Sweet taay! (Sweet Tea)

Throughout our cross-country road trip I was sippin sweet tea as soon as I could get my sugar-starved hands on it — up until the morning we went to the airport for the return flight back to San Diego.

So it makes sense that one of the things I had to bring back from the east coast was a couple of boxes of Luzianne Iced Tea! For those not in the know, Luzianne makes THE BEST iced tea bags. Trust me, there’s a difference. I’m a iced tea freak and I know what a good Arnold Palmer and good Sweet Tea tastes like.

After a few weeks of sweet tea withdrawal, I got a fix at GTM in Lemon Grove where they had  Arizona Sweet Tea for $.089!! I know I could simply order sweet tea at Chick-fil-A in San Marcos, but I wasn’t about to drive up there just for a sip of overpriced sweet tea.

My craving finally overcame my laziness this week. After a consult with Jeff’s wife and quick check on the Internet, I took a stab at making my own sweet tea with the Luzianne Tea Bags we brought back. I used Decaff tea bags since the wife is prego and refraining from caffeinated foods.

Here’s what I used:

• Almost 1 gallon of water
• 2 family-sized Luzianne Iced Tea bags (4 are recommended, but I like my sweet tea weak and sugary)
• A boatload of sugar!
• Ice cubes (optional; to cool down the tea faster)

Here’s what I did:

1. Bring the water to a boil. I used an Electric Hot Water Dispenser to heat up 3 liters (1 gallon=3.7854118 liters) of water.
2. Next, pour the hot water into a gallon container with the tea bags. Let step for 3-5 minutes. Longer if you want a stronger tea.
3. Remove tea bags.
4. Sprinkle in sugar and stir. The amount you put in really depends on how sweet you want your tea.
5. Finally, I melted in a whole bunch of ice, stirring as I dropped them in. Essentially, I drop in enough ice to reach the 1 gallon mark on my container.

HOW MUCH SUGAR? I initially added 8 tablespoons, tasted the concoction, then added another 4 (or so) more. Debra told me she put in about 1.5 cups. I think that’s about what I ended up with in the end.

Ahhh… sweet taay!

Dazed and Very Confused

After checking out a couple of properties late this morning, I decided to take another run at our baby registry.

I spent hours last night ogling strollers, convertible car seats and playpens on the Consumer Reports web site until I got cross-eyed. Now I was eager to see if all my “studying” would pay off.

I quickly learned that the stroller system we picked out during our initial visit was not only ideal, but considered one of the safest by Consumer Reports. I also learned that other than reconfirming our previous selection, I retained little else from last night’s cram session!

There was something about watching out for playpens with Velcro that attaches on the inside being less safe than ones that attach their mats with straps from the outside.

So far, so frustrating. Choosing wedding registry items was sooo much easier. I feel like I’m picking items for a person I don’t really know. I hope  we get better at this soon.

Being obsessive-compulsive and anal retentive is troublesome in these cases. At this rate, we’ll finish by next Thanksgiving. Sigh…