Saturday’s Girlie Drink

Howdy!! Today I bring you a fabulous concoction featuring my favorite liqueur, St. Germain. This fabulous liqueur is made with elderflowers, and has a sweet herbal taste. It is a good complement with sharper libations such as gin and vodka.

Luckily, this cocktail features all three!

Elderflower Martini

• ½ oz. Vodka
• ½ oz. Gin
• 1 oz. St. Germain Elderflower liqueur
• 2 oz. Fresh sour mix*

Pour all ingredients in a shaker with ice, and mix well. Serve in a coupe glass, and garnish with a lime slice. You can increase the amount of gin or vodka or both for a sharper taste. Enjoy!!

* For fresh sour mix, first make simple syrup: bring one cup of water and one cup of granulated sugar to boil, stirring until dissolved, and set aside to cool. After cooling, add one cup of fresh squeezed lemon juice and ½ cup fresh squeezed lime juice to the simple syrup. Shake well before serving. It will keep for two weeks in the refrigerator.

The Velvet Mimosa

When it comes to libations, I am inspired by the most random things. An infamous flub inspired a rather refreshing drink, and bloodiness inspired this one. I’m sure to be inspired by a pair of shoes soon enough. Does is matter as long as the drink is delicious??

Anyway, my friend @velvetsugar76 is fond of changing up her moniker on Twitter. It wasn’t long before I was inspired by her to make a new cocktail in her honor. Because nothing brings friends together like booze!!

Velvet Mimosa

• 1 oz. silver tequila (because Velvet loves her some tequila)
• 2 oz. orange juice (or orange pineapple juice)
• 1 oz. strawberry puree
• ½ oz. simple syrup
• 2 oz. prosecco

Pour the tequila, juice, puree, and simple syrup into a shaker with ice. Shake well, and strain into a wineglass. Top off with prosecco. You can adjust the amount of liquor to taste, as well as the simple syrup. I love sweet drinks, so I may tweak it a bit and add more simple syrup next time.

Usually the addition of a puree would classify this as a Bellini, but since I added tequila and juice, it was more fluid and thus retained the label of a Mimosa. Even with the additional liquids, it remained velvety on the tongue. And….

TWSS. 😉

It’s the Spiciest Time of the Year

Y’all…

It’s that time again.

The time when every pumpkin fears for its life.

It’s the dawning of the age of Pumpkin Spice Latte.

I won’t lie. I enjoy a PSL once in a while. In fact, there was a time I was all excited to see Coffeemate bring out their Pumpkin Spice flavor so I could have a fix of The Spice at home. But I am more into The Spice than I am into The Pumpkin. Unless it’s pie. Then I am all about that with a huge dollop of homemade whipped cream. But in a drink, it’s not as appealing to me. That said, I have lots of friends IRL and on the Interwebs that do love PSL. Love it so much they set aside time for Starbucks on the first day they serve it. For me, the attraction is in the Spice. I’m all Paul Atreides on that. But I found an additional way to enjoy Pumpkin Spice without the Latte.

That’s right. A chocolate shake with Bailey’s Pumpkin Spice. Bailey’s used to have the recipe up on their site, but alas, they took it down. Lucky for y’all, I found it again.

• 4 oz. Baileys Pumpkin Spice Irish Cream
• 2 cups Chocolate Ice Cream
• 2 oz. Whole Milk
• 1/4 cup Brown Sugar
• 1/4 cup Pumpkin Puree
• 1/4 tsp. of Pumpkin Spice Blend (Allspice)

Put everything in a blender and go to town (not literally). You can substitute vanilla ice cream for the chocolate (why you would want to do that is beyond my comprehension), the whole milk for reduced fat or skim, and make sure you get plain pumpkin puree, not pie filling. Otherwise the sweetness will be off the charts. Personally, I would cut back a little on the brown sugar, and that’s saying something. Either way, I believe this is a far better way to enjoy Pumpkin Spice than in a latte. Chocolate, spice, AND booze.

Now excuse me. I must go control The Spice 😉

The Second Most Wonderful Day of the Year

No, I have no idea what the first most wonderful day of the year is. It fluctuates with my mood. Sometimes Christmas, sometimes Thanksgiving, sometimes garbage day. One year it was the day I found $20 in the laundry. Talk about a banner day! I guess you can have several wonderful days of the year, just have to put them in the order that makes you smile the biggest. Sometimes you may end up with a tie or like me, sometimes they are all exceptional days, unique in their own wonderful way. Back to topic, why is today the second most wonderful day?

It’s National Wine Day!!!

That’s right, my friends. Today we celebrate that wonderful spirit, literally. Finally, a day when I don’t need to make up an excuse can pour a glass and sit outside to enjoy my favorite time of day, when the world looks blue. I love to sit and let my mind wander, rambling on from subject to subject. Ok, that happens all the time but today it’s acceptable and encouraged.  And if wine isn’t your tipple, feel free to tipple on something else. Any day is a good day to celebrate.

Unless you have to go to the DMV. Then wine afterwards won’t cut it 😉

The Best Way to Enjoy Snow

Well, best way to enjoy it outside of admiring it from afar, like in a photograph,while on vacation in Fiji.

My sister Reno Queen posted a delicious cocktail recipe on the social-site-with-faces last week that had me drooling. Being raised in Puerto Rico, I have a deep love and respect for the humble coconut, so I am overjoyed to post her contribution to my Pinterest Mixology board.

Sex On The Snow Bank

• 6 Large ice cubes
• 1½ oz Malibu™ rum
• 3 Tbsp. Cream of coconut
• Shredded coconut, for garnish

Put all ingredients save the shredded coconut in a blender, and blend until smooth. Pour into a cocktail glass (martini as shown is pretty) and garnish with some shredded coconut flakes. You can also rim the glass with the flakes but it can be overkill, not to mention a bit messy.

You can try this on the rocks instead and call it a K-12. Just don’t forget the TWO DOLLARS.

Sometimes I amaze myself 😉

Lemons and Lemonade

Last week, I was in a cooking frenzy. I have no idea what overcame me, but my family was quite happy about it. As with every new endeavor, I ended up purchasing some herbs in greater quantities than I needed. Waste not, right? But there was only so much cooking I could do. Well, at least until I needed a break from it. The sage was easy to preserve, but thyme is tricky. But I found a way. Oh yes, I did!

Lemon and Thyme Sour

• 1½ oz. Bourbon
• 1 oz. Meyer lemon juice, fresh
• 1½ oz. Thyme infused simple syrup*
• Lemon twist and thyme sprigs, for garnish

* Instead of making simple syrup from scratch, “cheat” and buy simple syrup and warm it up with the thyme sprigs until fragrant, about 2 cups of syrup and four sprigs of thyme. Rebottle what you don’t use but discard the sprigs.

For the sour, combine the bourbon, juice, and the syrup in an ice-filled shaker, and shake well. Strain over ice into a old fashioned glass, and garnish with the lemon and thyme. Mmm, mmm gooood.

If ain’t nobody got thyme for that, just fix without. 😉

When It Rains, You Get Lemons

This morning I woke up to a nice rainstorm. It was a welcome relief after a rather dry-as-dust-on-Mars August. Of course, that means that drivers out in these parts will be freaking out and acting accordingly. It’s a good thing it seldom snows here. Seriously, the city has shut down over a light dusting of snow before. A dusting that evaporated 20 minutes later. But to give us some credit, we sure know how to drive on highways.

The only bad thing about getting rain is my dog. Lenny, the Labrador mix, doesn’t like getting wet or walking in puddles. This means that sometimes I have to carry the dead weight of a 55 lbs. dog to the lawn and hold her in place until she “goes”. And let me tell you, it is difficult to hold down a dog that wants NOTHING to do with a wet lawn. And you can forget about carrying an umbrella. It’s either managing the dog, or keeping dry. Can’t have both. That means usually I am soaked. Sometimes that gets on my nerves. Now I just take it in stride, because when life hands you lemons, you can then go have some limoncello, right?

Italian Lemonade

• 2 parts Limoncello
• 1 part Vodka
• 2 parts Sprite®
• 1-2 parts Sweet and Sour mix
• Mint and lemon for garnish

Pour the first three ingredients into an ice-filled highball glass and stir. Add the sweet and sour mix to taste, and garnish with mint leaves and a lemon slice. This is a great drink with which to toast the end of Summer. Or as we in Texas prefer to call it, Summer v. 1.0.

At least it isn’t pumpkin spice, right?? 😀

Brace Yourselves….

….because Easter is coming!!!

Not that you could tell with the weather. Apparently, Winter wants to enjoy Summer just as much as we do. But no matter. Soon enough we will be enjoying warmer weather and complaining about that, too.

One thing that Winter can’t stop is the coming of Easter and that means THE END OF LENT!! And you had better believe I am ready for it.

Very ready….

That’s for the brunch after church service. Mimosas will look AWESOME served in such glamour! And for the afternoon, a special gift from my dad. No clue what he is trying to tell me, though.

Nope, not a clue. But it is handy. After a while, you just don’t want to mess with glass while drinking. So I hear. Anyway, a cold front has decided to come visit us, so I’m off to get groceries for the coming Apocalypse Week. We hit 40* F here and go on a wild buying binge for the probable end. We do freaking out well. It’s almost an art around here.

Hope y’all stay warm and cozy and have plenty of milk and eggs and bread 🙂

Thursday Never List

As y’all know, it’s Lent and I have a habit of giving up all sorts of things during the season, mostly to test my willpower. So far, I have been sticking to it just fine. The worst part is looking at my Lolita glass collection and knowing I won’t be using it for over a month. This is me for the next few weeks.

Over a month, people!!!

Sure, I can use one for a water glass, and probably will. But it’s just not the same. Little One offered to add food coloring to my water to make it look like a cocktail, but I declined. Her version of what looks like a cocktail is wildly different from mine. It’s not that I have a cocktail or glass of wine every night. It’s just that wine goes in a wine glass and cocktails go in a cocktail glass and water goes in a water glass. I don’t like messing with the order of things.

Anyway, I was looking at the cocktail board on Pinterest a few days ago and it gave me pause. There were some recipes there that called for some spirits best left in the Nether World, if you get my drift. I just don’t get how some people can drink some of the liquors and liqueurs out there. Seriously.

Liquor I Will Never Drink

#5– Chartreuse™

The color is named for its hue. Neither the color nor the taste is appealing to me.

#4– Ouzo

Tastes like oily rotted anise.

#3– Grappa

Fermented grape skins were violated in the making of that stuff.

#2– Jaegermeister™

It is a digestive aid. One doesn’t drink Mylanta™ for kicks, so why drink that stuff to get tipsy?

#1– Absynthe

If I want to take a trip, I will book one through a travel agent.

As far as I’m concerned, these liquors are best used in Molotov cocktails. Your mileage may vary, but I bet some of y’all secretly agree with me.

Especially on the Jaegermeister™ 😀

Thanks a Million

I want to take time to thank my readers, commenters and lurkers alike, for coming by this itty bitty corner of the Blogaverse. There are many places like it, some far better, but this corner is mine. It means a lot to me that you would pause in your day to come by and read the fluff I post.

Bellinis for everybody!!

So here’s to y’all! Enjoy your last day of 2013 and bring in the New Year!

I hope it is filled with love, happiness and opportunity.

And chocolate and bacon wouldn’t go amiss, either 😉