Advent Calendar Day 4

 As you know, if you've followed me for any length of time, I love cocktails. I'm a girl who likes to drink. 

That said, I'm a girl who also wants to have a functioning liver when I eventually retire (is that even a possibility for a writer?!) so I've cut back a bit over the past couple of years, barring the occasional slip.THIS IS THE PROBLEM WITH HAVING FRIENDS. 

Anyway, I have a particular fondness for complicated cocktails, and I've got a pretty sweet bar set up (right down to a box of tiny paper umbrellas) to indulge my fancy to fool around with bitters and aromatics and such like. But sometimes you just want something elegant and simple.

The solution is a nice soda, like Henry Weinhard's Black Cherry Cream, Hard Rootbeer or Cream Soda and a shot of Captain Morgan's Madagascar Vanilla Spiced Rum. OR if you're not a pirate or a rum drinker, try a shot of your favorite vanilla/cupcake/cream flavored vodka. 

It's super simple and fast acting for those SOMEONE GET ME A COCKTAIL STAT moments. And if you put it in a nice glass with crushed ice, toss in some edible glitter, you'll look like you know what you're doing even if you've never mixed a drink in your life. (I'd avoid adding sugar rims, whip, fruit, etc. however, as this drink is already very sweet.) 

Advent Calendar - Day 14

 

It's the weekend somewhere! Actually, it's the weekend right here right now. 

Today, we have another cocktail recipe. During my recent trip to New England I discovered a very delicious cocktail called The Peanut Butter Cup martini. 

Now, this is a dessert drink. It doesn't go well with food. It is really yummy as an after dinner cocktail. If prepared properly, it does have a hint of peanutbutter. That comes from the whisky NOT actual peanutbutter. Unless, as did happen a couple of times, the bartender makes a serious misstep. 

PEANUT BUTTER CUP MARTINI 

4 oz Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey

4 oz chocolate liqueur (I used Mozart dark chocolate)

4 oz creme de cocoa

1 oz heavy cream 

DIRECTIONS

chill the martini glass

Fill the shaker with ice

Add your liquids

Shake the heck out of it (I don't know why people skip this step -- SHAKE IT LIKE YOU MEAN IT)

Pour into chilled glass 

I urge you NOT to add chocolate syrup or peanut butter. I am anti garnish. However, you're going to do what you're going to do. And I'm going to say I told you so.

Advent Calendar - Day 7

 

Woohoo! It's the first Saturday in December. You might be headed off to the mall -- or your desktop -- for some Christmas shopping, but if you're staying home this morning, I recommend a nice, cozy coffee cocktail. This is one of my variations on the classic Irish coffee. It requires the magical ingredient of Sugarland's Butter Pecan Sippin' Cream (accept no substitute). 

My stepdaughter and her pal introduced me to this delightful cream liquor last spring, and it's a game changer. I recommend it on your morning oatmeal. NO, I REALLY DON'T. I'M JUST KIDDING.

It's great in coffee though. (And other cocktails as well.)

I call this the Dublin Irish Coffee. For no actual reason, except I love Dublin and it's in the south of Ireland, and sippin' cream sounds like it's from the south--and that's how my brain works after a couple of these coffees.

Ingredients 

coffee (I love those nut blends like hazelnut, but suit yourself)

a shot of Irish (whisky)

a teaspoon of brown sugar (or two)

a shot of Sugarland's Butter Pecan Sippin' Cream 

two shots of heavy cream

a dollop of whip cream

Directions 

brew the coffee

rinse your mug with hot water, dump the hot water out, add the sugar, whisky, hot coffee, stir to melt the sugar, then add heavy cream, sippin' cream, stir gently, top it with whipped cream. Give up all thoughts of leaving the house. THERE'S PLENTY OF TIME TO SHOP. 

  

 

Advent Calendar Day 2

 Happy Friday! 

Seeing that it's the first official weekend of the holiday season, maybe you'd like to try a new cocktail tonight? 

The Office Elf and I created this one for Thanksgiving. (No job is ever going to compare to this one for her, I suspect :-D)  Now, the list of ingredients will probably require a trip to your nearest Bev Mo, and the instructions might seem a little complicated, but don't be intimidated. It's actually pretty simple once you get it down. That said, unless you enjoy spending the evening behind the bar, I wouldn't recommend doing what I did and try to serve it on the fly to twelve thirsty guests. This is more a leisurely evening before the fireplace while working on a jigsaw puzzle sort of beverage. 

It's lovely though. Lots of delicate flavors to lace the bourbon.

 Ramble Through the Bramble

Ingredients

1 oz. blackberry liqueur

2 oz. Lori's Lavender Lemonade* 

1 oz. bourbon

1/2 oz. orange curacao

a couple of dashes orange bitters

3-5 frozen blackberries

4 fresh basil leaves

a squirt of freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 - 2 oz. freshly squeezed orange juice

Instructions

OPTIONAL: sugar rim rocks glass

**Muddle the blackberries, basil leaves, bitters and lemon juice in the bottom of the shaker.

Add in the orange juice, lemonade, blackberry liqueur, bourbon, and orange curacao. Fill the shaker with ice.

Shake it baby, shake it all you can tonight. Strain it over the ice of your rocks glass.

Garnish with basil leaf. (er, non-muddled)

-------------------------

*You can sub any lemonade (or fresh lemon juice and simple syrup) but I love this lemonade, and the hint of lavender is especially pleasing in this particular cocktail.

**"Muddle" sounds more alarming than it is. Basically, mash up the berries, basil, bitters and lemonade in the bottom of your shaker. 

Advent Calendar Day 4

 

According to my compass, it's Saturday, and you know what that means: HERE THERE BE DRINKING.

I have a confession. Despite its prevalence in literature--possibly even my own--I've never actually had a Hot Buttered Rum. 

The Office Elf found it for me, so I don't know how good it is, I'm pretty sure the Office Elf has also never had a Hot Buttered Rum. So we can try this recipe out together. 

If you know a better variation (or a better cocktail) feel free to share in the comments below. 

Ingredients

2 teaspoons firmly packed brown sugar

1 tablespoon softened butter

1 splash pure vanilla extract

1 dash ground cinnamon

1 dash ground nutmeg

1 dash ground allspice

2 ounces dark rum

4 ounces hot water

Garnish with a cinnamon stick

Place the sugar, butter, vanilla extract, and spices into the bottom of an Irish coffee glass or mug and mix well. Pour in the rum and top it with hot water. Garnish with cinnamon stick.

Can that really be it???

Advent Calendar Day 9

 

Today I'm sharing my recipe for Mai Tais-perfected over this last very long, very hot summer--AND we have another giveaway.

Now, I don't really think of the Mai Tai as a winter beverage. But something about this particular winter has me longing for sandy beaches and blue skies and the sway of palms and cries of gulls. OH MY GOD I MISS CATALINA ISLAND. So I've been trying to persuade the SO to grill every weekend, even he has to wear a parka, and I've been wearing body lotion that smells like a cross between a suntan lotion (so different from sunscreen) and falling into a vat of Piña Colada, and I've been experimenting with a whole host of summertime cocktails.

 My recipe is tweaked from the original Trader Vic's Mai Tai, so it's a bit sweeter, but still strong enough to knock you on your ass.

The Pirate's Cove Mai Tai ;-)

– 1 oz lime juice

- 2 oz pineapple juice

– 1 oz orange Curaçao

– 1 oz Orgeat syrup

– 1/2 oz simple syrup

– 1 oz aged Jamaican rum

– 1 oz aged Martinique Agricole rhum

1 maraschino cherry (and a teaspoon of the syrup)

Shake all ingredients over ice, pour into a double old-fashioned glass. Fill to rim with crushed ice (the colder the better, for this one). Garnish with a wedge of lime shell and a maraschino cheery.

And our giveaway is another kooky vintage "ornament". This one is a set of ceramic Christmas tree napkin holders. They're really quite nice. Shipping them is going to be tricky, so I'm limiting this giveaway to the U.S. 

Share your own cocktail recipe in the comment section below to be included in the random drawing.

It's Twelve O'Clock Somewhere

In the name of research for the Secrets and Scrabble series, I've been trying to create a cocktail called the Upside Down Pirate--and I'm having mixed results. (No pun intended.)

It started out as mix of Pineapple Upside-Down Martini and a Wrecked Pirate. Basically, I'm trying to sub vodka for rum and add blue curacao to the PUD (which is one of my all-time favorite martinis).

I think the secret might be cake flavored syrup? Or would that be too sweet?

Anyway, it's Friday night and I'm about to Zoom my bestie, and therefore it is cocktail hour. The SO is going to grill fake brats while we drink and catch-up. Drinks, a nice meal--he brought me roses the color of "bittersweet." It's a summery evening, but not warm enough for a night swim. Life goes on, and it's good. Different, but good.

I hope you're having a lovely evening--and will have a delightfully socially distanced weekend.

OH. Here's my recipe so far!

Ingredients

2 parts spiced rum

1 part coconut rum

2 parts pineapple juice (OR--tonight--I'm experimenting with coconut-pineapple juice)

Splash Blue Curacao 

Splash of cake-flavored syrup (IS THIS A MISTAKE???)

Fresh Pineapple garnish

Maraschino Cherries garnish

Instructions

Add 1 cup ice to a shaker.

Add the rums, Blue Curacao, juice and syrup. Shake well. Pour in a martini glass. Garnish with pineapple and cherries.

Advent Calendar - Day 16

I've been playing around with cocktail recipes (I know! But it's the holidays and it's MY JOB) :-D

I couldn't find the exact recipe I was hoping for, so I made this one up. It's my variation on a White Christmas martini. I call it... Christmas Magic. :-D

Like the Gingerbread Martini, this one is probably best as dessert or as a little festive something to kick off the evening before you leave for your party--with a designated driver behind the wheel! Right?

(If you drink them all night, I can guarantee you will feel like a chunk of coal the next morning.)


INGREDIENTS
2 ounces cake vodka
1 ounce white chocolate liqueur
1 ounce white creme de cacao
1 ounce Frangelico
1 ounce heavy cream OR (my preference) a scoop of Talenti's Madagascar Vanilla gelato
Edible silver pearl dust (just a pinch!)
DO NOT FORGET THE EDIBLE PEARL DUST, THAT'S THE MAGIC PART.
Honey and sparkling sugar for rim garnish

INSTRUCTIONS
Pour a dab of honey into a shallow dish and put the sparkling sugar in another shallow dish. Roll the rim of the glass in the honey and then roll the rim of the glass in the sugar to coat evenly. Set the glass aside.

In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, add the vodka, white chocolate liqueur, creme de cacao, Frangelico and gelato. Shake vigorously and strain into the prepared martini glass. Add a pinch of pearl dust.

Advent Calendar Day 2

At the tail end of the 2018 holiday season I discovered this festive little alcoholic concoction. It was love at first sip. Be warned, it's sweet and potent.

Gingerbread Martini 

(as served at the Outback)

Ingredients

1 oz. vodka (use vanilla vodka if you like extra sweetness)

1/2 oz. Kahlua

1/2 oz.Bailey’s Irish Cream

1/2 oz. gingerbread syrup

1 oz. ice milk or ice cream (I use the Talenti Madagascar Vanilla gelato)

Preparation

Mix all ingredient in a shaker with ice and shake well. Strain into a martini glass rimmed with crushed graham cracker crumbs and sugar. Top with whipped cream and garnish with a gingerbread cookie. (Those tiny gingery iced ones from Trader Joe's are perfect)! 

Cheers!

Poor Cosmo...

That night I opened the Drambuie we’d brought back from Scotland a million years ago.

I told myself I was trying out recipes for Andi’s line of cocktail cupcakes, but truthfully, I just wanted to get plastered. And get plastered I did.

Also sick.

Very.

Drambuie is a proprietary liqueur the Scots have been making for about two hundred years. It’s a blend of pot-still scotch and heather-flavored honey, and the taste is a bit dry, a bit aromatic. It’s not really the kind of thing most people would choose to get drunk on—it would not ordinarily be my first choice, but the bottle reminded me of John. Reminded me of Scotland and our honeymoon. Reminded me that that last time I’d tasted Drambuie it, was on John’s lips.

The classic Drambuie cocktails are the Rusty Nail and the Highland Margarita, but I was trying for something a bit sweeter and more delicate, so I opted for—in order of appearance—Autumn Leaves, the Kingston Club, and the Screaming Viking. I’m not sure why I thought a Screaming Viking would be sweet or delicate. Anyway, the two Kingston Clubs are what did me in, although the Screaming Viking didn’t help.

The bed was spinning—and not in a magical way--when I finally collapsed. 

I Buried a Witch (Bednobs and Broomsticks 2)
Coming November 30th

THE KINGSTON CLUB COCKTAIL

Ingredients

1 1/2 ounces Drambuie
1 1/2 ounces pineapple juice
a squirt of freshly squeezed lime juice
a squirt of fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon Fernet Branca (I previously had no knowledge of this herbal liqueur)
3 dashes Angostura bitters
orange peel, for garnish

Instructions


Add the Drambuie, pineapple juice, lime juice, Fernet, and Angostura bitters to an ice-filled shaker. Shake until cold. Strain into an ice-filled tall cocktail glass and top with soda water. Garnish with a twist of orange peel. Serve immediately.

Advent Calendar Day 4

Today we're recreating one of my favorite calendar traditions and sharing holiday cocktails. 

photo from FastDrinkRecipes.com

Post the recipe to your favorite holiday cocktail below and I'll randomly select three commenters to receive an audio book download of "The Boy Next Door" narrated by the always wonderful Kale Williams.

I discovered this particular cocktail last winter on Catalina Island. There's something sort of autumny about it, and maybe it would make a better Halloween drink than a Christmas drink, but whatever. It's what I'm drinking at the moment.

(You know what else I discovered last year? hot cocoa made with heavy cream, half and half and melted chocolate!!! You don't even need booze for that one--but a splash of brandy will not do it any harm!) 

Anyway, I digress.

Ingredients:

1 ounce vanilla-flavored vodka

1 ounce sour apple schnapps

1 ounce butterscotch schnapps 

1 decorative squirt liquid caramel

(optional 1 maraschino cherry UGH)

Directions:

Kind of self-explanatory, to be honest. ;-) 
Artfully squirt caramel in a martini glass.

Fill a shaker with ice. Pour in vanilla vodka, sour apple schnapps, and butterscotch schnapps. Cover the shaker and shake until chilled or you throw your back out; strain cocktail into prepared martini glass. Garnish with maraschino cherry IF YOU MUST.

This is a caramelappletinicupcake!!!! EVEN BETTER!?

Advent Calendar Day 10

It wouldn't be the Advent Calendar if I didn't share at least one new cocktail recipe this holiday season.

A Dark 'n Stormy is apparently a tropical drink (it hails from Bermuda) but it was my cocktail of choice while in Montreal (and Toronto and Ottawa) and it really has a very festive, holiday zing to it. Plus, it couldn't be more simple to make.

Now the catch with a drink this simple is you need top shelf ingredients. Just sayin.

Dark 'n Stormy 

1 oz. DARK (not spicy) rum (Gosling's Black Seal Rum is recommended)

4 oz. ginger beer (Barrit's Ginger Beer was recommended)

a squirt of fresh lime juice (to taste, in other words) 

tall (high ball) glass

Fill glass with ice. Pour in the ginger beer and leave enough room for the rum. Add the rum. Squirt in some fresh lime juice. Stir gently. Garnish with a lime wedge.

Share your favorite holiday beverage recipe below (it doesn't have to be alcoholic) and I'll randomly pick ten people to receive their choice of one ebook from my backlist.


**********

I love it when readers participate in the Advent Calendar -- it makes it all the more festive and entertaining for everyone (including yours truly).

So to reward that spirit I've decided that every single person who commented below up to today (Christmas Eve) gets to choose a book from my digital backlist. 

Yep, that keeps it nice and simple, doesn't it? :-D

So if you commented below, drop me a line with your email addy and let me know the title of the book you want and whether you would like an epub or mobi file. 

Advent Calendar Day 10

Today I'm going to get you drunk and then steal your pocket change. Okay, maybe not. Today I'm going to share a holiday cocktail recipe with you.

What the hell? That's SOUP!

I can't pretend. I do like to drink. However, time and tide have done their worst--er, work--and these days I'm pretty moderate in my drinking habits. A glass of wine with dinner. A dash of Irish in my morning coffee. That kind of thing. Okay! A cocktail or three at lunch. But I usually skip lunch, so we're FINE. WE DON'T HAVE A  PROBLEM HERE. WE WOULD BE THE FIRST TO KNOW IF WE HAD A PROBLEM.

Anyway. Epicurious lists the Top 5 Sexiest Cocktails right here. THERE. Right where the link is underlined. I'M NOT RAISING MY VOICE. YOU'RE RAISING YOUR VOICE!

Where was I?

Wassail. Is Wassail a cocktail? Who cares! It's a nice traditional holiday bevvie. The first time I tried to make it, I was in junior high and it went...terribly wrong.

But anyway, let's not dwell on the past. This looks like a pretty decent recipe.


Prep Time: Depends on how much you've already had to drink


Cook Time: Forever. Okay, no. Three hours -- which is ridiculous!! Right? Those carolers are liable to turn ugly any minute!




Ingredients:

Damn it! That's also soup!

1 Gallon apple cider
2 C. cranberry juice
1/2 C honey
1/2 C sugar
2 oranges
Whole cloves
1 apple, peeled and diced
Allspice
Ginger
Nutmeg
3 cinnamon sticks or 3 Tbs. ground cinnamon
1/2 C – 1 C brandy- optional (LIKE HELL!!!!)

Preparation:

Set your crockpot (hahahahaha booze in a crockpot!!!) to its lower setting, and pour in the apple cider, cranberry juice, honey and sugar. Mix it up, which you always do anyway even when you're not supposed to. Bring to a smiling boil. That will be you smiling, not the wassail. Anyway, I'm making that up. Stir until the honey and sugar dissolve.  Stud the oranges with the cloves (WHY DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO BRING SEX INTO IT YOU SELFISH BASTARD?)  and place in the pot (they’ll float). Wait. What? Add the diced apple. Add allspice, ginger and nutmeg to taste. Remember, you can always add more, you can't get it out once it's in there. Yeswearestilltalkingaboutwassailyouhaveaonetrackmind. Finally, snap the cinnamon sticks in half and add those as well.


Cover pot and allow to simmer 2 – 4 hours on low heat. SO IT'S NOT THREE HOURS, IT'S MAYBE FOUR About half an hour prior to serving, add the brandy if you choose to use it. OF COURSE YOU'RE GOING TO USE IT!


Right. So there you go. Traditional wassail. Drunken quarrel with guests optional.


Anyway, the truth is, the sexiest cocktail is the one you leave unfinished because you can't wait to be alone together.  ;-)





Wassail cunningly disguised as fruit soup