Sharing is Caring, Especially When It Comes to Cleaning

Make Your Own Pumpkin Spice Latte

Pumpkin Spice Latte | Flat Rate Carpet BlogWith the cool autumn breeze comes the delicious desire for warm drinks. It’s time to toss aside the ice coffee and move on to fall delicacies like pumpkin spice lattes. This fall flavored coffee is super easy to whip up at home, and will save you a bundle by making it yourself.

Ingredients:

  • ¼ cup espresso or half a cup of very strong coffee
  • 2 cups milk (non fat, whole, soy – any kind you like)
  • 2 tablespoons canned pumpkin
  • 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons sugar (more or less depending on your taste)
  • ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
Directions:

Mix together the milk, sugar and pumpkin in a medium sized sauce pan. Then cook the mixture over a medium heat until it starts to steam.
Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the remaining ingredients.
Either blend the mixture for a few seconds, or mix by hand using a wire whisk. (A blender will make the mixture more foamy.)

Now just pour everything into a mug and enjoy!

Fourth of July Jello

Jello Dessert  | Flat Rate Carpet Blog

This Fourth of July, bring a dessert that is simple, beautiful and full of American pride – red, white and blue Jello! This cold, creamy dessert will be the hit of the barbecue.

To get started, you’ll need the following;

  • A 13×9 baking dish
  • Cool whip (8 ounces)
  • Cream Cheese (8 ounces)
  • 1 package (3.5 ounce) lemon flavored Jello mix
  • 2 packages (3.5 ounces each) of berry blue flavored Jello mix (can use any blue flavored Jello)
  • 2 packages (3.5 ounces each) of raspberry Jello mix (can use any red flavored Jello)

First prepare the blue jello by following the directions on the package, and refrigerate in the 13×9 dish for at least one hour.

To make the filling, add the package of lemon flavored jello mix to 1 cup of boiling water and mix well. Whip the cream cheese, and then add the lemon jello mixture and mix until smooth. Once this mixture has cooled to room temperature fold in the cool whip. When the white filling is thoroughly mixed, pour it over the blue layer of jello. (Make sure the bottom layer is fully finished or your going to wind up with a light blue mess!).

It’s time to place the blue and white part of dessert in the refrigerator to chill, and start working on red. Follow the directions on the box to make the red layer, however instead of refrigerating allow it to cool until it’s room temperature. Once the red jello mixture is no longer warm, then pour it into the pan over the white layer.

Leave this amazingly yummy dessert in the refrigerator until it’s completely chilled and ready to serve.

Super Bowl Salsa

This super yummy Super Bowl salsa takes a little extra time to make than your ordinary avocado salsa, but it’s well worth the extra effort.

Ingredients:

16 ounce package of frozen corn, thawed (kernels)

2 cans of sliced olives (2.25 ounce cans, drained)

1 small onion, chopped

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 bell pepper, red, chopped

4 avocados, peeled and diced (set the pits aside for later)

¼ cup lemon juice

1/3 cup olive oil

3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon dried oregano

½ teaspoon black pepper

½ teaspoon salt (or to taste)

Mix corn, olives, red pepper and onion in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, mix together the olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar, garlic, oregano, salt and pepper. Pour the ingredients from the smaller bowl into the larger bowl and mix well. Cover the mixture and leave it in the refrigerator overnight.

To keep the avocado’s fresh it’s best to cut them, and mix them into the salsa right before service. Although with so much to do on a Super Bowl Sunday that’s pretty hard to do. You can cut up the avocado’s in the morning, and leave them in a bowl. By placing the pits on the bowl with the cut up avocados, they will stay green for longer instead of turning brown, also a splash of lemon juice will help them stay fresh.

Serve this super salsa with tortilla chips, and watch it disappear!