True Blood Drink Recipes

Tonight we are having a True Blood Party that will include watching the Alabama vs. LSU game.  Watching football dressed up as vampires and werewolves seems totally reasonable.  A True Blood party would not be complete without some Tru Blood bottles.  The premise of the Sookie Stackhouse books and the True Blood HBO show based on them, is that vampires have “come out of the coffin.”  The Japanese invented a synthetic replacement for blood.  Vampires can now drink this blood replacement called Tru Blood and survive without feasting on humans.  As a result, vamps went public or “came out of the coffin.”  Other supernaturals exist, but are still in hiding.  Anyway, if you haven’t read the books or watched the show you should…it is pretty good stuff. 

So back to my party, I wanted to have bottles of “Tru Blood” on hand.  You can order them online, but they are fairly expensive.  I decided to go a cheaper route and do them myself.   I took some pictures and included the recipes I used to fill the bottles.  For reference, the first picture is what the bottles look like on the show.

The "real" Tru Blood drink.  

I bought I case of Country Breeze Sweet Tea at Sam's.  The bottles aren't exact, but they are plastic and the labels looked easy to remove.

Speaking of removing the labels, that was the first thing that I did.  For whatever reason, the labels are harder to get off if you've removed the liquid and wash them first.  I learned this from years of science related projects with bottles.  So...remove labels first!

Then pour out the tea.  You can put it in a pitcher or drink it all at once and go on a caffeine induced cleaning spree.  I'm not a big sweet tea fan unless it is sweet tea vodka so I didn't save it.  Clearly, you'll need to let the bottles dry.  This is a good time to do said caffeine induced cleaning spree or have a sweet tea vodka cocktail.

As the bottles were drying and after my sweet tea vodka cocktail, I made the labels.  I just used full-page shipping labels and found a Tru Blood image.  All the labels will need to be cut out by hand...make yourself another sweet tea vodka cocktail and find your best scissors.

Add cut out labels to dry bottles and bingo, you have Tru Blood bottles.  Celebratory sweet tea vodka cocktails for everyone!

Next, you make your Tru Blood drinks.  AB+ is on the left and O- is on the right.  I used a sharpie to write the blood/drink type on the back of the bottle.

And now you have a fridge full of Tru Bloods and one poor gallon of milk stuffed in the back!  Yay you!  Make yourself a sweet tea vodka cocktail or just have a Tru Blood!

O- 

The Universal Donor Tru Blood

Ingredients

Cherry Infused Vodka

Cranberry Juice

7UP

Lime juice

Grenadine

Preparation

Mix ingredients to your liking.  For twelve bottles of Tru Blood I used two 750ml bottles of vodka.  That was probably a bit excessive.  I’ll let you know how I feel tomorrow and if I actually remember the party.  I just mixed up a large batch and then used a funnel to fill each bottle.

AB+

The Universal Recipient Tru Blood

Ingredients

Vodka

Zing Zang Blood Mary Mix

Preparation

Mix to your liking…once again for 12 bottles I used two 750ml bottles of vodka.  Excessive again, I know.  I just used a funnel to put the desired amount of vodka in each bottle and then filled the rest with zing zang.  For twelve bottles I used 3 large zing zang containers.

Putting Vodka in a Watermelon

So, check it out.  Gary Busey looks exactly like this horse.  I found the horse picture this morning and it made me think, "gee...that looks sort of like Gary Busey."  So, I found a picture of him and then I put the two pictures side by side and it confirmed my initial thought.  The resemblance is quite shocking.  Uncanny, no?

As it gets close to the end of summer and the stock market scares the hell out of us all, it is time to commemorate the end of the season with a vodka-infused watermelon.  Here’s how you get your drink on with a healthy hot weather snack.

Garden Update

If you remember some time back, I built a few garden boxes.  This was my first attempt at gardening ever.  Other than some corn, I attempted to grow when I was seven.  On a shopping trip to T.G. & Y., unbeknownst to anyone, I bought some seeds. Once we got home, I planted the corn in the back yard.  My organic corn plan, was not a hit with my mother.  She didn't seem to appreciate the large stalks growing in random places throughout the backyard.  At any rate, the corn didn’t make it to harvest. 

So far, I feel like my garden is progressing nicely.  The herbs have been no problem.  I’ve already been cooking with them. Fresh herbs are the best.  I’ve also already grown my own garlic.  Tiffany came home from work and the garlic smell in the house nearly knocked her over, but the taste is spectacular.  As for the garden boxes, I took some photos to track the progress.



My cherry tomato plant a.k.a. Jodie Foster.  If you look closely you can see three tomatoes!

Squash, zucchini and green peppers...grown from seeds. 

Strawberries!

A squirrel ate some of my strawberries.  I put this owl there to scare the shit out of that squirrel or any others who try to eat my strawberries.  I really like this owl.  I may take him around to places and take pictures of his travels.  Sort of like Flat Stanley...only not flat and an owl.

My tomato plants a.k.a. Mariska Hargitay (right) and Marg Helgenberger (left).

Harpo

 I got this sign at Urban Cottage (http://www.shopurbancottage.com/).  We love our weird neighborhood, so this sign seemed appropriate.



Building Garden Boxes

One of the things I have always wanted to do is gardening.  The thought of growing and then cooking your own food just seems so appealing to me.  So pioneer chic. I just never had the time because of the 50+ hours per week I used to toil away at my job.  But now that I’m a bum…time is not an issue! 

I decided the best option for our yard would be to create a box garden.   We have a weird three-tiered yard, so I chose the second tier for my garden area.  Apparently you need six hours of sun per day, so this was the best spot.  I then measured to determine the best sizes for the boxes.  I decided one 4’ x 4’ box and two 4’ x 2’ boxes. Then it was off to Home Depot. I got some premium studs (premium studs…hahahaha) mostly because they were on sale (discounted premium studs…hahahahaha) and long galvanized screws (because you have to screw the premium studs…hahahahaha).

Other things you’ll need:

Drill

Saw (I used a jigsaw) unless you get the store to cut the wood for you

Measuring tape

Favorite music

Electricity

Beer

Landscaping fabric for bottom of garden boxes

Potting soil

Garden fencing (this will be trial and error as far as wild animals, but at this point I’m mostly hoping to keep our dogs out)



blank slate




Sam Adams Noble Pils is a very good garden box building brew...of course pace yourself you are using power tools.



Improvise when you don't have saw horses!

I just made this up as I went...

Presto first box done!

That damn thing was really heavy so you'll need help getting it to your location.

I drilled holes in the top of the box to place the garden fencing. 



Done!  Time for more beer!



Jonesing on Saving Money

I’m discovering that using coupons is probably a lot like using meth…only you save lots of money and have way better teeth.  I actually feel guilty now if I go to the grocery store without my coupons.  I’m sure tweaking on cooked up Sudafed and fertilizer is a real hoot, but hunting coupons and saving money, it turns out, is quite the high.  

Speaking of tweaking, I’ve been super productive today.  So far, I’ve applied for a really choice position in a much respected organization, cleaned the kitchen, did laundry, painted some shelves in the basement and made a lamp (yes a lamp…pictures below).  See what I mean, the saving money energy high is the high that just keeps giving. AND you don’t have to deal with those pesky sweats, darned paranoia and irritating dilated pupils.

Making a Lamp Using an Empty Wine Bottle



Rejection Letter Crafts

One thing that the newly unemployed person realizes rather quickly is that the job market is in a bit of a slump.  Jobs are scarce and you should expect more than a few rejection letters.  It just goes with the territory during these brutal economic times.  You could let it get you down or you could cheer yourself up with some nifty craft projects!  Over my career teaching in science centers I’ve done lots and lots of projects with paper.  I’ve included some links below.  These are sites I’ve used in the past and found them very useful.  On a side note, I also discovered that when throwing together a nice dinner, theming helps to set the tone and give your meals a little extra pizzazz and flare.  Just think of a nice chicken dinner with little origami chickens at each place setting.   Imagine a snappy paper mache dragon as a centerpiece for your meal of homemade Peking Duck.  Picture tiny paper airplanes affixed whimsically with fish line to the chandelier in your dining room as an added bonus over your head while you eat your tasty meal of Creamy Southern Style Peanut Soup.  These projects can easily be made while you watch your soap operas…if I remember correctly in the workplace that was called multi-tasking.  Win Win!  So turn that frown upside down and craft those rejection letters into something better than self pity.

http://www.origami.com/

http://www.bestpaperairplanes.com/

http://ultimatepapermache.com/