No Mimosa, No Problem

Tonight was breakfast for dinner.  Nothing special, just pancakes from Joy of Cooking, bacon and sausage.  Sided up with orange juice for the girls.  Kassidy has been asking to have pancakes all week, and I kept putting it off and putting it off.  So last night I told her fine we'll do breakfast for dinner and do it right, for tonight. While there were no Mickey Mouse pancakes this evening, I did toss in some dark chocolate chips.

I chose today as Day 1 in potty training for Karsyn.  So.  Today was a long day.  I'm glad I chose breakfast for dinner.  Nothing better than comfort food, and something easy, while not quick, was certainly in order.  But as 6:00 rolled around, I needed more than just comfort food.  With a fresh bottle of orange juice in the fridge and breakfast being put on the table, a cocktail was indeed being called for.  Yet, the breakfast standard mimosa could not be made as my stock of champagne was fresh out.  It's one that honestly I don't keep stocked.

So, what to do?  Open the cabinet and see what I can find of course!  And voila, have fun, I did indeed.  This turned out to not only be a great substitute for Mimosas, but dare I say better??

Ingredients:
Orange Juice
Triple Sec
Coconut Vodka
Blue Curacao
Ice

• Place 3 or 4 ice cubes in the bottom of your drink shaker.
• 2.5 shot classes of the coconut vodka
• 1.5 shots of triple sec
• pour orange juice to fill the shaker
• Shake vigorously
• pour drink into martini glass
• pour about .5 shot glass of the blue curacao into the glass and watch it settle

Enjoy!

Mama's Mochachino

Believe it or not, when ChocoVine is used as a mixer ingredient, it's pretty good!

Just pour together to your taste and add milk. Optional, add vodka, oh yes.

A little bit of Sunshine!

2 parts coconut vodka
1 part triple sec
2 parts pineapple juice

Into a shaker over 3 ice cubes.
Shake, pour, enjoy!

Hazelnut Cream Martini

After a day of pushing the sweetest cupcake I have ever made, I felt the need to make a sweet drink to end the night.  I never go off recipes but just open my cabinet, take out random bottles that might go together and shake.  Here's what tonight came up with.  The Hazelnut Cream Martini.  I know that calling this a "martini" is sacrilegious in the martini community because this is really a "cocktail" served in a martini glass.  But at 6:15pm being home from a long day, who's splitting hairs?  So let's drink.




Ingredients:
Pinnacle Whipped Cream Vodka
Hazelnut Bailey's
Disaronno
Kahlua
Milk/Cream











How to put it together:
In a shaker, toss in 3 pieces of ice.
After that, slosh in some vodka.  If I had to wager a guess, 1 shot
Then, splash of Kahlua, probably 1/2 shot
As you can see in the picture, I used a nip of Baileys.. this is 5mL (or roughly 1.25 shot)
Disaronno, 1/2 shot
Milk, until you think you've got enough liquid to fill whatever glass you're pouring this into.
Shake vigorously. (did you remember to put the lid on the shaker? 'Cause if not, you now have a big mess)

Pour into your glass, I chose a martini glass.
Gulp..errr sip.. and enjoy!

Copious Cookies and Kahlua too!

I like to bake.  You know this.  Although, I'm not a fan of baking cakes (just decorating them).  But I am a fan of baking pastries, pies, and cookies.  Oh do I love to make cookies.  So anyone who knows me knows that come December, my kitchen is overflowing with copious counts of cookie dough.  You walk into the kitchen during one of my all day cooking marathons and you'll find me covered in flour, standing in sugar and licking a beater or spoon full of dough.

Now, I don't bake just one kind of cookie en masse.  No.  I do it up right.  I bake a minimum of 6 different kinds of cookies, 2 batches each.  A typical batch is 2 to 4 dozen.  You do the math.  Yes, cookies cover the counters, and my kitchen table, and my dining room table.  My husband loves it.

I have a book that I received from my husband several years ago for Christmas and it's 400+ pages or nothing but cookies.  So this cookie cookoff with myself is really his fault.  The first year I had it, I went through page by page and tagged several to try.  Starting off that year I baked 8 different kinds of cookies.  It was a 12 hour day in the kitchen, with one oven and 2 cookie sheets.  Took them all to work in Christmas tins and tupperware.  Huge hit, of course.  Did the same the following year, and again the next, now with more cookie sheets.  Had to take a year off due to pregnancy but came back the following years just as strong.  And here I was again this year with 2 ovens, 8 cookie sheets, 2 Kitchen Aids and one hand mixer.  It was "just" an 8 hour session this year, thanks to two kids at my legs... but followed with two more nights later that week to get to my 8 kinds of cookie.

I vary what I make from year to year.  I have my constants like chocolate chip, white chocolate chip and a peanut butter.  But I still like to try a new one every year.  This recipe is this year"s new one.  It's one I had marked a few years ago and added a post it on with notes.  The original recipe is a butterscotch base with a pecan on top.  I decided to change it up and play.  I have modified the recipe so that the cookie mimics a chocolate trifle.

Now in all fairness I had no idea what chocolate trifle was until I met my husband's family,  This was a dessert they had after holiday meals.  Chocolate cake, chocolate pudding, crushed heath bar, whipped cream...and... Kahlua, ever so lightly drizzled over the cake. A-mazing.  I have of course played with this recipe several times as well, one of my favorite versions include Oreos.  So when I read this cookie recipe that was a butterscotch pudding base, I noted that switch to chocolate and Kahlua drizzle.  This year was the year to do it, and they are stupidly easy!  They are my new go to dough for last minute cookies.

Chocolate Trifle Kahlua Pudding Cookies

Ingredients

• 3/4 c sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 margarine, melted
• 1 package of instant chocolate pudding
• 1 bag crushed heath bar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In a bowl, mix at high speed sguar and eggs until thick and yellow pale.  Beat in the margarine until smooth.  Stir in the flour and pudding until blended.  Stir in 3/4 the bag of heath bar.  Drop the batter by 2-3 Tablespoons each on to a greased AND floured cookie sheet.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.  Undercook slightly for more chewy cookie.  Remove from sheets and cool completely on wire rack with wax paper underneath the rack.

Drizzle/Dip on Top

• 1 cup confectioner sugar
• 2-3T of Kahlua

Keep in mind here, that this drizzle on top is really to taste. You want a thicker "frosting" use less Kahlua, more sugar.  You want a gooey feel to it, use more Kahlua.  I'm guessing at the measurement for the Kahula since I literally put 1 cup of sugar in and then poured the Kahlua in and turned on the mixer and adjusted until it was the consistency I wanted.

When your cookies are cool enough, use the drizzle by dipping in a spoon and zig-zagging across the cookie, or just dip the cookie in and put back on the wire racks to set.  While the drizzle is still is still wet, sprinkle just a touch of heath bar on top.

Serve this cookie with the following cocktail:
1 part vodka
1 part Kahlua
1 part Bailey's
2 parts milk or cream
ice into a shaker, shake well, pour into martini glass

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And in case you thought I was kidding about the massive amounts of cookies:

The Radiator

The radiator in your car is designed to cool down your engine. If you have ever changed the coolant fluid, it's eclectic green. Today's recipe is to keep you cool during this heat wave.

I've been playing with the recipe for a while now and tonight's final tweak that turned it green made it just perfect!

So I present to you my drink of the summer: The Radiator

1 oz Barbados Rum
1 oz Captain Silver Spiced Rum
1 splash blue curaçao
Pour this right into the glass over 3 pieces of ice
Pour over to rim, pineapple juice
Stick in a straw
Enjoy!!

Now, my husband will argue that it's the "wrong color green.". But is that really the point? It's green, it's fun, it's rum... It's a strong drink. Does it really matter?

Royal Whisky Sunrise

So, I tend to collect a lot of different types of alcohol, mixes and liqueur in my cabinet.  So much so, that it gets stuffed in, and you have to be careful to open the doors when opening.  Or, I just end up having to start putting it elsewhere.  Why do I collect so much alcohol?  Well, two reasons really.  The first being that I love to experiment with new recipes and that always seems to require buying yet another bottle of something or another.  And, if you looked at my current selection, right now, it's kind of sad as I'm not even stocking blue curacao or grenadine, or even a nice chocolate liqueur.  But my liquor cabinet is busting at the seams regardless, and that's when reason number two comes in.  I throw a lot of parties. People tend to bring alcohol.  People leave opened bottles behind, I put them in my cabinet. 

I have 2.5 bottles of Tequila.  I have 5 kinds of rum.  I have 3 kinds of whiskey.  I have at least 4 bottles of vodka.  And add to that a few miscellaneous like triple sec, sweet vermouth, etc and voila, the cabinet is stuffed.  Not to mention there is a bottle of Crown Royal (a big one) with what appears to be just a single shot left rolling around in the bottom.  Why not just throw it out?  'Cause it's Crown Royal!  That would be alcohol abuse.

In the mood for a cocktail last night, I decided to take on the challenge to use that last shot of Crown Royal.  But it couldn't just be straight into a glass with ice.  That's no fun.  I had to play.  And after reviewing my selection of grains to go with it, here's what resulted:  The Whiskey Sunrise.  I should mention that this is not for the faint of heart.  You must enjoy the taste of whiskey.  There's no masking it here.

Royal Whiskey Sunrise
(amidst my dust of kitchen renovations)

Royal Whiskey Sunrise

1 part Crown Royal
1 part Light Rum
1 part Triple Sec
2 parts Pineapple juice

Pour into shaker over 3 cubes of ice
Shake well.

Pour into martini glass
Drizzle in about 1T of maraschino cherry juice

     - This is your sunrise, you'll notice how the cherry juice stays on the bottom.  Your drink will change as you consume it, the flavors mixing differently from pineapple, orange and cherry.  I found it to be a very nice adventure.

Now, since I had just 1 shot left of the Crown Royal, and I was in the mood for a 2nd drink, I did attempt to make a second with Johnny Walker Black Label whiskey.  While the drink had the flavor remnants of the first... JW is a much stronger whiskey in flavor.  It was "OK" but going forward should I ever decide to make this again or serve it at a bar or to friend, Crown Royal is the only way to go, there really is no other substitute.

Just a Splash of Irish

It's that time of year again where the boiled dinner smell wafts throughout the kitchens and everyone digs deep to prove they are at least 1/99th Irish so they have an excuse to drink. I don't make excuses, I just mix. And since this is the month of green, I got into my liquor cabinet to play.

Let me introduce you to my Peppermint Oreo Cookie Cocktail:

Into a shaker pour over ice:
2 parts mint Bailey's
1 part vodka of choice
1 part milk or cream
Shake vigorously.  Pour into a martini glass.
Makes 1

Variation on this drink:
2 parts chocolate liquor
1 part peppermint schnapps
1.5 parts cream
Shake vigorously.  Pour into a martini glass.
Makes 2

Garnish both drinks with a peppermint Oreo cookie.

- Now you ask me, what's a "part?" And, that, is up to you. How big is your shaker?

Drink It Simple - What's In YOUR Cabinet?

Well, it's been a while since I've posted, and I actually have 2 or 3 recipes that need I need to get going on, complete with pictures.  But I've been busy.  Work busy.  Children busy.  House busy.  Cake busy.  But mostly... children busy.  Having two, really takes it out of you. So, on a Friday night, when I need to relax, I open the doors to my liquor cabinet. 

I try to keep it stocked with one of everything.  Dark rum, Light Rum, Spiced rum, flavored rum, Vodka, Flavored vodka (this varies), Bailey's, Tequila, Whiskey, Vermouth, and of course, anything left over from the last party we had.  This means that at any given time, I have the good makings of just about any drink (traditional) that you could make.  Now, I don't stock the schnapps, the liquors and mixes for all these new fangled "in" drinks. But should I come across one I like, of course I stock up on the ingredients.  But regardless, when I need a cocktail, my liquor cabinet can serve me well.  Now, that's not to say that I stock my cabinet solely for drinking.  A well stocked liquor cabinet can also be good for cooking, which I often will toss in a splash of this, and a splash of that.  Think Rum, Whiskey, Vermouth, Marsala, and so on.

But tonight, I didn't cook.  No, tonight my husband was sent down to the local taco take out to pick up a few burritos.  I started to reach for the Tequila, yes, yes I did.  But what stopped me was knowing.. I have a really good purple juice in the fridge.  Blueberry and Pomegranate.  Now, my initial thought, was to pair this with rum, perhaps a coconut rum... hrm, but no that wouldn't do.  Vodka, yes vodka should serve my purpose.  But alas, I have BLUEBERRY vodka in the cabinet.  Oh swimmingly perfect.

So, I produced this.  Blueberry, Pomegranate cocktail.  So simple, so under the radar, but yet, it's perfect for tonight.  Let's play.

3 parts vodka
2 parts juice
into a shaker with ice
shake
pour
consume

Voila.

Don't like the whole "martini" aspect?  Too strong for your tastes?  No problem.  Pour this over ice in a rocks glass and add a splash of seltzer.  That's officially makes this a "spritzer."

Orange Paradise

I don't just play with food.  I can often be found "behind a bar" mixing drinks.  Several years ago I took a bar tending class.  The hope was to pick up a few night shifts during the week and make some extra cash.  However, they all required Friday and Saturdays and I didn't want to commit to those full time.  I did however spend a few nights and Fiesta weekend behind the bar at Valentino's last summer.  That was a lot of fun.

I'm at work, so this is a quicky update and it's a SUPER easy recipe.  I'm sitting here thinking it would be nice to have one of these right about now.  "Why are you thinking about drinking at work Jenn?" - have you seen what I do on a daily basis?  I need a drink today.

Anyhow, I did make this last night and tossed it together with whatever I had at home.
This is a mix in the glass drink, it's that quick.

Apple, Kiwi, Strawberry Juice - pretty sure it was Langer's brand
Bicardi O - this is an Orange Rum


Pour 1 shot of the run into the bottom of your martini glass
Fill the rest of the way with Juice.
Drink.

Optional:  rim the glass with margarita sugar, drop an orange slice into the bottom

Caution:  You can't taste the rum and this goes down fast.  For a stronger drink, add more rum to taste.

Cheers!