Iced African Elixer

Oh, I have found a new favorite tea! Its an organic mixture African Vanilla Rooibos and African Honeybush. Its light with just a hint of vanilla. And the best part is it is virtually caffeine free.

Iced African Elixir

8 T. Organic African Elixir Tea
1 cup plus 6 cups of filtered water

Boil 1 cup of filtered water. Turn off heat and add 8 T. of African Elixir tea. Steep for 15 minutes. Strain. Add 6 cups of filtered water to the tea concentrate. Chill and serve.

Courtney and Scott's Granola

Scott and I made this granola out of all of the things we like best about granola. We opted to use only natural sugars and keep it low in oil. I think it turned out great!

• 4 cups rolled oats
• ¾ cups wheat germ
• ¾ cups oat bran
• ¼ cup sunflower seeds
• ½ cup finely chopped almonds
• ½ cup finely chopped pecans
• ½ cup finely chopped walnuts
• 3/4 teaspoons salt
• ¼ cup maple syrup
  
• 1 T honey
  
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
  
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ cup sweetened coconut
• 1 cups raisins or sweetened dried cranberries

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Combine the oats, wheat germ, oat bran, sunflower seeds, almonds, pecans, and walnuts in a large bowl.

In a small saucepan, mix together the salt, maple syrup, honey, oil, cinnamon, and vanilla. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then pour over the dry ingredients, and stir to coat. Spread the mixture out a baking sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes. Stir in coconut and bake for an additional 10 minutes or until crispy and toasted. Cool, then add in the raisins or cranberries.

Denver Visit

Just back from the Mile High City! Scott and I spent the weekend with our friend David and his girlfriend Rachael touring Denver. What an awesome city. It has a great downtown, lots of cute historic neighborhoods, and a simple to use light-rail system. I also found out that my new favorite beer, Fat Tire, is local to Colorado. Yum! So is Coor's, but thats less than exciting.

After our visit in the city, Scott and I spent three days snowboarding at three different resorts: Keystone, Breckenridge, and Vail. Each resort was surrounded by a cute little mountain town, however, Vail was just a little bit to "Disney" for me. The snow was absolutely amazing while were were there, so much nicer than in Southern California. I will defiantly be back to Colorado.

At the mile high marker at the capital building

David at his favorite place - "Horse on chair"

Giant cows at the Denver Arts Museum

In Vail Village, after a morning of snowboarding

Tea Cozzy and Pot holders

Check out how cute these are!

Christmas Knits

Happy New Year! This past week since I have been off work has been about visting with family and friends, cooking, and crafting...

Since my grandmother is always cold I knit her this basketweave scarf with Lions Brand cashmere blend yarn for Christmas. It was very simple and looks so elegant.

I also finshed two pairs of Fetching figureless gloves from Knitty's pattern archive. One pair for my mom and one pair for me. I made some modifications including adding more rows in the thumb and in the fingures, in order to keep my hands warmer. They will be great for knitting outside during Scott's soccer games.

Beads, Beads, Beads

I think I have found a new craft! My uncle's girlfriend brought her beads over to our house for Christmas. My mom, sister, and I were all able to design our own peice of jewerly. I created this necklace with pearls.


I was so into the idea of designing my own jewerly that I brought some beads to create this necklace and matching bracelet, based on a necklace that my sister bought a while ago. I think I may be beading more in the future. Who knew!

Simple Hooded Cardigan

Friends Paul and Shannon just had a baby boy, Andrew, in September. I decided to knit him a sweater for Christmas. This is the Simple Hooded Cardigan with Lion Brand Jiffy in Rust. This is a very easy pattern, and only took a couple of days to make, however, I wasn't able to get the correct gauge so it came out a little bit smaller than the pattern calls for. Hopefully it will fit.