Drink Up! - Chris's Favorite Recipes

Chris's Favorite Recipes

Glass of Water Drink up!

Water is my favorite beverage. We serve water with all our meals at home. We like other drinks, too -- especially fruit shakes for breakfast.

When you have a bunch of friends over, making a quick punch can turn a get-together into a festive party.

My food and beverage pairings give you an idea of how a simple beverage can make a meal or snack into something special.

Chris

Fruit Shake

This is a fun recipe. It makes a good breakfast or snack drink. The recipe is flexible, so use whatever you have. It turns out a little differently every time. Variety is the spice of life!

You can serve it plain or fancy -- depending on whether or not you're in a hurry! Plain is shown at right, served with orange slices and Chocolate Chip Muffins; fancy is shown below.

A fruit shake with muffins - a yummy breakfast!

What you need: These are necessary. You can always add other ingredients.

Blender
Fruit-flavored or plain yogurt (one container, or about a cup of yogurt from a large container)
One cup of orange juice
Banana -- one banana to make enough fruit shake for you and a friend; two if you are serving 4 or more. If so, add more yogurt and juice.
Ice (about one glassful)

How to make it:

With the blender unplugged, put in the yogurt, banana and ice. Add a splash of orange juice. If you are using plain yogurt, you might want to add a spoonful of honey to sweeten it up.

Place the top on the blender and plug it in.

Blend on high until ingredients are well blended.

Unplug the blender.

Pour into glasses. Everybody has different-sized glasses, but you should be able to serve 2 large or 4 small glasses with this recipe.

This recipe is not very scientific. Play with it! You can easily make the recipe serve more by doubling the ingredients -- just be sure they fit in your blender. Add berries or chopped pineapple if you have them.

Party Punch

This punch recipe is also very flexible. You need the punch, the sherbet and the soda. However, you don't need to worry about the proportions. Play with it!

What you need:

Hawaiian Punch -- 1 big can, or a reconstituted can (the kind where you add water)
1/2 gallon sherbet -- Pineapple, lemon, orange -- any fruit flavor
2 Liter bottle of 7-up, Sprite or Ginger Ale -- use club soda if you want it much less sweet.

How to make it:

Pour Hawaiian Punch into punch bowl.

Add Sherbet.

On top of that, add the 7-up. The punch will be foamy and bubbly.

Break up the sherbet by stirring a little so people can put a small amount of sherbet in their punch cups along with the punch.

Food and Beverage Pairings

Some of my mom's favorite cookbooks suggest a wine or other beverage that complements a special dish. Even kids know some drinks taste best with certain foods. Let's call this a "pairing" and sound very professional! I hope this inspires you to creativity in your own kitchen.

Classic pairings:

There's nothing like ice-cold soda with pizza, hot dogs or burgers -- unless it's ice cold lemonade!

A scoop of ice cream in a soda (or especially in root beer) makes a float. That's sure to put you in a party frame of mind on any afternoon.

	A big glass of milk goes with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Try it with my Grilled PB&Js!

	Orange juice is great with breakfast or with a snack. Look what happens when you add a bit of maraschino cherry juice to the glass of orange juice -- a "Sunrise" appears! (Don't stir after adding the cherry juice.) To make a Fizzy Sunrise, top off the juice with club soda.

A cup of tea can be refreshing at any time of day. A cup of tea with breakfast starts the day on a warm, sunny note. If you want to feel really ritzy, set up an "afternoon tea" with fancy cookies and serve on china and silver. Be sure to use your best manners!

Tomato juice tastes just great with eggs or quiche at any time of day. Try adding a dash of Worcestershire sauce and garnish with a celery stick. Mmmmmm!