Coffee Shops

Mmmmm....the smell of coffee. :)

I wasn't that much of a coffee fanatic until I started college. While I still prefer tea, coffee is still a legit drink. I like coffee because of the smell and the comforting feeling that comes with it. I don't have a need for it in order to study, pay attention in presentations, function in the morning,...etc. It's more of a sentimental thing for me. My love for tea, however, is a different story - which I'll save for another blog post.

Anyway, since I've been in Austin, TX, I've had a chance to try out some cool coffee places besides just Starbucks and The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. Here are three lists of the best coffee shops in the U.S.:
1. America's Best Coffee Bars (www.foodandwine.com)
2. America's Best Coffee Shops (www.usatoday.com)
3. America's 10 Best Coffee Shops (www.huffingtonpost.com)

(psssstt....notice how Austin shows up in the first link TWICE :) I love my city)

Most of the places that made these lists are in New York, California, Oregon, or Philadelphia. If you're living in one of those states or plan to visit anytime soon - check out one of these shops and let me know what you think! However, if you're not going anywhere near those states anytime soon, I encourage you to check out some local places in your hometown. It's generally easy if you just search "Best Coffee Shops in *insert city name here*"

Happy coffee-ing! :)

Jewel's Random TidBits - I was wondering how popular Tea Shops or Tea Houses were, so, I did a quick search and found http://www.teamap.com/. Check it out! You can actually map out tea places around the U.S. and internationally!

Lemon-Mint Snaps and Strawberry-Mint Lemonade

When life gives you lemons....make fresh cookies and a delicious drink to match!

I love finding new types of cookie recipes and trying them out - especially exploring past chocolate-chip, sugar, snicker-doodle, or oatmeal-raisin cookies.

When my sister found a recipe for "lemon-basil snaps" I jumped right into the idea of baking them! We couldn't find any basil in our house at that exact moment BUT we do have mint growing in our backyard so we took full advantage of that. I used a variation of this recipe from a 'Southern Living' cookbook we have. I replaced the basil with fresh mint and left out the pistachio nuts.

The cookies were delicious!

My father was talking for a while about making fresh lemonade. He doesn't like the powdered-just-add-water kind of lemonade because of the taste and health issues associated with it - I completely agree with him! Since I was in the lemon-y mood (haha :-D) I decided to go ahead and make fresh lemonade. The cookies also put me in a mint-y mood (okay, I'll stop now...hahaha) so I got some more fresh mint from our garden to add. But I didn't stop there....I took some strawberries out of the fridge and found a way to include them. I didn't use an exact recipe but here's the gist of what I did:

1. Squeeze lemons into a lemonade container and remove seeds
2. Finely chop fresh mint leaves that have been thoroughly washed.
3. Split strawberries into two sets: one to be chopped and the other to be crushed
4. Add water to the lemon juice to double the volume.
5. Squeeze half of the strawberries into the lemon water. Try to get as much strawberry juice out of them then add the remaining pulp directly to the mix.
6. Chop up the other half of the strawberries and add those to the container.
7. Stir in the chopped mint.
8. Add sugar and more water until it tastes like perfection! :)
9. Chill, serve, enjoy!

Take a look at how my cookies and drink came out:

I hope I've inspired you to be creative in your kitchen!

Jewel's Random Tid Bits - I'm not a food scientist, but I believe that squeezing some of the strawberries will help your lemonade taste more like "strawberry lemonade" rather than just "lemonade with strawberries in it".