Mint Lemonade - it's NEWs to me

Okay, so the Lemonade Crystal light with mint tea has quickly become my beverage of choice.
Rather than mixing the crystal light with 8 cups water, mix with 6 cups water and 2 cups brewed mint herbal tea, then chill. Yum Yum! I have gone through 6 batches in a week.
This may or may not have something to do with me losing 5 lbs in the last week. :)

How have I lived 30-something years and never tried mint lemonade until this week? Last Tuesday I asked a waitress at Mistral in Redwood City if they had lemonade. Her response was, 'We have raspberry lemonade and a mint lemonade--it's pretty good.' I was suddenly intrigued. I had to try the mint lemonade. YUMMMMM! I had two.

I've been thinking about that mint lemonade all week and how to re-create it. I actually bought fresh mint and a bottle of fresh lemonade at the grocery store last night. I put a sprig of mint in a glass of lemonade and tried to bruise it up by stirring it. Not quite the level of mintiness I was looking for, so I started to experiment.

Then I googled mint lemonade and found several different recipes. It sounds like the best method is probably to boil a handful of fresh mint in a small amount of water (1/2 cup), let this cool, then use as part of the water when making lemonade from concentrate or from scratch. I haven't tried this yet, because I already have a whole bottle of lemonade with mint that I combined in a blender in my fridge (and another pitcher of the one described below).

AND for those that are into sugar-free like I usually am, I tried this today. Brew 2 cups of mint tea and let cool. Combine the 2 cups of mint tea, 6 cups of water and a packet of Crystal Light Lemonade, and voila! Not exactly the same, but still pretty tasty and sugar-free.

Working Kitchen

I'm so excited that our kitchen is finally all cleaned up and functioning again.

The last task is to find outlet screws that are long enough to re-connect my face plates.

My new project

If you know me, you know that once I finish a project, I must come up with a new one. So, as soon as I'd passed my real estate test, I started fixating on my next project: a new kitchen counter top. After a few weeks of thinking, I've decided to do ceramic tile. Because I can install it myself, it will be cheaper than replacing the laminate (my original idea). We just need to get rid of the 'harvest gold' color in order for our kitchen to be considered 'updated' in an appraisal.

So, this post counts as the "BEFORE" pictures of this project. Last night I purchased all of the supplies I'll need, including my very own tile saw! This is the most exciting part to me. I love new tools and not renting a saw means I can do a little tiling several evenings during the week, rather than having to cram the entire project into one weekend so I can get the saw returned. Granted, it's only a 7" saw, but this project involves 4" tiles, so it will be perfect! My biggest challenge will be cutting off the laminate backsplash so I won't have a ledge when I tile the backsplash. I think I have the perfect saw for that, so we'll see how it goes. Hopefully, I'll be posting on my progess in the next several days.

Okay, when I started typing this entry last night, I really thought it would just be "before" pictures. But, I got a little excited tonight after I got back from Lowes and I discovered that I could easily remove the backsplashes with a hammer and chisel, rather than a saw, which scared me to death when it jumped back at me! So, I ripped them out! Here are my "progress" photos for today. Check out the groovy wallpaper! I'm planning to jump in with the tile tomorrow night. :)