Homemade Rootbeer

It is always a pleasure to meet another person from your home country. When you live far from home like I do, meeting another American is like meeting a person you've got lots in common with- even if that is just being American.

We had the pleasure of getting to know some friends better over the weekend and they shared with us the fact that they make their own root-beer. First of all I was surprised, it had never occurred to me to even consider making any. You can't get it here in Latvia, but I haven't missed it and so I just lived on in that state until now.

Our friends made us some rootbeer and gave me a bottle of rootbeer extract. I was excited to try it out and now that the weather is extremely hot I thought I'd give a whirl.

I decided to deviate from the recipe on the bottle a bit after theirs had turned out flat. We make our own fruit syrups every year and they make a nice sparkling juice when you add them to sparkling water.

So I decided to make my rootbeer syrup and only add it to each glass as it was served. The results were delightful and delicious and very much a taste of home :)

The recipe on the bottle says to make one quart you need 1/2 T. extract, and 8 tablespoons sugar, and enough water to make 1 quart. I decided to make a double portion for my 2 liter bottle of carbonated water.

My recipe version :

1 T. extract
12 T. sugar
1/4-1/3 c. boiling water.

I then stirred this over a low heat until the sugar was dissolved and then let it cool . To serve add a couple of tablespoons or more (to taste) to each glass, add the fizzy water and stir. Add ice and serve.
Delicious, and refreshing.


Best of all you kind find this cheap on Amazon :) Yay!


Thanks to new friends for new ideas!

Chocolate Mousse Cake

So if you have never had or made a mousse cake you SHOULD try this one. My friend told me about a cake in France and I had a hunch it was a mousse cake. I scoured the internet and found this recipe and since then I have made this MANY times. Everyone loves it.

It is rich, and light and so chocolately!

DELISH! Thanks Brown-Eyed Baker for another great recipe!

A litte bit of France- Repost

There is not many people who could resist a freshly baked crossiant, and by request of Julija we made these one lovely evening. Wow, were they fantastic. Just look at all those layers!

Here is a recipe, not sure if it is the one we used, but it looks good. (I tried this recipe today before reposting this it IS a winner.) You can never go wrong with a warm crossiant. YUM!

We also whipped up some French onion soup and I made some French Macarons to complete our evening with a French theme.