Fun 'n Drinks

What's nicer than coming upon a gaggle of children playing on a swingset, when the sun is gold and the air is warm, and someplace deep inside folks' houses, unseen grownups are performing the magic that will bring forth supper?Three of the young ones in the  photo below are 'mine', meaning I am the mother to their mother, and three are new friends to me. In the shot above the two new-to-me lasses were demonstrating their mastery with swings.Just after I snapped that top one, three of the four little boys also worked their way into the picture frame, as you can see, while the fourth continue to describe dizzy circles on the bike that was right there in his driveway.The minute I came upon this happy scene, 'my' three saw I had my yellow thermos with me. "Oo can I have some tt juice?" said the oldest."What's TT juice?" the four new-to-me-friends asked, as one."It's a drink TT invented," said my oldest grandchild."I'm TT," I said. "I'm the grandma. Hi!""We have an aunt we call TT! Hi TT!" they said. Then every kid there took a pull on the TT juice thermos."How do you make it?" they wanted to know as one after another took more swigs.We talked of many things over the next 20 minutes and I took pictures, just with my phone cell which is why they're not crisper, but one thing I did promise to do was set down the recipe, SO.... To make two quarts of TT juice:

• Use any large packet of powdered lemonade mix, adding just one quart and a half of water instead of two quarts. Stir or shaker until mix is dissolved.
• Take one teabag of mint-flavored herbal tea and set it any microwave-safe cup large enough to hold the 12 ounces of water you will pour into it.
• Microwave the tea-in-a-cup on high for two minutes.
• Remove from microwave and let steep, discarding teabag once the tea has attained a nice mapley-syrup sort of color, then discard teabag.
• Pour the tea in the shaker, adding ice.
• Do all this again with a second 12 ounces of water and a second teabag and a second scoop of ice.
• Shake it up baby.
• Cool mix if there's time; otherwise start enjoying then and there.

More zing than lemonade! Not too sweet! No calories! that is if you use Crystal Light, which admittedly has in it what my two male grandchildren call 'cancer sugar,' because that's what their mum calls any artificial sugar, even Stevia . I think she's  stretching it a bit there but what can I say? She, incidentally, was one of the grownups inside making the supper during all this. When she came out and saw our little communion service with the yellow thermos she said "you didn't give any to the baby did you?""Nah," I told her. "By the time she got to it there was none left."It's just that good, and gives you just the refreshment you need to strike a pose look at life in all new ways.:-)