Since the South has taken a drawn attention via the comments of a certain Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, I thought I'd take the opportunity to focus on Something else the South is known for, Sweet Tea.
There are many theories on how to make the proper glass of sweet tea, I'm about to give you recipe for the famous Tony Gattis (aka TexDem) version. To start, you have to realize there are a few nevers involved with making a good glass of tea. 1. Never use teabags. The paper used to make the teabags goes thru a bleaching process. The bleached paper leaves an after taste in your tea. 2. Never, never, never, never, never boil the water. Use a thermometer, about 180 degrees is enough.
The next thing is to determine which tea to use. I prefer an black cut 100% orange pekoe, loose leaf, course cut. It give a fuller richer flavor for my palate. I get this from the Lipton International line, not Lipton domestic. Lipton domestic is a blended tea, black tea and black cut orange pekoe. You'll find Lipton International in your local ethnic stores under the Label; Lipton Yellow Label Tea or online via Amazon. (BTW, you usually find it less expensive than the domestic too.)
I start with a large pot (3qt) with about 2.5 quarts of cold tap water (this depends on the quality of your local water, I've been known to use a gallon jug of water from the store if the local water is less than adequate.)
Next I use a digital thermometer to keep an eye on the water temp. Remember, no more than 180 degrees, I usually pull the water from the heat source around 175.
When the water reaches proper temp I add the tea. Since I make one gallon of tea at a time I use 3 Tablespoons of loose leaf. You let this steep for 5 minutes. No more than 5 minutes or the tea may become bitter.
While the water was coming to temp and the tea was steeping I was perpare the container. I do this by dissolving the sugar (1.5 cups) in some water in the container. This serves two purposes. It tempers the container from the hot tea you are about to pour into it. And it saves you from stirring the tea, post pour.
When the tea has steeped for 5 minutes I strain the loose tea into a separate container. I use a separate container to reduce the amount of residual tea. The residual tea adds to the souring of your tea. The quicker you drink it the less likely you'll have this problem.
Next, I fill a tall glass with ice and pour the warm, almost hot, tea over the ice for that fresh, just made flavor of cold iced tea.
Make sure your storage container is airtight, the freshness will last longer. Let the tea cool outside of the refrigerator before you put it away.
Now you can have a glass of Tony's Tea anytime.
I generally drink mine with no fruit, if you have to, go ahead and add a lemon, but it's much better without it. If you have to add a wedge of something, try a lime. I picked that one up in San Antonio, it's quite refreshing, if you need a piece of fruit in your tea.
I don't know if you've seen them yet, but you can find Sweet Tea flavored vodka at your local package store. I used to make a pretty good Long Island Iced Tea, back in my bar-tending days. It tasted like a can of Lipton lemon flavored tea.
SIGN UP NOW!!!!
Although we started our fundraising several months ago, we're about to kick it into high gear. Netroots For The Troops is introducing NFTT 2010 Personal/Team Fundraising Pages. The idea is to empower each of you to multiply your personal donations by creating a Personal NFTT 2010 Fundraising Page. Through this page you will be able to approach your friends, relatives, neighbors, co-workers and colleagues etc to donate to NFTT via your page. We're asking you to sign up to personally raise $1000.00. If you were a small donor last year but wanted to do more, this is a way for you to increase your donation via your contacts.
While we're encouraging this to be individual efforts we're not going to discourage teams. For example; we have a mother/daughter pair who's last name is Hobbs and they're going to call the pairing "The Hobbettes". It was that or the Hobbitts and they liked the "ettes" better than the "itts".
Getting Started
There are two ways you can help: 1)Make an individual donation by clicking on the Donate button and/or 2) Register to be a Personal Fundraiser by clicking the Register button to the left. We're ready to help you get started by creating your own personal fundraising page! Once you've signed up, we will email (within 36 to 48 hrs.)to you a Fundraising Kit that includes sample solicitation letters, how to order business cards, and tips for how to ask people to support your cause.
Use your imagination to raise funds. Last year we had a kossack and her daughters raise funds at a neighborhood event by selling lemonade. Ask your church, temple, synagogue etc. to assist you in your effort. Approach a small retailer about "putting up a jar". Have fun with it. Make up a flier to put on every car you see with a "Support Our Troups" magnet on it.
What Can I Do On Daily Kos?
We're asking you not to post a diary for your personal pages on Daily Kos. Daily Kos is NFTT's home base and we'll still be posting general diaries for fundraising on Daily Kos. We're also asking that you refrain from posting comments within the general NFTT diaries promoting your personal page.
What you can do, is post a comment in Open Thread and other open forums requesting someone to go through your personal page to make a donation.You can also make your sig. line your donation page link. Just be courteous and polite in whatever you do for NFTT. People love supporting the troops, so you don't need to be overly aggressive in soliciting for their benefit. Your actions reflect upon all of us.
Netroots For The Troops mission is two-fold: annual shipment of CARE packages to US soldiers and Marines serving in hostile regions of Iraq and Afghanistan for the duration of their deployment, and on-going financial assistance for veterans and their families upon their return to the states.
UPDATE
All recurring donations that were set up at the old link have been canceled. Those donations were for NFTT and NAEI has had suspended them for us. If you want to continue to support NAEI you will have have to go to their link to continue to do so.
On with the games!!
Mojo Friday Guidelines
- If you comment you have to recommend all comments. (in order to receive mojo you have to give mojo. It's only good mojo manners.)
- Everything you say may be taken as a joke (so if you ask a question, expect a silly answer)
- You must recommend the diary (and pimp it unapologetically)
- You don't have to comment to recommend.
- You can't steal my idea (right, like that ain't goin' to happen)
- Please, no pictures or YouTubes until after 300 comments. Now, after 300, use a little common courtesy and be responsible in the number.
- Mojo mojo mojo mojo, mojo mojo mojo.
- TexDem (that's me) is not bound by the guidelines. Heh
Mojo Friday Goals
A. At least 300 different commenters and 1000 comments by 1:30 PM EST and 1500 by 5:00 PM EST Friday Night that it's posted.
B. 100 recommends for each comment, at least.
C. Stay on Recommend List at least five hours (this requires some strategic planning by you guys, refer to guideline #3)
D. At least 200 diary recommends. 300 would be better, spread the word.
E. And always, fun fun fun.
F. Have at least 75% average participation rate as seen here in the Mojo Friday Postgame Show by Hedwig.
G. (New) Have at least 30 kossacks over 90% participation (see here for some tips).
H. Overload the servers with recommends, not to mention dominate Top Comments Mojo list. (we do tend to mess with the site with all of our recommends at one time)(also, to dominate the Top Comments Top Mojo we need at least 50 comments with over 200 recommends, see guideline B)
I. That's enough for now. (Have a suggestion? Post it.)
MKinTN posted a diary to help everyone achieve greater success called How to Succeed at Mojo Friday Without Really Trying.
For those of you new to MF (Mojo Friday) we have our own lingo about a few things. Thank's to MF'er Jez (the link will explain) go to this diary for a little more fun and explanation. Official Mojo Friday Snecktionary.