Recipe: Chai Tea Frappe and a Week of Tech Bloopers

June 18, 2012 by Laureen Fox | 12 Comments

A quick note before this little recipe Post:

As you may have noticed, there were a few technical bloopers here last week, all of them of my own doing. I wouldn’t have felt bad if they were baking mishaps in the privacy of the Fox Kitchen. No, they had to happen in public, here on my blog and on the Fox in the Kitchen Facebook Page. I have FB set to automatically send updates to Twitter, so it affected my followers on Twitter as well. By my calculations, at least a few hundred people must have seen my stumbles…how embarrassing.

It all started with last Sunday’s Easy Like a Sunday Morning post. I started the shell of a draft for my post but must have pressed the ‘publish’ button instead of the ‘save draft’ button. As soon as I noticed the mistake, I changed the status from ‘published’, back to ‘draft’ but by then, Feedburner had already picked up the feed and sent it out to my subscribers.

To make matters worse, the title of the final draft was different from the original published draft. That meant the feed Feedburner picked up, linked back to a post that didn’t really exist…hello 404 error page. My apologies to subscribers who missed getting the Citrus Marinade for Chicken :: Easy Like a Sunday Morning post.

That was the techno boo-boo that started this little run. The second blooper happened a few days later when the body of the Sweet & Spicy Kale Chips :: MMM Must Make Monday post was accidentally overwritten by the Citrus Marinade for Chicken post. Sorry, I hope it wasn’t like that for too long. Thankfully, I keep an HTML text only backup of each of my posts! I was able to fix it as soon as I noticed the screw up.

You would think that after those events, this here food blogger would triple check her work. Nope, posted a status update to Facebook on Friday…with a link to nowhere…errrgh! Thanks to Kim for noticing and bringing it to my attention. I added the correct link in the comment section of the status update.

My apologies to those affected by that techno silliness.

I guess now would be as good a time as any to let you know that soon, very soon, there will be some changes to Fox in the Kitchen blog. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like changes, especially to websites that I’ve become comfortable with. Some sites are like old friends when you visit them, you miss the comfort and familiarity of them when you leave.

The changes however are long overdue. WordPress released a major upgrade just before the Christmas Holidays last year. My plan was to just get through the Holidays before attempting an upgrade. Well here it is almost six months later and I haven’t upgraded to the new release yet.

The biggest reason for the delay, other than my dislike for change, is I am my own graphic designer and webmaster. In light of last week’s technical bloopers, I guess you can understand my reluctance to move forward with a great big site overhaul.

I’m sure it will be exciting, once I get into it. That is, fingers crossed, as long as nothing too serious goes wrong. I will of course, try my best not to bring down the entire site or to lose too many of my old pages and posts.

Plans for the new site include a new logo and header design. An overall cleaner less cluttered look. Might end up ditching the ads, as they’re not very attractive and they pay next to nothing anyways. I’m hoping to improve load time, response time and navigation, as well as have a nice recipe gallery page. I also feel it is essential to have a design that performs well across all platforms and all devices.

So, when do I start upgrading my Fox in the Kitchen site? As soon as possible. My goal is to have most of the work done before my first Blogoversary on July 1st. I’m not sure how many recipes I will get posted over the next couple of weeks but I do have some exciting goodies on the back burner, so please keep checking back often. I will post status updates on Facebook, so make sure you ‘like’ my Fox in the Kitchen Page.

So much for this being a “quick note”! I shall reward you for your patience. Here is a nice frosty beverage. Sweetened with honey, I make these with a coconut chai spiced, caffeine-free, loose leaf tea and almond milk. You can change it up in any way that you choose. Use your favourite tea, milk or milk substitute, sweetener and flavours of choice.

You might also like my recipe for Strawberry Tea Smoothies made with DAVIDsTEA Blazing Strawberries blend.

Recipe: Chai Tea Frappe

View Print Friendly Recipe Here

Summary: A frosty summer drink made just the way you like it.

Inspired by: Coconut Frappuccino at Mexican Wildflower.

Ingredients

2 cups strong chai tea, I use loose leaf Coco Chai Rooibos
1 cup almond milk or milk substitute of choice
4-6 cups crushed ice, or ice cubes
1-2 Tbsp honey, to taste, or sweetener of choice
1 tsp vanilla extract, optional
sprinkle of cinnamon, or nutmeg for garnish, optional

Instructions

About an hour before, or the night before, make strong tea. I used an oversize mug with a little more than double the amount of tea I would normally use. Let tea steep for no longer than 10-15 minutes or tea will be bitter. Remove tea leaves and leave the tea to cool down for about an hour. Stored covered in the fridge overnight.
When ready to make your beverage, pour all ingredients, except the garnish, into a blender. Blend until smooth. Taste, adjust flavours, and add ice, as needed.
Pour beverage into a large drinking glass, add a dash of cinnamon, or nutmeg to the foamy top and serve immediately.