Homemade Root Beer Floats

Homemade Root Beer Float
Dorcas Annette Walker

Even though summer doesn’t officially begin until June, I’ve always considered the Memorial Day weekend as the kickoff for summertime. School is usually out or almost finished and as any mother will tell you summer begins when the school year ends no matter what the calendar says. Here in the South on the mountain Memorial Day weekend means grave decorations and family reunions. I love seeing hillside cemeteries covered in floral arrangements. It always brings back memories of my past. I called my daughter and asked her what she remembered most about her grandmother. To my surprise not only did Dawn remember my mother, but also my grandmother on a rare visit to her house one summer when she was a little girl. Dawn enchanted all my Yankee relatives with her southern accent. I remember Dawn asking me one evening when I tucked her into bed why they all talked so funny. Her best memory was of my grandmother, Dawn’s great grandmother, making Homemade Root Beer Floats. Then my mind when down memory lane of when I was a girl having root beer floats (sometimes my grandmother used cream soda) at my grandmother’s house on a hot summer day listening to the adults talk about when my mother was a small girl and how they made homemade root beer. They would mix up a batch of root beer, put it in bottles with corks, and place the bottles up on the tin roof. When the corks begin to pop and the liquid fizzed they knew the root beer was ready to drink. This Memorial weekend I’m going to make sure that my grandchildren (the fifth generation) have Homemade Root Beer Floats to keep our family tradition going.

Root beer is a carbonated sweet beverage made primarily from the sassafras root or bark. Today homemade root beer is usually made from a concentrate. Charles Hires, a Philadelphian pharmacist, was the first to introduce root beer to the public in 1876 that became an instant hit. By 1893 his family began manufacturing and distributing bottled root beer. A & W, the number one selling Root Beer Company in the world, founded by Roy Allen, began marketing root beer in 1919. Root beer floats is also called “black” or “brown cow” in some areas substituting chocolate ice cream for vanilla or cola instead of root beer. Although there is no congressional record or presidential proclamations, August 6th is celebrated by many as National Root Beer Float Day. I discovered recipes for root beer cake, root beer cupcakes, liqueurs, etc.

Nothing hits the spot more on a hot summer day than a Homemade Root Beer Float. Not only is making your own floats more cost effective, but you can create your own family recipe by experimenting with different flavors of ice cream and soda. You can add toppings of whipped cream, maraschino cherries, or candy sprinkles for decoration if desired. Instead of stopping at the nearest ice cream parlor for cold treats, start your own family tradition at home or at a family reunion with Homemade Root Beer Floats.

Homemade Root Beer Float

vanilla ice cream
root beer soda

Place a couple scoops of ice cream in a tall glass and pour in the root beer until it foams up to the top of the glass. Serve with a straw or spoon!

Weekly tip: To frost a glass to keep your beverage cold longer this summer simply place the glass in the freezer. For a complete coating first rinse the glass inside and out in cold water and then place in the freezer. Caution: Don’t freeze beverages in a glass as it will break. Also be careful when handling a frosted glass as it is more slippery!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcasannettewalker@gmail.com For more recipes check out her Creative Tennessee Mountain Cookin blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.webs.com

Homemade Lemonade

Homemade Lemonade
Dorcas Annette Walker

When my husband, Dana, was still in Bible College in Pennsylvania we filled in at a small church on weekend’s seventy-eight miles one way from our campus cabin. It was quite a learning experience staying with an older retired couple while we were still in our teens. The lady of the house always served turkey legs and pink lemonade for her Sunday dinner menu. There was only one catch. She was quite a saving soul, who felt that sugar was way too expensive to be used freely so only used half of the sugar required in anything that she made. I’ve always like tart stuff, but her pink lemonade even slowed me down. After his first taste, Dana only drank water. That pink lemonade went a long ways as it wasn’t until our grandkids came along and fell in love with pink lemonade that I even started storing some in my cupboard. Instead come summertime I would always make up a batch of my Homemade Lemonade.

There is nothing quite like the taste of Homemade Lemonade to quench a person’s thirst on a hot sweltering summer day. For some reason though my husband refuses to drink my homemade drink declaring that one swallow is enough to pucker you up for a week. Fortunately, both my kids like my lemonade. So the other Sunday I mixed up a pitcher of lemonade to go along with the meal. My daughter-in-law, Amanda Rose, took one swallow, made a funny face, and asked for sugar. She added a good amount to her glass, but still she hardly drank any lemonade. Later she told my son, Dwight, to be sure and remind her never to drink his mother’s Homemade Lemonade ever again. For those of you brave souls, who love lemonade, I thought I’d share my special lemonade recipe that is a perfect addition to picnics and family reunions.

My Homemade Lemonade is very simple, quick, and easy to make. Even though the Homemade Lemonade resembles the color of water don’t let it fool you as it packs a little kick. If you find my Homemade Lemonade too strong just add more water. Preparation time for my Homemade Lemonade is five minutes and this recipe serves six to eight.

Homemade Lemonade

1 c sugar
1 c reconstituted lemon juice
water

Mix together the sugar and lemon juice in a 2-quart pitcher adding water until it is filled completely up to the top and chill in the refrigerator. Fill a glass with ice and add the lemonade. Garnish with a slice of lemon and a sprig of mint!

Weekly tip: You can frost a glass by sticking it in the freezer and chilling it until the glass is completely cold or for a quick frost top the glass with ice, fill with water, pour out the water, and then add your beverage for an ice cold frosted glass!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcaswalker@twlakes.net. For more recipes check out her Creative Tennessee Mountain Cookin blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.webs.com

Auntie Dorcas' Tomato Juice

Auntie Dorcas’ Tomato Juice
Dorcas Annette Walker

It never fails to surprise me how different threads of life intertwine and push you in a new direction. Making up a batch of tomato juice was the last thing on my mind until last week I received a call from a lady in Cookeville– who shall remain nameless in case anyone that hates tomatoes should decide to throw rotten tomatoes in her direction- asking me if I had a recipe for tomato juice. I searched in vain for a recipe so I began doing research. I was amazed at the high nutritious content in tomato juice. Then I came down with the flu. One day when I was having trouble keeping anything on my stomach I remembered an old home remedy how tomato juice can help settle an upset stomach. I drank some and was amazed how quickly it worked.

Meanwhile about a year ago my niece, Stacy, was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. It came as a total shock as Stacy had always been healthy. She was in college at the top of her class, spent a semester in England as a transfer student, and became engaged to her high school sweetheart. Stacy at first figured that the stress from her schedule was the cause. A local doctor made her symptoms worse with is wrong diagnosing until Stacy was able to see a specialist. For months she went to a wound clinic for deep oozing sores on her leg that wouldn’t heal. I’m all for the latest medical science, but sometimes home cures work when nothing else will. I told my sister to have Stacy soak her leg in Epson salts and the sores began to heal. Right now Stacy is run down, a pale shadow of herself, who had to quit her job while waiting for the insurance company to agree to the treatments prescribed to get her Crohn’s into remission.

My sister and I have been taxing our brains with foods to build Stacy’s weakened body back up without setting her system off. Remembering how the tomato juice helped my stomach, I called my sister that I was going to make up a batch of homemade tomato juice and promised to send her the recipe. I decided to call it Auntie Dorcas’ Tomato Juice in honor of Stacy. I’m determined to get Stacy back on her feet and healthy by the time she walks down the aisle as a radiant bride next April even if I have to bring her down to the mountains of Tennessee and doctor her myself.

My Auntie Dorcas’ Tomato Juice is so packed full of vitamins that nearly jump out of the glass. This soothing blend of eight garden vegetables creates a supper wallop of nutrition perfect to start out your day. There are zillions of recipes for fruit and vegetable juice enabling one to make their own homemade blend. You can substitute or add red & green peppers, cabbage, lettuce, watercress, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce, or lemon juice to suit your taste buds. Preparation time for my Auntie Dorcas’ Tomato Juice is 4½ hrs (not counting canning time) and this recipe makes around 18 quarts.

Auntie Dorcas’ Tomato Juice

25 lb box of ripened tomatoes
2 lb bag of carrots
stalk of celery
1 qt canned red beets with juice
1 bunch of fresh spinach
4 large onions
3 cloves of garlic
½ c parsley flakes
½ c sugar
4 tb salt
1 tb pepper

Peel, chop, and puree all the vegetables including the parsley flakes adding water as needed in a blender or food processor. Scald tomatoes in hot water to loosen skins then liquefy. Add sugar, salt, and pepper. Pour into a large canner and bring to a rolling boil that you can’t stir down. Then simmer for thirty minutes. Pour the hot juice into clean canning jars and process for fifteen minutes.

Weekly tip: A ripe tomato has a uniform color. You can ripen tomatoes by placing them in a paper bag for a day or so. Then store in a cool place, but not the refrigerator!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcaswalker@twlakes.net. For more recipes check out her Creative Tennessee Mountain Cookin blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.webs.com