Gramercy Tavern Cocktail Mixes
Suggested retail $15.95, on sale for $5.99

The Cranberry Daiquiri mix and the Gramercy Parksider mix are both included in this sale. The Cranberry mix is a combination of cranberry and orange juice that match well with dark rum. The Parksider is meant to mix with either vodka or gin. It contains a mixture of basil and lime, sweetened with sugar.

Eleven Madison Park Cocktail Mix in Spiced Pineapple Cooler
Suggested retail $15.95, on sale for $5.99

A bright combination of pineapple, lemon, and spices. Goes great with rum.  Sounds like the sort of cocktail you’d find on a tropical vacation. Yum.

Margarita Caddy
Suggested retail $29.00, on sale for $9.99

The caddy contains a combo of three mixes: Lemon Lime, Mixed Berry, and Mango. Lemon Lime features the juice of Key limes and Eureka lemons, with a touch of orange. The Berry contains strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, and blueberry juices. Mango features exotic Alphonso mangoes from India.

The Margarita Caddy collection would be a great gift for your host. Each bottle makes between 3-4 margaritas.

Image credit: Williams-Sonoma.com

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Big Savings At Williams-Sonoma

I can remember my very first one. I was 20 and in cosmetology school. A group of us went over to another student’s house and she made gin and tonics for us. They had a little lime wedge and I felt very grown-up. Another thing that I remember about that day was that she had a huge Jesus statue in her living room – the kind you’d see in cemetary or by a church.  He was wearing her scarves, lots of scarves, colorful scarves. It was odd, but interesting. I think she was an art student before deciding to become a hairdresser.

If you’ve got a hankering for a gin and tonic, then watch the clip below for simple instructions from an adorable bartender.

If you are in the mood for shopping, then take a look at this Circle Glass™ 4-pc. Tavola Double Old Fashioned Glass Set from Kohls. It’s currently on sale for $12, regularly $29.99, less than half price.

Then, picture that you are holding your gin and tonic Merlottes, in the hot and humid town of Bon Temps, Louisiana…. put the cool glass to your forehead, in an attempt to cool your brow… Wink at Sam behind the bar …..enjoy.

Image credit: Kohls.com

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Sookie Likes A Gin and Tonic

Though my husband and I still aren’t big drinkers, I think it’d be fun to learn some of the basic, classic cocktails:

Allrecipes has a list of ten classic cocktails, including a rye Manhattan, whiskey sour, and gimlet, as well as basics like screwdrivers and margaritas.

The Art of Manliness has five that “every man should know,” and includes the Old Fashioned, Tom Collins, the Sidecar.

MattoniGrandDrink has a huge database of cocktails to search through, if you’re looking for something specific. The drinks are listed alphabetically and have a few that I wouldn’t mind trying, like the Banana Frozen Daiquiri and Grasshopper.

Even Forbes has an article about classic cocktails to make at home. To mark the 75th anniversary of the repealing of Prohibition, they include drinks like a Dry Gin Martini, Bacardi Cocktail, and The Corpse Reviver #2.

What’s your favorite cocktail to make?

[image: flickr]

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Classic Cocktails for Dad

After a long week, and another long week looming, my husband I decided Saturday night to kick back after the kids were in bed!

Several years ago we had a restaurant here in town called Z’Tejas Southwestern Grill. Sadly, they’ve since left the state and took with them one of the best drinks I’d ever had — a Chambord Raspberry Margarita.

One day I was hunting around online, browsing through a couple of those “secret recipe” websites that supposedly reveal the secret ingredients and methods restaurants use to prepare certain dishes, and came across one for the margarita.

I printed it out but it sat in my recipe folder for a long time, until I went through and cleaned it out last week. I couldn’t bring myself to toss the recipe, even though we hadn’t tried it yet, so I tucked it back in, and when my husband suggested we watch a movie and relax Saturday night I dug that puppy out.

We had everything we needed except the Chambord raspberry liqueur, which I’d never been able to find and wasn’t even sure where to find it. After some quick Google-fu, my husband dashed off to get it and I mixed up the margarita. Problem was, it needed to go into the freezer for a while, get stirred, sit in the freezer a little longer, get stirred again, etc. We had started so late in the evening that unless we wanted to wait until the next night it just wasn’t going to happen.

My husband then had the brilliant idea of putting the margarita mix in the ice cream maker, and voila, we had slush the perfect consistency within about 20 minutes!

Chambord Raspberry Margarita

4 cups warm water
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup lime juice
2/3 cup lemon juice
10 oz gold tequila
5 oz triple sec
Chambord raspberry liqueur

Combine the sugar and warm water and stir until sugar is completely dissolved. Add lime and lemon juices, tequila, and triple sec. If making way ahead of time, pour into a pitcher, stick it in the freezer, let it freeze up a bit and give it a stir every now and then so it’s slushy. (This is a great plain margarita.)

If you’ve got an electric ice cream maker, pour the mix in and run it for about 20 minutes, or until it’s thick and slushy. Transfer to a pitcher.

Pour about 1/2 an ounce of Chambord (a little goes a long way!) into the bottom of a glass and spoon or pour the frozen margarita over it. (This recipe halves well.)

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Chambord Raspberry Margarita

After writing about cooking with champagne the other day I did a little searching for some fun drink recipes.

The above video by Marie Guaragna-Beirne illustrates a simple idea for a holiday champagne punch, perfect for a New Year’s Eve get-together!

Check out other videos for artichoke dip, quick and easy appetizers, and warm raspberry brie.

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Holiday Party Champagne Punch

I’ve never really given much thought to cooking with champagne, though I’m not sure why. Food Network has put together a list of 100 Champagne Recipes, and if I think about it next time (and can find it at a reasonable price) I might try making my pork chops with champagne next time!

Champagne Brie Fondue isn’t so far-fetched (and actually sounds divine), and Emeril’s Champagne Sabayon couldn’t be any easier.

The majority of the recipes are really just easy add-ins (strawberries, apricot nectar, etc), but I like the ones that offer a little more creativity, like Jacques Torres’ Champagne Truffles or Giada’s Champagne Risotto.

Have you ever cooked with champagne?

[image: flickr]

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Cooking with Champagne

I love eggnog but have yet to make it from scratch, and truth be told I don’t think I’ve ever had it with alcohol in it either!

The video above, made by Lauren Braun Costello of Gotham Caterers, makes it from scratch with a recipe used by George Washington. It uses two cups of brandy, one cup of dark rum, one cup of rye whiskey, and one cup of cream sherry!

A happy holiday indeed!

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Eggnog the George Washington Way

 image:  www.freeimages.co.uk

If you are preparing for a Halloween party, looking for a basic cocktail for your guests or maybe just something to down while you are handing out Halloween Candy, this may be a nice pick-me-up. 

Rachael Ray’s Evil Spirit Cocktail:

Ingredients:

Ice cubes 2 1/4 cups vodka Juice of 6 lemons

1 cup grenadine Club soda, chilled

Directions:

Fill a pitcher with ice cubes. Pour in the vodka, lemon juice and grenadine and stir until chilled. Strain the mixture into martini glasses and top with club soda.

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Evil Spirits Cocktail

Sandi Mitchell at the All Holiday Cafe gives us some fun Flamingo facts.  Now you are probably wondering why exactly this caught my eye.  At one of my son’s school they have a theme each year with a new mascot and this year is the year of the Flamingo.  I also come from Florida and one of my favorite tacky Florida gifts is anything with Flamingos.

In case you didn’t know, Flamingos get their pink color from the brine shrimp they eat.  Now , I don’t think you will turn pink, but to stick with the obsession I am having with cocktails this weekend, how about a Pink Flamingo?

Colleen Graham of About Cocktails has some information on a variety of Pink Flamingo Cocktails along with a recipe and information on a vodka with a signature Flamingo on the bottle.  Check the site for the more traditional Pink Flamingo cocktails.  Below is basically a Pink Flamingo Martini from UV.

UV Pink Flamingo

2 parts UV Lemonade
2 parts cranberry juice
Splash of triple sec
Shake with ice and strain into a martini glass.

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Holidays and Flamingos

So, each year, you prep, you feverishly watch the Tropical Update on the Weather Channel and you wait.  We have been very lucky the past four years.  We have had a few hurricanes but nothing to be too concerned about.  Now, today those of us in Florida prep, feverishly tune-in to the weather updates each night and wait to see what will be the outcome of what looks like may be one very scary storm, Hurrican Ike.

Our family has already done our preparations for the year.  We have plenty of bottled water, toilet paper, batteries and Top Ramen.  This weekend we are getting all of our boards staged to place on our windows if necessary next week and while the North East is dealing with Tropical Storm Hanna, we will be getting a few days of sunshine.  Since it appears that the week at hand will be a bit stressful, I thought it might be nice to sip a cocktail this weekend.  So, what to drink?  Well, a Hurricane, of course.

The Hurricane was invented in New Orleans after WW II at Pat O’Brien’s bar.  It is called the Hurricane because of the shape of the glass it is served in…shaped like a hurricane lamp.  Interestingly enough, Pat O’Brien’s is still open, but if you can’t make it to New Orleans, or any of it’s other locations this weekend and you need a little break from Hurricane prepping, the buckets of rain outside or you just want to raise a glass for those of us on the East and Gulf Coast, take a sip of a Hurricane.  I spotted this recipe and historical information on the Cocktail Times.

Hurricane

Ingredients:
- 2 oz light rum
- 2 oz dark rum
- 2 oz passion fruit juice
- 1 oz orange juice
- 1/2 oz fresh lime juice
- 1 tbsp simple syrup
- 1 tbsp grenadine
- Garnish: orange slice and cherryShake all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and strain into a hurricane glass. Garnish with a cherry and an orange slice.

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Cocktails and Hurricanes