Little Woods Blog

Tag: recipe

  • Honey Rosemary Lemonade

    Honey Rosemary Lemonade

    Whether you’re hitting the gym hard or unwinding by the pool, sometimes you need a boost that doesn’t come from caffeine. We’re thrilled to share our most popular drink from last month at the tea bar with you! Now, you can make it at home and enjoy it whenever you’re craving a refreshing pick-me-up.

    There’s actually three parts to this recipe:

    1. The Honey Lemon Syrup
    2. The Crush It! Tisane Concentrate
    3. Mixing it all together

    Let’s get started. First the syrup.

    1. Making the Honey Lemon Syrup

    • 1/4 cup Honey
    • 1/2 cup Lemon Juice
    • 1 T. Water

    Directions: Mix all the ingredients together until the honey and lemon juice is well combined. Store in the fridge for up to 7 days.

    2. Making the Crush IT! Concentrate

    • 1oz Crush IT tisane
    • 1 quart boiling water
    • quart mason jar (optional – just a convenient size)

    Directions: Steep the Crush IT for 10 minutes. Strain into the jar and fill the rest of the way with ice until you have a quart again and store in fridge for up to one week. Follow our Iced tea by the cup recipe to make a single cup worth at a time.

    3. Making the Honey Rosemary Lemonade

    Ingredients

    • 1/2 cup Crush it Concentrate
    • 1/2 cup Cold Water
    • 1oz Honey Lemon Syrup

    Directions: Put into a pint mason jar full of ice, cover with lid, shake, pour into your favorite cup or enjoy right from the jar!

  • Recipe: Agua de Jamaica (Hibiscus Iced Tea)

    Recipe: Agua de Jamaica (Hibiscus Iced Tea)

    Happy Cinco de Mayo! Food, festivals, and family fill this Mexican/ Mexican-American holiday! Bring a taste of this joyful celebration into your home this year with Spiced Hibiscus Iced Tea – a classic drink served in Mexican taquerias! It’s a great mocktail option to serve along side your favorite margarita!

    Here at Little Woods we mix up a special batch the week of Cinco de Mayo as our featured drink until it runs out — which is usually pretty quickly! First made based on a Agua de Jamaica (Hibiscus Iced Tea) recipe over at Simply Recipes, we’ve adapted it over the years for our own tastes and tea bar service. Below is our own variation:

    Little Woods’ Agua de Jamaica Adaptation

    4 cups water
    1 cup dried hibiscus flowers whole (cut would work also)
    3/4 cup sugar
    2 x 2.75in cinnamon sticks
    1t. dried ginger root c/s
    1t. whole allspice berries
    1/4t. whole cloves

    1. Add spices and sugar to water and bring to a boil. Stir until sugar is dissolved.
    2. Remove from heat and add hibiscus flowers. Let steep for 20 minutes.
    3. Strain into a pitcher.
    4. Top with 4 cups cold water. 

    For a sparkling twist, keep as a concentrate and add 1 part concentrate, 1 part carbonated water to a glass when serving.

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    Enjoy!

    – Little Woods –

  • Guacamole Recipe(s) – Debuting our newest blend!

    Guacamole Recipe(s) – Debuting our newest blend!

    Simple or complex, guacamole is always good. And now, you can dash in some of our guacamole spice blend and elevate it to the irresistible status it deserves. Beware. I literally couldn’t stop eating it.

    Inspired by a friend who insisted this was a must make blend, I did a little research, spent too much time looking for a source for the elusive mexican oregano (finally found it and am happy to say we’ve added it to our catalog), a lot of taste testing (nom nom nom), and voila. A new blend was born!

    What’s in it? Well, no fillers, additives, preservatives, dyes, or etc. In fact we left the salt out too so you can determine your own saltiness to taste.

    Ingredients: garlic, onion, cumin, black pepper, cayenne, Mexican oregano

    Now, Guacamole. The whole point of the blend. Here’s how we’ve made ours, but you can add it to any guacamole recipe you like. I’m going to give you some options too. Simple and classic or complex and gourmet!

    Classic Guacamole Recipe

    Mix it all together and enjoy with tortillas.

    Keep scrolling for EVEN better guacamole.

    Gourmet Guacamole Recipe

    Now, of course classic guac is DELISH. But I really like it even more when it’s filled with some other veg. Like tomatoes, cilantro, and onions, mmmm. Yum!

    My favorite way to “dice” an avocado so it’s easy to mash up for guacamole.
    1. Split your avocado in half, cut in half, remove the pit. Now here is the trick, score it, then use a spoon to scoop it out into a bowl.

    2. Dice up the cilantro, onions, tomatoes, and toss it all in the bowl.

    3. Sprinkle the salt right over the tomatoes and onions.

    4. Squeeze the lime (and/or lemon) over it all.

    5. Use a fork to mash it all together, but not too much.

    Dip those chips and enjoy!

    Until Next Time!
    Kristin M Roach

  • Recipe: Herbaceous Baked Eggs

    Recipe: Herbaceous Baked Eggs

    This one is so lovingly easy I thought I would just show you in photo essay format. About 2 minutes of prep and 20 minutes of roasting in the oven or toaster oven. It’s become my absolute favorite egg recipe when I have a half hour to make breakfast.

    Ingredient breakdown:

    • 2 eggs
    • 1 Tablespoon chopped fresh herbs or 1 teaspoon dried herbs like chives and thyme
    • Salt and pepper to taste or for a little kick, Hunter Spice or Berbere.
    • 1-2 Tablespoons heavy whipping cream
    • Bonus add on: Canadian Bacon
    • Bonus add on: cheese like feta or parm on top

    Bake it all at 325F for 15 – 20 minutes until it puffs up

    Tip: if using dried herbs, put them in a little bowl with a splash of hot water to rehydrate them first.

    And that’s it. Enjoy!

    Kristin

  • Drink Feature: Rendezvous Tea Latte

    Drink Feature: Rendezvous Tea Latte

    What do you get when you mix our Twilight black tea, frothy milk, and a gourmet rose syrup? A rendezvous with pure delight!

    You can stop by the shop during the month of Febrauary to enjoy this decidant treat. Okay, okay, we know not all of you can make it to downtown Ames. Do not dispare, this is how you can enjoy it at home any time of the year!

    Ingredients

    Directions

    1. Bring your kettle up to a boil and steep 1T of Twlight in 4oz of water (about a 1/2 cup).
    2. In a small sauce pan, warm up 1 cup milk over medium-low heat.
    3. Once it the milk starts to steam, whisk. Make sure to not let it boil.
    4. The tea should be ready, strain the leaves or pull out your infuser.
    5. Add 1t – 1T Rose Syrup to tea and pour in milk.
    6. Dust with the crushed rose for added decidance.
    Brianna making our rose simple syrup – want to make your own, get the kit here.

    Our Botanical Syrup Gift Box it makes for a great gift any time of year – it has our three favorite ingredients for making simple syrups: Rose, Hibiscus, and Cardamom (a key feature of our Chai Tea Latte).

    Already know how to make simple syrup and just need the rose? Grab it from our bulk section by the ounce to the pound.

    Until Next Time!

  • Recipe: Holy Basil Pesto

    Recipe: Holy Basil Pesto

     For book club this month I read Adaptogens: Herbs for Strength, Stamina, and Stress Relief by David Winston and Steven Maimes, which was a pretty interested read. According to the authors, the three things that are key in an herb being considered an “adaptogen” is that it is 1) Tonic – can be taken daily long term without causing harm, 2) Have a non-specific response in the body, and 3) have a normalizing influence. Read… things that can be incorporated into your diet because they are generally considered food – like astragalus in soup and holy basil in… everything!

    It’s mainly re-affirmed my love affair with Holy Basil, which is growing in a large leafy bush in my garden this summer.

    Last month we decided we would continue our potluck style book club so I headed to the garden and harvested a bunch of holy basil to try my hand at making it into a pesto. I read as many blog posts and recipes on the topic as I could find, weirdly only about four… maybe my search terms were off.

    As usual, I then tossed out the recipes and made up my own, because as Jason tells me it’s fairly against my nature to follow a recipe. It turned out pretty delicious and everyone’s eyes lit up when I said I had brought enough to share with book club goers and staff alike.

    Holy Basil (Tulsi) Pesto

    • 1 tightly packed cup of fresh holy basil
    • 1/2 cup olive oil
    • 1/4 cup chopped fresh ginger
    • 1/4 cup almonds (soaked for 20 mins or so, water discarded)
    • Juice of 1 lime
    • 1″ block parmesan cheese
    • 2 cloves garlic or 1/2t. granulated garlic
    • Salt (alder smoked) to taste
    • Black cracked Pepper to taste

    I used an immersion blender to puree everything, but a food processor or blender would work just as well.

    Toss with pasta and enjoy!

     Want to join us for book club next month? We are reading Midwest Medicinal Plants by Lisa M. Rose (available in our shop) and will meet up at the shop Thursday, August 16 from 12-1pm. See our book club facebook event for all the details and to rsvp.