Tag: coffee

Sweet Coffee Syrup Recipe & My Favorite 10 Things To Do With Coffee! by Gordon Ramsay

Next time you find yourself with an extra cup of coffee, grab a little sugar and set aside five minutes of your time to make this delicious coffee syrup! We love to add it to a glass of cold milk, pour it over slices of homemade pound cake, or even top vanilla bean ice cream with it. My college aged son (who took this photo, by the way) loves to take mason jars full of it back to his dorm after a weekend visit. The uses are limited only by your imagination. Since it’s so easy to make and keeps in your fridge for up to a month, this is one dessert syrup you may never go without again! A printable copy of this simple recipe can be found at the bottom of this post.

While we’re talking about one of my favorite subjects, I thought I’d share with you my top ten favorite things to do with coffee! We’ve already covered one with this syrup, so there are nine more to go.

Start your day with a little boost!

Of course, every day at my house begins with a pot of coffee. I usually have it brewed by 4:00 each morning and I’m on my second cup by the time my husband wakes up. It’s a warm and wonderful way to start my day as I sit in a quiet house, sip my coffee, and mentally prepare for the day.

Use it as a reminder to slow down

My husband and I are afternoon/evening coffee drinkers as well. Once we finish supper, we like to go sit down together with a cup and talk over our day, discuss what we’ve been reading, and gather our thoughts as we unwind together. Click here to read more about this ritual and how it has blessed my family for generations.

Make a Coffee Meringue Pie

So many people have told me that they wish coffee tasted just like it smelled. Well guess what? This pie does just that! Click here for this recipe

Share some memories – and make new ones

When I was a little girl, my grandmother used to let me sit down at the table with them as they had their evening coffee. It was a precious time in which I learned so much about my family history – and I’ve passed that on to my kids as well. Click here to read about that special time with my grandparents.

Make a Coffee Butter Cake

My own spin on Kentucky Butter Cake, this chocolatey coffee version is the perfect treat to share with company. Click here for this recipe

Make ice cubes- great for iced coffee or smoothies

If I find myself with an extra cup (or two) I like to pour it into ice cube trays. Once frozen, I pop them out and stick them in a zipper seal bag to keep in the freezer for iced coffee drinks that become even more delicious by melting ice cubes!

Use as a substitute for water in boxed cake and brownie mixes!

This adds a wonderful new depth of flavor and is especially good with chocolate flavors.

Make Spiced Coffee

My recipe for Gingerbread Spiced Coffee is simple as can be to make and the kissing cousin to Pumpkin Spice! Just sprinkle a few spices you have on hand over the top of your grounds before brewing! Click here for this recipe

Make Mocha Coffee Floats

What happens when you pour hot coffee over chocolate ice cream? Heaven. Heaven happens. Click here for this recipe

I hope you’ve found some newfound inspiration to make coffee an even greater part of your life!

Sweet Coffee Syrup

Author: Christy Jordan

Serves: 1 cup

Ingredients

1 cup coffee
1.5 cups granulated sugar

Instructions

Place coffee and sugar in a small sauce pot over medium high heat.
Bring to a boil while stirring constantly. Once at a boil, continue to stir and boil for three minutes. Remove from heat. Allow to cool slightly before placing in a container in the refrigerator. Will keep for up to a month.

3.5.3251

Special thanks to my friends at Red Diamond for sponsoring this post and for being such a special part of our lives. All opinions contained herein are my own. My husband and I dearly love Red Diamond and have been devotees of this smooth, never bitter, full bodied coffee since our first sip! To find Red Diamond products near you, visit their beautiful website and use the product locator in the top right hand side of the screen.

Yum

Mocha Coffee Floats – Southern Plate by Gordon Ramsay

Is it just me? Am I the only one who freezes in the wintertime, despite the temperature? Here in Alabama, we can easily have a 60 or 70 degree day in December but there is something about knowing it’s winter that just keeps me cold and the only remedy seems to be warm sweaters, fuzzy socks, and fresh brewed coffee. The rest of the year we tend to make 1-2 pots a day but this time of year, well let’s just say that our coffee maker earns our investment back and then some.

My current coffee stash- but one of the cans is empty so I need to stock up for holiday company!

I buy coffee in large 34 ounce cans (a little over 2 pounds), usually 5-6 at a time. Hey, I don’t want to run out! We have a pot that brews automatically (or auto-magically as they say in one of our favorite theme parks) at 4:00 AM and then I’ve been putting on another pot around 8:00 am. I try to brew another pot around 3 or so when the afternoon slump hits me (and I am reminded, once again, that it is cold outside), and sometimes another pot happens around 6 or 7 after supper. Fortunately for us, brewing a pot of coffee at home is still very economical. In fact, I estimate that I can brew pots all week long for about the price of one visit to a coffee shop. We used to hop around drinking different blends from different sources but about two years ago we tried Red Diamond Classic Blend and haven’t looked back. It’s simply the best coffee we’ve tasted, smooth, flavorful, never acidic and the perfect amount of body for us. Even our son says “The coffee at home just tastes so good.”

Needless to say, when company comes, we usually have fresh coffee waiting. So a friend helped me come up with this great idea of taking that coffee we have on hand and taking it up a notch to make a nice dessert or fun get together treat: coffee floats. They do this with hot chocolate and the moment we tried it we were convinced it was just ideal for coffee!

Start by pretty much filling up a coffee cup with ice cream scoops. Now, in reality you just want about two scoops in there and make sure you don’t pack it because we want plenty of room for coffee. On top of that, add about 2 tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk. However, keep in mind that no one is watching, judging, or measuring how much sweetened condensed milk you add so if that number gets doubled, tripled, if a tablespoon or two accidentally gets put into your mouth, etc, well, you just do you. We’re busy making our own.

On top of that add freshly brewed, hot coffee. As it does with all things, this magnificent brew will transform and give new life to the ice cream, melting it just so and blending with the sweetened condensed milk to form something that is best described as a sweet mocha java heaven.

Top with whipped cream for a finishing touch.

We don’t stir it but you can if you’d like. The more you drink, the sweeter and chocolatier it gets!

This is a perfect idea for a coffee bar and you can experiment with seasonal flavors of ice cream. Egg Nog ice cream, french vanilla, and even mint chocolate chip would be great options.

The beauty of it is that it’s also easy to make as a special treat for just one or two. I hope you get to try it soon!

Mocha Coffee Floats

Ingredients

12 ounce coffee cup
2 large scoops ice cream
3-4 tablespoons or more sweetened condensed
8 ounce good strong coffee (I use Red Diamond Classic Blend)

Instructions

Place ice cream in cup. Pour sweetened condensed milk over. Pour coffee over all.
Top with whipped topping.
Enjoy! It gets sweeter as you continue to drink it.

3.5.3251

Special thanks to my friends at Red Diamond for sponsoring this post and for being such a special part of our lives. All opinions contained herein are my own and I hereby dedicate myself to drinking as many cups of coffee in the name of partnership and recipe research. To find Red Diamond products near you, visit their beautiful website and use the product locator in the top right hand side of the screen.

Yum

Drinking coffee with generations past by Gordon Ramsay

Where we live in North Alabama we kinda skipped over fall this year and just rushed right into winter as of this past week, but we are loving every second of it.

For us, winter is one of the shortest seasons of the year, it sneaks in between fall and spring so fast that if you blink you might miss it, and before you know it we’re at 100 degree heat index again. So needless to say, we try to get out and experience whenever the opportunity presents itself.

With our son away at college now, just the three of us are left at home. Katy is soon to be fourteen years old and we are cherishing our special time with her. Each of us, even Katy, have noticed how quickly this year has flown by and so we decided to make a pact with one another that we would go for a walk, every night, after supper.

It’s been a little over a week now and we’ve kept it up. We finish our supper, put on a pot of coffee for later, grab out coats and flashlights and set out.

There is a quietness in the winter night that is unlike any other, a peace over everything no matter how busy the day – and that is exactly what we’re going for.

And we step out of this world and into that one, and we walk, and we talk, and we laugh, and we talk over our days. Often, we stop to take photos of the moon or pet some of the friendly neighborhood cats who join us for part of our journey. Sometimes we pause to sit on the curb and just be still for a bit.

Then we come home to a fresh pot of coffee, take off our coats, and sit down together, none of us wanting to let go of this special time just yet. Our coffee is like the porridge of three bears. My husband’s is black, mine has a little cream in it, and Katy’s is light as can be with extra sweetness, just like my Grandmama used to make me when I was her age.

And the pouring of the coffee seems to signal the time to reminisce as my husband and I share memories of our childhood with Katy and she listens with a twinkle in her eye, eager to imagine her parents and previous generations as they were decades ago.

I know she feels that same magical connection that I felt when I was in her shoes, sitting with my grandparents over evening coffee and listening to them talk over old times. Memories were passed on to me that were so vivid and detailed that I still see them in my mind, playing out before my eyes. I can tell you stories about ancestors who were gone a generation before I arrived as if I had grown up alongside them. Family stories of hardship, overcoming, love, and laughter, lots of laughter.

It was their legacy. It became mine, and it will be Katy’s.

And I know that someday, because of these evenings, she will have these special nights with her own children. Chances are they will begin just as they did for me as a child and just as they do for her – with loving hands making up a special cup of coffee, extra sweet, for the extra special memories being made.

This post was graciously sponsored by my friends at Red Diamond Coffee. Red Diamond is an Alabama based, family owned company that has been serving up delicious coffee for generations and it’s all we’ve drank for about two years now because it’s just the best. Thank you, Red Diamond, for helping me encourage families to slow down, savor the precious moments in our life, and enjoy our loved ones every chance we get.

You might enjoy my Butter Coffee Cake or Coffee Meringue Pie recipes!

Yum