A Remedy for your Flu

Sometimes the pills won't work or you just don't wanna take them into your system when you're just having a cold or flu. The doctor would tell you to stay put and keep stuffing yourself with warm fluids anyway so let's try this.

You'll need:

• 1 orange
• 2 lemons
• 1 table spoon turmeric
• about 5cm ginger
• 1/2 cup honey

1) Peel the ginger. Chop the ginger and the lemons with the orange to the shapes of your preference.

2) Add the rest of the ingredients and mix. 

3) Put into a container and store.

When you need it, take about two spoonfuls per cup and pour warm water over it (not hot, that would kill the honey).

Strawberry Basil Drink

It sounds weird but actually tastes great. The basil is noticeable in the drink but it doesn't turn it into something undrinkable, as a matter of fact, it underlines the sweetness of strawberries. I recommend this one for hot days because it is very refreshing. Also, you can add your favorite alcohol to it, like rum or vodka, but since it's the school year again, I tried to steer clear from alcohol. But you don't have to ;-)=

Ingredients (4 cups):

• 1 1/2 cups mineral water
• 1/4 cup basil leaves
• 1 lemon (peeled)
• 6 big strawberries
• 4 table spoons agave syrup
• 1 cup ice

1) First, peel the lemon because you don't need the skin in here. You may dice the lemon to make the process faster. The strawberries shouldn't have the stem either.

2) Put everything in a blender and bled till only small particles of everything remain. 

3) Pour into glasses and enjoy!

The Sin of Dracula

Long time ago, I got this bottle as a birthday present. I drank it, kept the bottle for future DIY candle holder, but that was it - I couldn't have known I was going to start a blog one day so I didn't take a picture of it and I certainly didn't make notes of its taste. 

Then, just a  little later, I was browsing the wine section in Kaufland supermarket when this caught my attention. I knew it wasn't a great wine but I was willing to buy it and drink it again to make a review for you. See, that's how much I like my non-existent readers :-)=

So, the price holds the psychological barrier - it's not 100 Crowns (5 Dollars) because that would be too much for some funky wine, it's just 99 Crowns - that one little Crown does it all ;-)=

Since it's a Romanian wine, I was afraid it would be too sweet and heavy as most wines from that area are. But this is not. It's quite light and the taste doesn't stay on the tongue for long. Perhaps they dilute it. Or the grapes are just that way. I have no idea. What stays on the tongue (and lips and teeth), however, are the purple stains. That happens and sucks, so maybe I will include a "wine-stained lips" make up tutorial in the future to handle the red wine parties more nonchalantly.

Now, I shall act clever and tell you some interesting things about the wine - ok, maybe not interesting but definitely helpful if you understand wine and want to know something about it (hooray for the wine labels at the back of the bottle) ;-)= 

- 12% vol. and the light taste will get you under the table in no time and you won't even see it coming

- Feteasca Neagra is the name of the grapes they used for it and this should ensure that the wine will be semi-dry

- the grapes grow in the Transylvanian Carpathians in Romania

- they recommend to drink it while eating cheese and meat (which wine doesn't say that?!)

As you can see, I couldn't be a professional wine taster because I know nothing about it. I divide wine by color and the fact whether it tasted good or not. This one is somewhere in the I DON'T KNOW category because it wasn't bad but it wasn't the best either. And I definitely know better wines in that money range. But as a nice gift for some vampire junkie, I'd say go for it ;-)=

Vodka with Juice Halloween Style

Just like I've already mentioned in one of the posts before, Halloween is not the thing in here. But it doesn't stop some of us from decorating our homes or visiting the scarce parties dedicated to this special day. I skipped all the parties this year and just went ahead and made myself a spooky drink.

Nothing says I love vodka with juice more than a bowl of  some weird red/brown liquid with a melting hand in it.

On the brighter side, it's one of the easiest things you can do. Even a kid could do it (though I do not recommend this one for kids - some people say alcohol isn't for the small ones, after all).

What you're going to need:
- any red juice (I chose strawberry with pulp to make it grosser-looking but you can use tomato juice or any other you like)
- black vodka
- water
- a plastic glove
- bowl
- enough misery to drink it all alone or friends to help you

1) The first step is a tricky one. You take a surgical glove and turn it inside out. Why, you may ask. Well, they have this powder inside to prevent your hands from sweating. You sure don't wanna drink that. Yes, you can wash it out but who's got time for that? So turning it inside out it is. When you are done with the step one, you will just move to the step two.

2) Fill the glove with water. Be reasonable, don't make it burst. Plus if you fill it so that the palm area is round, you will only see that in the bowl (the fingers will very likely submerge). So make sure you fill it in a way that it can freeze nicely flat.

3) Knot the glove at the end.

4) Put it in the freezer so that it rests on a flat surface (You can make the fingers visible, I trust you!).

5) When it's frozen, prepare your bowl.

6) Fill the bowl with a red juice of your choice.

7) Add vodka - we are germaphobes so we need something to disinfect the possible glove germs, right? ;-)= Just make sure you pour it slowly so that it doesn't mix with the juice. That's just for the first impression, you will mixt it all later anyway.

8) Insert the frozen hand (after you've stripped it off the plastic layer).

9) Have the drink all for yourself as the others find it too gross-looking to drink.

Spooky indeed...

I am not a fan of any holidays. I don’t really like Christmas, Easter only interests my inner artist when coloring the eggs... just all I like about these days is the fact that there is no school.

On the other hand, if I were to pick out one holiday which should be celebrated globally, it would be Halloween, because I’ve ever liked the spooky side – they have the best cookies after all. Plus dressing up as creepy things and getting candies for it sounds so absurd it pleases my crooked mind.  But since my country is totally oblivious to the most of the Anglo-American festivals, I never really get into the right Halloween mood.

However, every now and then there are some shops trying to implant these alien festivities into our homes and I surrender and let them take my money for useless products I don’t need. Because why not. I like Halloween.

So when there was a whole collection of various Halloween goodies in Lidl supermarket, I just couldn’t stand there and let them stay on the shelf. I winded up with some muffins (yeah, yeah, I can bake my own which are always tastier and cheaper but these where with PUMPKINS on them!) and a drink which is called Spooky Strawberry (c’mon, it’s a VAMPIRE strawberry!). It looked like those flavored milk drinks I haven’t had since my childhood, so I let my inner child have her pick.

I’m one of those people who - when handed a bottle – play with it and subsequently read what’s on the cover. I managed to read the contents part of the drink and that spooked the hell out of me.

If I omit all those nasty chemicals I’ll get to the fruity part. How the people who produce strawberry milk manage to make it WITHOUT actual strawberries will probably remain a mystery. They probably thought: “Hey, if we mix lemon, radish and currant we will get a strawberry flavor! And if it still doesn’t taste like one we can make it red and people’s brains will automatically produce the flavor. It’s a win.” Well, maybe it is. Despite reading the contents table I still thought it kinda tasted like strawberries.  

So, what’s the moral of the story? Wait, there was supposed to be one?! Just don’t read what’s on the cover and let your inner child be happy it’s Halloween!