A Sweet Summer Treat

Happy Fourth of July to all of you that are checking the blogs today!!! I know I'm a day late, but I was being festive yesterday (even though I was babysitting *grin*)

I have a GREAT recipe for a sweet, refreshing drink for you today. It's called the Patriotic Drink, but we called it the Red, White, and Blue.



Taken from familyfun.go.com:
"With a steady hand and some colorful drinks, you can create a tasty, multilayered concoction. The secret is in selecting liquids with varying amounts of sugar, since those that contain more (such as soda) are denser than those with less (such as diet drinks). And that makes it possible to actually stack one on top of another (for a little while, anyway -- then they'll start to blend). Here's how to serve up a thirst quencher with two, three, or even more layers. Our recipe is for a red, white, and blue version for your Fourth of July celebrations. See how your favorite beverages literally stack up!"

We used:
- Ice cubes
- Cran-apple juice
- Blue Gatorade
- Original Fresca

Instructions:
1) Fill a clear glass with ice cubes. Pour the drink with the most sugar (check the nutrition label) into the glass. For our recipe, we used the Cran-apple juice.

2) Very slowly add a beverage that contains less sugar-in this case we used the Blue Gatorade. Be careful to pour it onto an ice cube -- not directly into the other drink -- to keep them from mixing.

3) Use the same technique to add a beverage with even less sugar than your second beverage-we used the Fresca. Don't forget to pour it onto an ice cube!

Stand back and look at your beautifully patriotic creation! We were mostly successful, though the Gatorade and the Cran-apple juice liked to bleed for who knows what reason.
You can use absolutely any different kinds of red, white, and blue beverages to make this tasty drink. The only thing you need to remember is watch the sugar. Otherwise, the drinks can go in any order!
This is a very kid-friendly creation, both making (with help or they enjoy watching) and drinking. It also creates the perfect opportunity to explain/discuss the symbolism of the colors-red, white, and blue. We had a lot of fun!

This goes perfectly with homemade s'mores!



Now, you can make them on the grill outside or "cheat" and make them inside.

You'll need:
- Graham crackers
- Marshmallows
- Chocolate bar
- Source of heat (grill, stove)

Instructions for indoors:
1) Preheat oven on broil.

2) Place a layer of graham cracker, chocolate, and marshmallow on a cookie sheet.

3) Put in oven. I would watch them closely because all ovens are different (also depends on how preheated your oven is). Without preheating, they took about 4 minutes. After preheated (been on a while), 2 minutes tops. Like I said watch them closely because we burned them when we didn't.

You're looking for that perfect brown crust on the top of your marshmallow. If that's there, the chocolate is melted and the graham cracker nice and toasty.

4) Let cool (just so you don't burn yourself), then add on the top graham cracker and enoy!!

You can try variating the chocolate. Some ideas are: nut-filled chocolate, caramel-filled chocolate, dark, white, or even a peanut butter cup! Do you like anything else on your s'more other than the original Hershey's chocolate??
You s'more and Red, White, and Blue are the perfect sweet treats for a hot summer night!!

Let me know what you think if you try this!

Enjoy!!
Hannah