DaVinci--whatever flavor you like best.  And let me tell you, there are hundreds of flavors!)
club soda or Sprite or 7-UP
whipping cream
crushed ice
a drinking glass
a fun stripey straw (optional)

Fill your glass with crushed ice.  Add 8 oz of club soda.

Top with 2 tablespoons of your favorite syrup.  I love how the color looks in the glass.  For this occasion, we chose raspberry...

...but the syrup options are endless.  Some of our favorites are orange (tastes just like a creamsicle!), raspberry, and strawberry.  But we have been known to mix flavors as well...blackberry peach comes to mind!  You could stop right there and you would have a wonderful Italian soda.  But why would you want to, when you could have a cream soda?  All you have to do is top your drink with a tablespoon of whipping cream and stir it in.  If you want to get all "fancy nancy", you could whip your cream first and dollop it on top of the soda.  Like so.

Yum.  That's it!

Italian sodas make everything more fun.  They take lunch from ho-hum to fabulous.  Or pizza night from pretty good to "holy cow" kind of good!  And they are a BIG hit with the teenage crowd.  Are you having a bunch of teens over for movie night this weekend?  Serve Italian sodas--they will love you!

Hot Buttered Cider

I spent most of my growing-up years in Michigan.  If you've ever met a Michigander, then you know that they are passionate about Fall in general and apple cider in particular.  It's in our blood.  We can't help it.  I haven't lived in Michigan for almost twenty-five years.  But, when autumn rolls around I get a severe case of homesickness.  Every year when the leaves started to change, my family and friends would head out to the cider mill.  And we would go back.  Again.  And again.  There is nothing like a cup of freshly pressed cider and piping hot donuts.  I had the worst case of cider withdrawal this year.  Seriously, I almost broke out in hives.  It was that bad.  I was bemoaning my lack of cider to my brother one day.  Next thing I know, the UPS man was delivering a huge box to my front door.  Wanna see what was in it?

Not ringing a bell yet?  How about this...

This little beauty is a home-sized apple press.  And it is awesome!  It turns out my brother was having cider withdrawals too.  He is letting me house this baby for a little while.  I have three apple trees in my yard and it was a bumper crop kind of year.  And this little press got here just in the nick of time to make some cider.  It's so delicious.  I love it ice cold (slushy in fact) and I love it piping hot.  Speaking of hot...

Hot buttered cider.  Mmm.  I think today, this would be labeled "butterbeer" of Hogwart's fame.  I found this recipe in an old stapled stack of mimeographed recipes that my mom gave to me.  I'm sure that these recipes could be found thirty years ago circulating around the homes of all the ladies in our church congregation.  With that kind of history--you know it's got to be good!  And it is.


So, in honor of Michigan apples and church ladies everywhere...
let me introduce Hot Buttered Cider!

 Promise me that you will not use apple juice.  Promise!  You absolutely must use apple cider.  Preferably from Michigan.  But in a pinch, you can use your own freshly pressed cider from apples in your backyard.  Or if it's a real emergency, use some cider purchased at your local grocery store.  If it's translucent..it is NOT cider.  Splurge and buy the real deal.  You'll be glad that you did.

I swear it's the nectar of the gods.