This post is sponsored by got milk? in partnership with local California organizations that educate kids about the importance of proper nutrition and healthy lifestyle.

CMPB (California Milk Processors Board) needs a round of applause. I love this organization, not only do they talk the talk they walk the walk. I know you’re thinking I’m throwing confetti on CMPB because this is a sponsored post, but let’s be real here, that is not the case. They really are supporting causes that speak to my heart and inner child. Recently they have partnered up with 3 different Golden State community based organizations: Think Together, The Bay Area Community, and Central Valley Afterschool foundation. CMPB will help raise money for these organizations which support afterschool and summer programs offering families wholesome real simple food options to encourage a healthy lifestyle.   They hope to raise a total of $50,000 from July 9, 2012 to August 5 , 2012.  Here’s the awesome part, they don’t just expect that you will donate, they have come up with a clever idea of making these irresistibly cute vintage looking glasses and selling the pair for $15 dollars (Click here to order your own), that includes shipping and handling. That’s an unheard of price for such stylish glassware. These uber cool glasses coincide with the GOT MILK “Science of Imitation Milk” campaign they have going on, where they compare REAL MILK to the imitation stuff. You will see on the glass a laundry list of all the ingredients that go into imitation milk vs. the two that go into real milk. It’s not pretty by comparision.

What to pour in my new milk glasses? I made caramel cinnamon milk to sip on a warm day and to show off my new glassware. 🙂 Enjoy!

Ingredients for Caramel Cinnamon Milk:

3 – cinnamon sticks

2 – cups water

3 – tablespoons spreadable caramel ( I like to use cajeta)

1 – glass of cold milk

In a medium saucepan over a high flame add cinnamon sticks and water. Bring to a boil. Allow to boil for 10 minutes. Remove from flame and pour cinnamon tea into a bowl. Then mix caramel into cinnamon tea. Mix until completely dissolved.

Then pour into a popsicle mold and freeze over night.

Remove from freezer and slowly pull a caramel cinnamon popsicle from tray. Pour a nice big glass of cold milk and place popsicle in milk and allow to melt for about 20 minutes. Then take a sip of a refreshing cold caramel cinnamon milk.

As part of the Foodbuzz Featured Publisher Program, I received a stipend and got milk? glassware in exchange for my participation in this program.

If I could float away into the world of soda and ice cream I would.  I love the foamy substance a float produces up top, it makes scooping out the ice cream with a spoon and gulping down the soda with a straw a heavenly experience.  I’ve been feeling rather peachy lately and it isn’t a coincidence that Melissa’s Produce and I are on the same wave of sentiments.  They were kind enough to send me over a batch of stone fruits. Pictured below.

After sinking my teeth into their skin and marveling over the sweetness of their flesh I wanted to enjoy them as many ways as possible.  I recently had a delicious float and was inspired to make a peach version.  Something to cool down my summer and quench my sweet tooth at the same time.  Peach and cream float with ginger cookie crumbs would definitely do the trick.

Ingredients for Peach & Cream Float:

peach ice cream

1 – peach (cored and sliced)

cream soda

ginger cookies

In a big cup add 3 to 5 scoops of ice cream.

Then take your sliced peaches and add them in!

Then pour cream soda over the top till filled, then crumble ginger cookie on top!

Stick a straw and a spoon in it, and SLURP till your heart’s content!

All photos taken by: Nicole Presley and Mando Lopez

My grandfather is a sandwich lover.  He always eats a sandwich on days where the temperature tips the thermometer anywhere over 83 degrees.  I have so many childhood memories of my grandfather’s crumbs left on an empty plate… evidence a  sandwich was there.  By nature I am my grandfather’s granddaughter and enjoy a sandwich every chance I get.

I am also a strawberry lemonade devotee.  I crave the type you can buy at the country fair or at some farmer’s markets.  Lucky for me I have a big lemon tree in my back yard and take full advantage of it on a warm day.  I make a big pitcher of strawberry lemonade and a mouthwatering sandwich to go with it, then for the rest of the afternoon I’ve got it made in the shade!

Ingredients for strawberry lemonade:

1 1/3 – cups sugar

2 – cups freshly squeezed lemon juice

16 – ounces fresh strawberries (stems removed)

10 – cups water

In a sauce pan over medium heat add sugar and 1 cup of water.  Stir till sugar dissolves completely…. making a simple syrup. Remove from heat and set to the side.

Then pour lemon juice in pitcher.  Set to the side.

In a bowl add strawberries and smash with a masher…. or muddle to break up.  Then add to the lemon juice pitcher.

Next pour in simple syrup, and 9 cups of water.

Mix well and you got STRAWBERRY LEMONADE! Chill overnight in the fridge or serve on the rocks!

All photos by: Mando Lopez and Nicole Presley

 Every so often the evening is in order for a nightcap.  Something that will fray the tension of the day to the sidelines and bring sleep to a cozy snuggle.  I happen to favor the Hot Toddy.  I remember exactly where I was the first time I had the beverage… Boston Summer 2002.  I had a nasty cold and an Irish family friend of mine suggested a Hot Toddy, reassuring me I would like the taste and it would help me sleep through the night.  Hot Toddy turned out to be so right…It’s such a GREAT drink.

Ingredients for hot toddy:

1 – cinnamon stick

3 – cloves

2 – anise stars

2 1/2 – cups water

1 – lemon

3 – tablespoons honey

4 – ounces whiskey

This recipe makes 2 drinks

In a small sauce pan over medium flame add cinnamon stick, cloves, anise star, and water. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 10 minutes. 

In two glasses divide the the remaining ingredients. Start with 1 1/2 tablespoons of honey in each glass. Then squeeze half a  lemon in each glass, and pour 2 ounces of whiskey in each glass.

Give it a good swirl and top the honey lemon whiskey mixture with hot cinnamon tea. swirl again and enjoy hot.  I serve with chili lime pistachios and pieces of tangerine for a superb accompaniment!  Sleep tight.

I get it now…..  I know why my family took every approach to getting me to eat better when I was a young kid.  I was such a picky eater in those early years.  Anything that was offered was typically met with “I don’t like that” or my favorite “yuck.”  I lived with a house full of adults, I was an only child with a circus of elders trying to please my every food whim.  It came as no surprise when the doctor said I was lacking protein and potassium.  Dr. KnowItAll also mentioned the best remedy for this was milk* and maybe a banana for some extra potassium.  My Mom came home and told my Grandfather, my Uncle Luke (my Mom’s twin), and Uncle Robert what was now the focus of my diet.  Their wheels started turning…. How in the world were they going to get me (the picky eater) to drink more milk or eat a banana?  My Uncle Luke  who use to take me to my ballet lessons on the back of his Harley Davidson represented fun and adventure in my life at that time.  He had wild long hair and a pretty tough looking exterior but treated me with kid gloves and was the most gentle giant I had ever met.  He came up with a fun drink called “Banana Wacky.”  I walked into the kitchen and there he was putting all the ingredients in the blender… I asked what he was making, when he told me the name, I was intrigued.  It worked, and from that point on I opened up my mouth more often to foods I use to think were yucky.

All photos taken by: Mando Lopez

Please let the Master of the Glass Half Full know about my Uncle Luke’s Banana Wacky on his FaceBook page by clicking here. Or Tweet him on Twitter by clicking here! I heart the Master of The Glass Half Full…. He’s as dreamy as a glass of Banana Wacky! 🙂

Ingredients for banana wacky:

1 – banana

1 – tablespoon sliced almonds

2 – tablespoons Ovaltine

1 – cup whole milk

1 – cup ice cubes

a small pinch of cinnamon

Add all ingredients to a blender and power it up on high. Blend till all ingredients combine.  Pour into a tall glass and have a WACKY time!

*Disclosure: This is part of a sponsored campaign with the California Milk Processor’s Board and Latina Mom Bloggers. Recipe, story, and opinions are my own!

It was last Tuesday early afternoon, and my fiance says he needs my help scouting out a dive bar for a movie he is working on.  He tells me…  “It can’t be a recognizable dive bar, it has to be a bar no one will find common place.”  I grab the Cannon, put on my best walking shoes, and jump in the car.  We drive around the city, but hardly any bars are open.  “What goes on in this town?”  I ask.  “What time do bars open? It’s already 1:30p.m.”  We continue driving and as the afternoon ripens we come across three or four bars, but nothing dive-y enough.  Each time I get off the car, walk into the watering hole and spill the same mumbo jumbo about scouting for a film and wanting to snap a few pictures to see if the director would be interested, if so someone will return with a contract and go over pricing.  Most people are not phased by this info, others act as if a golden egg has just hatched before their eyes.  Then we find a little bar on a main street on the cusp of East Los Angeles and Montebello.  I walk in and there is NO ONE to be found.  No one sitting in the dive nor standing behind the bar tending to it.  I say out loud in the nicest voice I can find inside my throat “Hello.”  No response.  I then say “Hi.” Nothing.  I keep looking around.  All the chairs are dressed in plastic.  There are black and white framed photos of Ricky Ricardo, and Vicente Fernandez adorning the walls along with a huge gold fake Rolex watch that serves as a clock.  There are pink artificial flowers in vases that have not been dusted in years.  It looks like a grandma’s tacky living room that has been frozen in time from the 50’s or 60’s.  In my mind I’m doing somersaults thinking this could work.  Then at the back of the room I notice a long rectangular window with a little puff of white floating across it.  I walk towards the window to get a better look.  Standing on my tippy toes with my neck reaching to the ceiling, I peak in.  What I see I can’t believe.  I observe a tiny, fragile, little OLD lady barley able to move.  In my head I calculate she is in her late 80’s maybe early 90’s.  My heart breaks, thinking who ever left this lady here to man the bar is a for sure CREEP!  I now start giving my greetings in Spanish, thinking maybe she didn’t understand my arrival announcement in English, or worse yet she can’t hear.  I start thinking how am I going to explain to this lady that I am scouting for a film.  As I’m dreading the conversation….. she starts to make her way from the back.  Moving at a pace slower then any snail, she thinks about the next position of her footing as she holds on to the wall and all along never makes eye contact with me.  I say hello again…. she doesn’t acknowledge I’m there.  I figured she was blind and deaf.  Then she starts to pass where I’m standing and turns around in a swift motion and just SLUGS me with all her might right in the chest!  I never saw it coming.  I got so sad and upset at the same time.  Nothing like this had ever happened to me.

A.) I can’t hit her back she is a tiny little lady.

B.) She’s crazy or drunk or both.

C.) I did nothing to provoke getting punched.

I immediately start yelling in a high half crying pitch “Why are you hitting me?”  As I’m waving my arms trying to block the next swing.  She has me trapped and is relentless. Then by the grace of my youth I see a little window of opportunity to make a run for the door.  I zoom out of there only to hear her footsteps following on my trail.  I look back and she is running after me and she’s not slow anymore.  She stops at the door of the bar and is screaming all sorts of obscenities to me in Spanish that are the equivalent to “get the f@^* out of here you good for nothing broad.”  I dive into the car (no pun intended) and am horrified.  Wow!  What the hell just happened?  It took a minute or two to register as I replayed the whole thing in my mind again and as it was sinking in all I could do was shake my head thinking “Pinche vieja loca.”  I told the guy I live with I was not happy and I was not going to scout anymore, even if it was the middle of the afternoon.

As we arrive home I’m still shaken up from the hell I had just been through when lo and behold a box of wine is sitting  there on my door step waiting for me.  It was a sign from the wine gods that it would be best if I opened that box and enjoyed a glass right then and there.  Entwine was the name on the bottle.  I popped it open and poured a cup of merlot. As I sat on my porch staring at the vessel I noticed it had a list of food pairings on the back.  Perfect.  Another way for me to shut off my brain and  just let the bottle do all the work.  Thank you Food Network and Wente Vineyards for joining forces to make life easy with your new wine.  It surely saved my afternoon last Tuesday.

No compensation was received for this post. I was provided with a sample of  Entwine’s merlot for my review. The story and opinions are my own.

Who doesn’t need a “pick me up” in the morning?  I know I sure do, sometimes I need one mid-day too!  I attended a Got Milk event not too long ago and learned all these fancy ways of combining coffee in appetizing drinks by none other then Heather Perry the two time national champion barista.  She got me thinking about my coffee and how I choose to enjoy it every morning.  This is what I call “a morning pick me up” here in my house, we love it and insist on having it.  Coffee brewed with cinnamon tea, a touch of Ibarra chocolate, a big wet kiss of piloncillo, and a lovely splash of creamy milk.  Cheers to you and your loved ones….  Now go out with a bounce in your step and face a brand new day!

All photos taken by: Nicole Presley

Ingredients for easy cafe de olla:

16 – ounces of water

1 – cinnamon stick

2 – tablespoons coffee

1 – tablespoon crushed mexican chocolate (I use Ibarra)

1 – teaspoon crushed piloncillo

a splash of milk

In a small saucepan over a medium flame add water and cinnamon stick. Let it come to a boil.

In a 16 ounce french press add 2 tablespoons of coffee.

Then add mexican crushed chocolate

Then pour hot cinnamon tea into french press and let brew for 5 to 10 minutes.

While waiting for coffee to brew, grab your favorite mug and add piloncillo.

Then pour brewed cinnamon coffee into cup.

Then swirl in a splash of milk. Enjoy anytime of the day!

Can’t wait for tomorrow morning to do it all over again.