Brown Rice Tea and Ginger Martinis

I had a small dinner gathering the other night that was to be all vegetarian. I don't usually have such dinners (vegetarian I mean), but I like to mix it up from time to time.

So, we needed a nice cocktail to start off the evening; a palette tantalizer for the selections to follow.
Here we have the Brown Rice Tea and Ginger Martini.

I happened to have some Brown Rice tea bags on hand, that I received as a gift from my brother some time ago.
So I steeped three bags in about a half a cup of water and added five small chunks of ginger to the hot water.

I let the bags and ginger steep for over an hour to get a concentrated flavor from them.

In a metal shaker:

Put ice, and pour in about 5 to 7 ounces of vodka. (Gin would work too, if you prefer)
Pour in the tea, reserving the ginger pieces.
Add about a 1/4 ounce of simple syrup.
Give it a good shake.
Strain into glasses that have a thin Lemon slice in the bottom of each.
This created four small servings.

(I served these cocktails with some Edamame for nibbling before the meal.)

Banana and Cream Cheese Muffins

My grandmother used to always bring delicious Banana Bread every time she would come over when I was a child. I recently received a copy of the recipe and am looking forward to trying my hand at her creation. Of course, the other day I had some bananas ready for baking and did not have the recipe yet, so here is my Banana and Cream Cheese Muffins recipe, and I will give Grandma's a try soon!

3 or 4 bananas
16 oz. cream cheese
1/3 cup milk
2 eggs
1 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
Confectioners sugar for dustingSift all dry ingredients together.
Whip cream cheese, milk, and eggs together.
Combine dry and wet together.
Chop bananas and add to batter.
Fill greased muffin tins and bake for about 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees.