Rainy Playdate

The kid was playing quite happily in his PJs on this warm wet Sunday but reached a limit come early afternoon. "Why not call a friend and see if he wants to come over," I said. Before I knew it he was dressed and heading out the door to his friend's house. "Come over for drinks and snacks," I said to the friend - thinking they would need one if they had my kid for a few hours. And come over for drinks they did. This is what I made, riffing (by reducing the gin) on this one called Nomayo (doesn't that sound like something you say at a deli counter?).

1 oz gin
3/4 oz St. Germain
1/2 oz Aperol
1/2 oz Lemon juice
Prosecco
Lemon twist

Mix first 4 ingredients in shaker with ice. Pour into chilled glass and top with chilled prosecco or champagne. Add the lemon twist. This could also work prepared in a jug I think.

I had to make a second batch. The best play dates are the unplanned ones.

SpiBOC (Spiced Blood Orange Champage Punch)

 

A tad late with this Thanksgiving aperitif - we were traveling for the holidays, doing a lot of drinking and then a lot of recovering.  My sister created this for the feast, another sister created the hors d'oeuvres you see behind and we created an appetite and much deserved compliments.

Ingredients
3 cups blood orange juice (if you can find them - orange juice makes a great substitute)
3 tblsp sugar
1 cinnamon stick
2 whole star anise
1 cup dry white wine
1 bottle brut champagne, chilled

Place the juice, sugar, cinnamon and star anise in small pot and bring to a boil, then simmer until the liquid is reduced by half - 30-40 mins. Remove from heat but while the mixture is still hot stir in the white wine until completely combined. Cool and then place in the refrigerator to chill (at least 2 hours).

When ready to serve, pour 3 tablespoons of the mixture into the bottom of champagne flute and top with chilled champagne.


Perfect for a holiday brunch too and a nice change from mimosas.

Nine +

 

It was our anniversary recently and we needed a little something something to make with the cava I'd bought to celebrate. This is what we came up with based on John Cusimano's drink Mid Morning Nap.

Ricard Pastis
1 1/2 oz brandy
Some freshly squeezed lemon juice
Dollop agave syrup
3 dashes Angostura bitters
Cava

Coat the inside of a cocktail class with the pastis. Shake the brandy, juice, syrup and bitters with ice in shaker. Strain into the glass and top off with cava (or prosecco or champagne).

Here's to more drinks to share together on this day!

 

Princess Peach

1 1/2 oz Brandy
1/2 tsp Pastis
1 tsp Grenadine
Slice of peach
Top with sparkling wine/champagne
Shake first three ingredients together with ice in a shaker. Pour into flute, top with sparkling wine and add slice of peach.

We picked peaches yesterday and it was reason enough to open a bottle of prosecco but what to put with it that used peaches and wasn't the ubiquitous Bellini nor too taxing to make? Thanks to mixology ap we found one called American Rose that required nothing more than a slice of peach in it. That I could handle! After making a cobbler and peach ice cream it was all I was able to muster but we thought there was nothing necessarily 'American' about the drink with French liqueur, Spanish brandy and Italian bubbles so we changed the name. 

And yes, it was good enough for this princess. 

Cuba Libertine

 

There's many a version of the mojito out there and they're all fine drinks but this one is the best! Know why? I replaced the club soda with sparkling wine (and the white rum with a spiced one!). Drinks are always better with sparkling wine.

2 oz. Sailor Jerry spiced rum
2 tbsp. simple syrup
2 tbsp. fresh lime juice
Bunch of mint leaves
Sparking wine (dry)

Muddle the mint with the syrup and juice, add ice and rum and shake. Pour over ice and top off with sparkling wine. Stir and enjoy.

Easter Basket

The kid got into his Easter Basket a little early - no harm in Mom getting into hers!

I was inspired by a Bellini and followed the same proportions as this one for today's family holiday dinner - nice for any Sunday brunch and a change from mimosas (I'm not a mimosa girl!).

125 mls St. Germain Elderflower liqueur
500 mls Peach Juice (We used a Harry and David's Bellini mix)
Bottle of champagne/prosecco

Here's to spring!

Berry Merry

Whether you have a reason to get out the crystal glasses or whether you're like us and need no reason at all this is a good drink to put in it:

1 part Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur
1 part gin
1 part white cranberry juice
1/2 part lemon juice
Cava/Prosecco/Champagne to top it off
(Soda water or ginger ale could work too)
Frozen cranberries to garnish

Cheers!

Grateful o'punch

Pre-stuffing our faces on Thanksgiving we had a little ol' cocktail made up of the following:

1/4 - 1/2 cup ginger/rosemary syrup (1/cup water, 1/2 cup sugar with about 5 thin slices of fresh ginger and sprigs of rosemary, boiled till sugar is disolved, let cool and strain)
1 cup of Cointreau
2 cups Pomegranate Juice
Bottle of Prosecco
Serve with ice and orange slices and rosemary

It's great to be grateful.

Red Hot Jazz

The sisters met recently at the Cork Jazz Festivaland created this. For me! To post on my blog! I love them.

Chilled champagne or prosecco
1 shot of cognac
1 sugar cube
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Optional: Hibiscus flower in syrup

Saturate sugar cube with bitters and place in champagne glass
Pour in cognac and top up with champagne

Best served with full measure of sisters or 3/4 if full measure is not available!

Red and Blue

Election Day is fast approaching – will red be on top or will red be on the bottom?

Equal parts Hpnotiq liqueur and champagne/sparking wine
1 maraschino cherry

How it ends up is in your hands. Use this power wisely.

White Poinsettia

Last year my sister, Siobhan, introduced me to a cocktail called Poinsettia and I served it a few times over the holiday season and it always went down very well. A little too well in fact when you’re drinking it and trying to get dinner on the Thanksgiving table. I believe I even served it here.

Here’s the recipe (direct from Europe with metric units!)

125 ml Cointreau
500 ml Ocean Breeze Cranberry Juice
1 bottle of Prosecco

Mix together (it’s best if the juice and Prosecco are well chilled) and pour into champagne flutes over some frozen cranberries. Easy peezy lemon squeezy.

Some time over the summer I replaced the red cranberry juice with a white one (we had lots left over after this cocktail) and it took the Christmas out of it if you know what I mean. I served it poolside and again it went down well. Some frozen raspberries would have been great in this. While this cocktail is great to serve company, I doubt myself and himself would have trouble drinking it all to ourselves.

Pinpom Fireworks

or to give it its full title - Pineapple-Pomegranate Fireworks. After cocktail #3 I went in search of something else to make with pineapple vodka – not that I wouldn’t try another couple Hawaiiah-tinis - but this summer is about variety after all and I came across this one which was perfect for the birthday celebrations over 4^th of July week.

This is what it asked for…

½ oz. Van Gogh pineapple vodka

½ oz. Van Gogh pomegranate vodka

½ oz. pineapple juice

Champagne

What we had was the SKYY vodka from last time, pomegranate liqueur and sparkling wine and I might even have left out the pineapple juice on one of the occasions I made it (eek!). Anyway – the poor man’s Pin-Pom Fireworks was born and was suitably served in plastic cocktail glasses!

When we were going this high style only the best linens and table ware would do!