Ice Ice Baby

It’s all happened to us, we had a great party and, after all the guests have left and all the food has been eaten and/or put away we are left with the bottles of wine with only a little bit left and carafe of coffee that haven’t even been touched. What do you do? Throw it out? Well now that we have decided to expand our little family of 3 to one of 4 we are looking for more ways of being thrifty. Below are some of the thrifty ideas I have come across or come up with myself for using up these goodies!

The thing I do with both the wine and coffee is pour them into ice cube trays and freeze them.

The wine cubes can be thrown into stews and roasts, or even into a glass of wine you wish to cool off and not dilute with ice.

The coffee cubes I use to make iced coffee. In a blender add 4 coffee ice cubes, ¾ cup of 1% milk (or milk of your choice, chocolate milk makes a great mocha-chino!) ,sugar to taste and, if you would like a splash of any coffee liquor. Blend till smooth and enjoy! I even use them as ice cubes to pour liquor over, like Tia Maria, Kahlua, or Irish cream. Yumma Lumma!

Also a great next day dessert with coffee leftovers is Coffee Granita!

You will need:

• 3 cups lukewarm strong black coffee
• ¾  cup sugar
• 4 tablespoons coffee flavoured liqueur
• 2 teaspoon orange or lemon zest (optional)

Directions:

Combine all ingredients and stir until sugar melts. Pour mixture into 9 by 13-inch metal pan and freezer for half an hour. Remove and use a fork to scrape any ice crystals that have formed on the side or bottom of the pan. Return to freezer and repeat scraping every 30 minutes. Continue to do this until the mixture is thoroughly frozen, fluff with a fork. Serve with whipped cream, add additional citrus zest.

Hope this was insightful for you all!