October

On the 1st My moms blog party began. I told my mom I would come up with an interesting drink for her Halloween Blog Party at her blog Cottage in the Country. It is definitely going to be a good time with plenty of Halloween party ideas. Your all invited so be sure to stop on by.

The drink I came up with is "Pumpkin Spice Bubble Tea". If you have never heard of bubble tea here is a run down of what it is. First off it is not real tea and has no tea in it. Bubble tea is basically an thin sweet shake with large tapioca pearls in it that you drink through a Fat Straw. The tapioca pearls are chewy like gummy bears.

I thought this would be fun for Halloween because a lot of people still haven't heard of Bubble Tea and you could tell them that the large black bubbles floating around in their drink was something like "Eye of Newt" or something creepy.

If you decide to make this you will need to find a place that sells the supplies you need special Fat Straws and Large Instant Tapioca Pearls. I chose amazon.com to get my supplies and it was under $20.00. I would recommend buying extra straws they work really well for any kind of homemade shakes and you will have a lot of tapioca left over to experiment with.

Amazon Links
Straws - click here
Tapioca - click here











Pumpkin Spice Bubble Tea

Drink Base:
29 oz. Can Pumpkin
14 oz. Can Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 C. Sugar
2 t. Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 t. Vanilla
1/8 t. Salt.

Bubbles Tapioca Pearls:
1 C. Large Instant Tapioca Pearls
3 C. Water or Apple Juice
1/4 C. Brown Sugar

Drink Base Instructions.
combine all ingredients in a large sauce pan. Mix the base over medium heat until it begins to boil. Remove from heat and let cool. Can be prepared in advance and stored in the fridge.

Bubbles Tapioca Pearls:
Bring water or apple juice and brown sugar to a boil. Add large tapioca pearls let return to a boil and boil for 5 minutes. Take off the stove and let stand until ready. Must be prepared no more than 45 minutes prior to serving. If the tapioca pearls sit to long the become had on the inside or gel together.

Get your drinking glasses ready put 10-12 of the tapioca pearls in the bottom of a few clear drinking glasses.

Now you are ready for the blender!!!

Combine in blender:
1 C. Pumpkin Base
1 C. Milk
2 C. Ice

Blend on high until completely smooth remove from the blender and pour into clear drinking glasses with 10-12 tapioca pearls and a small amount of tapioca liquid in the bottom. Garnish with whip cream and a dash of nutmeg on top. Enjoy!!!

Let me know if you like it
brian@lowbooksales.com

September

September has been the "Biggest & Greatest"

On the 21st I took a day trip to Reno "The Biggest Little City in the World". I had a blast I won $9 on the craps table at the Eldorado Casino right before I had to leave. So I cashed out bought 2 Red Bulls and a souvenir poker chip for Raquel and caught a flight back home.

On the 26Th we went and saw "The Greatest Show on Earth". It has been years since I have been to the circus. It brought back memories of going with my grandma who passed away a few years ago. Caden loved it but was a little distracted with his crazy light toy that he had to have.

August

August is hotter than Hades

The 4^th we kicked off august with “Crepe’s & The Cave”. We started early at our house with a luscious Crepe’s breakfast with different fruit combinations and Brazilian Strawberry Limeade.

After breakfast we got ready to hike up to Timpanogos Cave. We got to the trail head a little later in

the day than we planned and had to wait about an hour to get on the trail. We ended up hiking up in the middle of the afternoon. Th

e hike up was like climbing out of Dante’s Inferno it was so fetching hot! The hike was awesome once we got inside the cave it was nice and cool (45 degrees) which really cooled us down for the hike back.

My son Caden (4 years old) did really good but was wiped out on the way down and had to be carried.

All in all it was a blast we might have to do it again.

Brazilian Strawberry Limeade

(Must be served fresh does not keep)

Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 Lime (leave skin on)
  
• 6 Tablespoons Sweetened Condensed Milk
  
• ½ Cup Sugar
  
• 3 Cups Water
  
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla
• Strawberry Puree to taste
  

Directions:
Wash the lime a

nd remove the ends then quarter
do not remove the skin Put all the ingredients in the
blender. Blend then pour through a strainer over ice.
Add strawberry or any fruit puree to taste and enjoy!
Umbrella and Lime Wedge optional.

Yields 2 servings.

On the 14th we emptied Caden's Bank. he has been saving all t

he loose change around the house to fill his bank (an old artichoke jar). After 8 months he filled his jar so we emptied it and got him a roll of silver quarters.

Later that day my sister courtney & I went to the American Fork classic car show. Plenty of great photo opportunities.

On the 17th we decided to get out of the house and hike up to Battle Creek Falls. You can get there by following 2nd south as far east as you can go in Pleasant Grove, Utah. It was a blast the canyon was nice and shady and the waterfall was beautiful.

On the 27th I got on a plane and headed for the "Windy City" Chicago is truly my kind of town!! We ate at Hot Doug's I had a Kangaroo Sausage and Crawfish dog. They were both great. We walked around down town saw Millennium Park & The Mag Mile.

On the 30th we all piled into a Subaru wagon and drove from Chicago Il. to Ann Arbor Mi. to watch the Running Utes hand Michigan Their asses on a silver platter in the Big House.

On the 31 we returned to Chicago to watch the Cubs play the Phillies in Wrigley Field. Sitting in the bleachers felt more like sun bathing with drunks than watching a baseball game but I had a great time.

July

July has been awesome so far:

On the 3rd I went to the Poison concert and afterwards went to "Club Mint" and "Green Street" Pretty sweet. It was good times.

On the 4th Caden Raquel & I went to a picnic at Salem Pond. Then we watched the Thanksgiving Point fireworks with baby Ashton and the Glodowskis.

On the 12th we decided to go have a midnight jam with our guitars up American Fork Canyon. It was all pretty groovy till a mama bear came out of the bushes and told us we were being too loud for her sleeping kids. I took some cool pictures of embers coming off the campfire.

On the 13th we went to the firework show at Weber State. I got to meet Lead Belly he owned 7 of the cannons that they light off during the 1812 overture. To bad the only cannon I ever had was a potato canon that smelt like french fries every time I lit it off. Thier cannons were really cool I might have to go see them again up at Deer Valley on the 19th.