Todd's Sweet Tea

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It includes all the components for a perfect weekend. I get four days to cook and eat a lot, and spend time socializing with family and friends who I don't necessarily see a lot. I usually start Thanksgiving day with a running race, and the weekend typically includes some other bike riding and running activity as well. The one sketchy factor is the weather. I can remember being at running races where it was 20 degrees and snowy, and other times where it was 65 and sunny, and everything in between. But, alas, the weather is always unpredictable. This year it was gray and rainy for much of the weekend.
Not only was the weather dreary, but my food contributions for the weekend left much to be desired. We had Thanksgiving dinner up in Maine with Todd's family. I did help with some of the peeling and chopping, but my only addition to the meal was a salad, which was nothing at all exciting. Just the usual greens with cranberries, apples, walnuts and feta with a balsamic dijon vinaigrette. Yawn.
Then, on Sunday we went to the annual Turkey Hoist party started by my friend, Eugene. This year it was hosted by Keith and Michelle at their lovely refurbished home on a lake in Ayer. Lauri, who was visiting from Colorado and needed a little break from family time, accompanied us. According to my last name, I was supposed to bring an appetizer or side dish, but since I thought we'd be late, I instead brought a dessert. This was a bad decision on my part because we got there right on time for dinner, there weren't enough side dishes and my dessert was terrible. I would have totally enjoyed making some fun grain or potato dish, and instead made a slightly healthy pumpkin dessert and didn't enjoy the process, nor the outcome. I still haven't quite gotten over this, but I figure writing about it may help purge my bad feelings of missed cooking/ eating/ sharing opportunity.
Since I emerged from the weekend without a fun recipe to share, you will instead get the iced tea recipe I make for Todd. This is mainly because I am about to leave to London for 8 days, leaving Todd tea-less for much of it, and he may try to make it himself. Todd likes his tea much sweeter than I do. It took me many tries to get just the right tea/sugar/lemon combination to get it just the way he likes it. I've tried using honey and also agave nectar for sweetener, but it seems he likes the cane sugar the best. The pitcher we have makes a four day supply for him, and since I made one last night, he should be out by Saturday. You can check in with him to see if he makes more or opts for a Nantucket Nectars Half and Half from the convenient store up the street...

Sweet Todd's Sweet Tea
10 black tea teabags
2/3 cup sugar
juice from 2 lemons
24 oz boiled water
24 oz cold water

1. Boil water, then let sit in kettle for a few minutes to cool down just a bit.
2. Pour hot water into pitcher over tea bags. Let tea steep for 5 to 10 minutes.
3. Add sugar slowly and stir to help dissolve.
4. Squeeze lemon juice into mixture being careful to not get any seeds (using a lemon squeezer gadget comes in handy here).
5. Add cold water and chill for 8 hours before drinking.