Make My Recipe A Winner

The Top 10 Finalists have been announced for the Betty Crocker Baker's Challenge Gluten Free Baking Contest and my Decadent Chocolate Chip Almond Scones have placed me in the Top 10!

I need your help to win. Now until October 15 voting is open and the winning recipe will be the one with the most votes! You can vote once every day.

Please vote for me! There is a print friendly version of the gluten-free recipe on the voting page.

Thank you for your help!

Cold Brewed Iced Coffee on a Hot Day in Georgia

I love coffee. I've loved it since I was a little girl.
I need coffee. It's too hot for coffee. Well, it's too hot for HOT coffee!

Let me start out by thanking my sister-in-law, Susan, for reminding me how to make cold-brew coffee. For those of you old enough to remember when "sun tea" was popular, we used to put tea bags in cold water in a pitcher and set it outside in the sun to brew. This recipe is similar, but, it is for coffee. Of course, I start out with our signature blend coffee from Cafe Campesino, Americus Garden Inn Signature Blend freshly roasted beans.If you look up cold-brew coffee recipes, you will find that 1/3 cup beans

coarsely ground
mixed with 12 ounces of cold water
are the perfect proportions.


Mix together and cover.


Let it sit at room temperature overnight or for at least 8 hours. I find that if you put it outside, in this heat, it takes as little as 4 hours.

A quick stir and prepare to filter your brew. I use a metal strainer along with a paper coffee filter.

Pour the coffee mixture slowly to allow the liquid to drip through.

You can see all that coffee goodness.

Gently press the liquid through the strainer.

As you can see, we have 12 ounces of cold brewed coffee. This stuff is super strong and does need to be diluted which makes it ideal for iced coffee.

I decided to make mine with equal parts coffee and almond milk.

Of course, you could use regular milk or soy milk.

I added a little Splenda, Kim added some Hershey's syrup to his.


Now, doesn't that look refreshing? Try the recipe for yourself and see how easy it is to make. You could put it in the blender with some ice cream and make your own frappuccino, too!

Thanks for visiting the Americus Garden Inn blog. Have a great day.

The December Project Revisited in July

It must be a cold day in July... The guys came to work on the remaining portion of the Winter /December Project.

The work is being done on the bay window area between floors on the north side of the house.
It was previously covered with cedar shakes.
Insulating foam board was applied over the Tyvek over the plywood to gain additional insulation value in this area.Aluminum flashing was installed over the foam board.

The new shakes are made of the same material as the new siding (Hardie "cement board"), however, 5/16" thick vs the 5/8" thick siding. This difference in thickness allowed us to use the additional 3/4" insulating foam board in this area.

We had hoped they would finish this area in one day, but the 96 degree heat definitely affected the outcome.

So, the Winter Project continues... Stay tuned for future updates.

Thanks for visiting the Americus Garden Inn blog. We'd love to see you in person. Maybe in the fall? Remember, the Plains Peanut Festival is in September and the Andersonville Historic Fair is in October.

Deneen Stoneware Mugs Coming Soon to Americus

Years ago, when we first started looking for a B&B (we've been at the Americus Garden Inn almost 9 years...), we first fell in love with these beautiful mugs made by a company called "Cloth and Clay".

Many people collect these mugs in different styles and colors.

The company is now known as "Deneen Pottery" but the mugs are still the beautiful, HANDCRAFTED, stoneware - MADE IN THE USA!

We are working with Niles Deneen to decide on a style (or two) and a color (or two or three or four). He sent us these samples to experience Deneen mugs first hand. (Yes, the pun was intended...)

This is where we would like your help.

If you collect these mugs, do you have a particular style or color that you collect? If you have never seen these mugs before, please let us know, would you be interested in purchasing one with a beautiful emblem on the front featuring our gorgeous home along with "Americus Garden Inn", of course? Lastly, what color or colors would you like to see?

We truly appreciate your input on this project as the mugs will be for YOU, our wonderful guests and friends. I'm not going to tell you which one is my favorite, but, once I started using it, I haven't switched back to my old mug. You can view all the styles and colors at www.deneenpottery.com.

Thank you so much for visiting our blog today. We look forward to your comments and suggestions. FYI: Americus Garden Inn Signature Blend coffee tastes even better in a Deneen mug!

We're Going Bananas with Banana Muffins

You know the old saying, “When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade”? Well, when life gives me over-ripe bananas, I make banana muffins. Don’t throw those bananas in the trash! Put them in the refrigerator (or the freezer) and when you have 30 minutes, make these muffins.

I'll bet you have most of the ingredients on hand. Banana muffins taste best a day or two after baking, so, I'm making them right now for tomorrow. First thing, line the muffin tins. This recipe makes 12 muffins.

Measure the flour into a sifter or wire strainer. I used 1 cup of all purpose and 1/2 cup of whole wheat.

Both flours ready to go

Baking soda almost always has a few lumps, so, the strainer takes care of that.

I skimp a little on the sugar. Look, there are lumps in my sugar, too.

Whisk all dry ingredients through the strainer into the bowl.

Looks perfect.

Add the chips to the dry ingredients and whisk. I just happened to have peanut butter chips and chocolate chips. You can use white chocolate, dark chocolate, walnuts, pecans, raisins, sunflower seeds - whatever you like with bananas.

Perfect.

In a separate small bowl, crack an egg.

Add oil.

At this point, I decided to peel the bananas onto a plastic cutting board. I also set the oven to 400 degrees.

I like to mash the bananas with a fork, but, you can do it in the food processor, if you prefer.

Back to the egg with the oil mixed in.

Add the vanilla to the bowl.

Add the bananas to the bowl.

Mix thoroughly.

Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.

Stir with a rubber spatula just until combined.

Use a scoop to measure the batter evenly

into your 12 prepared muffin cups.

Bake 15 - 20 minutes at 400 degrees or until nicely browned and a toothpick comes out clean.

They look fabulous, don't they? Perfectly domed tops, you can see the chips poking out of the muffins. I'll bet you want one. :)

BANANA CHOCOLATE AND PEANUT BUTTER CHIP MUFFINS

1 cup all purpose flour

½ cup whole wheat flour

½ baking soda

1 cup sugar

½ cup chocolate chips

½ cup peanut butter chips

1 egg

½ cup oil

½ tsp vanilla

3 bananas, mashed

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners

3. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients with chips.

4. In a small bowl, whisk egg with oil and vanilla. Add mashed banana.

5. Mix banana mixture into dry ingredients.

6. Scoop into prepared pan and bake for 15 – 20 minutes.

Try to resist the urge to eat them all right away. They are delicious the day they are baked, but, they are even more delicious the next day.

Thanks for visiting with me in my kitchen at the Americus Garden Inn Bed & Breakfast. Please let me know if you try my recipes.