Ginger Gem

A little ginger something for a festive toast during our Christmas tree lighting 'ceremony' tonight.

1 ½ parts spiced rum

½ part Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur

¼ part cinnamon schnapps

1 tsp molasses

Ginger ale/ginger beer

Candied ginger to garnish (or if you’re like us and don’t have any to hand a lemon twist works just as well.)

Shake first three ingredients with ice in cocktail shaker and pour into glass which has had the molasses twirled around the inside. Top off with ginger ale/beer and enjoy.

The molasses might need a little stirring towards the end and it really does give it a nice flavor. You can see the twirl so much better when I tried this with the citrus vodka. Himself approves of this ‘hobby’ of mine because of the trial and error involved. Nothing seems to go to waste around here compared to say, my sewing 'hobby'.

Spear-tini

This has been a while in the making and we’ve gone through a few versions but think we’ve finally settled on a decent spear-tini which is ideal for these fall evenings for the more sophisticated college football viewer in this house (Not that I’m more sophisticated nor a ‘viewer of football’ per se but any excuse to make a Saturday feel like an occasion).

Of course it’s inspired by the garnet and gold of FSU and originally I thought of renaming our pomegranate martini (no doubt had a few last year!) but wanted to get the ‘gold’ in there and couldn’t find a vodka with gold flakes which I know is out there somewhere (We got a wedding present of one so we know it exists!). Instead we tried Goldschlager but the cinnamon flavor jus didn’t do it. This year we started with spiked apple cider but it wasn’t ‘garnet’ enough but we were on the right track. When we used a cranberry/apple cider mix we got the perfect pairing with the cinnamon schnapps. Add some dark or spiced rum and the spear-tini was made.

2 oz dark/spiced rum

1 oz cinnamon schnapps

4-5 oz cranberry/apple cider cocktail.

Stab an apple slice with a spear for garnish.

I even think that this would translate very well heated for some hot spear-tini – say on a chilly day when tailgating. Maybe I’ll find out later in the season!