Ginger.

Today, I'm totally on a ginger kick. (read: not kicking Gingers, I think that was ruled a hate crime.) I went grocery shopping and not only bought about a pound of ginger, but also a 4-pack of ginger beer. Then, I got home and decided I was going to make some home-made ginger ale. yummo.

I bought Ben a Penguin for Christmas; a totally frivolous soda-water maker that we use every day (seriously.) For the past month we have been experimenting with different syrups/drink combinations, and today I decided to try to make ginger ale syrup.

Here's how I did it:

I put a cup of sugar, cup of water and a cup of chopped up fresh ginger in a pot and boiled it for a really long time (I got sidetracked watching the 49ers v. Saints, so I boiled it for about as long as the third quarter was, my guess: 30 minutes?) then I let it sit and steep for another 30 minutes or so.

If I was on a cooking show, they would make lots of
comments about how my knife skills are 'lacking.' Psh.

I wish I had a finer strainer, but this worked pretty well.

mmm. Mushy, sugary ginger.

Now, the fun part. I made soda water using this little guy:

If you're going to buy a totally frivolous soda maker, buy The Penguin.
He's cute, uses glass bottles and whistles when your soda is done.

mixed about 3 spoonfuls of the syrup to about 6 oz of water.

There's my ugly counter-tops, again. Sick.

It tastes pretty good. It is definitely different than your typical store-bought ginger ale--but I think I like this much better. It tastes awesome with a little lemon [and gin.]

Back to the football game. Currently, Tebow is totally not Tebowing It for my Broncos. I really hope this changes ASAP.