Thai Ice Tea

One of our favorite drinks during summer! Very aromatic and super easy. All you need is thai tea, ice cubes, water and milk. Please note that Thai tea leaves are so much different than any regular tea leaves. It is basically a black tea, but I have no idea if the fragrant was an addition during the process or anything else. I did sense something smell like star anise and vanilla. It also has this dark orange color, when you mix it with milk it is as orange as the sunset.

Here it is, my version of Thai Tea :
4-5 tsp of thai tea leaves (the more you use, the more orange and the more aromatic)
4 tbsp sugar
300 ml water
250 ml uht plain milk
ice cubes

Directions :
1. Bring the water to the boil, add the thai tea leaves and sugar. Turn off the heat. Let cool
2. Strain the mixture into glasses, add milk and ice cubes. Ready to serve.

Hot Cocoa Milk with Cinnamon

This recipe was requested by my eldest son, who loves anything with chocolate. I often saw him stumbled upon my recipe books, reading each page and picking which one he wants me to try to make for us. That time, he asks me whether we have milk, cocoa powder and sugar. I said we have it, so the next couple of days I'm making his request.

Nothing special with this recipe actually, it is just milk and cocoa powder. The only wow factor is, cinnamon. I add a cinnamon stick just to enhance the flavour. Oh and of course,hot cocoa is never complete without......marshmallow! This is his first time ever, drinking hot chocolate milk with hint of cinnamon and ooey-gooey-melty marshmallow. He was more than happy and ask for more! It is soooo easy to make a little boy happy, isn't it? 

The recipe was inspired by Paula Deen "My First Cookbook", with adjustment based on my liking.

Ingredients :

700ml plain milk

4-5 tbsp cocoa powder (use good quality of cocoa powder)

4-5 tbsp of sugar

1 cinnamon stick

Marshmallow

How to :
1. Put the sugar and cocoa into the pot and whisk together. Pour in the milk, cinnamon stick and whisk again. Put the pot on the cooktop and turn the heat to very low. Heat until it is hot bot not boiling, about 10 minutes. Stir occasionally with the whisk, making sure that you mix in all of the cocoa.
2. Ladle into mugs and top each one with a handful of mini marshmallows and dust it with cocoa powder.

Strawberry lemonade

The past few weeks have been a truly hot weeks. Seems like dry season has finally arrived. Never as i can recall, i turn on my aircon the whole time for a whole week! Sweats falling down like rain everytime I do the house cleaning. Sounds like exaggerating but that was the real condition. Gosh! Really need something to cheer and freshen my day up. So I decided to make this very simple lemonade. I don't have the exact recipe as we all have a different taste bud and you can simply adjust the level of tanginess or sweetness. So make it as you please, you can grab any fruit you have at home and make it a healthy blend of lemonade.

Here's how i make my lemonade :

5 tbsp sugar
about 200ml water
3 lemons 
strawberry
ice cubes, as many as you please :D

how to :
1. Bring the water+sugar to the boil and set aside
2. cut the strawberry into halve and slice 1 lemon and then put them on the glasses
3. squeeeze the 2 lemons and mix it with sugar syrup
4. add in more water and the ice cubes. Stir well, and ready to serve.

It's a simple treat on a super hot day, for more, its also healthy with all the fruits inside :)