French Press Iced Coffee

Remember a few months ago, when I was all excited about my new French press? Well… I still totally love it! Of course, now that summer has come to Germany, I'm not much in the mood for hot coffee in the mornings. But I still like that little caffeine hit. Dilemma, dilemma.

I spend a lot of my mornings at our local Java Cafe, hard at work blogging and editing photos. Like many places in Germany, there is no air-conditioning only fans. On a whim, I ordered an iced coffee one morning, and that's when it struck me.

Why couldn't I do this myself at home??

If you know me at all, then you know what happened next.

Iced coffee happened, peeps! But not just any iced coffee. This is a cold-brewed, French press version of iced coffee.

I know, I'm pretty awesome.

This chilly beverage was so yummy, even Lucy was begging for it (I accidentally spilled a little, which she quickly gobbled up).

The only catch to this recipe is the amount of time it takes to cold-brew the coffee. This isn't something you can prepare last minute, unless you keep some of the coffee 'concentrate's your fridge (which I am!). Basically, the coffee needs at east 12 hours to brew, but it's super easy. Here is what you need to get started:

French press and your favorite ground coffee, that's it. I gotta be straight up with you, my friends. Dunkin' Donuts is the best coffee ever. I will assume you agree.

To your French press, add ½ cup ground coffee (I'll pretend you are all using Dunkin') and 3 cups of COLD water. The water must be cold, no hot-brewing for us! While the cold-brew technique takes longer, I find it produces a much smoother coffee base, which I like. Gently stir things around, then replace the lid on your French press. But don't push down the plunger yet!!!!

Just so you understand the importance of this, let me repeat myself. Don't push down the plunger, people, I mean it!  Things should look a little bit like this:

Notice the position of the plunger, ok?

Now, you just walk away. That's right, walk away. For at least twelve hours. I like to mix this at night, then I'm all set for iced coffee in the morning.

Technically, iced coffee would simply be coffee served over ice. You can totally wake up in the morning, press down the plunger, and pour your cold-brewed coffee over ice. OR, you can make this sweeter, flavored version that I think is awesome. Completely up to you.

Here's what you do: Fill 4 glasses to the rim with ice (or one glass, or two. This recipe makes 4 servings, but you can store your extra cold-brewed coffee in the fridge for a week or so). Pour ¼ cup of half-n-half in each glass, and ½ - 1 tablespoon of the flavoring of your choice. I chose vanilla (and used ½ tablespoon), but you could easily use caramel, hazelnut, peppermint… anything really.

Then, top each glass with ¾ cup of the cold-brewed coffee. Stir, and enjoy your awesomeness.

As usual, the standard recipe is below. This is a basic recipe, with lots of options for customizing. Try different coffees, flavored creamers, various syrups or spices. I love the idea of a caramel and sea salt creation! In fact, I think I'll try that next.

Until next time, my friends!

Thanks for reading, everyone!

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The Standard Form:

Basic Iced Coffee

(Cold-Brewed)

Ingredients:

½ cup ground coffee

3 cups cold water

1 cup half-half

up to 4 tablespoons of vanilla syrup

Directions:

To begin, cold brew your coffee. Add the ground coffee to your French press, then top with the 3 cups of cold water. Gently stir the mixture, then place the lid on your French press but DO NOT press the plunger down. Allow the coffee to sit 12 hours or overnight.

After the coffee has time to brew, press down the plunger on your French press, gently. This will create your coffee “concentrate”, about 3 cups

To make the iced coffee: Fill 4 glass to the rim with ice. (use ice cubes made from coffee if you want to be really creative!). Pour ¼ cup half-n-half in the bottom of each glass, and up to 1 tablespoon of vanilla syrup (or syrup flavor of your choice). Top with ¾ cup coffee. Stir and enjoy!

Other mix-in ideas: flavored syrups (hazelnut, caramel, vanilla, peppermint), chocolate syrup, sugar, sea salt, fudge, and cinnamon  

Creamy Lemon Parmesan Dressing

With spring turning to summer, I've been searching out recipes that don't require the use of my oven. So far, this means a lot of salads and sandwiches, and crockpot meals. Since I'm also on a quest to make things from scratch, I decided to try my hand at salad dressing. Aaaaaannnnnnnnnd, I had some fresh lemons going bad.

Hence how this lemon parmesan dressing came to be. 

Here's the thing about homemade salad dressings: they're best served fresh, and they don't keep very long in the fridge. Without all the chemicals and preservatives in them, it's not safe to store these in your fridge for more than a day, maybe two. That's why I kept this recipe small. After mixing, this will dress  4-6 salads, depending on size. If you need less, simply halve the recipe. 

The ingredients

I almost always have these ingredients on hand. I like acidic, fresh dressing on my salad. I'm definitely not a ranch dressing person (unlike the Hubs). BUT, even the Hubs liked this, so I figured that made the recipe ready to share with you. 

 Are you ready for how simple this is? Ok. 

Whisk together ½ cup mayonnaise, ¼ cup fresh lemon juice, ½ teaspoon lemon zest, 1 teaspoon dijon mustard, 1 clove finely minced garlic, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon black pepper. 

Are you good so far? Ok. 

To that mixture, slowly pour in 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, whisking the entire time. Once combined, stir in ⅓ cup finely grated parmesan cheese. 

That's it. Seriously. 

Serve over your favorite salad fixings. Ta da! 

Even the Hubs can make this. I especially like this over a salad of fresh greens with sweet corn, avocado, tomato, green pepper, and chicken. Nom nom nom… 

I'll be back again soon with more summer friendly recipes. Until then, happy cooking! 

Thanks for reading, everyone!

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Email me: armylifefromthewife@gmail.com

Crockpot Poached Chicken

As the warmer months approach, I've been on a mission to create recipes that don't require my oven or stovetop. Do you believe it, there's no AC here in Germany?!

Ya, I didn't believe it either. Until we got here, and realized… no AC. Hence the desire for no-heat recipes as often as possible. The oven really warms up the house, but the crockpot is a wonderful alternative. 

I use poached chicken in any number of recipes, but I especially love it for chicken salad (stay tuned this week for my Hard Rock Chicken Salad recipe!). The Hubs would rather I make buffalo chicken dip with it, so I usually poach enough for both recipes. 

The process is relatively simple. Add your chicken breasts to the crockpot, then pour in enough chicken broth to completely cover the breasts. If you don't have chicken broth on hand, you can always use water. Or a combination of both. I prefer chicken stock because it adds a little extra flavor. 

You can also add in various seasonings and spices too! Because I made this especially for my chicken salad, I topped the broth off with 1 lemon (sliced into wedges) and a few sprigs of fresh dill. 

The rest is easy… just put the lid on your crockpot, set the heat to low, and walk away for a few hours! My chicken takes about 2-3 hours to cook, depending on thickness. I suggest you start checking for doneness around the 2 hour mark. When done, remove the chicken from the pot and let rest for 10 minutes before you shred, slice, or dice it. 

Why do we let the chicken rest? Because we don't want all the yummy juices to run out and leave us with tough, dry chicken. Trust me, peeps. 

Poached chicken is great for so many recipes, I couldn't even list them all. But try it with chicken salad, buffalo dip, quesadillas, chopped on green salads… the list could go on and on! And you don't need to heat up your house to do it either, total bonus. 

I'll be back soon with my special chicken salad recipe, Hard Rock style. Until then peeps, happy cooking!

Thanks for reading, everyone!

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or on Pinterest, my newest obsession @ ArmyLifeFromTheWife

Email me: armylifefromthewife@gmail.com

The Standard Form:

Crockpot Poached Chicken

Ingredients:

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

4 cups chicken broth

1 lemon, cut into wedges

4 sprigs fresh dill

Directions:

Add all ingredients to your crock pot. The liquid should completely cover the chicken breasts. If it does not, add enough water until the breasts are covered. Cook on low heat for 2-3 hours, checking after 2 hours to see if the chicken is cooked. Do not let the chicken overcook or it will dry out. Once cooked, remove from pot and allow chicken to rest for 10 minutes before slicing, shredding, or dicing.

White Pimento Cheese Spread

When you move around a lot, you start missing things from all over the world. Of course, I always miss  the food! And places. And cool shops. And a whole host of other things.

But mostly the food. And the people.

You feel me here, peeps? I miss Mexican food from El Paso, and crumb cake from New York. I already have a list of things I know I'll miss from Germany. One of the things I crave the most comes from the town I grew up in, in Virginia. A local company made a "gourmet white pimento cheese spread" that was absolutely to die for.

Like the crumb cake, the cheese couldn't be shipped. Something had to be done! So I re-created it at home, and now I eat it whenever I want.  

White Pimento Cheese Spread

Because that's how I roll.

Oddly enough, I used to be prejudiced against pimento cheese. I thought it was weird. But then I tried the "gourmet" version, and I was hooked. I bet you will be too. Come on, give pimentos a chance…

The ingredients are pretty basic:

The ingredients

And the method is pretty easy. Start by mixing a few spices into ½ cup of mayonnaise: ¼ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper, and an ⅛ teaspoon garlic powder.

Then, whip 3 ounces of cream cheese until it's all light and fluffy. I do this with my hand mixer, the process is much quicker this way. Blend your mayo mix into the fluffy cream cheese.

This goopiness may look weird, but it's the binder for your cheeses and it's going to taste delicious when everything is put together, I promise. The most important ingredient in your spread is the cheese. Don't by the pre-shredded stuff, people! Grate your own, it's worth it. Trust me.

So, to your goop, add 2 cups of freshly grated white cheddar cheese. You can use the yellow kind, but then it wouldn't be white pimento cheese anymore. The white cheddar has a slightly different flavor too, try it one time and you'll see.

Also add 1 cup of freshly grated Monterey Jack cheese, and ¼ cup of fresh grated Parmesan. Grate the Parmesan on the littlest hole of your grater, kay? Also on the smallest opening, grate 2 teaspoons of onion.

The smallest grater side

Stir in 2 tablespoons of minced green onion as well, and 1 jar (4 ounces) of diced pimentos, drained of the liquid.

Mix it all around, and viola! White pimento cheese. I suggest chilling the mixture for at least 2 hours before serving, but you don't have to. To be honest, I always taste test a couple bites before the cheese makes it into the fridge. Don't tell!

I make this for parties, or weekend snacking. Or weeknight snacking. And I always make a double batch, because the Hubs is a pimento cheese hog. If you want to spice things up a little, try adding a bit of minced jalapeño to the mix.

Until next time, happy cooking!

Thanks for reading, everyone!

Follow me on Facebook @ OurArmyLifeAccordingToTheWife

or on Pinterest, my newest obsession @ ArmyLifeFromTheWife

Email me: armylifefromthewife@gmail.com

The Standard Form: 

White Pimento Cheese Spread

Ingredients:

½ cup mayonnaise

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

3 oz. cream cheese, softened

2 cups sharp white cheddar cheese, grated fresh

1 cup Monterey Jack cheese, grated fresh

¼ cup Parmesan cheese, grated fresh

1 (4 oz.) jar pimentos, drained

2 teaspoons finely grated onion

2 tablespoons green onions, minced

Directions:

Mix the garlic powder, salt, and black pepper with the mayonnaise. Beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy, then add the mayonnaise mixture to it and beat until well combined. Stir in all three types of cheese, the grated onion, pimentos, and green onions. Mix until well blended. Chill before serving. Serve with crackers, or as a sandwich.