Quick @ Home Fraps/Smoothies (blender needed)

Fraps:
The Basics- Use cold coffee, put 10 regular ice cubes into the blender, pour milk & cold coffee in to just below the top of the highest ice cube (adjust the ratio for your tastes), at this point I use caramel, chocolate, or some other flavored syrup to both flavor & sweeten pulse blend & listen for no more ice cubes bouncing around (time in between pulses allows 4 remaining chunks to sink back down), at the end give it about a 3 to 5 second 'on' blend...if it's too liquidy use less 'liquids' next time. But if you don't get enough liquids in the blender it's harder to get ice cubes blended. These make about 12 oz glasses of Frap.

Or find big cans of Cafe D'Vitta at Sam's or Costco (they have caramel, chocolate,...flavors) same directions as coffee drink except add 1 scoop (scoop that comes with it) and then add milk, blend (only use mix, ice, and milk. no reason to add flavors or coffee, unless of course, you want to). They are great 4lb canisters of the mix.  By the time you figure out how many Fraps this $10 canister of powder mix makes, it is WELL WORTH IT!

Additional things I do: Add more caramel sauce to it, Mexican or regular chocolate sauce, a few coffee beans to the blender for speckled look, add peanut butter, find the Dulce De Leche sauce in 'select' grocery stores...yum.

In my professional 'making and drinking' opinion, powders work better than flavored syrups to thicken Fraps and improve taste...Using powdered creamer IS NOT A GOOD IDEA, you will soon become tired of the 'taste' that comes from powdered creamer, try using some powdered milk.



Smoothies:
For quick smoothies use the same amount of ice cubes and 8 to 12 ounces of flavored yogurt.  Use vanilla or plain yogurt and add fresh fruits for a more customized taste.

Steal lots of BIG STRAWS - (McD's or Coffee Shop straws) haven't found that they sell the big ones in any stores yet so I just get a few each time I am at Starb*cks, Pete's, or McD's

This is not definitive...just a quick guide for my friends who asked. If you have a coffee shop friend get him to let you 'have' big buckets of Big Train powder mix.

Do you like to Pickle Things?

Do you like to pickles things? This is an easy experiment I think you will like.  If you have a certain favorite pickle or pickled vegetable that you buy at the store then after eating all the contents inside the jar save the 'pickling' juice or liquid.

You can then experiment by adding more cucumber or other vegetables back to the liquid and give it a good 5 to 7 days back in the refrigerator before trying/eating your newest pickled treat.

Additional things you can do:

1. add more herb/spices or hot pepper or two


2. use a 'shot' of a different kind of vinegar to enhance the taste; cider, wine, balsamic, rice, seasoned vinegar.  But be prepared to accept that it may just make it taste worse!


3. add some MORE garlic or shallots (or another vegetable) to increase a certain taste you like


4. add sugar (honey, brown, cane...) of some sort to make it a bit sweeter

I can't guarantee to do all of this will make it taste better, that's up to you to figure out.  Usually, we (my wife and I) only refill the jar once after the original purchase, water does come out of the new ingredient(s) so the concentration of pickling gets diluted.  It also works better when the cucumbers are cut or sliced.

Just thought I might give you a new idea to play around with without getting too scientific about it!  And yes this is the cheater version of the already easy Refrigerator Pickles.

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Our goal is a weekly video post (or more) on simple "cookin" preparations for a variety of foods. We would love to hear from you! Email us at showtime@tyronebcookin.com

My Top 5 Eating Out Tips (@Home & Vacation)

Lets talk a bit about accommodations while on vacation, then we will get right back to the food!  If you are wavering between paying for a vacation rental or hotel, I suggest a rental.  I have found from online research that nice rentals from beach-side homes to inner city condominiums are usually cheaper or at least comparable to hotel/motel/resort accommodations.  And usually come with some of the same extras: pool, free WiFi, cable or satellite, free movie channels, local calls...You get the point.

Why does this come into play?  You can cook your dinners at the rental.  And by that I mean the evening meals (evening meals cost more at restaurants).  Also (non food related) if you have kids and/or babies you can put them to bed in a separate room!  With families it seems that hotels only REALLY provide a place to sleep, then you need to get out and about before someone gets hurt! ~ But let me get back to the eating part...

Grill your pizza!

Love that pizza oven pizza? Want to cook great 7 minute pizzas at 600 plus degrees(F) and not heat up your home?

I certainly didn't originate the idea but I do use the concept to the fullest!

Buy a pizza stone. I use the square one. Probably the best price is on sale at your local Walmart, Target, or Bed Bath & Beyond. Sometimes Pampered Chef has good sales on them.

Deep Fried Macaroni and Cheese

Terrible. I know its just terrible to make something so good and fattening and deep fry it for even more flavor. But what was also terrible is the recipes that I found when I googled deep fried macaroni and cheese. Some wrote about frying it in a skillet and adding ingredients and some wrote recipes that I believe they never tried like; use (a national known brand of) frozen macaroni and cheese and scoop it out of the foil package and bread it with white bread crumbs? How do you 'scoop' frozen macaroni and cheese? And just how did they bread it without a binder and being frozen? Terrible.

The recipes that sound good give you no pictures. And one recipe goes so far as to add meat, tomato, and...now how is that macaroni and cheese?