Refreshing Citrus Water

I often make this for family gatherings, and it is always a hit with everyone!  3 lemons, 3 limes, 3 oranges - sliced thin and thrown into a container with a spigot.  Add ice and water to fill.

Ice added.  For an extra bonus, you can add sparkling water too!

It looks beautiful on the counter, and I add water and ice to it throughout the party.  At the end of the party, you can fill it up with more water, stir and then put the water into a separate container to have the next day.

Cold-brewed Vietnamese-style iced coffee

Cold-brewed coffee involves steeping ground coffee in cold water.  The following recipe is adapted from an article in Food & Wine magazine.

Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups cold water
8 oz coarsely ground dark roast coffee
sweetener*
milk
half & half *
ice

In a bowl, stir 8 oz coarsely ground coffee into 4.5 cups cold water

I used a zeroed food scale to measure my ground coffee.

What can I tell you?  I wanted to be accurate!

Press the ground coffee so that it is well moistened

Cover, let stand at room temperature for 24 hours

Pour grounds and water through a fine strainer

If possible, allow the grounds to continue to strain

as you will get more liquid

Pour 2 oz half and half, 4 oz milk, spoon sweetener to taste,

and add 6 oz strained coffee into a glass.

Mix thoroughly.  Add ice.

This is my preferred sweetener, but sugar or Splenda will do just as well

Delicious!

*Note:  the original recipe called for use of 2 oz sweetened condensed milk.  That really didn't sound good to me, and I'm watching my intake of sugar, so I substituted with half and half and a non-calorie sweetener.