I'm on a tea kick. I've been trying to drink less coffee and more tea, and so far it has been a pleasant journey. I bought loose leaves at Kalustyan's in "curry hill" recently, which is a lot cheaper than buying bagged tea, it seems.



Lately, it has been HOT in our apartment and I've been really into making big batches of iced tea and sweeting it with a little bit of honey OR the infused simple syrup we made a trillion years ago for NYE (recipe to follow). This sweetener is perfect, actually, because you don't need to use a lot and it is spicy and perfect for tea!



I am impatient, so waiting for the tea to cool is the hardest part. I usually brew some in the morning, stick it in the freezer, go for a run, and when I come back, I can enjoy some refreshing, cold tea. Yum!



I recently discovered this great place called Tea Spot in Greenwich village on Macdougal street, but while looking it up online, I clicked on the wrong link and came across a blog with the same name which is pretty cool. Anyway, the REAL Tea Spot has so so so many teas and plenty of seating for the work-from-home/coffee shop/library gal like me. There are also some NYU students here and there, and people on awkward dates. Perfect.



Maybe I'm not searching hard enough, but I have to say, it has been hard to find some decent, cozy coffee shops in NYC. I know that sounds absurd, but unless I feel like shelling out $20 for lunch, coffee, tea and snacks to earn my electric socket and "free" WiFi, there aren't a ton of welcoming study places. It certainly makes me miss the Haymarket in Northampton and of course, the one and only Bookmill.

Granola bars, sort of

I was on a granola bar kick for a while, because I needed healthy, portable snacks. I wanted to mix things up by adding some (dairy free) chocolate chips, so I looked up recipes and came across a few. Don't laugh, but I used a combination of Rachel Ray's "No Bake Chewy Granola Bar" recipe and some other food blogger recipes. Rachel's recipe calls for rice crispy cereal. I used a gluten free, brown rice cereal instead. I used 1/4 cup brown sugar instead of 1/2 (I used extra honey). I also added peanuts to make up for the other ingredients I was missing. I didn't have raisins or granola, so my bars fell apart a little, but were still the perfect combination of salty and sweet.




Ingredients:
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter (I used Earth Balance)
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 cups granola,
1 cup rice cereal
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup thin pretzel sticks
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup peanuts




Process:
1. In a medium saucepan, combine the brown sugar with the honey and butter. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, then lower the heat to medium-low and simmer until the sugar dissolves, about 2 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat.
2. Add the granola, rice cereal, raisins and pretzels to the saucepan and fold the ingredients to evenly coat with the sauce. Transfer the granola mixture to a 9-by-13-inch ungreased baking pan and press firmly to evenly fill. Gently press the chocolate chips onto the top of the granola. Let the granola mixture set in the refrigerator until firm, about 15 minutes, then cut into 2 1/4-by 3-inch bars.

Whole Grain No Knead Bread

I used the same recipe for the white no knead bread to make a whole grain version. I used 2 cups of unbleached (white) wheat flour and then used rye, whole wheat and brown rice flour as well as seeds (flax, sesame, poppy) to make up the remaining 3.5 cups. The dough was pretty sticky for some reason, and I had to add more and more flour to fix that. Next time, I should use more white flour from the start.



I made two versions--one slow rising dough (Bittman's. It takes 12 hours to rise, omg) and the quick rise dough from before. I sprinkled seeds directly on top of the quick rising bread, which made it even more delicious. BUT, I forgot to put corn meal on the bottom of the pot, so it stuck and then broke. sad. Trial and error.