Sugar & Cloth

For those of you that couldn’t be at the Ikea DIY event a few weeks ago, you can catch the flavored drink recipe portion on the Ikea Houston blog! Trust me, you’ll really like this one. Plus it’s crazy simple and you could make jugs of it in about the same time frame that it takes to eat a cupcake. It’s been proven, take my word for it.

Most of the time I claim that green is my favorite color, when clearly I’m just in denial of being a pink kind of girl. Regardless, I love St. Patrick’s Day mostly for being given good reason to make everything green.

To make sure you’re the one pinching and not being pinched, I’ve put together a simple DIY paper backdrop and sweet recipe to incorporate into your holiday (or if you just like the green, I don’t blame you).

Materials:

• Martha Stewart decorative circle punch
• card stock
• tape

First, insert your circle punch of choice onto the track. Select how many inches you’d like the circle to be (6-12 inches), both on the slider on the side, and the bottom plate.

Place the cardstock center over the magnetic circles, and let the magnetic knob and main punch into place over top of their specific magnets.

Press the punch down, then rotate the knob one time, and press the punch again.  Repeat until the circle is fully cut-out.Once you have as many circles as you’d like, use a piece of looped tape to tape them into place for your backdrop.

Ingredients for the Irish peppermint shake (1 serving)

• 6 ice cubes
• 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream
• 1 drop or 1 of peppermint extract
• green food coloring
• whipped cream for topping
• spalsh of Irish cream or liquor

Blend all of the ingredients together, and then top with whipped cream. Add a striped straw, and they’re ready to serve!

I never deny my love affair with peppermint flavored things, but during the month of December, I let my peppermint flag fly high. Literally. To mark the occasion, I decided to combine this reader favorite recipe with the holiday season to create peppermint eggnog milkshake shots that are perfectly petit enough to fit any party… unless the big and tall section is more your style, in which case you can turn this into a punch bowl recipe.

Ingredients:

• Peppermint ice cream
• Peppermint white chocolate bark
• Crushed peppermint
• Eggnog
• Sugar water

I have a small(ish) thing for iced thai tea with cream. In efforts to branch out, I was searching for new tea recipes to try when I came across Use Real Butter’s Milk Tea Boba recipe and it’s aah-mazing! It’s especially delicious with cream in place of milk, but since I need to lay off the cream a bit, I’ve kept with the milk version–

1 tsp Black tea
8 oz water, boiling
Sugar (optional)
1/4 cup Boba (pearl tapioca), cooked per package instructions
Ice
Milk (or cream)

Steep the tea leaves in a cup of boiling water to desired strength (about 5 minutes for me). Remove the tea leaves. If you want your tea sweetened, add sugar to taste. Let the tea cool. Place the boba in a large glass. Fill the glass with ice. Pour the tea over the ice. Top with milk. Makes one 16-ounce serving.

Photos & recipe via Use Real Butter // Design by Sugar & Cloth